Anyone know anything about Sabrook Graduate School and Research Center

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by srcampbell, Nov 20, 2008.

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  1. srcampbell

    srcampbell New Member

    I'm searching for a good clinical psychology distance learning Ph.D. program. I came across Saybrook Graduate School. Does anyone have any info on it?

    Also, is it possible to obtain state licensure from a Psychology school that is not APA accredited?

    Thanks for the information.
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Which state are you talking about? In California, a psychology program need only be state approved (i.e., not even necessarily regionally accredited) to qualify to sit for the psychology state licensure exam. You need to look up your State Board of Psychology to see whether your state (a) requires one's psychology degree to be professionally accredited by the APA; (b) allows one to sit for the state licensure exam with a psych degree that has only regional accreditation; or maybe even (c) allows even state-approved degrees to be used as the ticket to entry for the state licensure exams.

    Saybrook Graduate School is regionally accredited by the Western Association; if you need an APA psych degree and wish to have a large DL component, Fielding Graduate University www.fielding.edu is both regionally accredited by the Western Association and professionally accredited by the American Psychological Association.
     
  3. AWY

    AWY New Member

    State Licensing and Non-APA PhD Programs

    In the state of Utah, as of 2005, it was not possible to sit for boards if you earned your degree from a non-APA accredited program. I believe several other states in the intermountain region had the same rules. Most of Saybrook's graduates who were able to obtain licensure were, if I recall correctly from the statistics they provided, in the state of California.

    I found out three years into the program that there was no APA accreditation. They tell you it is "APA equivalent" , but there is no such thing. It is pretty simple as far as the state board here is concerned. Either they have it or they don't...and they don't.

    In 2005 Saybrook closed the PhD in clinical psychology program. They announced it at residency conference. They offered to funnel students into a PsyD non-research track, (not the degree we signed up for). According to their website, they subsequently closed that program in 2008 for the same reason and announced that they were no longer seeking APA accreditation.

    (See PsyD Clinical Psychology | Saybrook University)

    Much of the information on the Saybrook website is conflicting and misleading to the public, but the state boards tend to be very clear. There is no ambiguity. They see it this way: the APA comes in, completes its site visits and evaluation and says no, the program does not meet the requirements. There is no accreditation. That's all the board wants to or needs to know. The board is not obligated to change its position; and even in an administrative or court proceeding you're not likely to win that appeal.

    If you've taken out loans, and sacrificed your own funds to pay for tuition, you're stuck with debt, unreimbursed expenses, no income, and no prospects for employment in the field you have planned and prepared for. The 2002 cohort had no degree at the point the program was closed, so they would not even have been eligible to teach, and had no possibility of transfer to any APA program in Utah or within the intermountain region (the U, SUU extension, and the College all said no).

    It appears that the folks in the 2008 program closure were just another iteration of "your APA clincial track was closed without notice". It follows the pattern, we have APA accreditation; okay, we don't have it, but we have something just like it; we really don't have it but we are seeking it; we didn't pass the site visit; we are no longer seeking APA accreditation. --Next cohort they recruit gets the same story. What they do have is your money. They keep students paying as long as they can and promise things they don't ever deliver.

    They tell you they have APA accredited faculty and that they will help you approach your state board if you have any problems and that they have this tremendous success rate in getting over any "hurdles" with licensing. They represent that their experience is nationwide. First, they don't offer you any help if you encounter any hurdles. That promise evaporates. When you ask for help, they just refer you to back to your state board and tell you it is your responsibility. When you ask for statistics from Saybrook to take to your state board, they give you the run around and then finally admit that California is mainly where they are placing alumni, and they never really had any expertise in regions outside of the very limited pacific region of the state of California. Second, the faculty can look like the who's who of APA, but the board does not consider that. No matter how many APA accredited doctorates you have socialized with or received instruction from for 792 hours, if the program doesn't have the accreditation, you don't get to sit for licensing exams. You don't get a license to practice in your state, and you have wasted a tremendous amount of time and resources.

    If your state board says "no APA accreditation, no license", I would say "no thank you" to any non-accredited program.



     

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