Masters in Clinical Psychology

[Akshita Dewan]

Hey, 

My name is Akshita and I am currently studying Applied Psychology in India, at undergrad level. I plan to pursue a masters degree in Clinical Psychology in either the US or Canada. I wanted to know:

1. whether clinical psychology has a functional masters degree or it is the Doctoral degree for it?

2. Is it possible to apply to the Doctoral degree straight after my undergrad or should I have work experience for atleast a year prior to it?

3. what is better, whether to go for doctoral after my undergrad or first do a masters and then the doctoral?

4. what is the difference between a phD and a doctoral degree? 5. does clinical psychology require a subject GRE test? 

I appreciate the help and guidance. 

 

Thanks! 

[juilletmercredi]

1. A master's degree in clinical psychology will NOT license you to practice psychology in the United States. There are MA programs in clinical psychology, but generally speaking they are designed for preparation for PhD programs. If you want to get licensed to practice therapy in the U.S. at the master's level, you want a master's in mental health counseling or a master's of social work (at a program with training to become a licensed clinical social worker.)

In clinical psychology, the PhD is the minimum qualification for practice.

2. Yes, it is possible to apply to doctoral degrees straight from undergrad. However, these days the most competitive clinical psychology applicants tend to have 2-3 years of experience after college as a research lab manager or research assistant/associate, either at a university psychology lab or some other organization.

3. Better is subjective. There's really no need to do the master's; personally, when giving advice I would only recommend the master's in a few circumstances. If you have a low undergrad GPA and need to prove that you can achieve at the graduate level, doing a master's may be a good idea. If your undergrad degree was in something other than psychology and you need foundational coursework, a master's may also be a good idea. In some cases, if you are not sure that you want to go all the way to a PhD, doing a master's degree first may illuminate some things. Psychology master's degrees usually are not funded, and they are expensive.

Since your major is in psychology, assuming you have a good GPA I'd advise to skip the master's degree and try straight for the PhD (that is, if you know you want one). If you are lacking research experience, you can work as a research assistant/associate/coordinator after college to prep.

4. A PhD is a type of doctoral degree. Other types of doctoral degrees are PsyD, MD, JD, ScD, DO, DDs, PharmD, DrPH, DNP, DPT, AuD, you get the picture. The list goes on. All PhDs have doctoral degrees, but not all doctoral degree holders have PhDs.

5. Some programs do. Check each program's website to see if they require the Psychology GRE.