sophia

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markglt

markglt

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The Clinical PsyD program is not APA accredited. This will be a high hurdle to getting predoctoral internships (required for licensure), and it may also disqualify you from getting licensed in many states. Without the accreditation, it is Not clear that the program meets minimum standards for effective training and thus licensure in any state. It’s expensive, and there is no evidence on the website that any funding is available. They don’t publish their admissions data and outcomes, so you can’t see important data regarding cohort sizes, internship match trends, attrition, and licensure status of graduates. The “faculty” section of the website lists only 2 (!j people, and only gives bio for one of them (doesn’t even give degree of the second one). If you are looking for a program to prepare you for licensure and employment as a clinical psychologist, all these things are HUGE red flags.
 
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Agree completely with @ClinicalABA. Your program needs to be APA accredited or else licensure will be a difficult process (it could be a difficult process for other reasons, but state licensure boards will normally accept the training of a program if it was APA accredited at the time of an applicant for licensure’s graduation from said program). If it was not accredited, you will need to submit documentation attesting to the quality of the education you received, such as syllabi, for them to look over, and there is absolutely no guarantee they will accept the training. In addition, before you even get to licensure, a great deal of internships listed in APPIC (and all internships accredited by APA) require that you come from an APA accredited program to even apply. I can speak from my experience, every post-licensure position I have held interest has required completion of an APA accredited program and internship.

I don’t suggest closing doors before your education has even begun.
 
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Thank you for your responses. I was referring to their PhD program in transpersonal psychology; not the psyd program...
 
markglt said:
Thank you for your responses. I was referring to their PhD program in transpersonal psychology; not the psyd program...
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That program also does not appear designed to prepare or qualify students for licensure or occupation as an applied psychologist. It seems geared towards people who already have a masters degree. I may provide already practicing (i.e., under a masters level credential) an additional therapeutic skillset (I am not aware of the methods or research support for transpersonal psychology), but it does not appear to lead to additional credentialing (and remember- in many states labeling yourself as Ph.D,, doctor, etc. while practicing under a masters level license is against the rules!).

A lot of it depends on what your goals are. If you are masters level clinician who wants to learn more about transpersonal psychology and is not really concerned about the cost of the program, it might be ok. If you are going in with the expectation that it will prepare/qualify you for initial or additional credential, licensure, etc. (and resultant increase in opportunity or income to offset the cost of the program), than it's probably not going to help you meet that goal. If you are looking for a Ph.D. because you are interested in an academic/research career (which is the modal path for recipients of non-applied/licensable psych doctorates), then you should most definitely look elsewhere.

I want to emphasize that i do not know what transpersonal psychology is or if it has and empirical support for use in applied settings.
 
markglt said:
Thank you for your responses. I was referring to their PhD program in transpersonal psychology; not the psyd program...
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Both programs sound like scams. Is there any particular reason why you're looking into "transpersonal psychology?" You wouldn't be able to get licensed with that degree anywhere.
 
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I had to google exactly what transpersonal means. And apparently Sophia is the best (maybe only?) place for that sort of psychology. Though, I have never heard of transpersonal psychology till now.
 
mypointlesspov said:
Both programs sound like scams. Is there any particular reason why you're looking into "transpersonal psychology?" You wouldn't be able to get licensed with that degree anywhere.
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Closely related to this: what's your goal for pursuing the Ph.D.?
 
If there’s only one school that issues degrees in that area of study, that should tell us something...

Look at the licensure requirements for the state in which you’d like to practice (if clinical practice is your intention). They are specific as to what areas are permissible as far as the area of study that the PhD or PsyD may be.
 
Sofia is a little girls name. Who the hell would name a name a university this?
 
There is nothing about this program that appears remotely legitimate, let alone worth attending? The only faculty member with a bio (from what I could find - the chair) lists a bunch of publications that either: A) Do not exist (or at least are not findable by google scholar - which indexes even the crappiest of crappy journals); or B) Are not actually written by said department chair or anyone else in the department. Also none of them appear to be related to transpersonal psychology?

Even as crummy fly-by-night devry-type-schools go...this seems tragically terrible. If they can't even invest the effort to make their website appear legitimate, how much will they invest in your education?
 
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Thanks for your responses. This would not be for licensure. Largely to get a deeper knowledge base in research methodology and some counseling theory.
 
markglt said:
Thanks for your responses. This would not be for licensure. Largely to get a deeper knowledge base in research methodology and some counseling theory.
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Seems like an awfully expensive way to increase your knowledge without much practical benefit (i.e., job opportunities). Regardless, it's a an unaccredited PsyD program, which means that there is going to be far less research experience than in the average PhD program.

markglt said:
www.regent.edu

Ph.D. in Counseling & Psychological Studies – Addictions Counseling

Receive the knowledge & skills to break new ground in behavioral health through Regent's online addiction counseling degree.
www.regent.edu

was considering this program..if anyone is familiar with it
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Just say "no" to online doctorates.
 
If you're currently a medical resident, possibly look into a research or counseling-focused fellowship? Would get more bang for your buck than an online degree, especially at the doctoral level (for which no programs are currently very well regarded).
 
is regents psyD program strong? I know they have a strong law school..
 
markglt said:
is regents psyD program strong? I know they have a strong law school..
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They are APA accredited, so at least meet that minimum standard. Internship match seems good over past few years. 30k per year is very expansive, and combined with some high attrition rates (~20% over past five reported years) is a big red flag. Many students are potentially losing a lot of money.

This program is designed to prepare for licensure. Have you changed your training goals?
 
It might help if you could share more about what specifically you want to do. Its tough to figure out and from our perspective it seems like your only real interest is in attending terrible schools. Regent is certainly a step up from Sofia, but is not exactly a respected name in the field (in part because of their historical stance towards certain issues, but even so...it is by all metrics a weaker program than most).

We see these threads a lot and it usually results in us playing wack-a-mole with terrible schools until the OP gets frustrated and storms off having never heard about the 137 excellent programs they could have attended for free instead of paying 100k/year for Jimmy's bargain psychotherapy-training outlet (with rock-bottom prices!) he operates out of the shed in his backyard.

So let's cut to the chase.:
1) Research methodology? What specifically? Clinical trials? Statistics? Laboratory research? Survey research?
2) Counseling theory? What kinds of theories?
3) In both cases - What do you want to actually do with the information you will learn?

Help us help you;)
 
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Jegg said:
Dammit. I was hoping I’d open this thread and find a love poem...
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The fact that you didn't might serve as an indictment of modern psychology.
 
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