<p>I recently graduated with a BA in Psychology and I took the year off to gain some clinical experience. I'm currently working as a Case Manager in the Drug and Alcohol field, and as a youth counselor at a community residence for adolescents with behavioral problems. </p>
<p>I am interested in working with children/adolescents at a clinical level and am interested in eventually pursuing my doctorate. As I am aware that my grades and GRE scores aren't up to par for admission into a doctoral program, I am looking for masters programs.
I'm wondering what types of programs I should be looking at at this point?? I know there are clinical masters degrees, but that there are other options as well.</p>
<p>There aren’t a lot of master’s programs in psychology, and few of them give you the opportunity to practice. Furthermore, most psychology PhD programs will accept few, if any, of the credits from your MS program. You’ll essentially have to start over. If you’re lucky, you may get up to a year’s worth of work, more often a semester.</p>
<p>Psychology isn’t really one of those fields where if you did poorly or had a mediocre performance in college, you can do a master’s to pull up your grades. The preferable way for most PhD programs is to work for 2-3 years as a lab manager or research assistant in a professor’s research lab. This is better, IMO, because you are actually making money doing the research that you love to do (or should, if you want a PhD) instead of paying someone else money.</p>
<p>I know that Columbia has a post-baccalaureate program in psychology for people who wish to go to PhD programs, but it’s designed for students who don’t have a background in psychology.</p>
<p>One master’s degree that may be useful is getting an MSW and becoming a licensed clinical social worker. You could do LOTS of work with children and adolescents with this degree, including clinical counseling, and if you decide to go back for a doctoral degree you can either get a PhD or you can get a DSW - so it opens some doors.</p>
<p>You may also be interested in MS or Ed.S programs in school psychology if you are interested in working with children and adolescents.</p>
<p>My son did the masters route with School Psych. He read about the need for positions and it fit his personality and needs. He wasn’t ready or interested in PhD at least at this time.
That is one area of Psychology that he found some help with tuition, not all universities, but a few gave stipends/grants. At his university, the PhD and Masters program follows the same classes, the PhD students just go on for more years and different internships. I would think they accept classes toward PhD since the program is at the same school. Always ask a lot of questions when applying.</p>