Reddit reviews Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology, Revised 2014/2015 Edition

If you value your training, education, and bank account, please, please do not go to any Alliant or Argosy program, or really any freestanding PsyD program if possible. The amount of debt you will incur is absolutely not worth the garbage training you will receive. In academic circles, at least, I have never met a psychologist, licensed or otherwise, who had any respect for these programs or their training models. The general consensus among everyone I have talked to is that these programs are essentially traps for people who don't have the academic credentials to obtain admission to a Ph.D program, but who really want to do therapy now instead of take a year to bolster their CV. The APA accredited internship match rates at Alliant are consistently terrible. San Diego had a disappointing 24% match rate last cycle, up from the previous year's 13%. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles location has APA accredited match rates between 6% and 0% and that's with 65 to 176 students applying per year.

If you want a good resource for researching PhD programs, I highly recommend the latest editions of Insider's Guide to Graduate Study in Clinical and Counseling Psychology and Graduate Study in Psychology. These books were both invaluable when I was applying, and I think the latter contains information on the therapeutic orientation of faculty members at most of the programs included (it's been a few years since I applied and I have blocked most of that process from my memory).

Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology

Was recommended by a Prof and it details everything you need to know to get started on graduate school stuff. It's seriously worth the investment, it will answer so many questions. Worth nothing this is primarily focused on the States with some minor focus on Canada. If you don't plan on studying in North America, the general info will still be helpful but a lot of it is about the individual programs.

To add to your second point, I'd check out The Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology as a more comprehensive guide to available programs. When I talk to prospective graduate students about choosing a clinical psych doctoral program, I tell them to look at

1. Cohort size - the smaller the better. Most PhD programs will have 5-7 students, while I've seen PsyD programs vary from 10-100+.
   
   
2. APA internship match rates - as close to 100% as possible. Due to the proliferation of for-profit schools with large cohort sizes, there are currently more students applying for internship than there are APA accredited internship spots in the U.S. Internship is important for licensure and some positions (e.g. federal) will not hire you without completing an APA accredited internship. Also quality of training at a non-accredited site can vary extremely.
   
   
3. EPPP pass rate - closer to 100% the better. EPPP is the national licensure test for psychologists. While it is difficult since it covers a wide variety of domains in psychology, including I/O psych which isn't covered in most clinical programs, good doctoral programs will have prepared their students well enough that their collective pass rates should be very high.
   
   
4. When you begin getting face-to-face hours with clients. In order to be competitive for many internship sites, you need to accrue a certain amount of intervention and assessment hours. Some programs backload the clinical portion of their training into the last 2 years, which is not preferable. Good programs will start you seeing clients in some form pretty early on (1-2 years in).
   
   
5. Stipend/Scholarship/Financial aid opportunities - PhD programs are typically funded, but you must publish or perish as recompense. For those not research inclined, that can be quite intimidating. Most PsyD programs do not fund tuition, although there are a fair amount that offer some form of scholarship. I've even seen a PsyD program (University of Denver) offer a full ride to someone. Any kind of financial assistance you can get for a PsyD program is great, since PsyD programs will typically run at least 20k per year.

Your plan sounds reasonable. A couple of years experience teaching would be valuable and look good on an application. I have heard that this is a good book on the topic:

http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Programs-Counseling-Psychology/dp/1462518133

Good luck!

In regards to your second question -- I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology. It will be an amazing tool and reference point when trying to decide on (or even search for) programs in the field.

https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Programs-Counseling-Psychology/dp/1462518133

No problem!

1. It's been a while, but I think this book helps to figure out the research requirements of the programs. In a general sense counseling programs seem to be more focused on practice, whereas clinical programs are more research/academia focused. Ultimately, you wont be able to completely know until you interview and talk to many current students/faculty. No matter where you go, your last year or two will be primarily focused on research.
   
   
2. I was the same way. I didn't look super hot on paper because I wasn't a superior student in undergrad. I'm in the midwest. No, where you go to school has little to do with where you end up, especially in smaller college towns where your city will most likely already be saturated with psychologists. California is a bit of a different story. Unless you go to school in CA, you'll probably need to take a few extra courses (psych of sexuality) to transfer your license. Our past faculty had to do that at age 50 to make the move to CA. Remember that you will most likely do your internship in another state, then look for a job in another state. Your nearly two years of clinical post-doc hours will give you plenty of time to fulfill state requirements.
   
   You can PM me if you would like more...

You're looking at the Clinical Psych program for UNC Chapel Hill -- I was pulling that information for the Counseling Clinical Psych program in Charlotte. Totally different program. Probably should've clarified.

I'm getting my information for those schools directly from this guide.

If you're primarily interested in doing psychotherapy, there's also a broad variety of options for more professional degrees, from masters programs in social work and clinical psychology to PsyD (doctorate in psychology) programs that are "scientific practitioner" programs. Some Ph.D. programs are also much more focused on clinical work than others. Get yourself a book on the process! This one helps for clinical and counseling programs in the US (and Canada, I believe?); this book discusses the application process.

I'd also talk to professors and get insight from them, rather than strangers on the internet.