Master of Science in Genetic Counseling

Gain access to top clinical sites in Boston and throughout New England at the MS in Genetic Counseling program at the MGH Institute. Learn in interprofessional teams of students at a graduate school focused exclusively on the health professions.

Team-based learning (TBL) is at the heart of our program. Throughout your course of study, you will work with a team of students with diverse skills and backgrounds. Rather than sitting in lecture all day, class time is spent with your team under expert faculty guidance, working through real-life clinical problems and scenarios.

The Master of Science in Genetic Counseling Program will:

Educate skilled, knowledgeable, and compassionate genetic counsellors who will contribute to high-quality health care for a diverse society and provide genetics leadership.

Seek to recruit qualified students of diverse backgrounds and contribute to culturally competent care to promote access to healthcare.

Offer a curriculum that reflects current knowledge, a commitment to critical inquiry, life-long learning, evidence-based practice, and engagement in active learning.

Provide leadership in the development of innovative clinical education models to support quality practice in genetic counselling.

Foster scholarship in genetics and genomics for faculty and students through research collaborations, mentorship, and capstone projects.

Model collaborations with providers and researchers from different institutions within and external to Mass General Brigham, matching the genetics field's collaborative nature.

The program is five semesters in length. The first year primarily focused on didactic and team-based education, observational fieldwork, simulated patient sessions, and initiation of the Capstone research process. The second-year includes didactic work focusing on clinical and non-clinical fieldwork experiences and completion of the Capstone project. Interprofessional training is infused throughout the curriculum. The curriculum consists of 66 credits of didactic, team-based learning, clinical, and research coursework.

Genetic counsellors are increasingly being recognized for their contributions to primary care and the vital role in today's health care settings.

Your studies will also prepare you to understand how individuals engage cognitively and emotionally with genomic information, how they cope with the information, and how they make decisions regarding using the information.

MGH Institute of Health Professions is an innovative, interprofessional graduate school in Boston that prepares leading health professionals in Genetic Counseling, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Health Professions Education, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant Studies, Rehabilitation Sciences. It offers unparalleled opportunities for faculty and students to learn and work alongside expert practitioners in various hospital, clinical, educational, and community settings.

Integrating classroom learning with research and clinical experience, the Institute grants doctoral degrees, master's degrees, awards certificates of advanced study, and offers continuing education to practising professionals, as well as to baccalaureate-educated individuals entering health care from another field.

The MGH Institute, accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), has more than 1,500 full- and part-time students.

The IHP is the only degree-granting affiliate in Partners HealthCare, New England's largest health care provider founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, including Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and North Shore Medical Center. This affiliation offers students unparalleled opportunities to learn and work alongside expert practitioners in various hospital, clinical, and community settings.

The MGH Institute believes that knowledge begins with discovery through research. The Institute's faculty engage in original clinical research – much of it collaborative and interprofessional – to ultimately improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human disorders and disabilities.

All academic programs promote interprofessional teamwork through the school's unique IMPACT Practice module and offer personalized attention in a rigorous, collaborative learning environment driven by our faculty's professional expertise and scholarly accomplishments. The academic experience is further enriched by the diversity of our students' backgrounds and life experiences.

Whether you're just out of college, changing careers, or a practising clinician looking to advance in your career, the MGH Institute has a degree or certificate program that's right for you.