Doctoral School Psychology Interviews

[Jim321]

Hi everyone,

I have interviews coming up for School Psychology doctoral programs (both PsyD and PhD). Can anyone give me any advice regarding the schools that I am interviewing at? I've been to doctoral interviews before but I'd like to gain advice from students at schools such as Rutgers, St. Johns and Hofstra. Fordham too. I'm currently receiving my Masters in school psych and have already taken my Praxis exam. I'd like to take it to the next level and figure out how to impress these schools

Any info would be appreciated!

Thanks

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[Deraj14]

I am new to SDN. I see that this post was from a while back, but the schools mentioned are actually applicable to me as I was recently accepted to the Psy.D. in School-Clinical Psychology at Ferkauf / Yeshiva, the Psy.D. in School-Community Psychology at Hofstra, the Psy.D. in School Psychology at St. John's, and the Ph.D. in School Psychology at Fordham. I was also wait-listed to the Psy.D. in School Psychology at Rutgers. I am very conflicted with these 4 programs and I would truly appreciate any feedback about these programs from current students and alumni.

I am interested in becoming a school psychologist, however also want to gain exposure in clinical psychology and want to choose the program that will offer me the most flexibility in my career. I wan't to be able to have the option to open up my own practice, or work in a school, mental health, or hospital setting. Ferkauf would be the least convenient for me, however the school and clinical combination is enticing and seems to offer a lot of flexibility. I got a very warm feeling from Hofstra as well, however I was wondering how community psychology is different from clinical psychology and if it is treated differently when applying for positions.

I also really liked the campus at Fordham and the location (Lincoln Center) cannot be beat. I am hesitant for 2 major reasons reasons: 1) it is a Ph.D. program and I have no experience in research, nor am I gifted in math or statistics, 2) I am concerned that a School Psychology may be limiting if you want to branch into clinical areas and that it's hard to compete for (APA/APPIC) internships and jobs against those with clinical degrees.

I'd appreciate any feedback regarding these programs as I am really torn in trying to make a decision.

 

[Chalupacabra]

I can't offer any firsthand experience, but a friend is a graduate of the Fordham program and seemed to have an excellent experience. I think it's a little more common to enter SP without as much background in research - all the programs I interviewed at this year were very forthcoming about "meeting students where they were" and helping them build the skillset from there. None of the faculty at my SP program were required to conduct research, so I only had experience doing qualitative interviews and analyzing the transcripts for one Ed Psych faculty member and all three programs I interviewed with seemed fine with that. As for not being gifted in math/statistics, that's a skillset you'll need to develop if you want to be able to effectively choose and make use of psychological instruments and keep current with and interpret research regardless of your career path - though I too am dreading the stats classes I'll be taking, don't get me wrong.

The only other program you listed I have any experience with is St. John's - they have some very impressive faculty, including Dr. Dawn Flanagan, who I imagine it would be a fantastic experience to work with. I've seen several presentations by Dr. Flanagan and some of the other SJ faculty over the years and was always very impressed with their work, and I know a lot of it has a more clinical bent to it.

That said, the APPIC match rates for both programs do not look great, while Yeshiva's is quite high - http://www.appic.org/Portals/0/downloads/APPIC_Match_Rates_2011-14_by_Univ.pdf. I can't comment on the process beyond that as I'm right where you are, aside from saying some reading I've done definitely makes it seem to be more of an uphill battle for SP students to get matched and if you know you want to take that path you should get as much clinical experience as you can.