A representative sample of 668 educational psychology students at Michigan State University were asked to describe and compare their discomfort, hesitation to seek help, and expectation of benefiting from counselor help for personal problems, which in turn became the basis for determining characteristics preferred in a counselor to help with these problems. Choices about preferred counselors were both problem and sex related. Females more than males hesitated to seek help for problems of sex, but all students were less hesitant to seek help for problems of anger than sex. Females, however, more than males expected to benefit from counselor help for sexual problems. Rank-order preferences for seven counselor characteristics were described. Counselor values and experience were ranked high in importance, and counselor age and sex ranked low by all students for both problems. Males more than females preferred same-sex counselors with whom they were personally acquainted for help with problems of sex. (Author)