Pepperdine PsyD and CSPP in Chicago PsyD

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ScooterWD

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Need some advice about how a school's reputation and ranking will influence my ability to get a practicum/internship site, licensure, and ultimately a job many years down the road. I am 25 I received my BA in Psych and my MA in Psych and am going for my doctorate in clinical psych (psyd). I'm trying to anticipate my situation as my fiancé will be relocating with me for whichever program I choose. I was accepted to the Chicago School of Prof. Psych. (APA accredited, as I would not consider going anywhere that isn't), and I am waiting to hear back in the next 1-2 weeks from Pepperdine. I'm aware of Pepperdine's stellar reputation and that it is ranks higher than the Chicago School in many aspects. I'm really looking for advice from those who have already gone through this process and are now working in the field with lives and families.. I grew up in Chicago and I'm very close to my family, but have not lived near them in 7 years. Knowing I'll eventually settle in California, I'd like to go back "home" for a while and be close to my family. What better time than during a 5 year doctorate program? Can I make a decision based on where I would like to live and anticipate being happy in my personal life, or will the program reputation and everything that comes with that be so important that I need to accept at Pepperdine (if I have that luxury) regardless of personal happiness?

Those who have done all this.. look back, do you have any PERSONAL regrets due to choosing everything that was best for your career and not necessary those things that may have been best for your personal life?
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Please do a search on the forum..as both of these programs have already been covered (at length) in multiple threads. The short answer is....Pepperdine, maybe...with a lot of funding/scholarship from the school. Otherwise...no. CSPP is not well regarded. At all. You will regret taking on massive debt.
 
Therapist4Chnge said:
Please do a search on the forum..as both of these programs have already been covered (at length) in multiple threads. The short answer is....Pepperdine, maybe...with a lot of funding/scholarship from the school. Otherwise...no. CSPP is not well regarded. At all. You will regret taking on massive debt.
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Wow--great new avatar, T4C.

OP, I'm not currently in psych, but in a doctoral program in another field considering switching to psych (I thought I'd have already applied by now, but that's another story). I'm older than you, so my family concerns might be different (eldercare issues, longterm marriage, home ownership), but I regret going to school far from home, for a lot of reasons. From what I've read in similar threads on sdn, most people will encourage you to put your career above all else--after all, "friends and family will always be there." My counterpoint is that family and friends matter as well as your career. They are real people with real needs of their own who don't simply stand still and wait for your return. People die, grow ill, change, become more distant during your absence. Relationships require tending. I'm not saying that everyone should put family first--I don't think it's any more helpful than the opposite advice (follow your highest aspirations and count on friends and family to simply "be there" when you're ready for them again). But the choices and tradeoffs are real and worth heavy consideration (since family is important enough for you to bother posting about).
 
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If you don't mind me asking, are you in significant debt from your undergrad and masters? Add at least another $150,000 of debt for either of those schools you mention. You are still young and another legitimate option to consider for your financial and professional future is to take a few years find a RA position and pay off some of your student loan debt and if you don't have any debt, take a few years to save up some money for your doctorate and in those years focus on improving your application so that you can be an outstanding candidate for funded PsyD programs like Baylor and Rutgers. If cost is not an issue and you really want to start a program this year, then Pepperdine is definitely a better choice. Also keep in mind the cost of living in both of those places, spending 2 thousand a month to cover rent, utilities, etc. would probably not be difficult to do in Chicago or Los Angeles.
 
T4C, thanks you for the advice, but I did a thorough search of every forum on here over the course of the past week before posting to ensure that my question was not already covered elsewhere. Hence, my post. If you have any advice as far as family versus career decisions go, please repost!

WF- thank you for your post, it was quite helpful. I anticipated responses from the workaholic types (as I am one myself and have to be to have gotten this far in the field), stating exactly what you said they would.. that family will always be there. At the time time, as a future psychologist, I can't help but think of how important relationships with the people you love are in your life and how ignoring those to pursue my career can be detrimental to my own mental health.. which as we all know is vital to being capable of helping others. Thank you for your response!

HH2- I don't mind you asking at all, I was very fortunate and am currently not in any debt. I've taken the past year off and I'm anxious to get back in school. I have private funding for at least part of my doctorate program, but I am not sure how much that will cover. I will not need to worry about living expenses either. I'm very fortunate to be in the position that I am in currently, and this is why this time in my life is a perfect time to return to school. Assuming I will have debt either way, I am looking at making this decisions based on what the programs have to offer career wise, and how being close/far from family and friends in Chicago will affect my personal life. I realize this is an odd post and difficult to respond to, I was just hoping some those future psychologists out there had a clear idea of how much their program assisted them in getting to where they are at today, and therefore how much the reputation of the program truly matters.

Thanks everyone!
 
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With the internship crisis as it currently stands, the reputation of your program definitely matters. Of the two, Pepperdine seems to have a better reputation (I don't know that I'd necessarily call it "stellar," but that's likely up for debate), and the less anyone can do to shoot themselves in the foot training-wise, the better.

As T4C mentioned, both schools have been discussed at great length (regarding their reputation, internship match data, etc.), although it might've been spread across two or three different threads.

Re: family vs. career, obviously this is a very personal choice. I opted to move away for grad school and internship, although I remained in the same geographic region as my "home," and have made semi-frequent (once every few months) trips back there. I personally haven't lost any friendships in the intervening years since my move, although I happen to have a very understanding family and group of friends.

For postdoc, there was nothing offered in my home state this year, and so I applied to a variety of states in the same geographic region. While I had the option of ranking sites that were closer to home more highly (or even foregoing postdoc entirely and just going back home), I ultimately opted to place more importance on a variety of other factors.

It does get rough at times, and I do miss my friends and family. However, my take is that I may only have one shot at these various training opportunities, so I'm taking it while it's available. At the same time, though, I have focused a decent amount of time and effort on maintaining my friendships, which is probably one of the reasons those friends have stuck around so long.
 
Therapist4Chnge said:
In case others find this thread in the future:

Pepperdine 1
Pepperdine 2 (w. talk about other religious schools)
Pepperdine 3
Pepperdine 4 (& PGSP)
Pepperdine 5 (& CSPP-LA)

123 threads popped up with a search for Pepperdine, I just grabbed a few of them above.
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I like the thread where another poster tries to dissuade the OP from attending Pepperdine because s/he will end up "SEVERAL thousand dollars in debt." You know, probably only about $2-4,000. :laugh:
 
CSoPP will tell you they are the best school in Chicago. Most of the students I know who are currently there have been pretty dissatisfied. Also, you should know if you don't, there are a LOT of psychology programs in Chicago. As a result, even obtaining a practicum is quite competitive and becoming more challenging as sites lose funding and close or eliminate extern positions. There is a match process for PRACTICUM and it is pretty stressful.

And there's the debt. How do you feel about that? Last time I checked, which has been a couple of years, CSoPP had the highest tuition rates in Chicago and the largest cohort. And it is growing its program to expand to other areas and cities.

Their admissions people are awesome. They could sell your grandmother her own cookies.
 
LMK said:
CSoPP will tell you they are the best school in Chicago. Most of the students I know who are currently there have been pretty dissatisfied. Also, you should know if you don't, there are a LOT of psychology programs in Chicago. As a result, even obtaining a practicum is quite competitive and becoming more challenging as sites lose funding and close or eliminate extern positions. There is a match process for PRACTICUM and it is pretty stressful.

And there's the debt. How do you feel about that? Last time I checked, which has been a couple of years, CSoPP had the highest tuition rates in Chicago and the largest cohort. And it is growing its program to expand to other areas and cities.

Their admissions people are awesome. They could sell your grandmother her own cookies.
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I can attest to this, and my program eventually decided that we were not allowed to take part in this process. And, even if you do go through the "match," you are not guaranteed a spot (big surprise, eh?).

In the meantime, my program has lost practicum sites due to those sites' funding issues and/or students from Chicago and the surrounding area's programs contacting them because of their willingness to work tons of hours for free and with minimal supervision (although these admittedly are not the only issues at all sites we have lost over the past few years). Why pay our students when they can receive free labor?

One would think in a place as large as Chicagoland that one would have tons of sites from which to pick & choose, but no such luck. Expect to meet with lots of competition for those spots. Expect not to be able to apply to all of those spots for various reasons. Expect to network, network, network to help you land a spot if your program doesn't have those sites (guaranteed!) ready & waiting for you. And, even then, expect that there's probably someone (or multiple someones) out there probably attempting to do the same thing as you in an attempt to land any ole' position or to better themselves or whatever the case may be. It's not impossible, but it can be challenging and stressful!
 
thank you so much for the information on the Chicago School. There were many threads on here re: the California School of Prof. Psych (CSPP), but the Chicago School was still a little mysterious to me. I appreciate everyones responses, thank you!
 
As you can tell by my name, I am currently a student at CSoPP. There are some positive and negatives to the program for sure. In terms of the "best" school in Chicago, they can say this because we are not in direct competition with Northwestern or UIC. Our main competition are two non-accred. schools, Argosy and Adler (which have also been discussed for their negative componenets). In that respect, it is not hard to be the "best." The practicum process is very competitive and stressful, due to the amount of students in Chicago and lack of sites in the Chicago area. I would say that you need to be prepared to drive outside of the city in order to increase your chances of getting a site (I have for the past 3 years). That being said, nearly all of my cohort has gotten placed and those who haven't definitely have some obvious deficits. However, I know that the governing body that determines how to do the match process in Chicago changed it this year, and it does not appear to be to the students' benefit.

Yes, the cohort size, tuition and the "expansion" of our school is problematic, and none of us are happy about it. I have heard rumblings from professors that they are moving more towards weeding people out in the beginning and decreasing our numbers, so that would be fantastic. We are also still considered a not-for-profit school at this time, which is also a plus. In terms of internship, several posters have wondered how FSPS compete. A handful of my cohort (myself included) are going to BOPs and a handful are going to VAs. Of course, there is also a handful that didn't match and are going through Phase II (but they do not appear to have the "obvious" deficits as seen by those in the practicum process).
 
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CSOPP said:
A handful of my cohort (myself included) are going to BOPs .
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Usually I can figure out these acronyms by sniffing around, but BOP has me stumped unless BOP= Bureau of Prisons???
 
CSOPP said:
Our main competition are two non-accred. schools, Argosy and Adler
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This statement is simply incorrect: Both Adler and Argosy-Chicago are fully APA accredited.
 
CSOPP said:
In terms of the "best" school in Chicago, they can say this because we are not in direct competition with Northwestern or UIC. Our main competition are two non-accred. schools, Argosy and Adler (which have also been discussed for their negative componenets). In that respect, it is not hard to be the "best."
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Not in direct competition in what way? I'm sure students compete against each other for APA accredited internships in the area. They all provide doctorates in clinical psychology, so we're not exactly talking apples and oranges here. Saying they are the "best" school in Chicago while discounting Boulder model programs is like the winner of the NIT saying they are the best basketball team in the country.

Note: CSOPP, I'm not suggesting that you are actually saying these things, I'm just commenting on the rhetoric used by your program.
 
Ah, don't forget about Roosevelt which has a PsyD program and Wheaton College has one too, although I think both of those programs take less then 20 students. Roosevelt is in Chicago and Wheaton in western suburbs.
 
psytudent said:
This statement is simply incorrect: Both Adler and Argosy-Chicago are fully APA accredited.
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Yes, I know Argosy and Adler are accredited...I was saying them PLUS two unaccred. schools (Roosevelt, Midwestern). However, I was misinformed because Roosevelt is accredited. My apologies. However, even with accreditation, Argosy has a horrible reputation because of the "for profit" nature of the school. Adler has been mentioned on other posts as one of the schools that has had difficulties after graduation (low EPPP passing, etc.).

Killer Diller- the reason I said not in direct competition is that I have never run across one student from Northwestern or UIC in the practicum process. I'm not sure why this is, as there are only so many sites in Chicago. Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't out there. But our students are even getting neuropsych and medical sites, which I would think would want NW or UIC students more. And UIC takes our students for pracs. Overall, CSoPP has a good reputation in Chicago. Clearly (and unsurprisingly), this is not the case outside of the Chicagoland area.
 
rocktheballad said:
ScooterWD said:
Need some advice about how a school's reputation and ranking will influence my ability to get a practicum/internship site, licensure, and ultimately a job many years down the road. I am 25 I received my BA in Psych and my MA in Psych and am going for my doctorate in clinical psych (psyd). I'm trying to anticipate my situation as my fiancé will be relocating with me for whichever program I choose. I was accepted to the Chicago School of Prof. Psych. (APA accredited, as I would not consider going anywhere that isn't), and I am waiting to hear back in the next 1-2 weeks from Pepperdine. I'm aware of Pepperdine's stellar reputation and that it is ranks higher than the Chicago School in many aspects. I'm really looking for advice from those who have already gone through this process and are now working in the field with lives and families.. I grew up in Chicago and I'm very close to my family, but have not lived near them in 7 years. Knowing I'll eventually settle in California, I'd like to go back "home" for a while and be close to my family. What better time than during a 5 year doctorate program? Can I make a decision based on where I would like to live and anticipate being happy in my personal life, or will the program reputation and everything that comes with that be so important that I need to accept at Pepperdine (if I have that luxury) regardless of personal happiness?

Do tell - which one did you choose???

Those who have done all this.. look back, do you have any PERSONAL regrets due to choosing everything that was best for your career and not necessary those things that may have been best for your personal life?
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