University educators at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate, are increasingly being asked to assess their efforts to show that students are learning skills needed for work and life. The question continues to be how to most effectively assess student competencies. Here, we introduce the model of hierarchical complexity as a candidate for such assessment. The primary reason that such a model could be useful is that it postulates that the development of competency results from the mastery of tasks that occur in a sequence from least to most hierarchically complex. We use the model to assess the competence level of students entering or already enrolled in a master’s program in counseling, and predict students’ grades in that program. Two separate studies were carried out. In the first study, narrative statements that students wrote in order to be admitted to a master’s program in counseling were coded using a method developed from the model of hierarchical complexity. Statements in students’ essays were coded at 5 stages, from Concrete to Metasystematic.