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MaryQofS

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Everything posted by MaryQofS

  1. Thanks for replying, fafsaavoidant. I'm surprised and impressed you weren't scared of by the length of my post, like I assume everybody else was, haha. As regards your comment about being baffled that somebody said I was "too old" to begin a PhD, I believe this person's logic was that academic departments want to invest in students who will have many years of research ahead of them so they can bask in the glory of having been responsible for educating such an academic star. Given that I primarily want to be a clinician, I don't see why this should matter, though. I'm glad that you are similar in age to me, and that you don't think I'm too old. That was very reassuring! Also, thanks for all of the other advice. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing many institutions with Counseling Psychology PhD programs (at least ones in places I could stand to live in) that also offer terminal Master's degrees: APA Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) has a list of all APA-accredited Counseling Psychology doctoral programs. I haven't done rigorous research into this, so I may find more programs when I do. As I mentioned in my original post, I'm really interested in attending Duquesne's Clinical Psychology PhD program but it's really hard to get into since it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only funded APA-accredited humanistic program in the US. Seattle University, the University of Dallas (both private and pricey) and the University of West Georgia (a cheap state school that might even offer funding) have Master's programs that would likely help me get into Duquesne, but if I didn't get in, I'd be stuck with a Master's degree focused on existential/humanistic psychology that other more conventional universities probably wouldn't give a rat's ass about. Basically, I'm just terrified of being a broke, middle-aged woman with a useless Master's degree in Psychology that doesn't even lead to LPC licensure and dying alone, and then being eaten by my cats. ? Good luck with your PhD dreams. What are your plans going forwards? Are you going to hold off for another year and re-apply or have you also applied to Master's programs?
  2. I'm trying to find Master's Programs in Counseling Psychology, and I stumbled across one at Texas Woman's University recently (there is also a PhD Program), which takes a very feminist perspective. There were a couple of faculty members with specific research interests in body image. Shannon Scott is one: https://apps.twu.edu/my1cv/profile.aspx?type=twa&id=bcq1SWg3l%2bQJCpxBPvFxfg%3d%3d&dept=psychology I just re-read your post and saw that you were actually interested in researchers working in a more cross-disciplinary fashion, but maybe you will still find my post helpful.
  3. [Apologies in advance for the long-ass post! Brevity has never been one of my strengths] I am a non-traditional (43-year-old) student who would like to get a PhD in Psychology (preferably at Duquesne since I am very interested in humanist and existential therapies, but I am open to Counseling Psychology programs as well). I have been told that 43 is "too old" to try to get a PhD in Psychology, and that I would be better off just doing an MSW given that I do want to be a clinician eventually, but I have reviewed the coursework for several MSW programs and it just doesn't interest me all that much. I really don't want to go into debt taking coursework that doesn't interest or inspire me. Also, if I ever moved back to my country of origin, I wouldn't be able to work as a therapist even if I'm a LCSW in the US. In my country only graduates of psychology, psychotherapy, or counseling programs are able to work as therapists. I do love the social justice focus of MSW programs but, honestly, I would rather just read books about this in my spare time than spend money on classes about it. I am most excited by the idea of taking classes about counseling theories and pathology. My next thought was, of course, that I should do a Master's in Counseling, but my heart hurts a little when I think that these programs mainly train people to be "consumers of research" rather than researchers themselves. Even though my ultimate goal is to be a clinician, I absolutely want to do research, too, so this has led me to explore the idea of doing a PhD in Psychology. (Some of my research interests are behavioural addictions, specifically interpersonal addictions like "love addiction"; family estrangement; and procrastination and perfectionism). The issue is that I do not believe that I would currently be competitive enough to get into a funded PhD program because I don't have a background in Psychology or any research experience. I'm sure that I would have a good chance of getting into a non-funded humanistic program, but I'm not willing to get myself into 200K of debt. My Bachelor's degree from a major UK university is in foreign languages (I received a "double first" which I suppose is the US equivalent to "summa cum laude") and my Master's degree from a US R1 university is in Comparative Literature. I received a massive scholarship to come to the US for graduate studies (I intended to get a PhD and become an academic), but I crashed and burned for a variety of reasons - mainly mental health-related but also because I realized pretty quickly that academia wasn't for me. My graduate transcripts are pretty poor, and I worry that this makes me look like somebody who doesn't have what it takes for graduate study. I am currently training to be a substance abuse counselor, and I will start a full-time job in the addiction field in a few months. I have also been taking lots of Psychology prereqs at my local Community College. I also have experience volunteering as an advocate for survivors of sexual assault. I am hoping that completing a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology would make me a much more attractive candidate for Duquesne or Counseling Psychology PhD programs. However, I am unclear on how I can easily find terminal Master's programs in Counseling Psychology without spending months googling. Isn't there a nice, handy list somewhere? I am also unclear on how one is supposed to know whether a program is good or not. Texas Woman's University has a Master's that really appeals to me because of the feminist perspective and because it would also allow me to get licensure as an LPC if I decided not to take the PhD route after all. However, my friend says that it's a "low ranking state school" and that if I want to get into a PhD program later, I need to think about the name/status of professors who would be writing me letters of recommendation. I'm not sure if she's just being a snob, or if she has a point. University of Detroit Mercy has a Master's in Counseling (not Counseling Psychology) that interests me because they claim that students regularly publish in peer-reviewed journals, but I don't know if I would just be wasting my time doing a Counseling Master's if my goal is to apply to a PhD Program. I would be grateful for any and all advice! Thank you in advance!
  4. Thank you so much, Emilyxxxx. I'm so glad that online forums like this exist because I would be totally clueless otherwise. Having just read over the website for Counselling Psychology (Internship option) again, it seems that upper-division coursework isn't necessary (I will check, of course), so I'm thinking I might still be able to get away with doing my prereqs at the local community college here. I'm still glad to know about Canadian options, though, so thanks!
  5. I just checked the course fees for people who are not Canadian or resident in Canada, and, unfortunately, the course I checked was $2000. Since I have so many credits I need to do, I wouldn't be able to afford this. Anybody else have any suggestions about where to do credits? Perhaps there are some Americans reading this who could give advice about where to get them in the US?
  6. I accidentally posted this already in the Clinical thread because I didn't know this one existed, so apologies for the double post. I am currently living in the US, but I am from Europe originally. I don't want to return to Europe yet, and I am tired of living in the US, so I am considering applying to graduate school in Canada. I am especially interested in McGill's Master's Program in Counselling Psychology (Professional/Internship concentration). However, I do not have a Psychology degree, and the admissions requirements for people who do not are 18 credits of core courses in specific Psychology domains and 24 credits in related disciplines in the social sciences. I do not have a single one of these - my Bachelor's is in French and German, and my Master's is in Comparative Literature. (In the country where I'm from, our university degrees involve early specialization so we don't take lots of extra credits in classes not related to our major in the first two years hence my complete lack of credits in Psychology/Social Sciences). I am currently working towards a certificate in Addictions Counselling from a local community college, but I don't believe those courses would count since they are not upper-division. I emailed McGill asking if they could recommend places to get the credits but they weren't particularly helpful, just telling me to review the admissions checklist (I already had!) and saying that many students were able to complete them online at Canadian universities. That's great but which ones??!! Thanks in advance!
  7. Hello. This thread isn't really appropriate for me because I am nowhere near ready to be applying for programs, and I am also more interested in Counselling Psychology than Clinical Psychology. However, I wasn't sure where else to post it, so hopefully nobody minds my post. I am currently living in the US, but I am from Europe originally. I don't want to return to Europe yet, and I am tired of living in the US, so I am considering applying to graduate school in Canada. I am especially interested in McGill's Master's Program in Counselling Psychology (Professional/Internship concentration). However, I do not have a Psychology degree, and the admissions requirements for people who do not are 18 credits of core courses in specific Psychology domains and 24 credits in related disciplines in the social sciences. I do not have a single one of these - my Bachelor's is in French and German, and my Master's is in Comparative Literature. I am currently working towards a certificate in Addictions Counselling from a local community college, but I don't believe those courses would count since they are not upper-division. I emailed McGill asking if they could recommend places to get the credits but they weren't particularly helpful, just telling me to review the admissions checklist (I already had!) and saying that many students were able to complete them online at Canadian universities. That's great but which ones??!! Thanks in advance!
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