Tuition & Funding
Tuition
Core courses are offered at a special reduced tuition rate through University of Utah Continuing Education. For more information on general tuition rate and tuition aid, please visit the University of Utah University of Utah Tuition Rates and Fees.
Financial Aid & Scholarships
Below is comprehensive information to assist you in applying to the financial aid opportunities:
The range of funding opportunities for our students is broad. Many students in our program receive funding in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, university or professional organization scholarships and fellowships, and applied placements in local mental health service sites or educational institutions. Many students supplement stipends from these sources with student loans and work-study. Although the program cannot guarantee funding for every student in the program, program directors and faculty have been very successful in the last several years at securing funding for students who express a desire to have partial or full funding. All first-year students receive 20-hour assistantships, which carry a full tuition benefit.
Assistantships
There are three types of assistantships that support Counseling Psychology (CP) students:
- Research Assistantships: Individual faculty may have grants to support their students. In addition, the Department of Educational Psychology and the Counseling Psychology Program provide research assistants to untenured faculty. Finally, CP students may work on grants with faculty in other programs and departments.
- Teaching Assistantships (TAs):
- The Department offers multiple TA positions to support our distance education counseling programs in St. George, Utah. Both the Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) and the School Counseling (SC) programs have a cohort of St. George students. These students receive instruction through a broadcast from a classroom on our Salt Lake campus to a classroom at our St. George campus. The CP doctoral students serve as TAs for these courses, assisting faculty with grading, preparing for class, or teaching class sessions.
- Positive Psychology Courses: Our Positive Psychology Program is a fully on-line program that offers a certificate in Positive Psychology. The Meditation and Stress course is a formal TA-ship that receives tuition benefits. Our students also teach for the program in various capacities, from volunteer assistants to instructors to their own classes paid based on enrollment.
- Graduate Assistantships: Our program sponsors two general graduate assistantships. The first is a 10-hour a week Program Assistant, usually from the first-year class, who works with the Program Directors of the CP, CMHC, and SC programs on various administrative and program improvement tasks. The second is a 10-hour per week Clinic Assistantship, an advanced doctoral student who assists in the Counseling Practicum at our in-house clinic. Both are tuition-benefited positions.
Student Health Insurance
The Student Health Insurance Policy offered to Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Research Assistants (RAs) is known as the Subsidized Graduate Student Health Insurance. Student must be receiving a full (100%) tuition benefit and be 100% RA or TA or a Combination of TA/RA that adds up to 100% to qualify. The Subsidized Graduate Student Health Insurance Policy is the same as the Student Health Insurance offered to all University of Utah students. The difference is that the premium is subsidized by The Graduate School for eligible students. 100% of the premium is covered by the department. Other charges (such as copays or fees) may apply and are still the responsibility of the student to pay. Tiered prescription coverage is provided as part of the health insurance coverage. Coverage for dependents is not subsidized. Rates and brochures for this policy are available online at www.uhcsr.com/utah or from: Student Health Services, Madsen Health Center, Level 1, 555 Foothill Blvd., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112
Additional information is available from Student Health Services.
Additional student insurance information.
Differential Tuition
The University of Utah currently charges students differential tuition in over 20 graduate degree programs (Table 1). Differential rates range from approximately $65.85 per credit hour (Counseling and Counseling Psychology) to over $8000.00 a semester. Programs justify the need for differential tuition based on the additional resources required to provide professional graduate training in comparison to more traditional graduate degrees. Across the country it is estimated that almost 50% of all doctoral institutions have differential tuition in place.
A differential tuition of $50.00 per credit hour was proposed in 2009-2010 and approved by the University and its Board. The fee was increased the following year to $53.90, and was then increased to $65.85 in 2020, and still remains at the University of Utah minimum rate. The Fee impacts students in the Department of Educational Psychology enrolled in the MEd School Counseling, MEd Professional Counseling, MEd School Psychology, Ph.D. Counseling Psychology, and Ph.D. School Psychology. An average student taking 12 credits would be charged a total fee of $790.20.
Professional graduate training in applied psychology and counseling involves demands unlike those in more traditional academic disciplines (e.g., English, history, science). Master’s and doctoral training in counseling and psychology requires faculty members to supervise students’ clinical training and development (individually or in dyads), and to develop and maintain quality external practicum and internship training sites both on and off campus (e.g., mental health agencies and schools). Additional demands involve the placement of students in these sites and regular site visits to assure that the sites are providing the highest quality training. These responsibilities are in addition to typical faculty duties such as teaching, mentoring, advising, and serving on departmental, college, and universities committees. Moreover, the two Ph.D. programs (School Psychology and Counseling Psychology) are scientist-practitioner programs and involve research mentoring and chairing and serving on doctoral dissertation committees. Funds generated by the tuition differential provide the Department with additional options for supporting and enhancing these programs.
The tuition differential currently in place is the lowest at the University of Utah.
The differential tuition policy was discussed with representatives of the School Psychology and Counseling and Counseling Psychology Faculty bodies and with elected representatives of the Educational Psychology Student Advisory Committee. The consensus of these student representatives was that the proposal was reasonable given the training demands. Students believed the professional training programs would remain competitive and continue to attract students because of their national reputation.
Differential tuition is first and foremost – tuition, or a sum of money paid to an institution for instruction. It differs from regular tuition in that it is a) adjusted to meet the specific demands of instruction and b) can be spent at the discretion of the programs generating it. It has often been perceived of as a tax. Whether perceived as tuition or a tax, the funds generated by differential were designed to be used to support the specific demands of clinical and scientist/practitioner training.
Budgets for anticipated revenue and expenditures are reviewed each spring by the CCP faculty and student representatives and approved for the following year. Proposed changes to allowable expenses should be introduced prior to the meetings during which the budget is reviewed and approved.
Currently, expense categories include student memberships, student travel, program socials/orientations/information sessions and recruiting, student awards, supervisor support and recognition, student licensure and other required fees (e.g., finger printing), student initiated proposals, summer program management, and faculty professional development and licensure/membership.
The expenditure of the differential tuition revenue currently places a heavy burden on administrative and financial support staff in the Department. Thus all expenditures (whether they be a class of expenditure or a set of specific reimbursements) need to be tailored in way that minimizes the impact on administrative time.
This philosophy was used when initially deciding on certain classes of expenditures (e.g., membership in associations where all students are automatically joined to their respective state and national association). Generally this is the preferred method of expending funds – especially those directed to students. One notable exception to this comes in the form of conference travel reimbursement and research support awards.
Graduate School Tuition Benefit Program
The Tuition Benefit Program (TBP) provides tuition payment for eligible graduate students. A graduate tuition benefit is available only to matriculated graduate students compensated through the University of Utah. The TBP covers general graduate tuition and mandatory fees.
Learn more about the tuition benefit program
Graduate Fellowship Program
Unless otherwise stated, fellowship stipends and scholarship amounts reflect nine-month support, noting the total amount for the fall and spring semesters combined.
Learn more about available fellowships
Forms & Resources