Fielding Graduate Institute question

I am currently looking at graduate schools and I should have my BA in Psychology in fall 2005 if everything goes as planned. I am considering applying to the Fielding Graduate Institute's Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology and I was wondering if anyone here is currently attending or has graduated from there and what the experience was like.

 

Fielding

I have not attended Fielding Inst. but I considered it. I am now at Capella. I do know some Fielding grads and it is a very good school if you want to pursue licensure as a psychologist with APA accreditation on your credentials. You will easily be at Fielding around 4-6 years by the time you are done. I decided to get licensure as a Licenced Mental Health Counselor (Masters level) and then go for a Ph.D. in psychology not for licensure. It cuts about 4-3 years off my doctorate. So far, if I finish my dissertation on time I would have gotten my Ph.D. in 2.75 years.

 

OK, OK, so you're gonna be a psychologist. You really don't have to post that picture of Freud, Jung, Adler and Ferenczi to prove it.

 

Black Bird, why do you not want to be a licensed Ph.D. psychologyst?

Also I will be 24 when I grad with my BA and have 2 years work experience in working with children with autism as an ABA tutor through the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention and will have 2 semesters of research experience at a clinic for children with anxiety and school refusal disorders and lastly I have been a participant in a research study on thought sampling.

Now the average age at Fielding is 43 and typically people who have a lot of work experience. Do you think that my age and lack of work experience (since I have only worked for 2 years in a field of psychology) will hurt my chances of being accepted?

Lastly do all states License a Fielding graduate? I live in Nevada

 

question

Don't you have to get a Master's before you can get a doctorate?

 

of course, you get your MA while in the Ph.D. program. So you can enter the program with a BA like many Doctoral programs, but they are usually harder to get into with only having a BA.

 

Why not a clinical psych doctorate?

WJ,

I don't want licensure in psychology for several reasons:

1) I am older than you and I don't want to spend 4-8 more years of school on the doctoral level.

2) I already have a masters degree that qualifies me for state licensure in counseling (L.M.H.C.).

3) I am not into psychological testing (I do muscle testing to find on the spot issues). I know enough psychologists who are bored with testing. It is very "linear" and procedural and highly repetitive. It bores highly intuitive guys like me.

4) My Ph.D. will also qualify me for a dual licensure in Marriage and Family Therapy as an extra credential.

5. A Clinical Psych. doc requires more hours of internship, practicum, and residency that I have already taken and I will repeat it over again.

6. As typical of Clinical Psych programs the politics and the racket is that they make you take just about everything over again that you took in your counseling masters degree. Few credits transfer because they make more $$$$ on you. It is a racket as I was told by a dean of a clinical psych. program. The APA does not rule that aspect of transfer of credits which means it is totally an issue of finances and lack of confidence in your past training.

A clinical psych. program (Psy.D. or Ph.D.) typically has a built-in non-terminal masters degree awarded in the curriculum. A few might let you take a previous masters in clinical psych as prerequisite (Marywood University, etc.)

Hope this helped you.




Also I will be 24 when I grad with my BA and have 2 years work experience in working with children with autism as an ABA tutor through the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention and will have 2 semesters of research experience at a clinic for children with anxiety and school refusal disorders and lastly I have been a participant in a research study on thought sampling.

Now the average age at Fielding is 43 and typically people who have a lot of work experience. Do you think that my age and lack of work experience (since I have only worked for 2 years in a field of psychology) will hurt my chances of being accepted?

Lastly do all states License a Fielding graduate? I live in Nevada [/B][/QUOTE]

 

frustrated

I have to admit that this whole process is rather complicated. I too plan to graduate in August with a BA in Psychology, but I am 34 and have no work experience in the field.

I would love to find a program where I could get a PsyD ( and a masters along the way) with a reasonable amount of residency. I have looked at Argosy and Capella but I fear that a degree from a little know school will lack value.

???????

 

Re: frustrated

If you are planning to practice as a psychologist, then all you have to concern yourself with is:

1. Is the School currently APA accredited (Capella is seeking is but not yet accredited by APA) Their Psy.D. is accepted in some states but might not in APA required states (like Florida). For the practice of psychology, folks don't care what school it is from as long as it is APA and regionally accredited. Argossy is fine, Fielding is fine, etc.

2. As for the residency requirement, that is almost standard across the board. I believe you have to get about 1500-2000 hours prior to graduating and then do 2000 hours after you graduate in order to take state boards. Also, of the pre-doc hours 500 of those are to be done while getting the non-terminal masters provided in the Psy.D. program. That is typical.

Hope this helps.

 

Just a few thoughts:
I don't know how competitive the admissions are at Fielding. It seems that some DL schools admit virtually everyone who meets the minimal standards and can pay their tuition bill. I'd guess that the standards are listed on the website or in a catalog.

Age shouldn't be a factor. Experience is frequently a bigger factor than grad degrees. They want people who are certain of Psychology as a career. People without any experience don't really know what they're getting into. They fall in love with the idea of psychology but their idea is frequently romanticized and unrealistic.

The name of the school where you earned your PhD in Clinical Psychology is not that big of a deal. The most important thing is getting your license to practice. If you're licensed and have some decent work experience most employers don't care too much where you went to school.

Good luck to all
Jack

 

Well Fieldings acceptance ratio is 1:4 which is very high. Most non-DL grad school Ph.D. programs are 1:16 or higher from what I have been told.

My biggest question is how do I find out whether or not the state I live in (Nevada) will License a Fielding graduate?

Thanx to everyone who has replied you have helped me a lot and mrsmrstacey if you have any research experience that goes a long way even if it is just observation hours.

 

I am in the process of applying to Fielding. I have a DL masters degree in clinical psychology already from Concordia University in Mequon Wisconsin. I just had an admissions interview with Fielding this past Monday 11/15. They admit students twice a year. I was pleased that I made it to the interview stage. However, I have no clue as to how competitive my application will be. I get the impression that they expect to take 1 out of 5 applicants this time around.

The professor interviewing me sent me a couple "curve balls" and am unsure as to how I responded. I am unsure if the things she said were real weaknesses regarding my application or she was wanting to know about how a react.
For example, she asked my why I got a C in freshman composition. That was in 1982 and frankly I don;t remember the class or even much about the year. She also asked my why it took me four years to complete an MS in psyche instead of two. My answer was that I was paying for my MS out of pocket as I went along.

Let me tell you my impressions.

At Fielding they have you attend a local "cluster meeting" in your part of the country every month and then attend national meetings. You can create "learning contracts" for many of your classes. Much of the work is independent. However, they encourage you to develop a network of connections with other students and faculty.

Despite being a DL school, they place a very heavy emphasis on research and the development of research skills. They require a research practicum done either locally or with other students and faculty. The woman I interviewed with lightened up a great deal when I told her that I believed that the process of research was a metaphor for professional practice, the act of asking an empirical question or set of questions and following that through to an answer that usually modifies one's original ideas. That made a good impression. When interviewing always try to say what the interviewer wants to hear. If applying to a Ph.D. program talk up your research skills/interests. She also liked the fact that I know how to us SPSS fairly well.

One very important part of the application process is a writing sample. I submitted a copy of my MS thesis, a 85 page empirical study on malingering of cognitive deficits following brain injury. The impression I get is that they value that part of the application very highly. They believe that writing skills are essential to complete the program. My interviewer had not yet read it and did nit give me any feedback on it.

Fielding also requires an autobiographical statement in which they want to see some evidence of self-awareness. This is also a very important part of the application process. My interviewer stated thats he liked my "psychological mindedness" as she saw it.

Graduates of Fielding have been licensed in most states so licensure should not be an issue with a Fielding Ph.D. Basically, with an APA degree licensure should never be an issue.

Hope this helps.

 

DL is not the issue here. Most of the private non & for profit specialized psychology schools will have a higher acceptance rate such as CIIS, the Forest Institute, Argosy, etc (whether DL or not). Also, PsyD programs tend to admit more students than standard PHD programs at state universities. In the past, clinical psychology programs at state universities were not nearly as hard to get into as today, in part due to the increasing popularity of psychology degrees.

You don't have to. Its APA accreditted which means you can license yourself ANYWHERE in the US with it. Unless, of course, you are dealing with a state that is biased against DL degrees. But I've never heard this to be the case in Nevada. Check the Nevada licensing board for more info if you want.

Hope this helps,
-S

 

Sulla, does APA accredit Clinical Psychopharmacology programs?

 

Sorry, I'm not Sulla, but you'll have to say more. Is there really a graduate degree program from an accredited university in "Psychopharmacology?" I'm skeptical. Is it a psychology program or is it a pharmacy program? In either case I seriously doubt that the APA would accredit such a program. Even the idea that Psychologists might prescribe psychotropic medication is fairly radical and generally unpopular.
Jack

 

There are Master's programs in clinical psychopharmacology that have been developed to train psychologists to prescribe meds. Nova has one I believe. Currently there are two states that allow Ph.D. level psychologists to perscribe with an MA in psychopharm asnd addictional supervised clinical practice. I believe these states are New Mexico and Louisiana. The APA does not accredit these programs in any way.

 

chrislarsen thanx for the in-depth reply... I'm guessing it may be best for me to seek my MA first before attempting to go straight into a Ph.D. program lol... I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, does anyone suggest a good clinical psy program? Preferably on the West Coast, whether a DL or not. I don't think I can get accepted in UNLV's clinical program simply because they so rarely take students from the school in any psy program.

 

You could take a look at these two programs:
California Institute of Integral Studies
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Good luck,
Jack

 

The probabilities are EXTREMELY HIGH that Fielding would be accepted by all state boards as fulfilling the requirements for licensure since the APA requires the most stringent standards now. Most states measure grads by APA standards whether they require APA programmatic accrediation or not. If you go to Fielding you will have the best chances of getting licensure over a non-APA school.

 

Clinical psychopharmacology

A few schools are offering it and that is the direction of psychology. Psychiatrists are fighting it because they percieve it as their turf though psychologists are better trained in psychological aspects.

Look here at these programs:

http://www.cps.nova.edu/

http://www.ncu.edu/university_information/dpro_spec.asp?dpro_id=18&dpro_section_main_id=245