insert Psychologist

What is your goal in the field of Behavior Analysis? If it is research you should look for a program that allows you to do a thesis to make you more competitive and waive the 2-year thesis of the PhD. I think UNT would be great for this route for two reasons: small cohort allows you to get good mentorship/research experience and finding your fit in behavior analysis is important since at the PhD levels there are various specific theoretical orientations for behavior analysis/paths you can take. If you just want to be a Board Certified Behavior Analysis (BCBA) and practice, you don't need a PhD/thesis and should focus on getting supervision hours so you can sit for the board exam. The PhD for this route is just a title for attracting clients.

Why NYU in particular, is there a POI who does research in what you want to do? Personally, I wouldn't leave your current job unless I got accepted into either a fully funded masters or a top 10 school in the field. This may not be your case but I got accepted to a masters at NYU and I was looking at 100k+ debt which is never worth it in Psychology. If you are truly set on NYU, I'd do a masters at a cheaper school and then try my best to get into NYU's PhD. My peers tell me they have good funding at that level.

Not that I have heard of, white coat ceremonies are traditional and I don't think they have caught on to PsyD's. Also it is important to note that PsyD's do not practice in primary care.

“All those other links” are Outcomes, admissions, retention, tuition, and match rate information from the official programs websites that are required to be reported by APA accredited programs. Your PDF is less information about specific programs in a harder to read format.

Honestly, for your research interest, methodology, and career interest you can't go wrong with either of these choices. I had a similar dilemma as I do similar research and applied to both psychology and education programs (Dr. Gonzales at Harvard). I would honestly weigh faculty match heavily in making this decision. One method I used, although time consuming, was reading every article I could get a hold of from my POI's. I noticed I was more excited and engaged in the articles of the POI and program I eventually accepted.

1) Let's be clear here, the two schools you are deciding between are not top 25. PGSP has the Stanford named attached to it but do not let them deceive you into thinking you "are attending Stanford." With that being said PGSP has a much better track record in matching students to APA accredited internships. PGSP data Here, Pepperdine data Here 2) The general public has little knowledge of clinical program prestige so honestly the only thing that matters in private practice is your business sense. When it comes to training opportunities, yes reputation matters. From what I hear, PGSP has an okay reputation locally, nationally not so much. With that out of the way be realistic about life during and after attending these programs: Average completion time for the PGSP is between 5-6 years, with tuition at 48k that's 200k+ in debt without living expenses. You can do a quick search for bay area housing but in short- its very expensive. Average completion time for Pepperdine is between 5-6 years, with tuition at 60k that's 300k without living expenses. Keep in mind, this is not a lucrative field and California in general is saturated with psychologist. My best advice would be to get into a funded program, even partially funded would go a long way. The reality is many people pursuing a PhD go into clinical practice, do not be scared of research. Many funded PhD programs provide amazing clinical experience.

Honestly, I had similar feelings and procrastinated longer than needed in my e-mails declining offers. All the programs were completely supportive of my decision and some faculty reached out to me afterwards to connect with them at APA in SF this year. Only 1 POI asked me what school I was heading to and when I informed her, introduced me to an old colleague of hers at the school doing similar research as me in a different department.

How does the prospect of potentially getting an offer from the other program make you feel, are you excited/anxious about it? I had a similar experience with my first acceptance, when I received the acceptance phone call from my POI I was very whatever about it and felt I had to fake excitement so as not to offend her. Turns out I was not very excited to work with her (too hands on) and the program looked good on paper but didn't really live up to what I was expecting. A lot of this had to do with me solidifying what I really wanted to research and what I looked for in a POI after I finished all my interviews. Don't force yourself to attend a program, its a long commitment.

No idea, if I choose to go there I am going to use the graduate housing. Seems like the most stable/financially reasonable option for the first year at least.

Do you want to go into academia or practice? If academia: Go to the student's admissions, outcomes, etc. pdf on the Counseling Psychology program's website, each APA accredited program is required to post this. First make sure they have a 90-100% match rate for APA internships and then scroll all the way to the bottom for licensure %. If the % is above 90% of graduates, the program may be more clinically oriented. Other things that are important is your POI's research productivity, are they publishing consistently and in top tier journals (Journal of Counseling Psychology etc.). If you are interested in clinical practice: Does the program have a dedicated Director of Clinical Training, ie. are they faculty taking on students conducting research or clinical faculty. Does the program have a clinic where you can get your first practicum experiences on-site? and Is there a good variety of externships available to get supervision hours locally/some schools you need to travel an 40mins-1hour to get good externships. Make sure to check the student's admissions, outcomes, etc. pdf and see % of students matching to APA accredited internships. If my primary goal was to practice I would only consider schools with 100% match rate the last 3-5 years.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to say because I am making sure to tailor all my post to also address the OP. The last thing I want is a first generation graduate student who knows little of the inner workings of graduate school to receive a funding package and then wonder why he didn’t receive the “5-6 guaranteed years of funding” they always read about online. Addressing a previous point, while it’s great private schools offer amazing funding, the OP isn’t in that situation so let’s provide context to his funding package: he didn’t receive a prestigious fellowship and the TAship is a little low but not that much lower, and that’s okay because he is most likely at a public institution and needs to look for multiple roommates to make it work.

Unless the people *in the field* received funding packages from all programs, all it requires is reading comprehension. Berkely - https://philosophy.berkeley.edu/graduate/funding - up to 2 year fellowship guaranteed, the rest is TAship and if you are familiar with the bay area, is not enough to live without multiple roommates. They also select top candidates to enter for campus wide fellowships which are 5-6 years and decided by a committee between all departments (I know this because I received one). UCLA - http://philosophy.ucla.edu/graduate/applying/funding/ - 2 year fellowship guranteed, the rest is TAship. I grew up in the area and I highly doubt the TAship is enough to live close to campus without multiple roommates. Same deal as Berkeley with the 5-6 fellowships, they are competitive between all departments. UT Austin - https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/graduate/Admissions.php - Limited fellowships but they are able to provide TAships at 1520-1674 a month = 15-17k an academic year. Again Austin prices are constantly on the rise due to gentrification, to live comfortably you need roommates. Notice how none of these schools guarantee funding past the 3rd year, this is standard practice although the funding may be unspoken guarantee's, so they don't get sued IF public funds get cut. Now lets take a step back and actually help the OP get relevant information on his options as oppose to flexing inner circles.

That may be true for privates but I was talking about public’s and specifically the 3 schools I listed. Berkeley only offers a 2 year fellowship, the 5-6 year ones are campus wide competitions. UCLA same 1-2 and same campus wide competition between department (all UC’s have this for chancellor fellowship or diversity fellowships). UT Austin has limited number of fellowships (not long termed) and relies on TAship which is about 15k (minus graduate fees). So point still stands, public school funding at historically good schools (not necessarily top in philosophy) is not that great and OP should not be that surprised at his package.

If there is, they go within days. I spoke with some of the grad students while visiting and they recommended I carry my deposit in my car with my letters of reference when a good spot opens up to make an offer on the spot because they go really fast. Keep in mind, value in SB is single studio apartment = $1000ish/month

Wow I am genuinely surprise if these public school programs are guaranteeing 20k+ funding (even through TAship) long term. Not even STEM fields are able to do that, instead they only guarantee your first year and then have careful wording saying “historically we have 100% funded our students” because public schools budget changes constantly. No surprise that some of those privates are able to offer those figures, although Duke’s offer seems very generous. I am assuming OP’s program is a public school in a metro area though.