This isn't true for most graduate programs in most subjects, right? So why is it almost always true for Clinical Psychology programs?
why do Clinical Psychology students get free tuition and a stipend?
- Thread starter Orraccle
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The best parts aren't even the tuition and stipends; the best parts are the free caddies and Cohiba cigars!
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To the best of my knowledge, most doctoral students in other programs of study do indeed receive tuition remissions and stipends. In fact, clinical psychology students--compared to my friends in other fields such as math, engineering, and life sciences--are on the lower end of the pay spectrum (their stipends were more similar to what we make on our internship year).
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Actually, it is true of most PhD programs across the board, and it is also true of many other areas in psychology (cognitive, social, developmental etc), and as AcronymAllergy noted above, in some areas like math and engineering the stipend is often a lot better than in Psychology.
Also, it is not true of all Clinical Psychology programs. It tends to actually be limited to university based PhD programs and some university based PsyD programs.
One of the many explanations that I have heard for why most PhD students receive funding (unlike lawyers or med students) is that the number of years to degree completion is relatively long, and the likely job opportunities after attaining your degree are likely to be low yield jobs in terms of salaries. If PhD students were to come out of school with the same degree of debt as many med students, they could not afford to take university positions because they have a much lower ceiling of earning potential, thus eliminating the cycle of new blood into academic institutions. Additionally, the graduate school process is so intense, it is unlikely that students in PhD programs could have part time jobs outside of the program to help pay for living costs and tuition.
Finally, most graduate students (in clinical or otherwise) with financial support rarely get it for "free". At our university, if you are being supported by the department/university it means that you essentially have a part time job. The job might be as a research assistant, teaching assistant, or at a clinical placement. These positions are typically on top of your other obligations as a student.
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This point in particular is very true. Many doctoral students in various programs work as instructors or TAs, and are significantly cheaper than even adjunct professors when it comes to teaching undergraduate classes. And I know that for our program specifically, those students who work at the university clinic will often bring in more money to the school than they are paid.
As for RAs, many of those students are paid by professors' grants. And remember that universities LOVE grants (considering the university gets a nice chunk of change from the grant-giving institution). Thus, these students also, in their own way, make money for the university while increasing its renown.
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Are you sure about this point? Adjunct professors only make 3-5K per undergrad course.
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I'd probably been thinking of graduate class pay rates when I made that statement. Although based on our program, adjunct and grad students teaching undergrad courses look to make about the same amount of money.
What happens if you find that you can't handle a part time job on top of all your coursework? Are you allowed to "quit" the part time job without quitting the program?
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TA'ing/RA'ing is common for graduate programs, and often is not optional in the way you'd think of a part-time job. A certain amount of funding is linked to that position. Sometimes a specific $ amount ($5k for x/hr per week for the semester) is given, other times it is teaching a class and having a certain # of credits waived for you that semester. I am sure there are cases where a student cannot TA or RA for a period of time, and that is worked out on a case by case basis. I had a friend negotiate to have her first semester "free" from TA responsibilities because she wanted to settle in, though she took on that responsibility in the Spring semester.
The university may expect you to spend at least 10hr/wk in the lab doing research work (if you are an RA) and/or teach/help with an Intro to Research Methods class (if you are a TA). There can be some variance between programs/universities. For instance, I spent one of my summers as an RA on a research project that gave a flat $ for a set # of hours over a finite amount of time (10 weeks). It is best to speak to each program about their finance packages and expectations.
