CA Psychboard: # of Students Licensed 1-1-01 to 12-31-04, by School

Here's something kind of interesting. It's the number of new clinical psychologists licensed in California in the last four calendar years, from 1-1-01 to 12-31-04, broken down by school.

http://www.psychboard.ca.gov/exams/numofgrads.pdf

Some of the DL usual suspects:

RA --

Capella 1
Fielding 18
Pacifica Grad. I. 32
Saybrook 6

CA Approved --

Cal Coast 12
Cal Inst Hum Sci 3
Newport U. 7
Ryokan College 49
SDUIS 3
Scups 6

And for purposes of comparison, some B&M psych-schools:

RA --

CIIS 46
ITP 19
Pac. Grad. Sch. Psych. 97
Wright I. 111

CA-approved

Cal. Grad. I. 78

 

Ryokan College is an interesting creature.
It is only state aproved but I've heard that it does a fairly good job at preparing students for the board examination than many RA schools. Unfortunately, it is very expensive.

49 licensed psychologists from Ryokan is still pretty good for a state approved school.

Sulla

 

It is interesting. Thanks Bill. Isn't Ryokan B&M though?

Dan

 

Actually, they're both.. Ryokan offers a BA, MA and PsyD on campus and a MA and PsyD online.

http://ryokan.edu/brick.html

http://ryokan.edu/online.html


- Tom

 

Bill, thanks for posting this. It is fascinating. Six in four years for SCUPs doesn't bode well for them. I'm surprised that Capella has just one. It's a lot of work to be denied a license in the end.

 

Well, It's Interesting BUT

It's relatively meaningless. Those numbers don't mean squat without information on how many attempted the test from each school. If, for example only 6 students from SCUPS attempted the exam vs. 150 from Ryokan, one would view the results differently than if the converse were true.

 

LaJolla University was a centerpiece of George Gollin's report but someone from there passed test.

 

A Psy.D from a California state approved school such as Ryokan College or even SCUPS may enable one to refer to themselves as doctor in such states as Florida. I spoke with a representative of the board of licensure in Florida and he indicated that earning such a degree entitles the recipient to use this title but obviously they cannot refer to themselves as a "Licensed Psychologist".

 

Re: Well, It's Interesting BUT

I believe that I understand the point you're making and I can't say you're wrong. However, I think that many people employ the "truck driver" methodology when looking at such results. By this I am referring to the old idea that if you are traveling along a highway and want to stop for a meal, you go where the truckers go because they've tried all the available restaurants and know which are the best. Using that manner of thinking, it's understandable that someone might take a really long, hard look at the schools that seem to graduate lots of licensure success stories year after year. Beyond that I can only say that I've always liked the look of the Pacifica program and have, on more than one occasion, wished I lived nearby and had LOTS of money.
Jack

 

Re: Re: Well, It's Interesting BUT

If it helps, I wished you lived nearby and had LOTS of money, too. Could you spot me a twenty 'til payday?

 

Obviously there is no question that RA doctoral degree programs remain the gold standard. However, it is interesting that a state such as Florida with its stringent oversight of diploma mills as well as other questionable degree programs appears to allow individuals to use degree titles, such as doctor, from a state approved school although not RA.

 

Ryokan is the most expensive in that category, but the degree looks like a winner for licensure.

Dave

 

Ryokan is exorbitantly expensive! Approximately thirty thousand dollars for an online state approved doctoral degree program in Psychology that has many employment and practice limitations. On the other hand Ryokan does allow one to be licensed and to engage in private practice in CA and PERHAPS in one or two other states.

 

I'm not sure that exorbitant is the best word to describe Ryokan's tuition, as Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, which is best of breed in the RA category is over 30K per year for three of the five years, 20K for the dissertation year and has some fees during the internship in the fifth year. Is the PGSP training 4 times better or useful? I don't know. I do know that I hate to see people not pursue more education because they think it is too expensive -- that's a shame, because we should own the money, not it us.

Dave

 

Re: Well, It's Interesting BUT

If you really want to do this kind of evaluation, you can do so by compiling the California psychology exam statistics listed here. The EPPP numbers are the most interesting, because the pass rates on the CPPP exam are universally high.

For example, over the four most recent EPPP exam periods (for 2003 and 2004), Ryokan had a total pass rate of 43% (30 of 70). SCUPS had a pass rate of 29% (5 of 17).

For comparison, the University of California system (all campuses) had a pass rate of 91% (39 of 43). Pacific Graduate School of Psychology had a pass rate of 81% (46 of 57).

 

Re: Re: Well, It's Interesting BUT

I've always wanted to ask this quasi-statistical question about comparing samples from "top-tier" schools, so I'll ask it now...

Do top-tier schools produce high quality graduates who can excel at licensure tests or do they admit only those students who show promise of stellar performance? In other words, is there something about the school's academic process that produces high quality graduates or could they actually be providing a finely-honed group of extremely bright people a terrible process? The world may never know...

Dave

 

Better schools=better students?

Dave,

As for psychology, I couldn't say. But there is a VERY high corrolation between the average LSAT score of in incoming law school class and that class' first time Bar exam passage rate.

There is also a corrolation between the incoming class' average UGPA and first time Bar pass rate and between an individual student's law school GPA and his personal Bar pass chances.

If you are interested in one such study, take a look at the Texas Bar Examiners' website:

www.ble.tx.us

There is a LOT to be said for prescreening!

 

Sorry; that should have been:

www.ble.state.tx.us

 

Re: Well, It's Interesting BUT

In general, graduates of top-tier schools probably do better for both reasons. First, top-tier schools tend to be selective, and so they prefer to admit students that can score high on tests (as demonstrated by GPAs, GREs, SATs, etc). Second, top-tier schools tend to have more rigorous academic standards and competition, so their students have to work harder while in school.

Conversely, you might also wonder why some schools have relatively low pass rates on licensing exams. Is it because they admit poorly qualified applicants, or is it because their academic programs are ineffective? Neither is good.