PsyD/MSW

[childpsyche]

I need help before I start my senior year of college. I am a psychology major. I transferred from another university and did not do well there academically because of family reasons. So my GPA has suffered. I am deciding where I should apply to grad schools. I know that I want to work with children. I have an interest in cross-cultural psychology. Currently, I'm interested in doing a PsyD or MSW program somewhere in the Northeast. I have had 2 internships at counseling centers and a lot of experience working with kids. If you have any advice of programs to apply to, it'd be a lot of help!

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[WisNeuro]

What do you want to do on a day-to-day basis, and are you comfortable with mind-blowingly crushing levels of debt?

 

[Sanman]

What does "did not do well academically" mean in numbers? 3.4, 2.4 .1.4?

 

[childpsyche]

What does "did not do well academically" mean in numbers? 3.4, 2.4 .1.4?

For my first year, I got a 2.9. But since I've transferred I've been doing well, getting a 3.7

 

[childpsyche]

What do you want to do on a day-to-day basis, and are you comfortable with mind-blowingly crushing levels of debt?

I'm comfortable having some debt. I'd like to do CBT, DBT, or assessments.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I'm comfortable having some debt. I'd like to do CBT, DBT, or assessments.

If you're wanting to make assessment a meaningful part of your professional activities, a Ph.D./Psy.D. is what you'd want. Administering evidence-based treatments like CBT falls is possible by both psychologists and social workers.

As for the GPA, I did similarly (or maybe even a smidge worse) during my Freshman year of college. I made up for it in subsequent years and ultimately, somehow, convinced a grad program to take a chance on me.

Edit: Also, I agree with what WisNeuro has said below. Many of the Psy.D. programs I've seen are, in my opinion, prohibitively expensive (e.g., requiring incurring $200k+ of debt). You'll be able to expand your application pool by also considering balanced Ph.D. programs.

 

[WisNeuro]

I'm comfortable having some debt. I'd like to do CBT, DBT, or assessments.

Define "some." If you don't want absurd levels of debt and difficulty passing the licensing exam, you may want to also consider PhDs. Particularly if you are limited to the Northeast, which will make things considerably harder.

 

[childpsyche]

Define "some." If you don't want absurd levels of debt and difficulty passing the licensing exam, you may want to also consider PhDs. Particularly if you are limited to the Northeast, which will make things considerably harder.

I have a large portion of it covered fortunately, so I would probably come out with a little debt. I don't have a lot of research experience, so I PhD programs might be harder for me to get into.

 

[WisNeuro]

I have a large portion of it covered fortunately, so I would probably come out with a little debt. I don't have a lot of research experience, so I PhD programs might be harder for me to get into.

Legitimate PsyDs and clinically based and balanced PhDs will have similar amounts of required research experience.

 

[Sanman]

I'm comfortable having some debt. I'd like to do CBT, DBT, or assessments.

Given your experiences, have you considered a PhD in counseling psychology?

I will add this: If your goal is to work in a setting like a college counseling center, those are among the lowest paying settings in the profession.

 

[R. Matey]

Given your experiences, have you considered a PhD in counseling psychology?

I will add this: If your goal is to work in a setting like a college counseling center, those are among the lowest paying settings in the profession.

Plenty of UCCs hire master's level clinicians due in part to the lower pay. If that's the goal, you could easily get there with a social work degree.

 

[summerbabe]

Plenty of UCCs hire master's level clinicians due in part to the lower pay. If that's the goal, you could easily get there with a social work degree.

This!

The very budget conscious state school I went to for my PhD did not employ a single psychologist in our UCC (so we couldn’t get hours there). Students who had assessment needs were actually referred to our dept training clinic.

I imagine schools like Harvard hire a lot of PhD/PsyDs for their UCC because they think parents care about their students getting treated by psychologists as opposed to counselors. So some places may have limited master’s level positions but that’s the very much the exception and not the norm.

 

[ClinicalABA]

I imagine schools like Harvard hire a lot of PhD/PsyDs for their UCC because they think parents care about their students getting treated by psychologists as opposed to counselors. So some places may have limited master’s level positions but that’s the very much the exception and not the norm.

nope: Our Team

 

[R. Matey]

The very budget conscious state school I went to for my PhD did not employ a single psychologist in our UCC (so we couldn’t get hours there). Students who had assessment needs were actually referred to our dept training clinic.

It was similar at my alma mater--there were a few psychologists that kept the training program active, but they were outnumbered 2:1 by master's level clinicians. By the time I left, the director was a social worker and the training program was dead. In fairness, to @Sanman's earlier post though, I still see counseling psychs in the upper tiers of administration at some larger R1s, but this is become increasingly less common, IME.