Frequently Asked Questions

The Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine is a rigorous program designed to meet the requirements for an independent mental health counseling license in Massachusetts and other states. Our goal is to train students in mental health counseling with a complementary background in behavioral medicine and neuroscience.

Since the MHCBM program is a Master of Arts, this means it is unfortunately not a STEM program. While this means that international students are not eligible for the 24-month STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension, international students are still eligible for a 12-month OPT through their F-1 student status. For more information on how this works, please check out the link here.

Please strictly adhere to the word limit that is set for the personal statement. This word limit will be indicated in the admissions application portal.  

No, you are not required to join the fall cohort if you submit and are accepted at the first deadline. We encourage you to submit your materials when you feel that your application is at its strongest.

However, we do have cutoffs for when materials are due and then we will move your materials to the next deadline. Meaning, the first deadline is a hard cutoff and final in this regard – candidates who apply after Dec. 6 at midnight (e.g., on Dec. 7 or 8) would be reviewed for the second application deadline following the Jan. 19 cutoff. No applications will be reviewed after the final deadline on January 19th, 2025 by midnight.

We award Provost scholarships varying in the amount for both international and domestic students. More internal scholarships can be found with this link. You do not need to submit a separate application for Provost scholarships and any awards amounts are shared at the time of your admission. Additional funding for Boston University scholarships, fellowships, and resources may be found here. 

Please review the materials here GMS Student Financial Services (SFS) at osfs-gms@bu.edu. For specific instructions regarding email correspondence with SFS, please visit their website. Additional funding for Boston University scholarships, fellowships, and resources may be found here. 

Yes, for specific circumstances. Examples include: alumni and members from AmeriCorps, Posse Fellows, TFA, City Year, McNair Scholars, Fullbright Scholars, the Peace Corps, and the United States Military. It is important to note that fee waivers are only available for US Citizens and permanent residents. 

Please review and fill out this form after starting your application but prior to submission and the Graduate Medical Sciences team (GMS) will review your request and be in touch. Unfortunately, we are unable to waive or refund application fees after you have submitted your application.

We do not distribute course syllabi outside of our Program or for students taking one of our courses. Reviewing the CACREP standards (core and clinical mental health counseling) will give you a sense of what we cover as we adhere to their recommendations. You can also see course descriptions on our program website.

All of our courses are offered once a week for 2 hours and 50 minutes. Most courses are offered on weekdays and some evenings. Exceptions to this will be shared with students well in advance.

Your unofficial transcripts are fine for our review unless you are accepted and choose to enroll – we trust you. Please upload your unofficial transcripts (if you are a current senior) and then we’ll add updated ones to the file. If you apply for the first deadline and are still enrolled in an undergraduate program, we will ask for updated grades/transcript after your fall semester and spring semester.

Please remember, if you are admitted and choose to enroll, we will need official transcripts sent to GMS from all colleges, universities, master’s programs, and/or study abroad experiences that you attended. You will have until September to complete this requirement and we will remind you.

Requests for transferred courses are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and with careful syllabus review, as the prior courses need to have met CACREP requirements.

University guidelines will allow us to transfer in up to two courses (up to eight credits) from another university. These courses must not have been taken as part of an earned degree, even if weren’t required for that degree. Specific decisions about transferring in courses will not be made prior to a student officially matriculating into the program and meeting with their academic advisor. Official transfers can only be granted to students in good standing, requiring them to complete their first semester beforehand. It is of note that transferring in courses will not shave time off of completing the degree given the requirements for clinical training and other required coursework.

You do not need to send in official transcripts until you are accepted and choose to enroll. For the application process, unofficial transcripts are fine and your transcript may be uploaded directly to the application portal. This is what we prefer. You or your school may email us your transcripts and we can add them to your application.

Please email us at mhcbm@bu.edu

We recommend asking individuals who may attest to the likelihood of your academic and career success. We recommend that two of your letters of recommendation come from faculty members who can speak to your academic potential, but understand this is not always possible.

We do have an alternative 3-year track, whereby students take a part-time course load their first year. Moving into full-time by year 3 in order to be on Internship and meet clinical hour requirements. Three years is the maximum time for program completion. Many students complete part-time jobs while they are full-time students.

Decisions about entry into the 3-year program are made on a case-by-case basis and have the same admission requirements and deadlines as full-time admission. We have found that a three-year track does not work well for many students as the conflicts with entering the program full-time tend to remain at the time they need to be on Internship. Daytime courses and site requirements are on weekdays. Additionally, there is less intrinsic support by not taking courses with a cohort.

We do not offer online enrollment or alternative offerings. Please note, that most of our classes meet during the daytime hours.

Current employees should contact Human Resources with questions about the tuition remission benefit. Policies are outlined here and are subject to change.

No, an earned Bachelor’s degree is required, but it does not need to be in Psychology or a related field. Our learners come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences and it strengthens our cohort. We value your clinical experiences more than your academic major.

We offer fall start only. This is due to our cohort model of study. All of our students start on the same cycle.

Students in our program do not complete a thesis. On occasion, students engage in research outside of our program, typically as volunteers. However, this is considered separate from our Program. We are a clinical program.

Occasionally there are opportunities for students to be able to obtain an assistantship or TA position, but often they are not offered within the program itself, and they are not guaranteed. Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS) sometimes has TA opportunities, but this is on a semester – to – semester basis and is usually given to second year students, and/or is based off of financial need. Assistantships are also on a case-by-case basis and information regarding what is available is oftentimes not known until the semester has started, or right before it begins.

Please email us any additional component(s) to add to your file. Please have them in before the admission deadline to be sure they are read with your application materials.

We hold monthly Facebook live Q&As throughout each fall and you may post your questions ahead of time or email us with questions regarding the Program or your application. We are not holding individual meetings or hosting on-campus visits at this time. Previous chats should answer most of your questions and we are happy to fill in the gaps. The Facebook page is Boston University: Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine. Our application opens annually on Sept. 1.

Our Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 Facebook Live Info Session Dates may be found here.

While there are many masters-level mental health counseling programs, we are the only program in the country located on a medical school campus with training in behavioral medicine and neuroscience to augment general mental health theory and treatment. We are the only CACREP accredited program in a medical school. We are also one of very few institutions in the state of Massachusetts to have CACREP accreditation.

We train students in general clinical mental health counseling, augmented by behavioral medicine (BMed), neuroscience, and psychopharmacology. The current state of health provision is in integrated biopsychosocial care and this is the model used in designing our curriculum. Our graduates return to tell us how impressed others are with what they know and understand regarding medical health and wellness. 

The Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine program has a Student Representative Committee that is integral to the program. The committee organizes social events, serves as a liaison to the faculty, and puts together the annual newsletter.

As of November 1, 2018, the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine program no longer require that applicants submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores nor Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores as part of their application.  Applicants may still choose to submit GRE scores if they feel they may strengthen their application.  The BU ETS code is 3087.

Official TOEFL or IELTS scores (for applicants from countries where English is not the language of instruction). If an international student has already obtained a degree in the United States, this requirement is waived.

To complete the application process you will need to complete our application in the online application portal, and attach (a) three letters of recommendation, (b) unofficial academic transcripts from all previous schools, and (c) a personal statement.  We recommend that two of your letters of recommendation come from faculty members who can speak to your academic potential. Final candidates are also required to attend a virtual interview. Final candidates will be contacted via email by the program if they are selected to participate in one of our interview days.

Students are required to complete a minimum of 60 credit hours of course work a semester, a semester-long clinical practicum, and an academic year-long internship.  A complete list of required and elective courses may be found on the Curriculum page.

Though we do not offer doctoral-level training through our program, many of our alumni have chosen to apply and continue on to a doctorate program.  We work closely with students to explore their career goals and determine whether a more advanced degree is necessary for them to be able to achieve these goals.  A terminal master’s degree is almost always enough to work independently as a mental health practitioner, whereas a doctorate is necessary for an academic career.

Our faculty work closely with students.  Each student is assigned an academic advisor with whom they discuss academic options, career paths, and other professional development needs.

Approximately 50% of our students come to us immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees.  Many come to us after 2-3 years of working after receiving their undergraduate degrees.  We also have students who come to us after working in a different field, sometimes for many years, and who are looking for a career change.  Most of our students majored in a mental health-related field or the hard sciences in their undergraduate institutions, although that is not a requirement for our program. Students come from all across the United States, as well as across the globe.

There is a large range in the breadth and nature of positions our graduates are able to obtain.  They vary considerably by age (young children to geriatric populations), setting (schools, inpatient facilities, hospitals, general outpatient), the severity of dysfunction (serious and persistent mental illness, medically ill, relationship issues), and presenting problem.  Many of our alumni have private practices and several have supervised current students while on clinical training placements and/or hired them post-graduation.

Yes, we typically have 4-7 international students per year, and their trajectory through the program is nearly identical to those with US citizenship. Official TOEFL or IELTS scores (for applicants from countries where English is not the language of instruction). If an international student has already obtained a degree in the United States, this requirement is waived.

TOEFL score requirements are:

• Our code is 3251
• Paper-based test: 550
• Internet-based test
  • Reading: 21
  • Listening: 18
  • Speaking: 23
  • Writing: 22

IELTS score requirements are:

• Band score: 7.0

GMS and the MHCBM program will be in touch in the coming months after your acceptance with more information about how to set up your BU ID and password for things like accessing email and the housing portals. Usually, that happens in late May/early June. In April, we are still awaiting the acceptance of prospective students for the new cohort so we won’t send out those materials until after we have your cohort confirmed. 

There are two primary degree requirements for licensure: course content and credits and the number of clinical hours. Our program is designed to meet both of these criteria. We require students to complete enough clinical hours to meet the number for all of the fifty states. Taking all required courses and electives meets the course requirements for nearly all states. In some cases, students must take a course that we are unable to offer. In that case, we work with students to identify a course in another department throughout Boston University or elsewhere. In the event that this isn’t possible, students take the course once returning to the state in which they would like to get licensed. Faculty advisors work closely with students to plan ahead for licensure in other states and map out the two-year curriculum to include required courses when necessary.

October 15th, 2024: It is important to note that at this time our program does not currently meet the academic requirements for state licensure in the state of Arkansas. 

We strongly recommend ALL potential applicants to review this information closely, as it could impact your future opportunities for licensure to practice depending on what state(s) you intend to practice in. For specific questions about state licensure and information regarding whether our program meets various states’ academic or pre-master’s training requirements, please reference the Licensing Disclosure page. 

Depending on what state you intend to practice in, courses that are identified as electives may be required to meet academic requirements. This information can also be found in the Licensing Disclosure page.

This varies some by state, but the general requirements post-graduation are to take a national exam (scoring at/above the passing mark) and to complete enough clinical hours to match the minimum requirements. Here are the licensure requirements by state.

Boston is a cultural mecca with lots to explore! The commonwealth of Massachusetts has more academic institutions than any other state in the nation. Thus, there is a lot of active learning, a lot of diversity, and creative offerings throughout the city. Boston proper is a walking city, although it also offers plenty of public transportation. We encourage students to take advantage of everything Boston has to offer – music, theater, city tours (many of which are free or offer student discounts), and delicious restaurants to explore.

Winters can be an eye-opening experience for our students from warmer climates, but autumn New England is a delight. We believe these opportunities make up for the relatively high cost of living. In fact, many students who originally planned to return home after graduation fall in love with Boston and decide to stay.

Yes.  Interviews are mandatory in order to be accepted into the program. Interviews give you and us an opportunity to meet and determine whether we are a mutual fit. These are offered by invitation-only, and are done virtually.