Counseling Psychology Phd Rankings

[Guest Wierrdo]

Have you guys noticed that there is no ranking list for counseling psych programs like there is for clinical?

Can you all tell me if the following schools are good:

1. Teachers College, Columbia University

2. University of Florida

3. Virginia Commonwealth University

4. University of Houston

 

Thanks

[Ppkitty]

I think you really need to operationalize “good” it means different things to different people.  I wouldn’t say TC is better than another top school because it’s an ivy for example, although it is a great school. I suppose what you could do is look at education department rankings, although that would be a very rough guide. What you want to look for is APA internship placement rate, funding, research activity and output, etc. at the end of the day mentor fit will be more important than any ranking imho.

[Guest Wierrdo]

16 minutes ago, Ppkitty said:

I think you really need to operationalize “good” it means different things to different people.  I wouldn’t say TC is better than another top school because it’s an ivy for example, although it is a great school. I suppose what you could do is look at education department rankings, although that would be a very rough guide. What you want to look for is APA internship placement rate, funding, research activity and output, etc. at the end of the day mentor fit will be more important than any ranking imho.

I just wish there was a US News Report Ranking for Counseling Psych programs.

[Yep]

All are good schools but no ranking system is around to properly rate them. Clinical psych programs also don’t have concrete rankings because these programs are so small and unique overall.

 

for personal rankings, I would suggest looking at:

1.research  fit of the POI

2. research production or prac opportunities (depending on your path)

3. Funding

4. internship placement stats

5. Overall feel from the program (through the interview process)

 

For example, all of those schools, I would personally rank outside of my top 10 based on fit and production of research in my field. When applying, it is important to do the proper due diligence and make sure you are applying to numerous programs that you feel you are a great fit and you would be competitive in. The worst thing an applicant can do is look at this as “easy to get into” and apply only to one program. 

 

 

[PsychPhdBound]

'Good' is where you have the best fit and will find support for the work you want to do. Everything else is noise.

[Yep]

1 minute ago, PsychPhdBound said:

'Good' is where you have the best fit and will find support for the work you want to do. Everything else is noise.

Exactly! It’s more like tiers than rankings:

R1 fully funded programs

R2 fully funded programs

Private school partial funded programs

small university partial funded programs

Unfunded programs

for profit programs.