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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Psychologist have drastically lower salaries compared to psychiatrists but they have less work load, easier cases and no or limited access to meds. They also spend less time in college and training and admission or fold isn’t a competitive one so less stress and less student debt. [/quote]

PhD Clinical Psychologists do have lower salaries and limited access to meds.  As for the rest, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. [/quote]

NP. Asking out of curiosity… my spouse finished med school with about $250k in student loans, not including any undergrad debt and graduate school debt.  And after med school, did a 4 year residency that pays about $30k a year in a place where that salary did not come close to covering living expenses, and working 110 hour work weeks, with 36 hour shifts.  He then has to travel to continue to do board exams and orals periodically. Is this similar to a psychologist’s training and education?[/quote]

Prior to getting accepted into a PhD program, many students have master’s degrees — so that might take 2 to 3 years.  Hundreds of people apply for programs that might have a dozen spots — so some students might not get accepted to their programs of choice the first year that they apply. Then 3 to 4 years of coursework including practica, internships, and often a research project.  There will be a year long internship - with a national application process. Then, here’s the fun part: doing an independent research project, writing and defending a dissertation. This is typically unpaid and unfunded. And it takes as long as it takes.  This could be two years if you’re lucky enough to work with a professor as part of a larger project or much much longer, and you might have to assemble your own dissertation committees, often with faculty from multiple programs or even multiple universities. Many people also work during this process to cover living expenses, school fees and to cover the costs associated with the research project.  This varies by state, but after getting the PhD, you’ll need to find supervised clinical experience before you can sit for the licensing exams in the state where you want to practice. The hours vary, but this will take 1 to  2 years.

The internship will pay a stipend. The post doc work varies, but an unlicensed psych associate won’t make much and 
might even have to pay for supervision hours.  So, to summarize: about 7 years of coursework— including the masters.  Add a year for internship, a conservative —and lucky — 3 years to complete and defend a dissertation, and 1-2years of post-doc work and we’re up to 12-13 years.

There are continuing education requirements as well, and these will vary by state. In the DC area this can get interesting since some psychologists may be licensed in two or even three states, including DC.

Perhaps someone who knows more about PsyD degrees than I do could walk you through that process. I left out things like comps, orals, university requirements for doctoral students ( such as foreign language proficiency ) since these vary widely by university. If there’s something specific that you’re still curious about, I’m happy to check back and see if it’s something I can address.

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