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Many of you have come to me (or to other advisors in the department) asking about graduate programs in clinical psychology. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the CLPS department, and have open office hours for advising on Fridays (See below). What I would like to do with in a series of Blog Posts is to talk about graduate study, research opportunities, and advising in general.
This will be the first in a series, and particularly focused on providing some information about different types of clinical graduate programs. I wanted to spend some time enumerating those choices and providing students with links that might be helpful later. I am, of course, available for discussion on these matters during office hours.
For students interested in non-clinical Ph.D. programs, which are more research based, that will be the topic of another blog post.
The main three types of programs in clinical psychology are Ph.D.s in clinical psychology, Psy.D. programs and Master's programs.
This is a table dealing with some of the differences between a Ph.D. in Psychology (focused mostly on clinical) and a Psy.D. Note that one of the links below does not work (this table is taken from a for-profit university, who wants you to apply. This is a longer discussion).
The following links are also helpful in think about the difference in Doctoral Programs (Ph.D. vs. PsyD):
https://www.allpsychologyschools.com/blog/psyd-vs-phd-programs/
This link is helpful in thinking about differences between Master’s and Doctoral-level programs
(The one piece of advice I would give here is that if you choose a Master’s route, look SUPER carefully at the licensing requirements. Do your homework to make sure that the Master’s program you are going to has a licensure track, and offers you the ability to do what you want to do with the degree). For example, some careers require not only a master’s in psychology, but a license to practice, but if your program doesn’t have an option that allows you to get licensed, your graduate degree is worth less than if your program has that opportunity. There’s a lot of research to do here in making this decision.
Another important thing to think about is the nature of the university that you are attending. This is particularly important with Ph.D. programs in clinical psychology, but also can be important in choosing other types of programs. For the Ph.D. route, some programs waive tuition and pay you a stipend to attend the program (that’s why they are so competitive). For example, if you were admitted to Brown’s Ph.D. program (although we don’t have a clinical Ph.D. program), you would not pay tuition and Brown would pay you a stipend to attend (most research Ph.D. programs are like this). Other programs require you to pay tuition (and that tuition can be upwards of $40-50K a year). Usually these universities have the words “Professional School” in their title or are schools that are fully online. An advantage is that these programs are less competitive for admission, and in the cases of the fully online programs, you can work or live wherever you want. However, a disadvantage is those tuition demands. Also, not all of those programs are APA accredited (which is important for getting an internship, another part of the doctoral process)
OK. Feel free to email me if you have questions about this blog entry and comment if there are specific topics that you want me to cover. Here’s a preview of other topics I might write about (not in order).
1) Finding research opportunities and opportunities for clinical experiences as an undergraduate
2) I’ve chosen the type of graduate program I want to apply for. What do I do next?
3) How do I write a personal statement for graduate school
4) What is the NSF GRFP and should I apply for it?
5) I want to go to graduate school, but I don’t want to go immediately. What do I do?
6) Should I take the GREs now or should I wait?
7) What do I do if I want to go to a graduate program in a country where I’m not a citizen.
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