Clients have preferences regarding desired counselor characteristics and these preferences may influence counseling outcome. One factor that may influence reaction to a counselor is the counselor's gender. A combination of direct and indirect methods for eliciting preferences was used to examine preference for sex of counselor and to determine if preference is related to students' views of problems as being gender-related. Male (J=60) and female (N=60) college students were assigned to either a male or female counselor description condition. As an indirect measure, subjects read and responded to scenarios describing problems chosen as typically female, typically male, and not gender-related. As a direct measure, subjects indicated for each of 75 problems whether they would prefer to discuss it with a male counselor, female counselor, or if they had no preference. Two open-ended questions on counselor preference were also used. Results indicated that, regardless of measure used or presenting problem, subjects had no definite preference for sex of counselor except when they were forced to choose, in which case, both females and males tended to prefer a female counselor. (NRB)