PhD/PsyD MPH/Public Health Fellowship

[bcliff]

I'm applying to clinical psychology PhD programs for the '14-'15 cycle, and I'm also applying to a handful of post-bacc research fellowships as backups. I found a three-year research fellowship that's housed at the University of Washington that is a public health research fellowship. It offers a very competitive stipend (40k-50k/year) which increases each year that fellows are enrolled in the program and allows fellows the opportunity work on their MPH part-time (w/ a full tuition waiver in addition to their stipend).

The MPH is concentrated in Health Metrics & Evaluation, and to my knowledge, graduates of the program are required to complete a master's thesis. Given that the Health Metrics & Evaluation concentration could be easily applied to a more psychologically oriented thesis (possibly something involving evaluation & health psychology?), do you think it would be possible for a thesis completed in this type of MPH to waive the requirement of completing a masters degree & thesis en route to a clinical psychology PhD? Thanks!

^ Also, does this question make sense? I've heard clinical psychology doctoral students who entered their programs with a masters degree talk about how much stress it relieved to not have to worry about completing a masters thesis while also working on other aspects of their degree, so I assumed that this is one of the perks of entering a doctoral program with a masters degree.

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[Lisa44201]

Individual programs vary as to whether they will or will not accept a Master's thesis; it is definitely not a guarantee. I am currently working on my second Master's thesis in Psychology (Experimental), having earned my first one this past May. I did have the option to go to a program that would have accepted my (first) Master's thesis, and put me straight into the PhD track; I specifically chose this program, second thesis and all, because the overall fit for me is better here. I had the option of choosing which nine credits I could transfer in; there are some places that do not transfer courses at all.
TL : DR - if you do go this route, you need to specifically ask during PhD interviews if the school will accept your degree, or only transfer in some credits, or not transfer in anything.

 

[psych85]

I would be surprised if any clinical psych program would accept a MPH in lieu of completing a masters in psychology. If getting an MPH is relevant to your career goals, it sounds like a great opportunity, but I would not count on that degree eliminating the masters thesis requirement in psychology.

 

[sockit]

I think you'd have to look at this as a totally separate thing. Maybe, depending on the clinical psychology program, you might catch a break on transfer credits for statistics, but maybe not. I think even if you wrote your thesis on mental health issues, a public health perspective, which looks at population-level risk factors & correlations, etc, is necessarily going to differ from clinical psychology's emphasis on treatment/prevention of disorders in the individual.

(That fellowship sounds like an amazing opportunity, though, if you're into systems-level stuff. My understanding is that public health is fairly broad and that different streams set you up for different kinds of careers, e.g. global vs domestic health, or stats-focused epidemiology vs more clinical science/bio stuff vs policy; I would imagine a health metrics focus might set you up nicely for a range of decently paid [but non-clinical psychology related] work... bears further research, imo... )

 

[bcliff]

.

 

[Ollie123]

I think even if you wrote your thesis on mental health issues, a public health perspective, which looks at population-level risk factors & correlations, etc, is necessarily going to differ from clinical psychology's emphasis on treatment/prevention of disorders in the individual.

I think this paints an artificial dichotomy. There is actually tremendous overlap between the two - I know plenty of folks in public health departments doing psychology-type research (including many psychologists working in public health departments), as well as many folks in clinical psych departments who are doing research that could be classified as public health. Maybe I'm biased by my area of research, but the days of strict lines between disciplines seem long gone. I would in no way describe clinical psychology research as focused on prevention/treatment as I think it is MUCH broader than that. I know many in psychology operating from a systems perspective, some studying diagnostics, some studying classification and disease progression, many studying etiology, etc. and the same goes for public health with more traditional "clinical" topics. Many of the largest-scale behavioral intervention trials in my area have been run by public health researchers, not psychologists (albeit frequently in collaboration with psychologists).

That said, it is going to be up to individual programs what requirements they are willing to waive. In most cases the answer is likely to be very few, but that would be true even with a master's in psychology.

 

[sockit]

Great to know, Oliie123, thank you for offering a richer picture of the landscape. I was thinking very generally of how an MPH thesis might (or might not) harmonize with an existing curriculum; I guess ultimately it would come down to the match?

Briarcliff -- I hope you get in where you want, and get to study what you want!

 

[Pragma]

Well the fellowship sounds awesome, and an MPH goes well with a lot of health professions these days. That's good pay for someone with an undergrad degree and a tuition waiver (higher than a PhD program). But I also would continue to check out the clinical-community programs based on what you said you are interested in.

 

[Rorshocked]

Two students in my clinical psych PhD program came in with an MPH, which was accepted in lieu of an M.S. thesis completed during our program. That said, their research at the MPH level specifically related to the work they're doing now. They also happened to attend the same MPH program and ultimately, were accepted into the same lab, so it's very much dependent on individual circumstances. Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

 

[bcliff]

Below is a link to the fellowship's website in case anyone else was curious about it (The deadline for this year has already passed). The funding does sound a little too good to be true, but everything seems to check out - I'm sure admissions for this fellowship are just as (if not more) competitive than most clinical psych PhD programs.

http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/education-training/post-bachelor-fellowship

 

[docma]

Below is a link to the fellowship's website in case anyone else was curious about it (The deadline for this year has already passed). The funding does sound a little too good to be true, but everything seems to check out - I'm sure admissions for this fellowship are just as (if not more) competitive than most clinical psych PhD programs.

http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/education-training/post-bachelor-fellowship

This looks like an amazing program in an area that is going to boom in terms of job opportunities.