For future reference.  Applicants to the Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling must meet admission requirements of both the Graduate School at ISU and the Genetic Counseling Program. These are detailed below.

Genetic Counseling Program Admission Requirements

1) Prerequisites:

• Bachelor’s degree with at least a 3.0 GPA. Most majors include biology, genetics and psychology, but this is not a requirement and other undergraduate majors will be considered.
• Courses - biology (BIO 101 and 101L), genetics (BIO 380 and 380L), psychology (PSY101).  Additional upper level biology/genetics courses should include organic chemistry (CHEM351 and 351L) or biochemistry (CHEM431 and 431L). Other upper level biology courses will be considered on an individual basis.  Indiana State University Class Codes listed in parentheses.  Online courses can be accepted if comparable to standard undergraduate courses, which typically means they provide a letter grade and are not survey classes.

Also highly recommended but not required: Courses in human anatomy (BIO231), molecular biology (BIO417) and statistics (BIO 485, MATH 131 or 241)

Please submit all of your official transcripts to Indiana State University.  Prerequisite courses must be completed or in progress at the time of application to the program. If any courses will be taken during spring term (i.e. during the application process), please submit a current transcript verifying enrollment in the course(s) or a proof of enrollment letter listing the courses from the school’s registrar.

If you would like to know more about whether a particular course counts towards our pre-requisite courses, please consider using either of these free tools.  

• Transferology
• ISU's Search Tool

2) GRE requirement: We are NOT requiring the GRE for the 2022 application cycle.  

NOTE:  Instead of the GRE we will be evaluating your GPA specifically in the pre-requisite courses above.  Please list specifically your courses that meet these pre-reqruisites AND your grade in those courses in your resume as well as your NMS (National Match System) number. 

3) Three letters of recommendation. These should be individuals that can speak about your academic background, interpersonal relationships, and advocacy/genetic counseling experiences.  You are encouraged to have representatives that can speak to your various strengths.  For example, having all three letters from professors that can only address your academic performance may not give us an impression of your interpersonal or advocacy skills.  You will enter the contact information for your references and they will be contacted directly by ISU to submit their letter of reference AFTER you have completed and submitted your application. 

4) Statement of Purpose and Resume. The Statement of Purpose should be a succinct description of your motivations for applying to the genetic counseling program and future career goals.  This is your chance to highlight what may not be clear in reviewing your other documents such as transcripts.  Tell us your story. 

Your Statement of Purpose should not exceed two pages (11pt font and double spaced) and will be attached AFTER you have completed and submitted your application. Please include a resume in addition to the personal statement which does not contribute to the two (2) page maximum. 

5) Experience in advocacy/counseling and a strong understanding of the genetic counseling field are necessary.

• Volunteer or paid positions at a crisis center or other similar experiences. 
• Importantly, applicants should demonstrate a clear understanding of the genetic counseling field which may include shadowing a genetic counselor

Other information:

Admission to the genetic counseling program is highly competitive. The program admits eight new students per year and meeting the minimum standards does not guarantee an interview or an offer of admission to the program.  Currently our interviews are expected to be in March of 2022 an will be conducted virtually.  Specific dates have not yet been set.  

If you would like to shadow a genetic counselor with our local clinic through Union Medical Group at Union Hospital, CLICK HERE.  

All US and Canadian Genetic Counseling Programs, including Indiana State University, are participating in the Genetic Counseling Admissions Match through National Matching Services (NMS) beginning with admissions.  The GC Admissions Match has been established to enhance the process of placing applicants into positions in masters-level genetic counseling programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling (ACGC). The Match uses a process that takes into account both applicants’ and programs’ preferences.  All applicants must first register for the Match with NMS before applying to participating genetic counseling graduate programs. At the conclusion of all program interviews, both applicants and programs will submit ranked lists of preferred placements to NMS according to deadlines posted on the NMS website.  The binding results of the Match will be released to both applicants and programs simultaneously in late April.  More details regarding this aspect of applying will be provided sometime in September.  For our program, all application materials must be postmarked by January 1 to be considered for the Fall of the following year; there are no rolling or deferred admission is offered.  

Please visit the NMS website at (https://natmatch.com/gcadmissions) to register for the match, review detailed information about the matching process, and to view a demonstration of how the matching algorithm works

International Applicants: Unfortunately, in order to maintain the required 6 graduate credit hours in "face to face" courses, we cannot accept applicants that require an F-1 student visa at this time.  Please see our International Applicant Page for more information.