Northwest University Counseling PsyD?

[futureapppsy2]

Has anyone heard of this program in Kirkland, WA? An ad for it was on my Facebook profile (probably not the best sign ), and I was curious enough to take a look.

http://www.northwestu.edu/social_behavioral/psyd/

Seems like a brand new program (or not--I see that they aren't (yet) accredited, but it doesn't give a "creation date" for their program, either). Their clinical training seems really limited (2 years pre-internship) especially for a PsyD, but some of their doctoral faculty seem to have come out of good programs themselves (Northwestern, Kent State, USC). It seems to be religious university but not a religious program, per se.

Anyway, just curious if anyone had heard of it, good or bad (In the interest of a disclaimer, I've already been admitted to a funded PhD program, so I have no personal interest here, just simple curiosity).

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ollie123]

Unless I'm reading it wrong, 2 of their 5 core faculty appear to have no clinical training. One more I'm unclear if has training. The majority of their clinical adjuncts appear to be master's level, and they encourage students to take international internships (which isn't bad in principle, but poses a number of serious practical consequences and possible licensing issues).

Also, several of their faculty biosketches aren't impressive even for graduate students, let alone faculty....

 

[futureapppsy2]

Unless I'm reading it wrong, 2 of their 5 core faculty appear to have no clinical training. One more I'm unclear if has training. The majority of their clinical adjuncts appear to be master's level, and they encourage students to take international internships (which isn't bad in principle, but poses a number of serious practical consequences and possible licensing issues).

Also, several of their faculty biosketches aren't impressive even for graduate students, let alone faculty....

How are you reading 2 of 5 without clinical experience. Four of their biosketches (all except the cognitive one) seemed to mention a clinical background.

Yeah, the large number of MA level adjuncts caught my eye, as did they international internships, as big red flags, but then I thought those both might be aimed more at the MA students in the department...

 

[Wildcat06]

am i missing the northwestern faculty member?

 

[olychick65]

I'm from the area and I've never heard of the university, let alone the program, which weirds me out a bit. Maybe the entire school is new, not just the Psy.D program?

 

[aagman01]

No GRE required if applicant majored in psych in undergrad. If they didn't, a minimum score of 900 is required. 900. Its been a few years since I took the GREs, but isn't the minimum score (getting like all questions wrong) an 800?

I'm from the area and I've never heard of the university, let alone the program, which weirds me out a bit. Maybe the entire school is new, not just the Psy.D program?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

There are a number of red flags I see after flipping through their course catalogue:

-No APA acred.
-Strikingly low admission standards
-Weak faculty compared to other programs
-High reliance on tuition (85% of $$ comes from tuition, 15% come from gifts, endowments, etc)

I would stay far far away from this program.

 

[Ollie123]

1) Cognitive person you mentioned.
2) Dr. Inslee has a PhD in Communication and a Masters in Theological Education. He somehow worked as a "Rehabilitation Counselor" in a Recovery Program as part of his dissertation fieldwork in Communications. There is no mention of him completing the educational requirements to formally work in that field, and even if he did I hardly consider doing some fieldwork working as a mid-level as part of a dissertation in an unrelated field to constitute "Clinical training", at least to the extent that a faculty member in a doctoral-level psychology program should have.
3) I'm unclear what Dr. Nelson's PhD is actually in. It says he had a private practice that involved "counseling" but we don't know if he was an actual licensed counseling psychologist, or if this took place in a state where "Counseling" isn't a legally protected title and he just decided to call himself that.

 

[KillerDiller]

am i missing the northwestern faculty member?

Yeah, one of the faculty members lists that they received their Ph.D. in communication from NU in 1992. Of course, as you know, the school of communication is completely separate from the psych department.

 

[futureapppsy2]

Yeah, one of the faculty members lists that they received their Ph.D. in communication from NU in 1992. Of course, as you know, the school of communication is completely separate from the psych department.

How did I miss the communication part of that?!

I can't figure out what it is, but something about this school makes it seems not as sketchy as I would expect for a place that advertises on Facebook. Still not some place I would recommend, but it's not the trainwreck I was expecting. Maybe it's due to the affiliation with an actual university?

 

[docma]

Grads of the Communication PhD at NU program can get extensive training in work with speech disorders, etc, so a Rehab Psych internship and certification in rehabilitation psychology can be legitimate with that path, especially if they did a lot of cross registration etc. The School of Communication used to offer some great family systems courses, as well and psych departments would allows students to cross-register into that. There are non-traditional paths to clinical competence...

 

[psich]

How did I miss the communication part of that?!

I can't figure out what it is, but something about this school makes it seems not as sketchy as I would expect for a place that advertises on Facebook. Still not some place I would recommend, but it's not the trainwreck I was expecting. Maybe it's due to the affiliation with an actual university?

Really? After going through the website, I thought the program was definitely questionable. A minimum GRE score of 900 is required and that's only if your GPA is <3.0. Otherwise, the GRE is completely optional! The GRE is by no means perfect but it is the standard exam used by the majority of admission boards in doctoral programs across the country. The fact that they say it's optional is very unusual to me.

Also going through the faculty list, I did not getting a clear sense of the focus or direction of the program. I felt that it was somewhat ambiguous, if that makes any sense.

I think the program is up and coming and they still have a long way to go if they want to establish themselves as a reputable PsyD program.

 

[Ollie123]

There are non-traditional paths to clinical competence...

Oh certainly, I never intended to imply otherwise. However, the biosketch doesn't make that clear...certainly if he completed an internship in rehab psych, was certified/boarded, etc. that is a much more impressive credential than "fieldwork as part of a dissertation" - especially given that was one experience that happened 20 years ago and there may have been no intermediate clinical training. Hell, people aren't even supposed to emphasize their dissertation on job talks straight out of post-doc, let alone 20 years later.

At the very least, I don't think that in a small program, it is unreasonable to expect that the majority of psychology faculty have the experience and credentials to see the normal everyday pathology that every psychologist sees. If a program expects to produce licensed psychologists, it should have the basics covered and their website certainly doesn't give me that impression.

 

[olychick65]

Really? After going through the website, I thought the program was definitely questionable. A minimum GRE score of 900 is required and that's only if your GPA is <3.0. Otherwise, the GRE is completely optional! The GRE is by no means perfect but it is the standard exam used by the majority of admission boards in doctoral programs across the country. The fact that they say it's optional is very unusual to me.

Also going through the faculty list, I did not getting a clear sense of the focus or direction of the program. I felt that it was somewhat ambiguous, if that makes any sense.

I think the program is up and coming and they still have a long way to go if they want to establish themselves as a reputable PsyD program.

The GRE issue is definitely sketchy for me, although other programs (professional programs) have the GRE as optional also.

The lack of focus and information is what marks this program as problematic IMO. They say there is clinical training, research training, scholarly training, etc., but there is no mention of where this training is coming from. There is no mention of the orientation of clinical training, of which practicum sites students are trained at or what populations students will have access to, no outline of classes, etc. etc. No real information about the program at all.

I hope the site is still in progress, because the lack of information is appalling. A student is supposed to spend time and money applying, then time and money interviewing based on this?

 

[futureapppsy2]

The GRE issue is definitely sketchy for me, although other programs (professional programs) have the GRE as optional also.

The lack of focus and information is what marks this program as problematic IMO. They say there is clinical training, research training, scholarly training, etc., but there is no mention of where this training is coming from. There is no mention of the orientation of clinical training, of which practicum sites students are trained at or what populations students will have access to, no outline of classes, etc. etc. No real information about the program at all.

I hope the site is still in progress, because the lack of information is appalling. A student is supposed to spend time and money applying, then time and money interviewing based on this?

Indeed, the lack of information and difficulty finding the available info was another red flag.

Really? After going through the website, I thought the program was definitely questionable. A minimum GRE score of 900 is required and that's only if your GPA is <3.0. Otherwise, the GRE is completely optional! The GRE is by no means perfect but it is the standard exam used by the majority of admission boards in doctoral programs across the country. The fact that they say it's optional is very unusual to me.

Also going through the faculty list, I did not getting a clear sense of the focus or direction of the program. I felt that it was somewhat ambiguous, if that makes any sense.

I think the program is up and coming and they still have a long way to go if they want to establish themselves as a reputable PsyD program.

I think this is what surprised me about it.... While the program does have a LONG way to go in many areas (not the best program to attend in the near future), there also seemed to be a hint of potential to it that I wasn't expecting from a program that advertises on Facebook--like the program is actually trying to establish itself as a solid program and not just be a "degree mill." This will in all likelihood take a while, of course, or perhaps never be achieved.

I suppose I just had really low expectations.