How to Apply

We encourage you to be actively engaged in the admission process. Once you have submitted your application, log into your application account to check the status of your application and what requirements may still be outstanding.

When all application requirements have been submitted, including all letters of recommendation, you will receive an email notification that your application is complete. 

Naropa University requires transcripts from any and all institutions where undergraduate coursework was completed. Transcripts for coursework beyond the undergraduate level are not required. An official transcript of a conferred bachelor’s degree must be received by the Office of Admissions prior to beginning graduate coursework.

Transcripts that are uploaded as part of your application are not considered official. However, to expedite the admissions process, we encourage you to upload copies of your transcripts when possible.

If mailing, official transcripts should be sent to:

Naropa University
Office of Admissions
2130 Arapahoe Ave
Boulder CO 80302

Electronic transcripts from your university may be emailed to admissions@naropa.edu.

Electronic official transcripts are acceptable if submitted through a secure transcript service used by your university. If you submit your transcripts by email as an attachment or upload them via your application account, they will not be accepted as official.

If you completed any coursework at a foreign college or university (other than a study abroad program), an international education evaluation is required.

Naropa University requires that application materials and essays be the applicant’s own work, factually true, and honestly presented, and not created with the use of AI.

Please address each of the following prompts in 6 double-spaced pages. Your essay should respond to both the prompts listed for all counseling concentrations, as well as the concentration-specific prompts. Please use the articles as a guide and reference them where appropriate. 

For all Concentrations: 

• What interested you to apply to Naropa University and the specific concentration within the Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) program, to which you are applying? 
• What are your career goals relative to enrolling in this program?  
• What experiences have you had in professional or volunteer capacities, which relate to the counseling field? What specifically did you learn about yourself or about counseling from this experience? 
• Imagine that you witness a microaggression by a peer and toward another one of your peers. How would you respond?

Prompts specific to the Transpersonal Contemplative Art–Based Counseling concentration:

Concisely define and clarify your understanding of:

o Art therapy

o Transpersonal psychology

o The benefits of contemplative practice. Why does contemplative practice resonate with you?

Note: If invited to an interview, you will be asked to summarize the above three points.

• Describe your personal relationship to art as a personally transformative process. Then choose one piece from your portfolio, and where and consider how your art reveals healing and transpersonal themes. 
• Conclude by discussing your interest in attending the MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Transpersonal Contemplative Art–based Counseling program at Naropa University.
• Read Oppression and Privilege: Two Sides of the Same Coin and Love and Social Justice, then use the information from those articles to answer the following questions:
  • Why are love and relationships so central to social justice work
  • Describe the intersection of [concentration, e.g., Art Therapy] counseling and social justice.

Your resume/CV should detail all pertinent academic, employment, and volunteer history with exact dates of participation.

Two letters of recommendation are required. Recommendations must be from academic or professional sources and may not be from family members, spouses, friends, or current or former therapists or spiritual advisors.

Applicants will use Naropa’s application system to send out requests for recommendations. Recommenders will be emailed a request to complete a short form and prompted to either type their recommendation into the form or upload it as a separate document.

Recommendations must come directly from the recommender and cannot be provided by the applicant.

Applicants are required to submit a well-rounded portfolio of 20 different pieces of original art. Your portfolio must include both 2D and 3D work as well as any other areas of specialization. The portfolio needs to demonstrate two primary skill sets:

• Applied knowledge and exploration of a wide range of art materials and processes.
• Transformative depth of work as an artist, showing maturity with form, content, materials, and processes. 
• Note: After the group interview process, faculty from the department will reach out to you to schedule an individual portfolio review over Zoom. You will be asked to summarize your artwork from the above two perspectives. 
  
  

The portfolio needs to be accompanied by a portfolio summary that lists the following for each piece:

• Title
• Brief descriptive comment
• Media used
• Dimensions
• Date completed
  
  

Portfolios may only be uploaded in the following file formats: GIF, JPG, PNG, PDF, PowerPoint or Word.

Attending an Interview Day and participating in both group interview sessions is a requirement to receive an admissions decision. All application requirements need not be submitted in order to interview – an invite to RSVP for an Interview Day will be emailed to all applicants who have submitted the application form.

Applicants will be allowed to interview without having all application requirements (e.g. essay, recommendations, etc.) submitted but applications must be completed no later than three weeks following an interview. 

Interview Days are full-day events and consist of two group interview sessions – one in the morning and one in the afternoon – as well as additional programming designed to help inform your decision to enroll at Naropa. Options to interview in person at our campus in Boulder, Colorado, and remotely via Zoom will be offered.

In addition to the Graduate School of Counseling group interview, this program also requires an individual art portfolio review, conducted over Zoom. This will be scheduled individually by a faculty member after the completion of your group interview. 

ATTENDANCE POLICY: Any registrant who fails to attend all mandatory portions of their Admissions Interview Day or notify the Admissions Office of their absence in advance, will have their application scored accordingly, resulting in a denial. 

Applicants must fulfill requirements in both Studio Art and Psychology.

Studio Prerequisite Coursework (18 semester credit hours)*

• Drawing
• Painting
• 3D medium (sculpture or ceramics)
• 9 credits of studio art electives

Psychology Prerequisite Coursework (12 semester credit hours)*

• Abnormal Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• 6 credits of Psychology electives

See our prerequisite coursework guide for additional info, including suggestions of where you can complete prerequisite courses.

SEE PREREQUISITE GUIDE

All courses are subject to approval and may require additional documentation such as a syllabus or course description.

A grade of “C” or above is required for all prerequisite coursework. All prerequisites are to be completed at accredited academic institutions for credit (not pass/fail or audited).

*Coursework need not be completed before applying. Applicants must submit an official transcript showing proof of completion of the prerequisite coursework and bachelor’s degree prior to the start of the program.

Domestic applicants: Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Learn more about how to apply for financial aid.

International applicants: Complete Naropa’s Financial Aid Application for International Students. Learn more about financial aid for international students.

In addition to other requirements, international applicants must also submit:

• Proof of English proficiency
• Evaluations of non-U.S. education records
  
  

If accepted to Naropa University, international students are required to submit the following for their student visa application:

• Copy of a valid passport
• Proof of funding for the first year of the program
  
  

Please see the International Students webpage for more information.