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INSIDER’S GUIDE TO GRADUATE

PROGRAMS IN CLINICAL

AND COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

INSIDER’S GUIDE

to Graduate Programs

in Clinical and

Counseling Psychology

2008/2009 Edition

John C. Norcross

Michael A. Sayette

Tracy J. Mayne

THE GUILFORD PRESS

New York London

© 2008 The Guilford Press

A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.

72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

www.guilford.com

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise,

without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN-10: 1-59385-258-4

ISBN-13: 978-1-59385-258-0

ISSN 1086-2099

v

Tables and Figures vii

About the Authors ix

Acknowledgments xi

Preface xiii

Chapter 1. Introducing Clinical and Counseling Psychology 1

Clinical and Counseling Psychology 1

Combined Programs 5

The Boulder Model (Ph.D.) 5

The Vail Model (Psy.D.) 6

Differences between Boulder and Vail Programs 7

A Word on Accreditation 9

Online Graduate Programs 11

Practice Alternatives 12

Research Alternatives 14

On “Backdoor” Clinicians 16

To Reiterate Our Purpose 16

Our Approach 17

Chapter 2. Preparing for Graduate School 18

Different Situations, Different Needs 18

A Master’s Degree First 20

Graduate School Selection Criteria 21

Course Work 23

Faculty Mentoring 25

Clinical Experience 26

Research Skills 28

Entrance Examinations 33

Extracurricular Activities 39

Chapter 3. Getting Started 41

Common Misconceptions 41

Acceptance Rates 42

Costs of Applying 43

Starting Early 43

For the Research Oriented and Dually Committed 45

For the Practice Oriented 50

For the Racial/Ethnic Minority Applicant 51

For the LGBT Applicant 52

For the Disabled Applicant 54

Assessing Program Criteria 54

CONTENTS

vi

CONTENTS

Chapter 4. Selecting Schools 59

A Multitude of Considerations 59

Research Interests 60

Clinical Opportunities 61

Theoretical Orientations 64

Financial Aid 66

Quality of Life 69

Putting It All Together 69

Chapter 5. Applying to Programs 72

How Many 72

Application Form 73

Curriculum Vitae 74

Personal Statements 77

Letters of Recommendation 80

Transcripts and GRE Scores 85

Unsolicited Documents 86

Application Fees 87

Check and Recheck 87

Chapter 6. Mastering the Interview 89

Interview Strategically 90

The Dual Purpose 90

Rehearsal and Mock Interviews 91

Interview Attire 92

Travel Arrangements 92

Interview Style 94

Stressful Questions 96

Group Interviews 98

Additional Tips 98

Telephone Interviews 99

A Note of Thanks 100

The Wait 101

Chapter 7. Making Final Decisions 102

Acceptances and Rejections 102

The Financial Package 104

The Alternate List 106

Decision Making 106

Finalizing Arrangements 107

If Not Accepted 108

Two Final Words 110

Reports on Combined Psychology Programs 111

Reports on Individual Clinical Psychology Programs 121

Reports on Individual Counseling Psychology Programs 275

Appendix A. Time Line 321

Appendix B. Worksheet for Choosing Programs 323

Appendix C. Worksheet for Assessing Program Criteria 325

Appendix D. Worksheet for Making Final Choices 326

Appendix E. Research Areas 327

Appendix F. Specialty Clinics and Practica Sites 359

Appendix G. Program Concentrations and Tracks 379

References 385

vii

Tables

1-1 Popularity and Doctorate Production of Psychology Subfields 2

1-2 Professional Activities of Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 4

1-3 APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Programs That Are Members 6

of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science (APCS)

1-4 APA-Accredited Psy.D. Programs in Clinical Psychology 8

2-1 Importance of Various Criteria in Psychology Admissions Decisions 22

2-2 Importance Assigned by Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programs to 22

Various Types of Undergraduate Preparation

2-3 Undergraduate Courses Required or Recommended by APA-Accredited 23

Clinical Psychology Programs

2-4 Minimum GRE Scores Preferred by APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Programs 35

2-5 Comparison of the GRE General Test and the GRE Psychology Subject Test 37

3-1 Average Acceptance Rates for APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Programs 42

3-2 Institutions with Most Citations, Most Papers, and Strongest Clinical 46–47

Faculty Production in Psychology

3-3 Institutional Origins of Clinical and Counseling Psychology 49

Diplomates and Fellows

4-1 Questions to Ask about Psy.D. Programs 65

4-2 Theoretical Orientations of Faculty in APA-Accredited Clinical and 65

Counseling Psychology Programs

4-3 Percentage of Students Recieving Financial Aid in APA-Accredited 67

Clinical Psychology Programs

5-1 Professors’ Pet Peeves: Avoiding Neutral Letters of Recommendation 81

6-1 Common Interview Questions to Anticipate 91

6-2 Interview Questions an Applicant Might Ask 95

7-1 Student Reasons for Choosing a Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program 103

7-2 Median Tuition Costs in Psychology by Institution Type and Degree Level 105

7-3 Median Assistantship Stipends in Psychology 106

Figures

3-1 Sample E-mail Requesting Application and Information 58

4-1 Sample E-mail of Introduction—Research Oriented 62

4-2 Sample E-mail of Introduction—Practice Oriented 63

5-1 One Format for Curriculum Vitae 75

5-2 Another Format for Curriculum Vitae 76

5-3 Portion of a Sample Autobiographical Statement 80

5-4 Sample Letter to Request a Letter of Recommendation 83

6-1 Preadmission Interview Policies of APA-Accredited Programs 89

6-2 Sample Telephone Card 99

6-3 Sample Letter of Appreciation to an Interviewer 100

7-1 Sample Letter of Acceptance 108

7-2 Sample Letter Declining an Admission Offer 109

TABLES AND

FIGURES

ix

John C. Norcross received his baccalaureate summa cum laude from Rutgers University. He

earned his master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island

and completed his internship at the Brown University School of Medicine. He is Professor of

Psychology and Distinguished University Fellow at the University of Scranton, a clinical psy￾chologist in independent practice, and editor of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session.

He is president-elect of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Clinical Psychol￾ogy and past-president of the APA Division of Psychotherapy. Dr. Norcross has published

more than 250 articles and has authored or edited 16 books, the most recent being Leaving

It at the Office: A Guide to Psychotherapist Self-Care, Clinician’s Guide to Evidence-Based

Practice in Mental Health, Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health, and

Psychotherapy Relationships That Work. Among his awards are the Pennsylvania Professor of

the Year from the Carnegie Foundation, Distinguished Practitioner from the National Acade￾mies of Practice, and the Distinguished Career Contribution to Education and Training Award

from the American Psychological Association. Dr. Norcross has conducted workshops and

research on graduate study in psychology for many years.

Michael A. Sayette received his baccalaureate cum laude from Dartmouth College. He earned

his master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University and completed his

internship at the Brown University School of Medicine. He is Professor of Psychology at

the University of Pittsburgh, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Psychiatry at the

Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr.

Sayette has published primarily in the area of substance abuse. His research, supported by

the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and by the National Institute on

Drug Abuse, concerns the development of psychological theories of alcohol and tobacco

use. He has served on National Institutes of Health grant review study sections and is on the

editorial boards of several journals. He also is an associate editor of Journal of Abnormal

Psychology and a former associate editor of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Dr. Sayette

has directed graduate admissions for the clinical psychology program at the University of

Pittsburgh, and has presented seminars on applying to graduate school at several universities

in North America and Europe.

Tracy J. Mayne received his baccalaureate from the State University of New York at Buf￾falo, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Ph.D. as

an Honors Fellow from Rutgers University and completed his internship and postdoctoral

ABOUT THE

AUTHORS

x

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School and the Center for

AIDS Prevention Studies. He spent 2 years as an international scholar at the Institut Na￾tionale de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale in France and 3 years as the Director of HIV

Epidemiology and Surveillance at the New York City Department of Health, where he re￾ceived the Commissioner’s Award for Outstanding Community Research. Dr. Mayne spent

5 years conducting research in cardiovascular medicine at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and cur￾rently works in Global Health Economics at Amgen Inc., conducting research in cancer￾supportive therapies. Dr. Mayne has published numerous articles and chapters in the area of

health psychology, health economics, and emotion, and is the coeditor of Emotions: Current

Issues and Future Directions, published by The Guilford Press.

xi

To paraphrase John Donne, no book is an island, entire of itself. This sentiment is par￾ticularly true of a collaborative venture such as ours: a coauthored volume in its tenth

edition comprising the contributions of hundreds of psychologists and of reports on

doctoral programs provided by training directors throughout North America. We are grateful

to them all.

We are also indebted to the many friends, colleagues, and workshop participants for

their assistance in improving this book over the years. Special thanks to Jeannette Ellis, who

collected and organized data on individual program reports, as well as Krystle Evans for con￾ducting data analysis for this edition. William Burke, Director of Financial Aid at the University

of Scranton, updates our sections on financial aid and loan options every two years. Seymour

Weingarten and his associates at The Guilford Press have continued to provide interpersonal

support and technical assistance on all aspects of the project. Special thanks to our families

for their unflagging support and patience with late night work!

Finally, our efforts have been aided immeasurably by our students, graduate and under￾graduate alike, who courageously shared their experiences with us about the application

and admission process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

xiii

One of the benefits of applying to clinical and counseling psychology programs is that

you earn the right to commiserate about it afterwards. It was a night of anecdotes and

complaints (while doing laundry) that led us to review our travails and compare

notes on the difficulties we each experienced during the admission process. We emerged

from three diverse backgrounds: one of us (T.J.M.) graduated from a large state university,

took time off, and then entered a doctoral program; one of us (M.A.S.) graduated from a pri￾vate liberal arts college and immediately pursued a doctorate; and another one of us (J.C.N.)

graduated from a liberal arts college within a major state university after 5 years and then

pursued doctoral studies.

Although we approached graduate school in different ways, the process was much the

same. We each attempted to locate specific information on clinical and counseling psychol￾ogy admissions, looked to people around us for advice, took that which seemed to be

sound, and worked with it. Not all the advice was good (one professor went so far as to

suggest a career in the theater instead!), and it was difficult to decide what was best when

advice conflicted.

All in all, there was too little factual information available and too much unnecessary

anxiety involved. No clearly defined or organized system was available to guide us through

this process. So we decided to write an Insider’s Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical

and Counseling Psychology. That was 10 editions, 20 years, and 100,000 copies ago.

The last dozen years have seen the entire process of choosing schools and applying

become progressively more difficult. Approximately 76,000 bachelor’s degrees are awarded

every year in psychology, and about 20% of the recipients go on to earn a master’s or doc￾toral degree in psychology. Clinical and counseling psychology programs continue to grow

in number and to diversify in mission: 232 APA-accredited doctoral programs in clinical psy￾chology, 67 APA-accredited doctoral programs in counseling psychology, 10 APA-accredited

programs in combined psychology, dozens of non-APA-accredited doctoral programs, and

hundreds of master’s programs.

How should you prepare for admission into these graduate programs? Which should

you apply to? And which type of program is best for you—counseling or clinical, practice￾oriented Psy.D. or research-oriented Ph.D.? We shall take you step by step through this con￾fusing morass and help you make informed decisions suited to your needs and interests.

In clear and concise language, we assist you through this process, from the initial deci￾sion to apply through your final acceptance. In Chapter 1, we describe the predominant train￾ing models in clinical and counseling psychology and alternatives to these disciplines. In the

PREFACE

xiv

PREFACE

next chapter, we discuss the essential preparation for graduate school—the course work,

faculty mentoring, clinical experiences, research skills, entrance examinations, and extracur￾ricular activities. From there, in Chapter 3, we get you started on the application process and

assist you in understanding admission requirements. In Chapter 4, we show you how to sys￾tematically select schools on the basis of multiple considerations, especially research interests,

clinical opportunities, theoretical orientations, financial assistance, and quality of life. Then

in Chapter 5, we take you through the application procedure itself—forms, curricula vitae,

personal statements, letters of recommendation, academic transcripts, and the like. In Chap￾ter 6, we review the perils and promises of the interview, required by three-quarters of clinical

and counseling psychology programs. Last, in Chapter 7, we walk you through the com￾plexities of the final decisions. With multiple worksheets and concrete examples, we will help

you feel less overwhelmed, better informed, and, in the end, more aware that you are the

consumer of a program that best suits your needs.

In this new edition, we provide:

• listings of each program’s concentrations and speciality tracks (Appendix G)

• updates on financial assistance and government-sponsored loans

• discussion of APA’s decision to discontinue its accreditation of Canadian programs

• enhanced coverage of acceptance rates

• data on each program’s attrition (dropout) rate

• a section for applicants with disabilities

In addition, we describe how you can capitalize on the Internet revolution to ease the

graduate school admissions process—locating compatible programs, communicating with

potential faculty mentors, submitting application forms, and helping faculty send letters

of recommendation electronically. We also provide specific advice for racial/ethnic minority

and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) applicants. Throughout the book, we

provide Web sites to access for additional information and direction.

We have conducted original studies on graduate psychology programs for this book in

an effort to inform your decision making. These results provide information on the differ￾ences between clinical and counseling psychology (Chapter 1), the distinctions between

Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs (Chapter 1), the importance of various graduate school selection

criteria (Chapter 2), acceptance rates (Chapter 3), the probability of financial assistance

(Chapter 4), interview policies (Chapter 6), research areas (Appendix E), clinical and prac￾tica sites (Appendix F), and more. Indeed, we have extensively surveyed all APA-accredited

programs in clinical, counseling, and combined psychology for 20 years now and present

detailed information on each in the Reports on Individual Programs. A detailed Time Line

(Appendix A) and multiple worksheets (Appendices B, C, and D) also provide assistance on

the heretofore treacherous journey of applying to graduate programs in clinical and coun￾seling psychology.

This volume will assist anyone seeking admission to graduate school in clinical and

counseling psychology, both master’s and doctoral degrees. However, the primary focus is on

Ph.D. and Psy.D. applicants, as the doctorate is the entry-level qualification for professional

psychology. Just as a master’s degree in biology does not make one a physician, a master’s

in psychology does not, by state licensure and APA regulation, typically qualify one as a psy￾chologist. Forty-eight states require the doctorate for licensure or certification as a psycholo￾gist; almost half the states grant legal recognition of psychological associates, assistants, or

examiners with a master’s degree (APA Practice Directorate, 1999). But the material presented

here is relevant for master’s (M.A. or M.S.) applicants as well.

With this practical manual, we wish you an application process less hectic and confus￾ing than ours, but equally rewarding in the end result. Good luck!