Academic Admission Requirements as Predictors of Counseling Knowledge, Personal Development, and Counseling Skills

✍ Scribed by Marlowe H. Smaby; Cleborne D. Maddux; Aaron S. Richmond; William J. Lepkowski; Jill Packman

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 86 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-0035
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1556-6978.2005.tb00129.x

✦ Synopsis

The authors investigated whether undergraduates' scores on the Verbal and Quantitative tests of the Graduate Record Examinations and their undergraduate grade point average can be used to predict knowledge, personal development, and skills of graduates of counseling programs. Multiple regression analysis produced significant models predicting total Skilled Counselor Scale (S. Urbani et al., 2002) scores and total Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination (Center for Credentialing and Education, 2005) scores. No significant prediction model was found for the Counselor Skills and Personal Development Rating Form (M. P. Wilbur, 1991) Personal Factors scores. It is concluded that educators should recognize the limitations of these admission criteria and assign a weight to them on the basis of what they can and cannot predict.

Counselor educators have long been concerned with how to select candidates for their programs (Markert & Monke, 1990). Academic measures such as test scores (e.g., Graduate Record Examinations [GRE]) and grade point averages [GPA]) are often used in admission decisions. Critics have suggested that such measures may not be useful in predicting counseling performance (Markert & Monke, 1990).

Counselor educators must evaluate not only applicants' academic aptitude but their professional and personal development as well (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational