Preparatory Masters for Clinical Doctoral?

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Does anyone know of psych masters programs that are preparatory for clinical psych doctoral programs. All the psych masters program I can find are either preparatory for research doctorals or lead to terminal professional clinical masters degrees. What masters program should I pursue as preparation for a clinical psych PhD or PsyD?

Originally Posted by lubersrun

Does anyone know of psych masters programs that are preparatory for clinical psych doctoral programs. All the psych masters program I can find are either preparatory for research doctorals or lead to terminal professional clinical masters degrees. What masters program should I pursue as preparation for a clinical psych PhD or PsyD?

Well, the majority of clinically focused MA / MS degrees are going to be terminal in nature. The research focused MA / MS are most likely going to be prep fro PhD in clinical or counseling. I guess it depends on your end goals for your doc program. If you want PsyD, you might find it helpful to do a terminal clinical MS / MA. That is the route I went and I had plenty of clinical experience in applying to PsyD programs with 100% acceptance. In retrospect however, it was a waste of time for me to do my MA when I should have just applied to PsyD direct out of undergrad. If your goal is a clinical PhD find a MA / MS program heavy in research with an empirical thesis as part of the curriculum.

I believe there are threads on this ...

voyeurofthemind
Thanks voyeurofthemind,
My end goal is a PsyD, so I don't really want to do a research oriented masters. I would like to start with a masters rather than jump right into a doctoral program just to be certain I am solid on my career direction. However, I don't want to do the redunant internships that both the MS and PsyD will require. I am hoping to find a MFT program that will award the masters degree without requiring the intership needed to qualify for licensing.

If you're going for a PsyD, I say skip the Masters altogether. There should be plenty of PsyD programs you can enter straight out of undergrad. They're usually not very competitive to get into either. As voyeurofthemind mentioned, it may be a waste of time (and resources) doing a Masters first.

Although with the amount of debt that most of the less-/non-competitive Psy.D. programs will saddle you with, the degree honestly might not end up being worth the investment. Particularly when you start considering things like the APA internship match rates at many of these programs.

I do agree that a master's isn't always the best use of your time and resources, though. If research experience is predominanly what you're missing, then looking for RA or lab volunteer gigs would likely work just as well (if not better). The master's can really come into play when your undergrad grades were not very strong and/or if you just want something that'll let you be licensed so that you can get your "feet wet" in the field before committing to doctoral study.

As voyeurofthemind said, though, if you're using the master's as a stepping-stone to a doctoral program, then a research-heavy masters is the way to go.