Taking a risk on a new PhD Program?

[tashaonthemoon]

Hello! I've started looking into potential School Psychology PhD programs for the Fall 2022 cycle and noticed that Pace University in NYC is starting a School Psychology PhD Fall 2021. They aren't APA accredited yet (I believe they need to graduate a cohort first before they can gain accreditation?) but they do have established PysD and MEd School Psychology programs. Both are full accredited. Is anyone applying for Fall 2021 (or considering Fall 2022)? They say on the website that they're expecting to gain full accreditation but I know it won't be for a while. I'm a native New Yorker and would defiantly love more options nearer to home but I'm not sure if the risk is worth it.

[Clinapp2017]

43 minutes ago, tashaonthemoon said:

Hello! I've started looking into potential School Psychology PhD programs for the Fall 2022 cycle and noticed that Pace University in NYC is starting a School Psychology PhD Fall 2021. They aren't APA accredited yet (I believe they need to graduate a cohort first before they can gain accreditation?) but they do have established PysD and MEd School Psychology programs. Both are full accredited. Is anyone applying for Fall 2021 (or considering Fall 2022)? They say on the website that they're expecting to gain full accreditation but I know it won't be for a while. I'm a native New Yorker and would defiantly love more options nearer to home but I'm not sure if the risk is worth it.

I know someone has to be the first cohort at these programs, but gambling with your professional trajectory is a big wager. In the event they did not become accredited, for some reason, you would be in a world of hurt trying to land internship, post-doc, licensing, etc... at least in clinical, and to the best of my knowledge school psych operates in a very similar fashion as a profession. No hurt in applying and interviewing if you are offered an interview, but you would want to get some exact timetable on when they would be APA accredited and I would advise talking to your mentors/current bosses in the field that are not at this school what their opinions are about attending a program that is not yet accredited. 

[PsyDuck90]

Programs can apply for APA Accreditation on Contingency, meaning they meet all requirements other than outcome data (graduated cohort) and, for the purposes of internship apps, etc. are viewed identically to full accreditation. I would ask the program when they expect to submit for accreditation on contingency. They should be working on that ASAP. 

[tashaonthemoon]

On 1/5/2021 at 10:01 AM, PsyDuck90 said:

Programs can apply for APA Accreditation on Contingency, meaning they meet all requirements other than outcome data (graduated cohort) and, for the purposes of internship apps, etc. are viewed identically to full accreditation. I would ask the program when they expect to submit for accreditation on contingency. They should be working on that ASAP. 

They haven't enrolled their first cohort yet so I assume they're waiting for that? Or will at least be submitting later in the year. I'll defiantly contact them.

[tashaonthemoon]

Thanks to both of you! I'm still a bit hesitate but my plan for now is to apply and keep an eye on how things go for their first cohort.

[sackofcrap]

Do you know if they are NASP accredited at all? If so, then it might be less of a huge 'gamble' in that, if they are NASP accredited and worst case scenario they didn't get the APA accreditation, you would still have a career as a regular school psychologist to fall back on, if that makes sense. For me, I would look into that as a deciding factor. 

When is their application deadline by the way.

[PsychMamaof2]

I would reach out to them and see if they have started the process of becoming an APA accredited program. As of Nov. 2020, they have not put in an intent to apply for accreditation, which can be done before students are admitted to the program. https://accreditation.apa.org/programs-seeking-intent-to-apply-status