Christian Colleges that offer PsyD

Therapulse.ai - The AI Scribe for Mental Health
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
P

psydappindia

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2013
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Hello,
I have been going through colleges that are APA accredited and offer a PsyD-what I noticed was that there are many Jesuit and Christian universities.

If one is gay/bisexual/transgender, is it safe to attend these universities?
Members don't see this ad.
 
psydappindia said:
Hello,
I have been going through colleges that are APA accredited and offer a PsyD-what I noticed was that there are many Jesuit and Christian universities.

If one is gay/bisexual/transgender, is it safe to attend these universities?
Click to expand...

It depends. A lot of the Catholic Universities are actually quite liberal. How much stigma is typical probably varies from school to school.

Some places (religious institutions not excluded) actually may actively seek LGBTQ students.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
psydappindia said:
Hello,
I have been going through colleges that are APA accredited and offer a PsyD-what I noticed was that there are many Jesuit and Christian universities.

If one is gay/bisexual/transgender, is it safe to attend these universities?
Click to expand...

Safe, probably. Enjoyable, well...you'll probably get a mixed bag of people who are there for the program's reputation and people who are there because their religious beliefs are at odds with mainstream psychology. That's not inherently a bad thing if your beliefs swing that way, too, but it's a good thing to be aware of.

I have a pre-testosterone transgender male friend who is in a graduate ministry program at a Unitarian Universalist school. Even though it's a liberal program at a really, really liberal church, he still has trouble with faculty and students. Obviously, this is ministry and not psychology, but some of the same factors come into play. It might be a good idea to check campus and local newspapers to see how the administration handles LGBTQ issues. Also, look at where the school gets their funding, read their student code of conduct, and -- as ClinPsychEnthus mentioned -- look at faculty bios and publications. Google the surrounding neighborhood, too.

I don't know anything about your gender, sexual orientation, or appearance, but you'll have an easier time at the more conservative schools if you look typical and can pass as straight/cisgender/whatever. That's not a great thing to have to do, but flying under the radar is necessary in some environments. Constantly being a teachable moment isn't for everyone.
 
There are some programs of this type where you'd have to sign an honor code saying that you won't engage in the "gay lifestyle" while you're enrolled--if the program you're interested in requires one of those for students, I definitely wouldn't attend if I were you as that's unlikely to be a supportive climate. As such, that's something you want to check for when you're looking at programs.
 
emily621 said:
This exists?! 😱
Click to expand...

Ohohoho yes. More common for residential undergrad programs, but possible for grad ones, too. My brother went to a college for his bachelor's that had one of those policies, in addition to a no-girls-in-the-dorm-without-the-door-open policy, which is also common at religious schools. I thought it was hilarious, since I went to coed bathroom school.
 
Qwerk said:
Ohohoho yes. More common for residential undergrad programs, but possible for grad ones, too. My brother went to a college for his bachelor's that had one of those policies, in addition to a no-girls-in-the-dorm-without-the-door-open policy, which is also common at religious schools. I thought it was hilarious, since I went to coed bathroom school.
Click to expand...
Ha. I too went to a co-ed bathroom school. The no girls in the dorms thing is ridiculous too, but the signing a pledge thing is just sad to me. 🙁
 
emily621 said:
Ha. I too went to a co-ed bathroom school. The no girls in the dorms thing is ridiculous too, but the signing a pledge thing is just sad to me. 🙁
Click to expand...

It would be much sadder to me if I didn't know that same-sex couples have the perk of being able to room together (unlike straight couples), and routinely do so without attracting suspicion. "Nah, we're just good friends!"
 
I do want to emphasize that there are a wide range of Christian schools, especially at the doctoral level. Schools that are affiliated with conservative evangelical movements, such as Regent University (founded by Pat Robertson), are unlikely to be GLBT friendly. However, schools with a looser affiliation to their denomination, and those which are affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations or Catholicism, are going to be a different story. For example, I would be surprised to see a Jesuit school be anti-gay. To the OP- I would recommend investigating the schools you are looking at to see where they fall. Do they have a statement of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation or identification? Do they provide info about GLBT organizations on campus? Or are there local newspaper stories about a gay student who came out and was discriminated against?

There is a certain branch of Christianity in the US which does do things like make its students sign pledges not to be gay, but it is also the branch which gets most of the attention. It's not necessarily the majority of Christians nor representative of Christianity in the US in general, and that is important to keep in mind before we start piling on stories.
 
A good indicator of how friendly the university is going to be is the area it's located in. For example, Baylor U. has one of the best Psy.D. programs, but Waco, TX might not be the most accepting place. On the other hand, Pepperdine is in LA, so it should be safer/more accepting there. University students as a whole are usually accepting. It may be the locals that will give the LGBT community trouble.
 
futurepsydoc said:
I am reading this bio correctly?
Click to expand...

Self deception in print is just .. so ... so .. fabulous!! Do they teach about reaction formation at Regent??? But of course I'd love to see his watercolors.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Baylor comes to mind because of my awareness of Baylor. I didnt go there (whew! 😉) but I have a cousin and many friends who did for undergrad and they informed me of things such as how chapel was a course you had to take for 2 years! Pretty sure a fac member there also got in trouble for having a "safe place" sticker on their office door. Also agreed on Waco not exactly being the most LGBT friendly area either. We discussed BYU on here a few weeks ago-- same situation more or less.
 
emily621 said:
This exists?! 😱
Click to expand...

Yup yup yup. My exgirlfriend actually was forced to see one of those repartative therapy nuts and was kicked off of the varsity team she was on after they found out she's lesbian and therefore broke her contract. This was an undergrad

Sent from my SCH-I405 using SDN Mobile
 
futurecatlady said:
A good indicator of how friendly the university is going to be is the area it's located in. For example, Baylor U. has one of the best Psy.D. programs, but Waco, TX might not be the most accepting place. On the other hand, Pepperdine is in LA, so it should be safer/more accepting there. University students as a whole are usually accepting. It may be the locals that will give the LGBT community trouble.
Click to expand...

Thanks for telling me that! Baylor is any psych student's top choice...

Any idea about Loyola University Maryland, University of Indianapolis, Indiana State University ?
Cuz Im not a US national so I really dont know much. Thanks a lot!
 
bmedclinic said:
Baylor comes to mind because of my awareness of Baylor. I didnt go there (whew! 😉) but I have a cousin and many friends who did for undergrad and they informed me of things such as how chapel was a course you had to take for 2 years! Pretty sure a fac member there also got in trouble for having a "safe place" sticker on their office door. Also agreed on Waco not exactly being the most LGBT friendly area either. We discussed BYU on here a few weeks ago-- same situation more or less.
Click to expand...

Thanks...
any idea if doctoral students also have to take on chapel course?
Maybe to get the benefit of a good school and funding one may have to just pretend to be straight all the time.
 
Qwerk said:
Safe, probably. Enjoyable, well...you'll probably get a mixed bag of people who are there for the program's reputation and people who are there because their religious beliefs are at odds with mainstream psychology. That's not inherently a bad thing if your beliefs swing that way, too, but it's a good thing to be aware of.

I have a pre-testosterone transgender male friend who is in a graduate ministry program at a Unitarian Universalist school. Even though it's a liberal program at a really, really liberal church, he still has trouble with faculty and students. Obviously, this is ministry and not psychology, but some of the same factors come into play. It might be a good idea to check campus and local newspapers to see how the administration handles LGBTQ issues. Also, look at where the school gets their funding, read their student code of conduct, and -- as ClinPsychEnthus mentioned -- look at faculty bios and publications. Google the surrounding neighborhood, too.

I don't know anything about your gender, sexual orientation, or appearance, but you'll have an easier time at the more conservative schools if you look typical and can pass as straight/cisgender/whatever. That's not a great thing to have to do, but flying under the radar is necessary in some environments. Constantly being a teachable moment isn't for everyone.
Click to expand...


I feel for your transgender friend. I'd assumed that in the least there'd be a neutral environment for LGBTs, but sad to hear thats not the case...

though I can definitely pass off as straight, but its something Im not sure I can do-5 years of going back into the closet-more than that it'll be a constant factor while all studies in the classroom.
 
snowcherries said:
There are some programs of this type where you'd have to sign an honor code saying that you won't engage in the "gay lifestyle" while you're enrolled--if the program you're interested in requires one of those for students, I definitely wouldn't attend if I were you as that's unlikely to be a supportive climate. As such, that's something you want to check for when you're looking at programs.
Click to expand...

do you know if this exists in any PsyD programs?

Its like before applying you need to devote at least 24 hours to checking out every miniscule detail of every school
 
nessa34 said:
I do want to emphasize that there are a wide range of Christian schools, especially at the doctoral level. Schools that are affiliated with conservative evangelical movements, such as Regent University (founded by Pat Robertson), are unlikely to be GLBT friendly. However, schools with a looser affiliation to their denomination, and those which are affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations or Catholicism, are going to be a different story. For example, I would be surprised to see a Jesuit school be anti-gay. To the OP- I would recommend investigating the schools you are looking at to see where they fall. Do they have a statement of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation or identification? Do they provide info about GLBT organizations on campus? Or are there local newspaper stories about a gay student who came out and was discriminated against?

There is a certain branch of Christianity in the US which does do things like make its students sign pledges not to be gay, but it is also the branch which gets most of the attention. It's not necessarily the majority of Christians nor representative of Christianity in the US in general, and that is important to keep in mind before we start piling on stories.
Click to expand...


Thanks for telling me that!
I dont live in the US, so its a potential problem for me to investigate these schools first hand-all I can do is look online, so this helped a lot! There are a lot of Christian schools at the doctoral level-very well noted..
 
psydappindia said:
Thanks...
any idea if doctoral students also have to take on chapel course?
Maybe to get the benefit of a good school and funding one may have to just pretend to be straight all the time.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt it. I bet when interacting with most Baylor associated people, there wont be too much of a problem.I'd imagine you'll only get in trouble for flaunting it or if you're teaching a course and a student wants to cause problems for you. Might be worth looking into their graduate student handbook, too.

FWIW, Waco has a serious small town feel to it. Though you're not far from DFW area, culturally it's pretty different. If you go to Baylor, consider the area you'd be living in. I'm from fort worth, so I'm largely biased but I'd probably never choose to live in Waco.
 
Last edited:
psydappindia said:
do you know if this exists in any PsyD programs?

Its like before applying you need to devote at least 24 hours to checking out every miniscule detail of every school
Click to expand...
George Fox definitely has one, or at least they did pretty recently.
 
psydappindia said:
Hello,
I have been going through colleges that are APA accredited and offer a PsyD-what I noticed was that there are many Jesuit and Christian universities.

If one is gay/bisexual/transgender, is it safe to attend these universities?
Click to expand...

My program is at a Catholic college. The program is run with a heavy focus on LGBT acceptance and human rights. In fact, the last person who was chair of the department for about 10 years was openly gay.

This is my program, not sure if this resembles the norm.
 
phillydave said:
My program is at a Catholic college. The program is run with a heavy focus on LGBT acceptance and human rights. In fact, the last person who was chair of the department for about 10 years was openly gay.

This is my program, not sure if this resembles the norm.
Click to expand...

Could you please tell me what program and college is this?
 
I can't be positive, but I'd imagine Loyola MD is LGBTQ- friendly.
 
First, I will say this: I applied to all Christian-based doctoral programs and was accepted to every single one I applied to: 4/6 programs (George Fox, Regent, Fuller, and Wheaton). I didn't apply to Rosemead because I didn't believe their doctrine. I went to George Fox University, a Quaker institution. I am not representing their administrative views. I can state from my personal experience with LGBTQ in our PsyD program. Because Quakers believe in social justice, it is quite possible to go through the program and be LGBTQ. It is Christian-based, but it is also one of the best PsyD programs in the nation (one of the top 10). I've had multiple gay friends in the program. Although you do sign a "contract" the faculty are actually quite oblivious because they have more important things to do. We have multiple LGBT students (some are still in the confusion stage, but have eventually come out). Some are partnered. The faculty doesn't mind this and they do not want to get involved in your personal life, ONLY IF it affects your professional life. My wife and I lived together before marriage and although that is against their contract, they didn't care. It was a moot point to them. I wouldn't attend more fundamentalist programs like Regent.

You get good training and if you look at the stats, we pretty much always place ALL people in accredited internships (I think our rate is 96-100%). Overall, there is dialogue on campus about LGBT issues among students and our program is much more liberal because we have to be as psychologists if we are going to do the best work we can. That is my experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me and I can explain a little more as needed. Because I've applied to multiple Christian programs, actually been through one, gotte an APA approved internship AND since I have been on the admissions committee there, I believe I'm in a good place to discuss your concerns with you.

Best...
 
clinpsydstudent said:
First, I will say this: I applied to all Christian-based doctoral programs and was accepted to every single one I applied to: 4/6 programs (George Fox, Regent, Fuller, and Wheaton). I didn’t apply to Rosemead because I didn’t believe their doctrine. I went to George Fox University, a Quaker institution. I am not representing their administrative views. I can state from my personal experience with LGBTQ in our PsyD program. Because Quakers believe in social justice, it is quite possible to go through the program and be LGBTQ. It is Christian-based, but it is also one of the best PsyD programs in the nation (one of the top 10). I've had multiple gay friends in the program. Although you do sign a "contract" the faculty are actually quite oblivious because they have more important things to do. We have multiple LGBT students (some are still in the confusion stage, but have eventually come out). Some are partnered. The faculty doesn't mind this and they do not want to get involved in your personal life, ONLY IF it affects your professional life. My wife and I lived together before marriage and although that is against their contract, they didn't care. It was a moot point to them. I wouldn't attend more fundamentalist programs like Regent.

You get good training and if you look at the stats, we pretty much always place ALL people in accredited internships (I think our rate is 96-100%). Overall, there is dialogue on campus about LGBT issues among students and our program is much more liberal because we have to be as psychologists if we are going to do the best work we can. That is my experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me and I can explain a little more as needed. Because I’ve applied to multiple Christian programs, actually been through one, gotte an APA approved internship AND since I have been on the admissions committee there, I believe I’m in a good place to discuss your concerns with you.

Best...
Click to expand...

Good info, thanks for sharing. It's encouraging to hear that many programs are open to having LGBT students. At the same time, I could certainly understand not wanting to go anywhere that makes you sign a morality contract, regardless of how much the faculty pays attention to it. I also think there's a fine line between respecting students' private lives and sending the message that it is not okay to talk about such things with faculty in the program. I'm not saying George Fox comes down on one side of that line or the other, just something to think about for prospective students at any institution.

Also, I did want to make a correction to the quoted piece above. While George Fox does have a close to 100% match rate to APPIC member sites, the APA match rate ranges from 45% - 81% over recent years: http://www.georgefox.edu/psyd/admission/faq/faqinternships.html#int2
 
Thanks for that info. I definitely agree with you. There are only a couple of people who seem to be able to talk about those things. They are Christians and psychologists first and foremost, and they are not fundamentalist at all. They are much more liberal and understanding (when you're in this field, how can you not be more liberal?) Yes, APA internships are lower, but all are APPIC-accredited. It gets harder for APA sites as more and more oversaturation occurs in our field :-( which is unfortunate. Again, to the above poster, good job researching that internship info. It is correct (except, as I found out, for the 2011-2012, where they didn't count my site, so that percentage is actually 65%. Thanks again. I have enjoyed this thread!
 
clinpsydstudent said:
First, I will say this: I applied to all Christian-based doctoral programs and was accepted to every single one I applied to: 4/6 programs (George Fox, Regent, Fuller, and Wheaton). I didn’t apply to Rosemead because I didn’t believe their doctrine. I went to George Fox University, a Quaker institution. I am not representing their administrative views. I can state from my personal experience with LGBTQ in our PsyD program. Because Quakers believe in social justice, it is quite possible to go through the program and be LGBTQ. It is Christian-based, but it is also one of the best PsyD programs in the nation (one of the top 10). I've had multiple gay friends in the program. Although you do sign a "contract" the faculty are actually quite oblivious because they have more important things to do. We have multiple LGBT students (some are still in the confusion stage, but have eventually come out). Some are partnered. The faculty doesn't mind this and they do not want to get involved in your personal life, ONLY IF it affects your professional life. My wife and I lived together before marriage and although that is against their contract, they didn't care. It was a moot point to them. I wouldn't attend more fundamentalist programs like Regent.

You get good training and if you look at the stats, we pretty much always place ALL people in accredited internships (I think our rate is 96-100%). Overall, there is dialogue on campus about LGBT issues among students and our program is much more liberal because we have to be as psychologists if we are going to do the best work we can. That is my experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me and I can explain a little more as needed. Because I’ve applied to multiple Christian programs, actually been through one, gotte an APA approved internship AND since I have been on the admissions committee there, I believe I’m in a good place to discuss your concerns with you.

Best...
Click to expand...


Thank you so much for that info! Very helpful...
 
KillerDiller said:
Good info, thanks for sharing. It's encouraging to hear that many programs are open to having LGBT students. At the same time, I could certainly understand not wanting to go anywhere that makes you sign a morality contract, regardless of how much the faculty pays attention to it. I also think there's a fine line between respecting students' private lives and sending the message that it is not okay to talk about such things with faculty in the program. I'm not saying George Fox comes down on one side of that line or the other, just something to think about for prospective students at any institution.

Also, I did want to make a correction to the quoted piece above. While George Fox does have a close to 100% match rate to APPIC member sites, the APA match rate ranges from 45% - 81% over recent years: http://www.georgefox.edu/psyd/admission/faq/faqinternships.html#int2
Click to expand...


very good observations!!! Thanks a lot...🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
PhD/PsyD NYNJADOT Externship 25-26 Interview Offers
Replies
3
Views
2K
psychology46374387
P
C
Widener PsyD Program
Replies
5
Views
947
DrCoal
D
E
California Northstate PsyD Program
Replies
2
Views
851
R. Matey
R. Matey
Markyzone
PSYD Programs to apply?
Replies
2
Views
1K
ForensicPsychFightClub
F
childpsyche
PsyD/MSW
Replies
13
Views
2K
R. Matey
R. Matey
Top