Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center has been ranked No. 1 for Best Counseling Services in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review’s Best 386 Colleges.
The Cook Counseling Center is staffed by more than 40 mental health practitioners including doctors, therapists, and counselors.
“The ranking is meaningful particularly because it comes from the students,” said Ellie Sturgis, the center’s director. “We have excellent staff members who work really hard to be available for students. Our staff love their work and their clients and this shows.”
Virtually every year for the past decade, Cook Counseling Center has had double-digit increases in the number of students seeking services and in the number of appointments provided to students. In the past five years, the center has added 16 professional staff members.
Cook Counseling Center offers group, individual and couples therapy; workshops; training for students, faculty and staff; and presentations on campus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the center has moved to a telehealth model in which staff meet with clients virtually.
“We were fearful that telehealth would not allow us to be as effective,” said Sturgis. “However, we have discovered that it is possible to develop the therapeutic relationship and trust that were possible in the in-person sessions. While we would prefer to be sitting across from students, many students have said that they actually prefer this mode for therapy and hope we will continue to offer it when the pandemic is over.”
The Princeton Review college rankings are based entirely on surveys of college students who rate their schools on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences exclusively for the project. The ranking lists are based on surveys of 143,000 students at the 386 colleges in the book.
In addition to the #1 ranking for Best Counseling Services, Virginia Tech came in at #7 for Their Students Love These Colleges, #8 for Best Campus Food and #15 for Town-Gown Relations Are Great.
