Le Chat Posted January 8, 2017 Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) My plan A is to get accepted into a doctoral program in Counseling Psychology, and become a licensed psychologist. If I only get accepted into Master's programs, I am wondering whether a Master's in Counseling Psychology versus a Master's in Clinical Psychology would be better? For reference, my undergraduate degree is in Special Education w/core hours in Psychology. I meet prerequisites, but I don't have research experience. I want to do as much research as possible, which is why a Clinical program may be ideal for me. My research interests are mainly in Health Psychology, chronic disease, and disability which seem to be well suited for clinical psychology. If I did a Master's in Clinical Psych I would go on to complete a doctoral program. Here are some of my pros and cons: Counseling Psychology MS: Can apply to doctoral program during second year, essentially transferring to doctoral (potentially.) Less likely to be a Licensed Psychological Associate (LPA.) More likely to be a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC.) Housed in larger universities. Shorter time to Ph.d Clinical Psychology MS: Research seems to be better suited for my interests. Faster time to completion. Can go on to complete doctoral study in a medical center. Clear path to be LPA. Clinical doctoral programs are notoriously difficult to get into/may time a lot of time and money. Will take longer to Ph.d I would love any input from people that have completed Master's programs, or are applying to them. TIA! Edited January 8, 2017 by barrettnumber5
CoffeeErryday Posted January 18, 2017 Posted January 18, 2017 Interesting, have you found any suitable Masters programs in Clinical Psych yet?
Le Chat Posted January 18, 2017 Author Posted January 18, 2017 24 minutes ago, BhaAlex992 said: Interesting, have you found any suitable Masters programs in Clinical Psych yet? Yes, only a few. Applying to one that leads to LPA or continuation into doctoral studies.
MemphisMeli Posted January 26, 2017 Posted January 26, 2017 University of Memphis has a Masters in General and an excellent Clinical PhD program. I'm applying to the Masters program (due May 1)
Le Chat Posted January 26, 2017 Author Posted January 26, 2017 2 hours ago, MemphisMeli said: University of Memphis has a Masters in General and an excellent Clinical PhD program. I'm applying to the Masters program (due May 1) Awesome, good luck! My choice is University of Texas at Tyler, their whole Psychology department seems amazing.
UngSully Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 How did y'all find programs? I'm having such a hard time researching for legit programs online.
Le Chat Posted February 1, 2017 Author Posted February 1, 2017 3 hours ago, UngSully said: How did y'all find programs? I'm having such a hard time researching for legit programs online. My method was arduous, but I ended up searching for all of the universities in states I was interested in, then searching their graduate Psychology programs. Another option would be searching ex. "Graduate psychology programs Mississippi." It was fairly easy to find M.S. programs in my home state, luckily. There aren't any rankings I have seen for Master's programs in Clinical Psych.
Le Chat Posted February 1, 2017 Author Posted February 1, 2017 Then you have to sort of look at their reputation. Most of the MS programs in Clinical Psych that I have seen are in smaller branches of major universities. Although, even Harvard and some of the Ivy's have programs, but they may not necessarily fit your goals. The one I am interested in is a feeder program for medical Clinical doctoral programs, and also can prepare you for licensure. UngSully 1
UngSully Posted February 1, 2017 Posted February 1, 2017 20 hours ago, abnumber5 said: Then you have to sort of look at their reputation. Most of the MS programs in Clinical Psych that I have seen are in smaller branches of major universities. Although, even Harvard and some of the Ivy's have programs, but they may not necessarily fit your goals. The one I am interested in is a feeder program for medical Clinical doctoral programs, and also can prepare you for licensure. Yeah, I would love a program that would help feed into a medical clinical doctoral program...Thanks for your advice! Le Chat 1
ClincPsyc Posted February 1, 2017 Posted February 1, 2017 Check out the MA program in psychology at SDSU. "It is particularly appropriate for students who need advanced work to strengthen their profiles in preparation for application to Ph.D. programs", or so they say on their website. http://www.psychology.sdsu.edu/graduate/current-ma-students/ma-program-info/ Le Chat 1
AnxGradStudent Posted February 2, 2017 Posted February 2, 2017 Hello! I am graduating from Cleveland State University's MA in Clinical Psychology this May. I have had Research Assistantship all 4 semesters which has led to 7 posters, 4 at national conferences and 3 at regional conferences! It's a pretty competitive program (around 100+ applicants each year) and the faculty members really want to help you establish clinical and research experience to get into Ph.D programs. To put this into perspective, I graduated from a competitive undergraduate university with 3 years of research experience and applied to clinical programs in 2015 with zero interviews. I reapplied to Ph.D programs and I am interviewing at 9 different schools. Some say that if you need to advance your research experience you should find an RA position in a research lab, but my education was funded, I gained a ton of research experience, and some of my courses will transfer into the Ph.D programs I've applied to. Good luck! https://www.csuohio.edu/sciences/psychology/clinical-psychology Le Chat 1
Le Chat Posted February 2, 2017 Author Posted February 2, 2017 2 hours ago, BuckeyePsychKid48 said: Hello! I am graduating from Cleveland State University's MA in Clinical Psychology this May. I have had Research Assistantship all 4 semesters which has led to 7 posters, 4 at national conferences and 3 at regional conferences! It's a pretty competitive program (around 100+ applicants each year) and the faculty members really want to help you establish clinical and research experience to get into Ph.D programs. To put this into perspective, I graduated from a competitive undergraduate university with 3 years of research experience and applied to clinical programs in 2015 with zero interviews. I reapplied to Ph.D programs and I am interviewing at 9 different schools. Some say that if you need to advance your research experience you should find an RA position in a research lab, but my education was funded, I gained a ton of research experience, and some of my courses will transfer into the Ph.D programs I've applied to. Good luck! https://www.csuohio.edu/sciences/psychology/clinical-psychology That's great! That's exactly what I'm looking for in a program. And very great that you have presented so much research.
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