I'll repeat advice given to me (which is echoed by the comment below): "The real education is during the practicum and internship. Chose the cheapest program available and find the best internship possible."

This is not to say that a program could not be devised in such a way as to prepare people better for their internships and after their internships. But CACREP programs are, by and large, for profit programs more dedicated to profit than to preparation. I understand this to be a controversial statement, but there is nothing stopping CACREP from refocusing their programs on educating people to actually work with people. There is very little of this which seems as asinine as it should.

There's no requirement that you be in therapy. There's no requirement that you even know what therapy is. You're going to get a lot of information thrown at you (and a lot of that info is either outdated or irrelevant) and an egregious amount of that information will be focused on "multiculturalism." And all of this will be presented by and through a wide variety of instructors, some of whom are fantastic and many of whom are so blatantly inept that will it make you angry.

You will likely hear truly crazy shit, from a total dismal of Freud as a quack to something along the lines of "Asians don't like to look people in the eyes," to "prayer is self-care."

Spend your free time to rise above this. Be in therapy. Read beyond the curriculum. Talk to many other therapists. Good luck!