Some advice on MSW/PhD vs PsyD

[DCDMB]

I am in a bit of a predicament- I posted this on the psych thread but wanted to the perspective of this thread. I applied to PsyD and PhD programs in Clinical Psychology as well as Rutgers' MSW/PhD Social Work joint program at the recommendation of a former faulty member who said that it would be a good choice for someone who has a strong passion for including social justice framework into my psychotherapy, that social work might be a good option and leading to an LCSW would make me just as strong a therapist.

I was accepted into a strong (mostly unfunded) PsyD program. I received a funding package to cover basically 1.5 years of 5 years.

I was accepted into the joint MSW/PhD at Rutgers in Social Work. I received full funding for my coursework plus grad assistantship position. I'm quite excited because of the strength of the school, their opportunities for global social work, and the diversity within the faculty.

Here's my concern and hesitation: I really see my future as a clinician -either private practice for a clinical research institute for adolescents/anxiety. My background is in academia and international relations so the idea of doing research is exciting but I haven't quite landed on this as my ultimate endgame, at least at the moment. The Rutgers' PhD portion of the joint program is policy- research focused, which does fit me better than say a quantitative psychology PhD. That said- i think my training as a clinician would be stronger in the PsyD program -- but probably not worth the 6-figure debt.

Any thoughts? Words of advice? I naturally am fit for a social work program for sure, but just want to justify the clinical training.

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[singasongofjoy]

Take this with a grain of salt because I already responded to your post on the other board, but Rutgers has a good reputation (I'm not even in social work and I know it has a good reputation, so that means something I think). If social work is anything at all like psychology programs, you are not going to get any less training in clinical work just because you are doing research (in psychology, PhD students generally have just as much - and often more- clinical hours by the time they apply to internship as do the PsyD students. You just have to do research on top of that.... and sometimes they dovetail, like when you're doing intervention research, so you're getting both simultaneously some of the time). The exposure to research will make you a better clinician because you'll be able to discern they hooey from the legit stuff once you're out in the field and new interventions/approaches are being popularized, and that is very important. If I were in your shoes, I think it would be a pretty easy choice to go to Rutgers, with the caveat that you said you wanted to do ASD work specifically, so idk if you want to look at programs that have professors who specifically focus on ASD/IDD. Maybe Rutgers has that, I don't know.

 

[DCDMB]

Take this with a grain of salt because I already responded to your post on the other board, but Rutgers has a good reputation (I'm not even in social work and I know it has a good reputation, so that means something I think). If social work is anything at all like psychology programs, you are not going to get any less training in clinical work just because you are doing research (in psychology, PhD students generally have just as much - and often more- clinical hours by the time they apply to internship as do the PsyD students. You just have to do research on top of that.... and sometimes they dovetail, like when you're doing intervention research, so you're getting both simultaneously some of the time). The exposure to research will make you a better clinician because you'll be able to discern they hooey from the legit stuff once you're out in the field and new interventions/approaches are being popularized, and that is very important. If I were in your shoes, I think it would be a pretty easy choice to go to Rutgers, with the caveat that you said you wanted to do ASD work specifically, so idk if you want to look at programs that have professors who specifically focus on ASD/IDD. Maybe Rutgers has that, I don't know.

Thanks! some thoughtful tips in there that I didn't think about.

 

[aftermidnight]

I am in a bit of a predicament- I posted this on the psych thread but wanted to the perspective of this thread. I applied to PsyD and PhD programs in Clinical Psychology as well as Rutgers' MSW/PhD Social Work joint program at the recommendation of a former faulty member who said that it would be a good choice for someone who has a strong passion for including social justice framework into my psychotherapy, that social work might be a good option and leading to an LCSW would make me just as strong a therapist.

I was accepted into a strong (mostly unfunded) PsyD program. I received a funding package to cover basically 1.5 years of 5 years.

I was accepted into the joint MSW/PhD at Rutgers in Social Work. I received full funding for my coursework plus grad assistantship position. I'm quite excited because of the strength of the school, their opportunities for global social work, and the diversity within the faculty.

Here's my concern and hesitation: I really see my future as a clinician -either private practice for a clinical research institute for adolescents/anxiety. My background is in academia and international relations so the idea of doing research is exciting but I haven't quite landed on this as my ultimate endgame, at least at the moment. The Rutgers' PhD portion of the joint program is policy- research focused, which does fit me better than say a quantitative psychology PhD. That said- i think my training as a clinician would be stronger in the PsyD program -- but probably not worth the 6-figure debt.

Any thoughts? Words of advice? I naturally am fit for a social work program for sure, but just want to justify the clinical training.

For the record, I'll say up front that I'm a clinical social worker. I work alongside mostly psychologists in clinic doing psychotherapy. Although I identify strongly as a social worker now, the main reason I picked the MSW path was funding, and I feel like it's really paid off for me. So, I would encourage you to consider the funded route. From what I know about Rutgers social work program, I think you would get a quality experience. It would be hard to justify passing that up in favor of what could be quite a large amount of debt. Plus, since far fewer social work clinicians have doctorate degrees, you can be quite valuable in an academic setting if you ever chose to go that route. The market is not flooded with PhD's in social work, unlike some other fields.

 

[priormatt]

For the record, I'll say up front that I'm a clinical social worker. I work alongside mostly psychologists in clinic doing psychotherapy. Although I identify strongly as a social worker now, the main reason I picked the MSW path was funding, and I feel like it's really paid off for me. So, I would encourage you to consider the funded route. From what I know about Rutgers social work program, I think you would get a quality experience. It would be hard to justify passing that up in favor of what could be quite a large amount of debt. Plus, since far fewer social work clinicians have doctorate degrees, you can be quite valuable in an academic setting if you ever chose to go that route. The market is not flooded with PhD's in social work, unlike some other fields.

That's nice experience so far working as a social work in psychologists. Glad to know about yourself.