- What
is a Psy.D?
- Do I need to
have a master's degree to be a good candidate for
the Psy.D. program?
- If I have an
M.A. in Counseling can I skip some the course work
and shorten the program?
- May I transfer
credits from a master's program into the Psy.D. degree?
- Is the GRE required
if I already have a master's degree or am enrolled
in a master's program?
- Am I required
to attend full-time, or may I go at my own pace?
- How many hours
do you recommend a Psy.D. student work per week?
- I didn't major
in psychology at the undergraduate level, what do
I need to do to make up for this?
- How many applicants
do you have each year, and how many applicants are
admitted?
- What is the
average age of the students?
- What is the
path for licensure for graduates from your program?
- What types
of clinical or practica training experiences do students
gain in your program?
- What are some
of the career options for graduates of your program?
1. What
is a Psy.D?
The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.)
is a professional degree designed to be responsive to society's
need for Christian psychologists functioning in a variety
of leadership roles. The Psy.D. program at Regent is housed
in the School of Psychology & Counseling. The school
also is a home for separate graduate training programs
in counseling. The Psy.D. program shares with these neighboring
counseling programs a commitment to promotion of wellbeing
and the alleviation of suffering. Yet it does so from the
unique professional and scientific identity of clinical
psychology. The mission of the Regent Psy.D. program is
encapsulated in the five statements below. We strive to:
- Teach and evaluate students in the
practitioner-scholar model of clinical psychology so
that they will be capable of leadership in a variety
of settings.
- Educate students in accordance with
the Christian faith.
- Mentor professional development
that balances the spiritual, personal, relational and
intellectual components of life.
- Facilitate the integration of Christian
perspectives with scientifically-based clinical procedures.
- Train students in service-oriented
clinical modalities that include an emphasis on underserved
individuals, families and communities.
A core faculty of psychologists are
responsible for the administration and operation of the
program. The program combines scholarship with intensive
practitioner training; preparing graduates to provide
scientifically informed servant leadership in their communities
of practice. The Psy.D. program is a five-year full-time
course of study consisting of 123 semester hours beyond
the bachelor's degree. In some cases, students entering
at the master's level are able to complete the coursework
in three years with an additional year of internship
for a total of four years. The Psy.D. program in clinical
psychology is designed to provide students with a general
and broad training in psychological practice. Students
also have opportunities to pursue elective concentrations
in specialty areas such as clinical child psychology,
marriage and family therapy, health psychology and consulting
psychology. The program has an integrative approach:
integration of clinical work and coursework, integration
of faith and practice, and integration of multicultural,
ethical and diversity issues in both didactics and practice.
The program culminates in a 2,000-hour internship and
the dissertation project.
Admission into the Psy.D. program is
limited to fall semester, due to carefully planned fixed
course progression and clinical training sequence.
As an APA-accredited doctoral program
in clinical psychology, the Regent Psy.D. is designed to
fulfill the typical training program requirements for licensure
as a psychologist in the various U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions.
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2.
Do I need to have a master's degree to be a good candidate
for the Psy.D. program?
Actually, most of the students enrolled
in the Psy.D. Program do not hold graduate degrees. The
admission requirement is a completed four-year bachelor's
degree from a post-secondary institution with state and
regional accreditation (only the Ph.D. in Counselor Education & Supervision
requires a completed master's degree).
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3. If I have
an M.A. in Counseling can I skip some the course work
and shorten the program?
While a student with a master's
in a mental health field (clinical or counseling psychology,
counseling, social work) may generally be able to get the
equivalent of about one year of credits waived, we recommend
against shortening the duration of the program. For instance,
the clinical training sequence is required for all students
regardless of prior training. That sequence is set up over
five years and to shorten the program requires that the
third and fourth year of clinical training activities be
done concurrently, which is not ideal. A better option
is for students to take the five years to complete the
program but to take lighter semesters or pursue more elective
work. This will enhance their training experience. All
students who do not already hold a master's degree in clinical
psychology earn the masters as part of their doctoral training
sequence. The other issue to remember is that if your master's
is not in clinical psychology, your training at Regent
will be also aimed at helping you to reorient to a clinical
psychology perspective on courses that you have already
completed in a related discipline.
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4. May I transfer
credits from a master's program into the Psy.D. degree?
Our policy regarding transfer of credits is that an accepted
student can transfer up to 25 percent of our program's
credit hours as long as the credits have not been used
to complete a degree and are at least 70 percent similar
with our courses.
Some courses from a completed degree can
be used to "waive" certain ones in our program. Courses
that are not transferable or that cannot be waived would be
any type of clinically-focused course (practicum, therapeutic
skills, etc.) and some required program didactic courses.
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5. Is the GRE required
if I already have a master's degree or am enrolled in a master's
program?
Yes. We do not waive the GRE requirement.
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6. Am I required
to attend full-time, or may I go at my own pace?
Regent's Psy.D. program is set up in a
cohort model and requires that you attend full-time on a fixed
course progression. During the fall and spring terms, the course
load is 12 credits hours and in the summer term the course load
is nine credit hours. Therefore, you would be enrolled in classes
year round for four years with a full-time internship the fifth
and final year.
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7. How many hours
do you recommend a Psy.D. student work per week?
Due to the number of hours you will be
spending in and out of class studying, we suggest you work no
more than 20 hours per week. There are a number of part-time
graduate assistant positions available every semester at the
university that allow for flexible schedules.
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8. I didn't major
in psychology at the undergraduate level, what do I need
to do to make up for this?
If you did not major or at least minor
in psychology at the undergraduate level it is very likely that
you will need to make up about 18 credit hours of course work
in the field of psychology. Our admission requirements are at
least 18 credit hours in undergraduate psychology; recommended
courses include: Intro to Psychology, Research Methods/ Statistics,
Personality Theory, Human Development, Abnormal Psychology, Psychological
Test and Measurements, Social Psychology and Physiological Psychology.
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9. How many applicants
do you have each year and how many applicants are admitted?
Every year we admit and enroll 25 students
into the new cohort from a group of about 120 applications.
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10. What is the
average age of the students?
The average age of the Psy.D. student
is 31.
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11. What is the
path for licensure for graduates from your program?
Licensure is different in each state.
However, the general standard for licensure is completion of
a doctorate, including the full-time fifth year internship, a
year of residency, and state and national licensure exams, which
are taken after graduating with the doctorate. Residency can
vary widely in different states. Students should examine
the requirements for licensure in the state or states they would
like to practice in the future.
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12. What types of
clinical or practica training experiences do students gain
in your program?
Please refer to the Psy.D.
Clinical Training Handbook for
a detailed overview of the types of experiences gained during
the five-year program.
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13. What are
some of the career options for graduates of your program?
Typically, clinical psychologists work
in one of five settings after graduation: colleges and universities
as professors; mental health centers as administrators, conducting
assessment, diagnosis and treatment (psychotherapy); medical
hospitals as a consultant or liaison to medical professionals,
as well as perform similar duties to those at mental health
centers; psychiatric hospitals and in private practice. A survey
conducted by Norcross, Krag and Prochaska (1997) found that
15 percent of clinical psychologists were employed in academic
settings, 30 percent in hospitals or clinics and 40 percent
in private practice.
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