The majority of students are employed full-time while they pursue degrees. While  it may take longer to attain the degree, classroom discussion is enriched by the experience of students who bring to the classroom the problems they encounter on the job, and who can apply to their daily work what they learn in class.

The M.P.S. degree is best suited to those who already are employed and wish to better their credentials; have training in the field of counseling but would like a degree; or are in-service people, teachers, psychiatric nurses, human resources administrators and counselors, peace officers and others whose occupational success relies heavily on human relations expertise.

The degree is not tailored to those who wish to enter the fields of counseling, psychotherapy, or social work in New York State. However, students completing the alcohol and substance abuse option or the advanced certificate in alcohol and substance abuse counseling have the opportunity to qualify for Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) in complicance with the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) requirements.  The M.P.S. program provides the educational component required for CASAC certification. Prospective students should be aware that considerable experience supervised by a CASAC is necessary before it is possible to sit for the CASAC exam administered by New York state.

Some applicants hoping to practice in New York may, notwithstanding uncertain prospects for employment, choose to get their training in counseling and psychotherapy. Employment in New York is likely to be difficult to obtain with only the M.P.S. degree. However, graduates of this program are employed in a spectrum of positions reflecting the industrial counseling, clinical counseling and substance abuse options. Graduates work in the fields of community counseling(drugs, health, family therapy); industrial counseling (occupational education, vocational training, goal-oriented group leaders, career planning and service specialists, work evaluators, job development planners); institutional services (hotlines, outreach services, information and referral, counseling and psychotherapy, crisis intervention, multiservice counseling, veterans counseling, rehabilitation services); and gerontological services.

The overall objective of the Master of Professional Studies in Human Relations isto provide mature students with quality education directed at creating anunderstanding of the dynamics underlying human behavior and to develop thebasic skills necessary to function in a human services capacity in public andprivate workplaces.

Students in human relations are exposed to multidisciplinary understanding of the factors governing individual, interpersonal and group behavior. The application of this knowledge to a variety of therapeutic and non-therapeutic modalities geared to career development as human relations specialists is emphasized.  

A select, full-time core of faculty, committed to the goals of the program, is enriched by a group of carefully chosen professionals who serve as adjunct professors. Faculty members hold doctorates in such varied disciplines as clinical psychology, educational psychology, general psychology, community psychology, social psychology, industrial psychology, psychometrics, child psychology, counseling psychology, sociology and alcohol/substance abuse.