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- Jan 15, 2014
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Hello friends,
The SDN was a priceless resource for me when I was deciding where to apply for graduate school so I'm here to give back!
I am currently a 2nd year student at Spalding University's School of Professional Psychology (SOPP) in Louisville, Ky and I'm here to answer any questions you have about the program or the city. Clearly I am biased because this was my school of choice but I will do my best to be as objective as possible. I do not officially represent the University in any way so nothing said here is legally binding or any of that jazz. OK, let's get started.
If you're interested in the basics regarding the Spalding's mission statement, accreditation, match rates, etc., here is the link to the website: http://spalding.edu/academics/psychology/about-the-psy-d-program/ I'm not going to go into that because this information is already available to you. You're here because you want information that numbers can't tell you.
My personal experience in this city so far has been great. The city of Louisville is very progressive, has great restaurants (I mean really great; read any food blog), tons of stuff to do from Louisville Bat's games at the minor league stadium, to "Downs after Dark," which is after-dark horse racing at Churchill Downs (site of the infamous Kentucky Derby). There are tons of parks and hiking trails as well as Mega Caverns with zip-lines. In addition, Louisville has a major airport and is within a day's drive of two thirds of the US population. It also has a surprisingly low cost of living compared to cities of equal size. Louisville is the most similar in size to Nashville, TN and Portland, OR; two cities that I personally love and think share many common characteristics with Louisville. I could go on and on about Louisville (seriously this blurb doesn't even scratch the surface) but you're here to know more about Spalding...
To be honest, I was a little weary when I committed to Spalding because I had read many mixed reviews (on this site as well as others). My undergraduate mentor recommended Spalding (among a few other schools) because he said that he had seen the faculty's research pop up from time to time in journals and knew a practitioner who had graduated from Spalding and was well respected and spoke highly of the program. What ultimately sold me on this school was the faculty and the 7 year accreditation (which is the longest accreditation that APA awards). When I came to interview, I was blown away at how much they cared about their students. These professors seemed to be completely invested in the success of every student, and this initial reaction has proven true over the past year. Additionally, I have become very close with my cohort. I have honestly met life-long friends since starting this program. I think that Spalding did a great job of choosing kind, compassionate, respectful students who are very easy to get along with. There is also an undeniable sense of camaraderie that i believe stems from a complete lack of competition between classmates.
Spalding is, from what I can tell, more research focused than some other Psy.D. programs. We have faculty sponsored research interest groups that churn out really interesting studies and get students very excited about the prospect of finding a balance between practice and research. We are required to produce and defend a dissertation and are not allowed to graduate without having done so. While you are all looking at Psy.D. programs because you want to work in the field instead of a university or lab, the faculty here believes that EVERY practicing psychologist should be involved in research to some extent.
Our program stresses the importance of "Evidence-Based Practice." What this means is you as a clinician will have to be able to understand and critically evaluate research that should then inform the way you practice. For this reason we devote a lot of time to statistics, research methods, and research design. In addition, I would describe the program as having a CBT focus. While we have courses that explore all theories of psychotherapy, we have an entire course devoted to CBT. In our first year, we are trained in both cognitive and personality assessment techniques (two separate classes). Then at the beginning of the second year we are already at practicum sites performing assessments on actual clients. We have a wide variety of practicum sites available that you can match with your personal interests! For the remainder of the program, we are splitting time between school and practicum so by the time we graduate we have accumulated way above the average number of clinical hours.
Psy.D programs are expensive. Our chair knows this and is constantly searching for creative ways to help students financially. We have paid graduate assistant positions available that can help tremendously. In addition we recently received a 2.4 million dollar grant (HRSA) that goes directly towards our tuition! To put that in perspective, this grant currently covers about half of my tuition. After graduation, there are also HRSA sponsored student loan payment programs that will make 30 to 50 thousand dollar payments towards your student loan debt every two years for working with undeserved populations. Ultimately the cost/benefit decision is a personal one. You have to decide if the amount of debt is worth the education.
Ok so I could keep going but I don't want to overwhelm anyone. Feel free to respond with questions and I will answer to the best of my ability. If it sounds like I'm trying to sell you on Spalding it's because I am! I could not be happier with my decision to come here and would hate for someone to miss out on the opportunity to educate themselves in an exciting, nurturing environment because of a simple lack of information.
The SDN was a priceless resource for me when I was deciding where to apply for graduate school so I'm here to give back!
I am currently a 2nd year student at Spalding University's School of Professional Psychology (SOPP) in Louisville, Ky and I'm here to answer any questions you have about the program or the city. Clearly I am biased because this was my school of choice but I will do my best to be as objective as possible. I do not officially represent the University in any way so nothing said here is legally binding or any of that jazz. OK, let's get started.
If you're interested in the basics regarding the Spalding's mission statement, accreditation, match rates, etc., here is the link to the website: http://spalding.edu/academics/psychology/about-the-psy-d-program/ I'm not going to go into that because this information is already available to you. You're here because you want information that numbers can't tell you.
My personal experience in this city so far has been great. The city of Louisville is very progressive, has great restaurants (I mean really great; read any food blog), tons of stuff to do from Louisville Bat's games at the minor league stadium, to "Downs after Dark," which is after-dark horse racing at Churchill Downs (site of the infamous Kentucky Derby). There are tons of parks and hiking trails as well as Mega Caverns with zip-lines. In addition, Louisville has a major airport and is within a day's drive of two thirds of the US population. It also has a surprisingly low cost of living compared to cities of equal size. Louisville is the most similar in size to Nashville, TN and Portland, OR; two cities that I personally love and think share many common characteristics with Louisville. I could go on and on about Louisville (seriously this blurb doesn't even scratch the surface) but you're here to know more about Spalding...
To be honest, I was a little weary when I committed to Spalding because I had read many mixed reviews (on this site as well as others). My undergraduate mentor recommended Spalding (among a few other schools) because he said that he had seen the faculty's research pop up from time to time in journals and knew a practitioner who had graduated from Spalding and was well respected and spoke highly of the program. What ultimately sold me on this school was the faculty and the 7 year accreditation (which is the longest accreditation that APA awards). When I came to interview, I was blown away at how much they cared about their students. These professors seemed to be completely invested in the success of every student, and this initial reaction has proven true over the past year. Additionally, I have become very close with my cohort. I have honestly met life-long friends since starting this program. I think that Spalding did a great job of choosing kind, compassionate, respectful students who are very easy to get along with. There is also an undeniable sense of camaraderie that i believe stems from a complete lack of competition between classmates.
Spalding is, from what I can tell, more research focused than some other Psy.D. programs. We have faculty sponsored research interest groups that churn out really interesting studies and get students very excited about the prospect of finding a balance between practice and research. We are required to produce and defend a dissertation and are not allowed to graduate without having done so. While you are all looking at Psy.D. programs because you want to work in the field instead of a university or lab, the faculty here believes that EVERY practicing psychologist should be involved in research to some extent.
Our program stresses the importance of "Evidence-Based Practice." What this means is you as a clinician will have to be able to understand and critically evaluate research that should then inform the way you practice. For this reason we devote a lot of time to statistics, research methods, and research design. In addition, I would describe the program as having a CBT focus. While we have courses that explore all theories of psychotherapy, we have an entire course devoted to CBT. In our first year, we are trained in both cognitive and personality assessment techniques (two separate classes). Then at the beginning of the second year we are already at practicum sites performing assessments on actual clients. We have a wide variety of practicum sites available that you can match with your personal interests! For the remainder of the program, we are splitting time between school and practicum so by the time we graduate we have accumulated way above the average number of clinical hours.
Psy.D programs are expensive. Our chair knows this and is constantly searching for creative ways to help students financially. We have paid graduate assistant positions available that can help tremendously. In addition we recently received a 2.4 million dollar grant (HRSA) that goes directly towards our tuition! To put that in perspective, this grant currently covers about half of my tuition. After graduation, there are also HRSA sponsored student loan payment programs that will make 30 to 50 thousand dollar payments towards your student loan debt every two years for working with undeserved populations. Ultimately the cost/benefit decision is a personal one. You have to decide if the amount of debt is worth the education.
Ok so I could keep going but I don't want to overwhelm anyone. Feel free to respond with questions and I will answer to the best of my ability. If it sounds like I'm trying to sell you on Spalding it's because I am! I could not be happier with my decision to come here and would hate for someone to miss out on the opportunity to educate themselves in an exciting, nurturing environment because of a simple lack of information.