Pacific University psyd match rate

[HelenOra]

I am a junior in college studying psychology and I hope to apply to psyd programs next year. For many personal reasons it would be preferable for me and my boyfriend to live near Portland, Oregon. The one school that would make sense for me there would be Pacific University, but the match rate is less than 80%. Is there anyone who is there now who can speak to why the match rate isn't better? I would love to speak to someone at the program now about their experiences.

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[child_psych123]

I am not a student there, but I do know someone who is. From my understanding, many of the students apply to very competitive internship sites and are encouraged by faculty to do so (usually at hospitals) which makes it more difficult to match. Like I said, that is not my own experience, but that is something that I have heard....

 

[bigdreamer3]

To be clear, the overall match rate at Pacific is almost 100% to sites that were APPIC members (whether APA approved or not). It is the APA match rate that is ~80%. My understanding is that each year there are also some students who purposefully apply to non-accredited sites and are willing to match there because they know they do not plan to work anywhere that required an APA internship. Faculty stress to not apply or rank anywhere that students would not be willing to match, and they talk about how a non-APA site will limit career options. Some students have different career goals and do not prioritize APA sites. I would assume this trend will decrease since APA accredited is becoming the norm. Anecdotally, I never heard anything about a student who wanted an APA site and didn't match to one. If this happened (and I'm sure it has because you can't predict life), then students sometimes take an extra year to bolster their CV (making the program 6 years instead of 5). When it happens, it is usually because students struggle to garner enough hours/experiences to be truly competitive at the more well known sites.

 

[DynamicDidactic]

Here is some discussion of the programs (including match rates) over the years.

Pacific University PsyD

Does anyone know anything about the Pacific University PsyD program in Oregon? Is anyone thinking of applying?

forums.studentdoctor.net

The greatest concern I have for potential students is debt.

 

[HelenOra]

Thank you so much to everyone for their insights, it is super helpful! Would love to hear more

Also, I am in the very rare position of not having to worry about debt (I know that I am extremely lucky in this regard and appreciate it very much, I do not take it for granted.)

On another note, do current students feel that the larger class sizes are an issue? Thanks!

 

[psych.meout]

I am not a student there, but I do know someone who is. From my understanding, many of the students apply to very competitive internship sites and are encouraged by faculty to do so (usually at hospitals) which makes it more difficult to match. Like I said, that is not my own experience, but that is something that I have heard....

Applying to competitive sites isn't particularly unique. Other programs do this as well, but they don't have nearly the same problems matching as Pacific's students. The so-called "internship crisis" has passed and there many more sites than there were when this "crisis" was at its apex, with many more sites on the way.

What's more likely happening is that Pacific's program is too large (their cohorts for the past 10 years have been larger than my entire program) and unfunded, which means that students are struggling at opportunities for direct mentorship, quality research and clinical experience, and other components that make for strong internship applicants, and many may be distracted from gaining this experience by working part- or full-time to support themselves. It's also likely that these large cohorts are due to a lack of proper vetting of applicants to the program. They are accepting students who are not ready for a doctoral training and some of who never will be (e.g., lacking aptitude). All of these things are also reflected in their high attrition rates, which are as large or larger than entire cohorts at funded programs.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

Provide direct mental health care as a clinical psychologist. Earn your PsyD in Clinical Psychology in our accredited PsyD program.

www.pacificu.edu

To be clear, the overall match rate at Pacific is almost 100% to sites that were APPIC members (whether APA approved or not). It is the APA match rate that is ~80%. My understanding is that each year there are also some students who purposefully apply to non-accredited sites and are willing to match there because they know they do not plan to work anywhere that required an APA internship. Faculty stress to not apply or rank anywhere that students would not be willing to match, and they talk about how a non-APA site will limit career options. Some students have different career goals and do not prioritize APA sites. I would assume this trend will decrease since APA accredited is becoming the norm. Anecdotally, I never heard anything about a student who wanted an APA site and didn't match to one. If this happened (and I'm sure it has because you can't predict life), then students sometimes take an extra year to bolster their CV (making the program 6 years instead of 5). When it happens, it is usually because students struggle to garner enough hours/experiences to be truly competitive at the more well known sites.

1. Being an APPIC member site is basically meaningless. Being APA-accredited is what matters. To be frank, this attempt at obfuscation is exactly what poor quality programs do to rationalize and cover up for these inconvenient statistics.

2. Purposefully applying to unaccredited sites when it forever locks one out of many jobs (e.g., VAs, AMCs) is just foolish and the only people who are really doing that are those who aren't going to be competitive for accredited sites. It doesn't matter what your "career goals" are, you get one bite at the apple and it's incredibly foolish to waste it. This is why many good quality programs, including mine, don't even allow students to rank unaccredited sites.

3. Faculty at programs that don't have problems matching their students also tell their students not to apply to or rank sites they would not be willing to attend. This is not unique for Pacific's program or any other program that has difficulty matching its students. This is another attempt to obfuscate the poor match rate.

4. So, you're saying that students who want to complete an APA-accredited internship and not severely limit their career options have to take an extra year at an already expensive and unfunded program?

 

[psych.meout]

Thank you so much to everyone for their insights, it is super helpful! Would love to hear more

Also, I am in the very rare position of not having to worry about debt (I know that I am extremely lucky in this regard and appreciate it very much, I do not take it for granted.)

On another note, do current students feel that the larger class sizes are an issue? Thanks!

Look at the outcome statistics.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

Provide direct mental health care as a clinical psychologist. Earn your PsyD in Clinical Psychology in our accredited PsyD program.

www.pacificu.edu

With the attrition rate and internship match stats, it's a coin toss whether one will make through to the end with an accredited internship. It's just not a wise investment.

 

[WisNeuro]

In today's climate of abundant positions, 90% match is probably the new cutoff for match rate. Anything below that and I'd stay away. Seriously, with how easy it is to get an internship, low match rates now just show how low admission standards have gotten at the diploma mills.

 

[ClinicalABA]

When looking at the data for large cohort schools like this, it’s important to account for attrition within your review of match rates. Average class size for all years up through 2017-18 is ~55 students. Average attrition for same period is ~14%. Using the APA match rate of 80% and doing some back of the napkin calculations, you get an overall APA match rate FOR THE TOTAL ENTERING COHORT of less than 70%. In other words, 3 out of every 10 students in the class will not complete what many consider to be a minimum training standard in the field. Roughly 3 out of every 20 students will not even get to point where an such an experience is even the option. Over the past 10 or so years, 72 students have not been able to complete their degrees, presumably not getting a refund on the minimum of 40k direct costs per year (plus related opportunity costs). More students dropped out of this program in the last 10 years than were admitted to more reputable programs. Yes, many students from these programs meet their goal of being a psychologist (though arguably many end up doing the work and getting the pay of a MA level clinician, but that’s a topic for a different thread). A lot of students don’t meet that goal, and it costs them (or their benefactors) a lot of money. Ceveat emptor, which still applies even if money is not scarce.

 

[R. Matey]

I interviewed and was accepted to Pacific a number of years ago. I rejected their offer and reapplied to fully funded Ph.D. programs after reading threads on SDN. I'd be happy to talk about my impressions of the program with you. I ended up attending a fully funded Ph.D. program away from Portland and do not regret my decision. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[bigdreamer3]

I'm happy to talk more about this program, @HelenOra. Feel free to message me with questions.