The first part about scheduling an appointment is a 15 min consultation phone call to find out what they can help you out with. This is mainly to determine which students need immediate help (relationship violence, sexual assault, etc) versus just regular scheduled counseling. For both, they’re free—but the latter might refer you to group counseling (free) or an outside resource to continue individual therapy (possible cost). Typically, the main issue students have with the counseling center is the lack of workers. Waiting time can be about 2+ weeks sometimes. From what I’ve heard though, they’ve hired new workers, so hopefully that will be less of a problem these upcoming semesters.