University Psyd Programs

[Syzygy117]

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From my research online and on SDN it seems like a APA accredited University Psyd program is the way to go for me.

I am having a tough time finding many programs out there.
I've found:

Updated (6.26.10)
Antioch University New England
Baylor
Rutgers
George Washington
Pepperdine
Marywood
Indiana of Pennsylvania (olychick65)
Virginia Consortium (olychick65)
PGSP-Stanford Consortium (spike 8)
Loyola (Therapist4Chnge)
Wright State University (medium rare)
Indiana State University (futureapppsy2)
Nova Southeastern University (futureapppsy2)
University of Denver (A Gooz)
Widener University (lamorena)

Could I get some help with my list? 😀

 

[olychick65]

I've heard good things about Indiana of Pennsylvania and the Virginia Consortium.

 

[spike 8]

PGSP-Stanford Consortium
(1/2 prof school and 1/2 university based)

 

[psychmama]

Rutgers is a solid program.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Loyola (MD) is a solid program.

 

[medium rare]

Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio) has an excellent program.

 

[futureapppsy2]

USC (assuming that's what you mean by "Southern Cali") doesn't have a PsyD program.

Also, Indiana State University (different from Indiana U-Penn) has a solid PsyD program.

Nova Southeastern University as well.

 

[A Gooz]

Univ of Denver

 

[lamorena]

.

 

[Syzygy117]

Thank you everyone for the list of schools. Discovering a larger list of schools makes me feel a little more confident that I will find a quality match for myself in the future. 👍

 

[melon1129]

the "Insider's Guide to Grad School in Clinical and Counseling Psy" is a great book that has a list of all the PhD and PsyD programs. It also gives some stats abt their internship match rates, gre scores, how many apply and get accepted, areas of research at the program etc.

 

[PhDToBe]

Nova Southeastern does not have a great reputation, from my understanding. My advisor knows some great forensic faculty there, but I have heard from him and others that it is laughed at. I also know a girl who was able to transfer from the Psy.D. to the Ph.D. just because she wanted to, which can be viewed as a good or bad thing. They take very low GRE scores, too; again- a good and a bad thing. It costs an arm and a leg, too...

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I wouldn't recommend NSU now. The tuition has shot up, but the RA/TA/funding hasn't. It is university based, but between the cost of living and poor RA/TA funding, it isn't worth it. The students that work with the best faculty land at top internships/post-docs. The "average" students land spots, but they aren't anything to write home about. The bottom % students shouldn't have made it in the first place. The variance in student has been an issue for awhile, but the administration is slow to do anything. Bottom line, even though I think some of the faculty are amazing (neuro and forensic in particular), there are too many other issues to make it a worthwhile choice.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I wouldn't recommend NSU now. The tuition has shot up, but the RA/TA/funding hasn't. It is university based, but between the cost of living and poor RA/TA funding, it isn't worth it. The students that work with the best faculty land at top internships/post-docs. The "average" students land spots, but they aren't anything to write home about. The bottom % students shouldn't have made it in the first place. The variance in student has been an issue for awhile, but the administration is slow to do anything. Bottom line, even though I think some of the faculty are amazing (neuro and forensic in particular), there are too many other issues to make it a worthwhile choice.

I actually think that funded/unfunded may be a better deciding point than university-based/non-university-based. Of the programs in the first post,

Antioch New England--unfunded
Rutgers--funded
Baylor--funded
George Washington--unfunded (?)
Pepperdine--unfunded
Marywood--(very) partially funded
IU-P--funded
Virgina Consortium--funded (though no longer guaranteed)
PGSP-Stanford--unfunded
Loyola (MD)--funded (?)
Wright State--funded/partially funded
Indiana State--funded/partially funded
Nova Southeastern--unfunded
University of Denver--unfunded
Widener--unfunded (?)

Also,

Roosevelt University--partially funded.
Marshall--partially funded

Feel free to correct me if any of these are wrong

 

[DrGero]

I actually think that funded/unfunded may be a better deciding point than university-based/non-university-based. Of the programs in the first post,

Antioch New England--unfunded
Rutgers--funded
Baylor--funded
George Washington--unfunded (?)
Pepperdine--unfunded
Marywood--(very) partially funded
IU-P--funded
Virgina Consortium--funded (though no longer guaranteed)
PGSP-Stanford--unfunded
Loyola (MD)--funded (?)
Wright State--funded/partially funded
Indiana State--funded/partially funded
Nova Southeastern--unfunded
University of Denver--unfunded
Widener--unfunded (?)

Also,

Roosevelt University--partially funded.
Marshall--partially funded

Feel free to correct me if any of these are wrong

Of that list, I'm only really familiar with PGSP (since I went there) and Rutgers, since I worked with a student from there when I was on internship at URMC in Piscataway. Rutgers seems like a quality program, and it appears tuition is roughly 1/2 of what it is at PGSP.

As an aside, PGSP does sound attractive for some because of the Stanford consortium and their training agreements with the Palo Alto VA. But you pay for that Stanford name and seal on your diploma. Not sure it's worth it.

 

[Hopefulhokie]

la salle is another univ-based psyd, but I don't think it's funded

 

[PhDToBe]

Loyola (MD) is partially funded

Xavier - partially funded

 

[Syzygy117]

I actually think that funded/unfunded may be a better deciding point than university-based/non-university-based. Of the programs in the first post,

What exactly does funding mean for the student? I thought it was simply
professional psyd program=debt
university psyd program=less/no debt, due to financial aid packages including assistant work, teaching undergrad class etc... 😕

 

[olychick65]

What exactly does funding mean for the student? I thought it was simply
professional psyd program=debt
university psyd program=less/no debt, due to financial aid packages including assistant work, teaching undergrad class etc... 😕

Not necessarily. You should look carefully at each program, because their "funding" packages are different. Some guarantee funding for every student they accept (although in PsyDs, this is less common), some don't guarantee but give full funding (tuition remission + stipend + health insurance [hopefully]) to every student or basically every student anyway, some give a range of funding to accepted students based on merit &/or need, and some don't fund at all.

University-based schools tend to do much better jobs on funding and taking in only as many students as they can fund, but that doesn't mean they fund everyone or fund enough to insure no debt. It's a big issue, and it's a definitely something to consider now before you apply- how much debt are you willing to take on?

 

[spike 8]

Of that list, I'm only really familiar with PGSP (since I went there) and Rutgers, since I worked with a student from there when I was on internship at URMC in Piscataway. Rutgers seems like a quality program, and it appears tuition is roughly 1/2 of what it is at PGSP.

As an aside, PGSP does sound attractive for some because of the Stanford consortium and their training agreements with the Palo Alto VA. But you pay for that Stanford name and seal on your diploma. Not sure it's worth it.

The PGSP-Stanford Consortium does offer some (very) partial funding in the form of fellowships. Also students who TA are paid for that. As with other unfunded PsyD and PhD programs, I believe the choice of whether to take on the debt is a personal one and depends on the quality of the program. I can attest that the PGSP-Stanford Consortium is a top-notch PsyD program.

 

[DrGero]

The PGSP-Stanford Consortium does offer some (very) partial funding in the form of fellowships. Also students who TA are paid for that. As with other unfunded PsyD and PhD programs, I believe the choice of whether to take on the debt is a personal one and depends on the quality of the program. I can attest that the PGSP-Stanford Consortium is a top-notch PsyD program.

When I graduated from PGSP (now PAU) we didn't have a PsyD program, or a consortium with Stanford.

APA internship match rates for this most recent year were 85% for the PhD program and 95% for the PsyD program, interestingly enough. I won't deny that sounds pretty good. And my practicum student that I supervised last year came from the PsyD program at PGSP.... and she was very, very good.

I just wonder about the cost. I started another thread where I asked about the ability of a graduate to finance their education. I'm certainly not one to talk b/c of the size of my loan principal (huge), but I pay a rate of 1.3 percent. Apparently all Stafford Unsubsidized loans are now at 6.8% minimum (subsidized loans are less, currently like 4 or 5 percent). At 150K principal (a not unreasonable debt load after leaving PGSP), that translates into needing at least 101K income to make your loan payments less than 10% of your income according to a Sallie Mae loan calculator I looked at.

So, If you can get a comparable education for 50% less (or more), I say go for it. If I had some sense about me I would have done so at the time - but when I went to PGSP I felt (perhaps wrongly so) constrained by geographics, so I stayed in the Palo Alto area and went to PGSP.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Debt load is definitely a concern, particularly when the rates are much higher than even 5 years ago. 6.8%+ doesn't sound like much, but the compound interest can really add up over the life of the loan. Making $100k a year (or more) is possible, but it can be significantly harder if the student doesn't secure solid training and placement opportunities. The reason I harp on APA-acred. programs and APA-acred internships is to help avoid the debt trap many students fall into. They get $150k in debt, but can only find $50k/yr jobs. When considering programs, definitely look at the financials, because debt will stick around a lot longer than anything else.

 

[Neuropsych2be]

I have heard good things about Spalding University in Louisville Ky! They have a Psy.D. program that I seriously considered at one point.

 

[spike 8]

So, If you can get a comparable education for 50% less (or more), I say go for it. If I had some sense about me I would have done so at the time - but when I went to PGSP I felt (perhaps wrongly so) constrained by geographics, so I stayed in the Palo Alto area and went to PGSP.

I do agree with you- students need to go into their program full informed about the debt they are taking on and their plans for paying it back, while taking their personal situation into account. I think the point you made about a "comparable education" is really key. If program A has what the student wants in a program however Program B has even more of what the student wants but is more expensive, and the programs are of comparable quality and have comparable match rates, then it is up to the student to decide whether they feel taking on the extra debt is worth it. Where I see a much bigger problem is when students take out that amount of debt to attend a program that will not prepare them to obtain a quality internship and decent paying job. I don't see the programs above that we've been talking about as part of this problem. Quality of the program, internship match rates, and fit should be considered, as well as debt.

 

[psycathy]

There's also the University of Indianapolis, but since someone posted a question about it the other day in a separate thread to which no one's responded 🙂, perhaps there's not much to say about it? It is APA-accredited, though.