Clinical vs. Research PhD Rationale

[Le Chat]

Just want to pick the brains of people that chose a Research doctoral program in Psychology, and those that chose a Clinical/Counseling program.

I find myself much more interested in research than therapy in my Clinical Psychology Master's program. If I did a Clinical PhD I would want to get involved in research afterwards. I am very interested in research and testing, and doing some therapy but not really making that my focus. I would prefer to be licensed in Psychology just so I have the flexibility in career options.

Thoughts? Rationale for clinical vs. research focus?

[Clinapp2017]

Clinical psych PhD (especially clinical science) sound like what you want. The primary focus of these programs is training scientists with clinical skills who we be the leaders in the research that leads to dissemination and implementation of the most cutting edge advancements in psychotherapy and assessment (as we as epidemiology and many other health fields). Just because it’s a “clinical psych PhD” program doesn’t mean you just are going to be a clinician. In fact, top programs (think UCLA, temple, BU, etc.) pride themselves on producing top notch scientists. 

 

PsyD and masters degrees don’t generally require or offer the research training and support it sounds like you want. 

[healthpsych]

I agree with the previous poster! A clinical psych PhD sounds perfect for you. They are generally heavily research-focused, and many people with clinical psychology PhDs are primarily researchers. 

The flexibility part is big too- I love research, but chose a clinical PhD because having a research career is so uncertain and I wanted to have options. 

[nycgrad14]

Definitely chase the Clinical Psych PhD. I ended up taking a Clinical Psych Phd with a clinical science accreditation. We are a R1 research school and our placements are highly placed in research post docs and working in VA systems. I also chose the school because even though they are a clinical science program, so main focus is on research, we will also see patients starting our first year. ALSO a big plus of going into research for graduate school is they are normally fully funded programs. You wont be making much starting out of graduate school and having your entire program paid for vs taking out 100-200K in loans is a no-brainer. 

Good luck and since you're in your masters now, I would suggest getting as much research experience, poster presentations, and data analytics under your belt as much as possible because these programs are extremely competitive. I was 1 of 5 accepted with over 300 applications.

[Jayne]

In any clinical PhD program you'll be able to have that outcome -- a research focused career. It sounds like you would like R1 schools though so your research training will be much more rigorous. But any program you get into can be whatever you make of it. 

[Le Chat]

On 4/3/2018 at 12:20 PM, Jayne said:

In any clinical PhD program you'll be able to have that outcome -- a research focused career. It sounds like you would like R1 schools though so your research training will be much more rigorous. But any program you get into can be whatever you make of it. 

I will definitely look into R1 schools a little more thoroughly. I know a few are on my list already. The benefit of many of the Clinical Programs I have chosen is that they highly specialize in research in my area of interest.

[Le Chat]

On 3/23/2018 at 8:40 AM, nycgrad14 said:

Definitely chase the Clinical Psych PhD. I ended up taking a Clinical Psych Phd with a clinical science accreditation. We are a R1 research school and our placements are highly placed in research post docs and working in VA systems. I also chose the school because even though they are a clinical science program, so main focus is on research, we will also see patients starting our first year. ALSO a big plus of going into research for graduate school is they are normally fully funded programs. You wont be making much starting out of graduate school and having your entire program paid for vs taking out 100-200K in loans is a no-brainer. 

Good luck and since you're in your masters now, I would suggest getting as much research experience, poster presentations, and data analytics under your belt as much as possible because these programs are extremely competitive. I was 1 of 5 accepted with over 300 applications.

Thank you, and congratulations on your acceptance! I am pushing the research experience as much as I can, and hoping it pays off (plus I happen to love it.)