what's tougher to get into?

[solar3000]

as everyone knows already, clinical psych programs are hard to get into.
i was curious to know how these programs compare with Neuropsychology PhD programs?
Which are tougher to get accepted to? why? what are the differences in acceptance?

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[erg923]

In the US at least, all neuropsychology programs are just specialty concentrations (or tracks) within clinical psychology Ph.D. programs. They are not separate programs from clinical psychology. They are one in the same. The only exception that I know of to this is Queens College which offers experimental and "clinical neuropsychology" doctoral programs proper. Neuropsychology as a specialty tends to be the most competitive after graduate school actually. This is because of the limited number of internships sites designated for providing formal post-doctoral training in neuropsychology. It is also competitve because it is arguably the most complex specialty within psychology and basically involves in depth knowledge of 2 separate disciplines: clinical psychology and neuroscience/neuroanatomy. It requires numerous skill sets, including competence in statistics, measurement, psychometrics, functional neuroanatomy, and knowledge of neurologic illness as well as psychiatric illness and the neuropathology underlying them.

 

[JackD]

It is also competitve because it is arguably the most complex specialty within psychology..... It requires numerous skill sets

You aren't kiddin', at least from what i have seen. I go to a major regional university with a massive psychology department. Out of all of the professors (there are a lot), there are only two neuropsychologists. They seem like the most knowledgeable about their area of study than any of the other professors. You can't stump them, they seem to know everything. Plus, their expertise isn't limited to the brain, they have a ton of knowledge of medicine and human anatomy. I have a class with one of these professors right now and i thought he was a psychiatrist at first, just based on the amount the kind of stuff he knew.

I would guess that your drive has to be even beyond the average clinical psychologist to want to become a neuropsychologist. It seems like a tough, complex, and competitive field.