Kevin Yabes askes "What are your
thoughts on PhD versus PsyD
and clinical versus counseling psychology.
The first thing you need to ask yourself is
do you even need a doctorate
in psychology field?
If the most important thing you want to do
is psychotherapy then there
are other paths available to
you at the masters level
that might take a lot less time
and cost a lot less money
and run up a lot less student
debt. The reason I decided to pursue
a doctorate in psychology is I
really really loved psychology
and I wasn't sure if I wanted
to just focus on psychotherapy
or if I wanted to do other things
like training
and education
and program development
and a lot of things
that might be just a little bit
easier with a doctorate.
The next question is
what you want to do
as a psychologist?
If you're someone who's interested primarily
going into research
and if you're also someone who is not going
into a health service
field or patient therapy
treatment field you're going to get a Ph.D...That's
it. Done deal.
If you're interested in clinical
/ counseling and treatment then
that it gets a little complicated.
Ph.D. is the older degree
and it's the model's supposed
to be clinical scientists where
you do get exposure to
treatments
but also the research
behind them.
The PsyD is a newer degree
and it's supposed to be modeled more
around like an M.D. where it's just
focused on understanding
the practice of psychology.
Here's the thing. It doesn't matter
too much unless you're at the
extremes.
If you really just want to
do research in clinical psychology
like if you really just want to
understand OCD
or eating disorders
or study treatments
but not necessarily want to be practicing
how to treat those things
or applying those treatments
then definitely focus on a Ph.D.
and if you really really really just
want to focus on practice at
the doctorate level as a psychologist
then maybe you do want to pursue
Psy.D. I've seen people in the research
world who have
Ph.Ds. and Psy.D.s.
I've seen people in the practice world who
have Psy.D.s
and Ph.D.
What tends to matter much more
is the quality of your
training
and the experiences you're getting.
The number one thing you want to look at is
whether or not the program you're applying
to is accredited.
What accreditation does is it gives you set
standards that you can expect
in your graduate training.
Next I want you to focus on the cost
and debt.
A lot of people end up taking loans
just to be able to afford everything
that goes along
with graduate school.
I'm going to display the data right
now about how common it is
to have debt in graduate school
and psychology and I wish I'd
thought about that more before I went into grad
school because I came out
with about $120,000
in debt.
And that's from a program where I got assistantship
and I got help getting through graduate school.
The next thing you want to focus on is
a match between the interests of
the program what they focus on
their strengths and what you want to
study what you want to learn
what you want to become an expert
at.
I worked on my program's admissions
committee in graduate school
and that's the number one thing we
looked at is most people had a good
GPA. Most people had great letters
of recommendation.
They had interesting experiences
but did they have that match?
Finally what are people doing
when they graduate from
this program?
What type of jobs do they have.
Do their work in hospitals,
private practice,
program development,
teaching, academia what kind
of stuff are people doing
and does this match what you want
to do? If you're unsure about all
of this about where you want to focus
what you want to be doing then
please please please ask a psychologist.
Ask your faculty.
Find someone through Psy Chi
or even find a psychologist in
your local community who is
doing the kind of stuff you want to do
and ask them if
you can just meet with them for
a few minutes or if you can have a short phone
call and ask them what it's like.
What an average day in their job
is like.
Ask them what their favorite parts of the job are
what are the stressful parts.
Ask them for their recommendations on graduate
programs.
That is the best way to figure
all of this stuff out.
Special thanks to Kevin for submitting
this question.
If you want to see your question answered
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And thank you again for