The Best Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology Programs

A private research university with a strong commitment to STEM education, Florida Tech offers a service-oriented Psy.D. in clinical psychology that emphasizes research-based clinical training. Based on a practitioner-scientist model, the Psy.D. degree prepares graduates for licensure throughout the United States. The curriculum features specializations in neuropsychology, forensic psychology, child and family psychology, and integrated behavioral health.

Although the selective program admits only 20 students each year, applicants may enter with a non-psychology bachelor's degree. However, those without a previously earned psychology degree must have completed at least 18 hours in psychology prerequisites at the time of application. These courses should include abnormal psychology, personality theory, learning, physiological psychology, social psychology, and statistics.

After completing two semesters of clinical training at Florida Tech's Community Psychological Services Center, students move into advanced practicum experiences in a variety of off-campus settings. The program encourages students to tailor their clinical experiences to specific issues or populations of interest to them.

Courses Include

• Psychotherapy models: family approaches
• Child disorders and psychotherapy
• Couples and sex therapy
• Clinical forensic assessment

Unique Features

• Cost: $29,430
• Credits Required: 123
• Accreditation: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

The Psy.D. in clinical psychology at Loyola University Maryland ranks tenth nationally in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report listing of top clinical psychology programs. This five-year program, based on the practitioner-scholar model, encourages students to develop unique professional identities reflective of their individual styles, values, and philosophy.

The Psy.D. program consists of four years of coursework and 1,500 hours of clinical placements, followed by a full-time internship in the final year. Enrollees in the program earn a master's in psychology in the second year of the degree.

All first- and second-year students complete clinical externships at the Loyola Clinic in the Multidisciplinary Assessment Center in the adult or child track under faculty supervision. Third- and fourth-year students find external field placements at over 100 sites throughout the Washington D.C., metropolitan area. In most cases, students employed in mental health settings may not use their worksite to satisfy the clinical placement requirement.

Courses Include

• Clinical applications: group counseling
• Clinical applications: assessment
• Professional development and case conceptualization

Unique Features

• Cost: $32,130
• Credits Required: 131
• Accreditation: Middle States Commission on Higher Education

Newberg, Oregon, is home to the main campus for George Fox University, a Christian institution founded in 1891 by Quakers. The university offers a Psy.D. in clinical psychology that integrates its Christian faith perspective and commitment to diversity with psychological theory, scientific research, and clinical practice. All faculty and staff identify as Christians. Students who may not share this Christian tradition should expect to consider religion and spirituality throughout their training.

This full-time, campus-based program admits students in cohorts of 22-24 who move together through the curriculum. Students complete their coursework, practicum experiences, and research requirements during the first four years of the program followed by an internship in the last year. The Psy.D. degree offers students the opportunity to specialize in a primary care or child and adolescent psychology track. The program requires all degree-seekers to complete 15 hours of coursework in religious diversity and spiritual formation in clinical psychology.

Courses Include

• Spiritual and religious issues in psychology
• Learning, cognition, and emotion
• Multicultural psychotherapy

Unique Features

• Cost: $25,327
• Credits Required: 125
• Accreditation: Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

California Lutheran University promotes a mission of diversity, inclusion, and social justice. As one of 26 colleges and universities affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this Hispanic-serving institution endeavors to create a diverse learning environment that upholds Lutheran values and respect for all perspectives, ethnicities, and faiths.

The Psy.D. program in clinical psychology reflects this mission by emphasizing practice and research that focus on underserved communities. The five-year doctoral curriculum includes three years of coursework and practical training, a second-year project or competency exam, a qualifying exam, a one-year internship, and a dissertation.

Students can tailor clinical placements to their interests, receiving their initial training at the university's training clinics that provide low-cost services to community members. The clinics offer three specialized training tracks in intimate partner violence, dialectical behavior therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Students advance from this clinical setting to the external practicum and internship working at mental health clinics, medical clinics, correctional facilities, and school counseling centers.

Courses Include

• Personality and dissociative disorders
• Eating disorders/substance abuse/somatoform disorders
• Principles of psychodynamic psychotherapy

Unique Features

• Cost: $1,050 per credit
• Credits Required: 114
• Accreditation: Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, OKCU offers over 70 undergraduate programs and 20 graduate degrees. The doctorate in clinical psychology trains learners for evidence-based psychological practice with an emphasis on serving the mental health needs of diverse populations, especially rural and underserved populations.

The program requires four years of coursework in theory and evidence-based scientific practice in psychology along with practicum-based experiences. The fifth and final year of study comprises a full-time predoctoral internship. The curriculum permits students to tailor their studies by pursuing electives in specific areas of interest, such as adult or childhood psychology, trauma, and rural mental health/primary care.

The program admits students with either a bachelor's or master's degree. Students who earned a "B-" or better in a master of psychology program may earn transfer credits for previously taken master's-level courses. Bachelor's degree-holders must have a 3.0 overall GPA and complete 18 credits in psychology prerequisites.

Courses Include

• Diversity in clinical practice
• Mental health care administration
• Psychological consultation and administration
• Clinical perspectives on trauma

Unique Features

• Cost: $750 per credit
• Credits Required: 120
• Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

The University of Indianapolis, affiliated with the United Methodist Church of America, serves a student body of over 5,700 representing a spectrum of faith backgrounds. The clinical psychology doctorate, which typically requires five years, including the culminating internship, allows students to choose from three concentrations: health and behavioral medicine, childhood and adolescent psychology, or adult psychopathology and psychotherapy.

The Psy.D. program offers several financial aid opportunities. Incoming students may apply for graduate assistantships that cover up to three years. Recipients must work 11 hours per week to receive approximately one-third of their tuition costs.

Outstanding minority students may apply for the Diversity Fellowship that consists of full tuition for all graduate work. The Excellence in Academic Performance Fellowship, which also offers full tuition, awards students who have achieved high levels of achievement in prior studies.

The Psy.D. program provides an option to earn a master of arts degree while completing the doctorate by completing an additional nine hours.

Courses Include

• Neuropsychology and biological bases of behavior
• Cognitive and affective bases of behavior
• Social and cultural basis of behavior
• Humanistic approaches to treatment

Unique Features

• Cost: $920
• Credits Required: 111
• Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

Established in 1831 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Xavier is the sixth-oldest Catholic university in the United States. Rooted in a Jesuit tradition, the university's undergraduate and graduate programs reflect a strong commitment to the service of others. Xavier's doctor of clinical psychology incorporates community service into its program of study. Grounded in a practitioner-scientist model, the curriculum stresses the scientific foundation of clinical practice and trains practitioners as consumers of research to develop their applied skills.

The Psy.D. program requires coursework and field placements throughout the first four years and one internship, usually in the fifth year. Enrollees must successfully pass a clinical competency exam and a dissertation project.

While Xavier's Psy.D. degree prepares students for the general practice of health service, the program offers specialized study in three separate areas of interest. These specializations, designed to train students for working with underserved populations, include child and adolescent psychology, healthcare psychology across the lifespan, and individuals with severe and chronic psychology.

Courses Include

• Professional problems and ethics in psychology
• Introduction to clinical interactions
• Social aspects of behavior
• Integrative lifespan psychology

Unique Features

• Cost: $23,800
• Credits Required: 93
• Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

Widener, a private university located in Chester, Pennsylvania, boasts an enrollment of over 6,100 in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate programs.

The Psy.D. in clinical psychology prepares graduates to assume scholar-practitioner roles, offering comprehensive training in assessment, intervention, supervision, and consultation. The five-year program features paid internship rotations and dissertation research following completion of academic and clinical experiences. The curriculum offers several concentrations that provide students with career-enhancing experience in specialty areas recognized by the American Psychological Association. These areas include:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy/acceptance and commitment therapy
• Psychodynamic psychology
• Cross-cultural and diversity psychology
• Child, adolescent, and family psychotherapy
• Forensic psychology
• Health psychology
• Consulting psychology

The Psy.D. program accepts applicants who hold a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science degree from a regionally accredited institution. A psychology degree is not required; however, all entering students must have completed prerequisites in statistics, abnormal psychology or psychopathology, and research design or experimental psychology before starting the program.

Courses Include

• Introduction to intellectual functioning and evaluation
• Introduction to individual dynamic psychotherapy
• Consultation and organizational psychology

Unique Features

• Cost: $35,629
• Credits Required: 120
• Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission

Pacific University, established in 1849, is a private university located 23 miles west of Portland, Oregon. While independent of its founding affiliation with the United Church of Christ, the university maintains membership in the United Church of Christ Council for Higher Education.

Pacific's Graduate School of Psychology has created a Psy.D. in clinical psychology based on a generalist curriculum within the practitioner-scholar model of training. The plan of study integrates five separate emphases in adult, child, forensic, health, and neuropsychology that allow students to focus their studies in areas of interest with specific coursework, research opportunities, and clinical experiences.

Students may enter the program without a master's degree. However, they must complete requirements for a master of arts in clinical psychology while earning their Psy.D. degree. The full-time, five-year program comprises a four-year residency focusing on coursework, research projects, and clinical experiences, followed by a one-year internship. Students must also complete a dissertation project.

Courses Include

• Human diversity
• LGBT psychotherapy
• Eating disorders, obesity, and weight stigma

Unique Features

• Cost: $36,936
• Credits Required: 135
• Accreditation: Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Founded by the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1915, Marywood University began admitting male students in 1989. This Pennsylvania-based institution, located in northeastern Pennsylvania, enrolls over 3,000. The Psychology and Counseling Department, which administers the Psy.D. in clinical psychology, has trained psychologists, counselors, and other mental professionals for over 50 years.

The Psy.D. curriculum, rooted in the practitioner-scholar model, trains students for evidence-based and culturally sensitive clinical service working with diverse and underserved communities. Although not specifically focused on producing researchers, the program teaches students to be consumers of research for clinical practice.

The five-year curriculum emphasizes a cognitive-behavioral approach, along with training in interpersonal psychotherapy and other therapeutic approaches. The program admits only eight students each year at the post-bachelor’s level; these students begin the program at the second-year plan of study. The post-master's degree option accepts no more than two master's degree-holders annually, and these learners enter the program with third-year doctoral students.

Courses Include

• Advanced human development
• Introduction to psychological testing
• Multicultural issues in psychology

Unique Features

• Cost: $32,879
• Credits Required: 117
• Accreditation: Middle States Commission on Higher Education