AcronymAddict

"Standard" (i.e., US News) rankings mean little to nothing when it comes to doctoral study in psychology, particularly for clinical where (last I checked) the methodology of obtaining the rankings was essentially just to email training directors at various schools and say, "hey, rank the prestige of all these programs, please." As was mentioned above, what's much more important is that you find a solid research and clinical match with a specific advisor/lab. Also as was mentioned above, there can be some pretty stark differences not just from program to program, but from lab to lab within the same program (i.e., one program may have no one researching/working with PTSD, but might have a superstar substance abuse or neuropsych lab). Additionally, funded psych programs are going to be competitive to get into regardless of the school (the acceptance rate for funded, traditional clinical psych programs, for example, is often around 5-ish%). Thus, you're going to have strong applicants pretty much everywhere.