Switch from Experimental to Clinical

[3kg14]

Hello,

I am currently in my first year of a MA in Experimental Psychology (Thesis-based) and I will be finished by August 2012. I will be applying to PhD programs this fall/winter and am hoping to get into clinical psychology, although I am not currently in a clinical program. What are my chances of getting in? I know I will have to catch up on the clinically-related courses, but I will have completed coursework in advanced stats and a masters thesis which is clinically related (obsessive-compulsive behaviour). Thank you for your help.

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[futureapppsy2]

Moving to the clinical psych board.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Having an experimental degree is probably preferred to a more clinically-based masters program, as I think the coursework (research, stats, etc) will provide you a smaller learning curve. I'm not sure if/how many classes would be waived at the doctoral level, though the training definitely applies.

 

[PsychPhDone]

Depends on what program you end up in, but very little of your coursework may transfer. Our program requires that all core courses are taken here. It seems my classmates with Masters degrees also have to take their breadth coursework here, or at least most of it.

Anyway, in terms of admission...I'd say the same standards apply as someone without a Masters. The advantage you'd have is that you've presumably done an empirical thesis, which shows proof of independent research skills, and if you've done well in advanced stats, all the better.

 

[roubs]

Depends on what program you end up in, but very little of your coursework may transfer. Our program requires that all core courses are taken here. It seems my classmates with Masters degrees also have to take their breadth coursework here, or at least most of it.

Anyway, in terms of admission...I'd say the same standards apply as someone without a Masters. The advantage you'd have is that you've presumably done an empirical thesis, which shows proof of independent research skills, and if you've done well in advanced stats, all the better.

Good point, if you don't want to spend your money twice I'd shop around and find a Ph.D. program where you can get a straight answer on transferring credits. Some schools like to be cagey about this so I'd ask to talk to a few students who went in with a MS/MA from a different program and ask them how the process went with transferring classes/thesis.

 

[psyprog]

removing my post.

 

[3kg14]

Thanks everyone for your replies!