CUNY clinical neuropsychology program

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Galia

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Have anyone heard about CUNY clinical neuropsychology PhD program (not clinical psychology, but the one in Queens campus) and how competitive it is? I know it is almost not funded, is it easier to get in than typical fully funded PhD program? And because of funding issue - is it more comparable to non-funded PsyD programs or, still, to fully funded PhD ones? How the quality of the program can be described? And where it stands compared to other local schools – for example Rutgers (I understand there is difference in specialization that might make it hard to compare).
 
Galia said:
Have anyone heard about CUNY clinical neuropsychology PhD program (not clinical psychology, but the one in Queens campus) and how competitive it is? I know it is almost not funded, is it easier to get in than typical fully funded PhD program? And because of funding issue - is it more comparable to non-funded PsyD programs or, still, to fully funded PhD ones? How the quality of the program can be described? And where it stands compared to other local schools – for example Rutgers (I understand there is difference in specialization that might make it hard to compare).

I was accepted to, and am 95% sure I'll be attending the program this fall.

First, in terms of funding, I have been offered a Chancellor's fellowship which provides 5 years of in-state tuition remission and a stipend in the second, third and fourth years in exchange for teaching. Although not all accepted applicants will be offered this fellowship the graduate center offers additional scholarships (see their website) and I know qc itself makes adjunct teaching positions available to its doctoral students. There is also additional money available from grants and work study programs.

In terms of competitiveness, from what I have heard from current students they generally have a smaller pool of applicants than other clinical phd programs, but this seems to be in large part due to the current lack of APA accreditation than to lack of funding. (As tuition is very low relatively speaking and there are indeed funding oppurtunities for competitive students.)

One of the strengths of the program for me personally is their strong *neuro*psychology training. This is a major advantage,IMO,of being a neuropsychology program with a clinical track rather than a clinical psychology program with a neuropsychology concentration aswere the other schools I interviewed at.

Now that they are looking to become APA accredited, they are working to really strengthen the general clinical component of training. I know they just interviewed for a new clinical director, and becoming APA accredited is one of their top priorities. I think that when they acheive this status they will become extremely competitive. Even now with a smaller pool of applicants as compared to other programs, they have highly qualified applicants and are quite selective according to a friend of mine who is currently a graduate student there and sat on the admissions committee last year.

Hope that helps!
 
Digressing from the topic a bit...
I was curious to know how to decide on which neuropsychology programs would be considered truly competitive, where competitive being defined by the strenght of the program rather than bythe number of students applying for the program. The reason I ask this is coz there are very few programs that I found offering neuropsych speciality, n since they are so few in number, the number of students will obviously greatly outstrip the actual number of seats available.
Anyone could help?
 
I was accepted into the CUNY Neuropsychology program and am about 95% certain as well that I will be accepting. I am not sure about how competitive the program is, but like nypsych, I believe that it provides amazing grounding in neuropsychology, and in that sense it is a very unique and attractive program.

I have not received any funding as of yet, but I believe that this program is very affordable, especially for a NYC school...
 
Thanks everybody!

I am pretty aware of CUNY's funding / tuition situation however having trouble relating program's caliber on educational quality and competitive 'scales'.

Because of cheap tuition and occasional assistanships etc. it is obviously a better 'deal' than typical Psy D program. (or non funded PhD that charges $20-30,000 a year tuition). Question is where it stands in the other 'rankings', even approximately.
 
Galia said:
Thanks everybody!

I am pretty aware of CUNY's funding / tuition situation however having trouble relating program's caliber on educational quality and competitive 'scales'.

Because of cheap tuition and occasional assistanships etc. it is obviously a better 'deal' than typical Psy D program. (or non funded PhD that charges $20-30,000 a year tuition). Question is where it stands in the other 'rankings', even approximately.

I have also been accepted for next fall into Queens clinical neuropsych program, but I decided to take another offer. I work at NYU med center and I have contact with current Queens students on practica and their supervisor. One student has just completed internship interviews at Yale, Harvard, and NYU Med and matched at her first choice, NYU Med center.

When I was interviewing at clinical programs I talked with the chief of neuropsych at NYU epilepsy center and he had very good things to say about the students from Queens. He said they have an exceptional understanding of neurological physiology and pathology, and that they make excellent clinicians. The only limitation they seem to have is a lack of solid psychotherapy training, which won't be a problem if you are more interested in assessment and research. However, as a clinical psychologist, you should have solid psychotherapy skills. This is why they are bringing in a new clinical director who will work to make the program stronger in this area. They will be applying for APA accreditation for the first time in the upcoming year or so and they will most likely attain it because of their committment to strong training.

Queens is heavily focused on research and has an intensive curriculum in neurological processes. I opted for a clinical neuropsych program with comparable training and full-funding, but I respect any clinical neuropsychologist who comes out of Queens. More importantly, internships and post-doc sites recognize Queens' excellence. In addition, you have a myriad of opportunities for training in the NY metro area.

In terms of which neuropsych programs are are most competitive, it seemed to me through the application process that any program that has a neuropsych specialization is going to be extremely competitive because it is a field gaining serious momentum as psychology turns more toward integrating clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience. I think the primary question for any applicant is what type of neuropsych you want to pursue (e.g. aging, child, TBI, etc.) and apply to schools that have the resources (i.e. clinics, hospitals) to train you in your area of interest, and of course have faculty who match your research interests.

Hope this helps!
 
I was accepted ther last year, but chose to attend the program. As far as I know the program has some great names in neuropsychology and is great for research. They were planning on trying to get APA accreditation and move the program more toward clinical. However to get accreditation as a clinical program, they are going to have to do some major restructuring. As it was described to me, the program is best suited to researchers who want the posiibility of clinical practice as a back up in case they can't secure a good research position. Also the program is very long; 7-8 years on average. The students seemed nice, though overworked.
 
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