Need Help Picking School Psych Program!

[ashleyk]

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I applied and was accepted into a Cal State University Master's in Clinical/Child Psych program with PPS Credential in School Psych and MFT built-in. Its pretty intense for 3 years, basically school or fieldwork all day every day which = no income for me. I have a lot of bills and live in the bay area and I am starting to freak out a bit at the thought of not working. Even working some evenings and weekends realistically won't help much and yes I am already taking out student loans which paired with having no income for 3 years turns this program into one very expensive endeavor. I just found out that Alliant University in San Francisco has an accredited school psych program as well, no mft included but still get the PPS. It's of course two nights a week and one day for fieldwork. While it is expensive, it works out less than the state school as I can work and wont need student loans to try and live on. I know there is a huge "stigma" attached with Alliant but I just don't know how it would really affect me as far as obtaining employment in a school afterwards. I have spoken with a few HR employees and they said the most important thing they look at is the experience, references and interview (as long as you have the appropriate credential or certificate of course). That being said, I don't know if it would be worth it or not.

Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated. For a PPS Credential, does it really make a difference where you get it from? Also, while the MFT is nice and I would love to have it as an option for a private practice, I would prefer to work as a school psychologist which I think means would not count for the MFT hours anyways so I would have to works as an MFT intern for 2+ years anyways. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thank you in advance and typing this on my phone so sorry about any writing errors!

 

[futureapppsy2]

I applied and was accepted into a Cal State University Master's in Clinical/Child Psych program with PPS Credential in School Psych and MFT built-in. Its pretty intense for 3 years, basically school or fieldwork all day every day which = no income for me. I have a lot of bills and live in the bay area and I am starting to freak out a bit at the thought of not working. Even working some evenings and weekends realistically won't help much and yes I am already taking out student loans which paired with having no income for 3 years turns this program into one very expensive endeavor. I just found out that Alliant University in San Francisco has an accredited school psych program as well, no mft included but still get the PPS. It's of course two nights a week and one day for fieldwork. While it is expensive, it works out less than the state school as I can work and wont need student loans to try and live on. I know there is a huge "stigma" attached with Alliant but I just don't know how it would really affect me as far as obtaining employment in a school afterwards. I have spoken with a few HR employees and they said the most important thing they look at is the experience, references and interview (as long as you have the appropriate credential or certificate of course). That being said, I don't know if it would be worth it or not.

Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated. For a PPS Credential, does it really make a difference where you get it from? Also, while the MFT is nice and I would love to have it as an option for a private practice, I would prefer to work as a school psychologist which I think means would not count for the MFT hours anyways so I would have to works as an MFT intern for 2+ years anyways. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thank you in advance and typing this on my phone so sorry about any writing errors!

Honestly, I would have very serious qualms about a program that required as little training as the Alliant program does, at least based on your description of it. JMHO.

 

[ashleyk]

Thanks for the advice! It still requires the 3rd year full-time internship but I think the reason CSU has more fieldwork is also because its a combined MFT program which requires different hours.

 

[IHrtHealthPsych]

I am not school psych, but I would advise you to listen to those in the field. Generally it doesn't matter what the program is (i.e., the name), but what you will get out of it. I think the advice you received sounds reasonable--it's more about experience, etc. You're basically going to have to decide whether you want to do the dual degree/certification (School + MFT) or not. If you do only school, can you do private practice at all, ever, without another degree? How do you feel about that? Is it possible to attend the state school part-time, if you choose that route? If you don't want to do MFT, it's probably not worth it to do the dual program--why spend all of that time with something you don't want to do? On the other hand, you may not know until you have experience in the field. Tough call.