It worried me too so I didn't apply there this year. But now I'm considering it for next year due to a lack of options...
You shouldn't make decisions based on impatience and desperation. You posted another thread about being frustrated that you don't have any publications or posters from your research experience that would make you competitive for good quality, funded programs. The wise option (financially, quality of training, career trajectory, etc.) is to spend the next year or two getting research experience with some kind of productivity before reapplying. It's not a good plan to hastily apply to expensive, poor quality programs, because you want to get into grad school as soon as possible.
It seems like you're ignoring a lot of better options (applying geographically broad to less competitive programs, using the time between now and applications to get yourself some products, etc) and acting as if you have none. It also seems like you have not been very planful in getting what you need to be successful in the way you want/expect yourself to be. I described some of this in your other thread about how to obtain products/outcomes from publication. Alliant is a junk program and is a waste of time, money, and effort.
Damn, is it really that bad?
Fair point. I am the only RA on a new study rolling out and already talked to the PI about publishing part of the gathered data and doing a poster. I will also be looking for research coordinator type positions, I've been applying to those. How would you define a poor quality program? What is the most important stat to look at, aside from licensure rate?
Amen
Look at:
Yes
Fully-funded. The rest of the stats are probably fine after that one. Since you are talking about some solid research experience, then you are doing what you need to do to get into a funded slot. Research pays the bills for the education.
Just to clarify, in most mentor-model programs, you're basically applying to work with a specific professor, who then selects you for admission. You don't get into the school first and then pick your advisor- it works the other way around.
Also, most mentor-model programs don't require you as a student to seek out research project opportunities on your own. You can work on research in your mentor's lab and/or expand your focus outside of their expertise by collaborating with other professionals, often utilizing the relationships already established and fostered by your program/mentor.
For $200,000 in student loans at 6.6% interest rate, which is the current rate for federal direct unsubsidized loans, you can expect to pay $1,363 per month on an extended 25-year repayment plan. To comfortably afford repaying this loan, it is estimated that you need to make an annual salary of at least $163,553. The median annual salary for a psychologist in 2015 was $85,000. If you use income-based repayment plans, then the remaining loan amount that is forgiven at the end of the 25-year period is fully taxable, so you may owe IRS several thousands of dollars. Loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are not reported as taxable income, but the program may not be around by the time you become eligible.
This is the appropriate response to those numbers.
Most students from non-accredited programs were already not competitive for APA-accredited internship sites, even compared to professional schools and diploma mills, so barring them from the match really wouldn't change things much.
It means that a doctoral program established its own APA-accredited internship site (often a consortium of clinics geographically located around the institution) that only accepts its own students (i.e., captive"). Doing this allows them to inflate their internship match rate, because they have a guaranteed site for some or all of their students. These students don't have to compete against students from other programs and are basically guaranteed to have an internship regardless of their own readiness and qualifications to be at the internship level.
Widener for sure.
That's been my understanding as well, though I've not seen anything official about this. Others have claimed that they are officially open to anyone to get acceptance from the APA, but in practice only accept students from that particular program, making them de facto captive internships.
