PsyD and PhD clinical neuropsychology program recommendations

[TacoTacoBurrito]

@thumper1

So…are you saying you are OK with potentially 6-7 years of schooling before you can be independently licensed?

Yes, totally. I’m retired (with a nest egg just shy of $10m) and still anticipate living another 40+ years, so I’m not in a huge hurry in a general sense. I’m just reluctant to do a PhD program that takes an extra few years (vs PsyD) because the research emphasis is not why I’m pursuing grad school again; my goal is to become a licensed clinical neuropsychologist, not to become a researcher in a different field than what I’ve already had a 20-year research career in.

[TacoTacoBurrito]

@fiftyfifty1

Yes. As a nontraditional student, I think you can have nontraditional priorities when searching for programs. I am not you, but if I were you, I would prioritize the following:

1. Shorter programs
2. Programs located either online, or in locations where my spouse and I (especially my spouse) desired to live
3. Locations where I could work part time in my previous well-paid profession to make some money

I would NOT prioritize:

1. Quality of the program.
2. A low cost program.

Yes, exactly this and thank you for the reply. My wife (40) and I (45) have saved just shy of $10m (excluding our current home, which is fully paid) in our portfolio. When we retired last year, we did so because when I filed our 2023 taxes, our earned dividends were above our average annual spend for the last 3 years running. But we both are the type of people who want to have a second (ideally part-time) career in something we love. For my wife, that is nutrition, and for me it is clinical neuropsychology.

I’m definitely going to prioritize shorter programs and online/convenient ones unless there is a huge reason not to do so. I fully agree with the anecdotal advice about program prestige and quality of practitioner. I’ve seen the same thing in my engineering/research career. There have been some duds that I had to let go over the years who came out of programs like MIT, CalTech, Ivies, etc. and some real gems who have come from no-name schools. There’s general correlation of quality for sure, but any individual is just that. I feel more like those brand names guarantee a certain quality floor, but not a ceiling and when you’re at a company/research department that is hiring for top 10-20% quality, the floor doesn’t matter as much.

All that being said, I’ll certainly take your advice to heart and try to find that balance between APA accredited programs with decent post-doc clinical placements and short+flexible programs.