College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• George Washington University
• Harvard University
• Wesleyan University
• Purdue University
• Syracuse University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Maryland—College Park
• University of North Carolina—Greensboro
• University of Georgia
• University of Wisconsin—Madison
• University of Minnesota—Twin Cities

Classes in the Major

Psychology. It's hard to know how to relate to students on a useful level without a thorough understanding of how their minds work. Is it impossible? Well, no, it's just incredibly difficult. As much as we like to generalize, everyone's minds work differently. Fortunately, some of that generalization does pay off. There are common problems that tons of students go through, which (surprise) also have some pretty common methods of resolution. At the very least, you'll know enough to point students in the right direction.

Sociology. A person's background has a huge influence on who and what they become. It's kind of sad that it's true, but it is. Even in fiction. Iron Man was the son of a wealthy industrialist, Superman was born on another planet, and Luke Skywalker was the son of the most powerful man in the galaxy. Uh...spoiler alert on that last one. Sorry.

Studying sociology is vitally important to understanding your students. The chance of them all having the exact same experience as you growing up is about the same as the chance of them spontaneously becoming penguins. As adorable as that is, it's not going to happen. So you have to be able to understand where they're coming from so you can help them get where they want to go.

Statistics. Oh no, math. We're really sorry about this. We swear. The fact of the matter is that statistics are super useful to you, and not just as your math requirement. There's a lot of useful data to be found hiding amongst the numbers. Data you will need to share with your students. Don't worry, it's nowhere near as complicated as the math the math majors are doing.

Human Development. Human development is a needlessly terrifying way to say growing up. As you might have noticed (being a student yourself), your classmates are growing taller. Maybe some of them have ill-advised facial hair. As humans (that's us) get older, a lot of changes—physical, mental, and emotional—happen. Since this is your audience, you might want to know about it.

Education. Did you know most school counselors work in schools? Of course you did. We're not even sure why we asked that. It's a silly question. Let's skip it. While knowing what's going on in your workplace is a good thing, this also helps in an interesting way. Education is all about putting information into someone else's brain in such a way that the person remembers it. There are certain facts you'll learn that you carry to the grave, while others vanish as soon as you check your phone after class. Counseling isn't educational in the traditional sense, but it's all about information.