Clinical Psychology

The Clinical Psychology Program at the University of North Dakota prepares students to function as scientist-practitioners in a variety of employment settings.

Highly-Selective Clinical Psychology Program

The program maintains about 40 students in doctoral training at any point in time with a program faculty of eight clinical psychology members. The program receives over 100 applications each year with only seven students selected for enrollment.

Clinical Psychology Emphasis

Emphasis is placed on the following:

• Routine application of the scientific method.
• Acquisition of empirically-supported clinical assessment and intervention skills.
• Integration of science and practice in addressing problems facing individuals, families, and communities.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM CURRICULUM AND REQUIREMENTS

Your Career

We encourage students to seek careers which support the application of behavioral science research in the delivery of psychological services. Although our program has the flexibility to allow students to tailor their training toward careers emphasizing either the science or practice of psychology, the faculty emphasizes the integration of science and practice (i.e., applying science to practice and practice to science) as the defining feature of our training model.

Graduates are expected to manifest their scientist- practitioner identities in all aspects of their professional behavior no matter the career choices, job titles, role responsibilities, and/or daily activities that they subsequently embrace. Our program educates scholars, researchers, and clinicians who serve the people of North Dakota as well as the rest of the nation and world through our teaching, research, and application of behavioral science.

Accredited by the American Psychological Association

The Ph.D. program in clinical psychology has been accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1969. Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st St NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979
apaaccred@apa.org
APA Accreditation

Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data

APA accredited programs are expected to offer certain descriptive statistics associated with the admissions process and student outcomes.

Student Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data

Instructional Skills Training Track

The Clinical Psychology Program and UND is augmented by the Department's Instructional Skills Training Track which was established to increase the emphasis on training graduate students to be effective instructors. The program consists of two content courses, a supervised teaching experience, and a teaching placement. The intent is to provide experiences that develop necessary skills for effective instruction and allow the faculty to document a student's progress in obtaining these skills. The Instructional Skills Training Track provides our clinical program with a vehicle to enhance student interest and ability in teaching psychology at the college level.

Council of University Directors of Clinical Training (CUDCP)

As a member of the CUDCP, the Clinical Psychology program at UND adheres to CUDCP’s policies and guidelines for graduate school admissions, offers and acceptance.

CUDCP has adopted the following guidelines for offers into doctoral clinical psychology programs. If you are applying to a CUDCP program, you should expect the following policies will apply.

1. In most CUDCP programs, a subset of applicants will be invited for an interview. Within a few weeks of the final interview dates, applicants will be notified regarding the status of their application. You may be offered admission, declined admission, placed on a wait list, or in some cases, a decision has not yet been reached regarding your application.
2. Training programs will notify students no longer being considered for admission as soon as possible. In some cases, this information is communicated by the university graduate school and can take several weeks to be processed. In some cases, you may be able to get updated information on the status of the application process (e.g., whether all interview invites have been extended; whether all offers have been extended), on a clinical program’s website, or by contacting a program administrator. Beware of information posted on student-focused online forums that may be inaccurate or incomplete.
3. Offers of admission can be extended during a large time period. Most initial offers of admission are extended by April 1. Offers may be communicated by phone or email, but should be followed up by a written confirmation within 48 hours.
4. You should not be pressured, nor feel compelled to accept an offer of admission before April 15! This applies to offers of admission and to funding offers that accompany admission. It is impermissible for programs to request a decision prior to April 15 or to indicate that funding will be available only if students make decisions earlier than this date. Violations of this policy should be reported to CUDCP immediately and your identity will be protected. Of course, it is permissible for you to accept an offer as soon as you are certain of your decision (i.e., even before April 15). But the decision to do so should be based on you, and not due to pressure placed upon you by a training program.
5. Do not hold more than two offers for more than one week unless there is specific information (e.g., a visit is scheduled, funding decisions) you are waiting to receive from the program. Difficulty making up one’s mind is not considered an adequate excuse to limit the options available to other applicants.
6. Once you have accepted an offer of admission to a training program, you should inform all programs in which you are still being considered. Be sure to inform programs either that you are declining outstanding offers of admission or you no longer wish to be considered for admission.
7. For more information, please review the full CUDCP policy pertaining to graduate school offers and acceptances on the CUDCP website.