I agree with Jim Guinee that simply getting a Master's might not be
important for admission to a Ph.D. program in Counseling or Clinical
Psychology and could cost the student time. The degree itself is less
important than whether the student obtains the training, research
experience, or evidence of his/her ability to perform at the graduate level
while earning the degree. Capable students sometimes don't have the
credentials on paper that allow them to compete successfully for admission
to a Ph.D. program when they finish their BA. These are students who had
rocky starts as undergraduates, got less than 1200 on the GRE, and/or
didn't learn about the need to have some research experience until it was
too late to get it. I see many students like this in our Master's program.
Students who complete a Master's in general psychology in our program are
extremely successful in seeking admission to Ph.D. programs. Our Master's
students are able to show what their current academic abilities are and to
get involved in research. They go on to complete Ph.D.s in clinical
psychology and counseling psychology as well as social psychology,
cognitive psychology, and I/O psychology. They do end up repeating some
course work in the Ph.D. programs and take a longer time overall (counting
their time in our program) to finish, so I would not recommend this route
to a student who could get admitted to a Ph.D. program immediately.
Students who want to obtain licensure and work at the Master's level in the
mental health field are best served by a Master's in counselling.
Frequently, the course work and practicum experiences required for
licensure make involvement with research difficult for students and might
make this route less successful for gaining admission to a Ph.D. program.
The determining factor is often whether or not they do research.
Claudia Stanny
________________________________________________________
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology Phone: (850) 474 - 3163
University of West Florida FAX: (850) 857 - 6060
Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751
Web: http://www.uwf.edu/psych/stanny.html
