Capella wants 92 credits

[nj593]

Thanks for the great info. You know i graduate in a week from a school that does quarter hours and I still have no clue how they function. hilarious

That's 92 quarter hours, and it's hardly out of line. Take a look at the accreditation standards for the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs:

"Beginning July 1, 2009, all applicant programs in Clinical Mental Health Counseling must require a minimum of 54 semester credit hours or 81 quarter credit hours for all students. As of July 1, 2013, all applicant programs in Clinical Mental Health Counseling must require a minimum of 60 semester credit hours or 90 quarter credit hours for all students."

At $432 per quarter hour, the MS will run you over $38k, which is about the average annual salary for a mental health counselor. You ought to be able to find a less expensive program, but you'll have to go through the CACREP list of programs to figure out which ones are available online other than Capella (Walden is accredited, at $365 per quarter hour but requiring at least 95 quarter hours, so it's only about $4k less than Capella).

Try applying to some of the bigger schools, even if the tuition rate seems high. Those schools may be able to offer enough financial aid to make your cost of attendance quite reasonable.