Undergrad Psychology Programs as prep for Clinical Child Psychology graduate programs

College Search & Selection
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<p>My daughter will be starting her Junior year of high school this fall, but she says she already knows what she wants to do - clinical child psychology, with emphasis on tweens and adolescents. Given her personalty, she's likely to be more interested in practice than in research.</p>

<p>Researching colleges a little bit, I find Psychology departments to fall into two categories. One tends to lean towards a specific set of classes and relatively few options, while others tend to have a lot of class options available. In the latter category, I'm more tempted by those that have specific classes with an emphasis on children and adolescents.</p>

<p>Are these more specialized undergraduate classes a lure, or are they usually taught by folks that know their stuff? Is it better to keep it simple instead with respect to classes taken as part of a Psychology major with a desired path to graduate school in the same topic?</p>

<p>What is your experience out there as you or your loved ones have tried to figure out what to do with a Psychology major, especially if clinical child psychology was a keen interest?</p>

<p>As a side note, I also would like to get an idea if an undergraduate degree in Psychology, for what my daughter wants to do, requires an emphasis in developmental and abnormal/personality/clinical, or if I'm missing something in my understanding of the area.</p>

<p>Just to give an idea of tempting programs for us, my daughter thinks Smith is the brass ring, but we both agree that, if finances become an issue over the next two years, Western Washington University is an acceptable undergraduate choice for her desired path. Other schools that have caught her and/or my interest include Mt. Holyoke, Pitzer, Yale, Brown, UCLA, Willamette, Pacific (OR), Bates and Simmons, but we're open to any recommended programs. </p>

<p>She also will be part of Washington state's Running Start program this fall, where she can take community college classes that count both towards her high school graduation requirements and a college degree, so any recommendations on what potential transfer classes would most impresses any colleges you would recommend would help.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance...</p>

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<p>I would think a university with a hospital affiliation where clinical psych faculty practice and make use of resources would be best. She should take a broad spectrum of psych classes including developmental, abnormal, personality, biospychology. She should also take a lot of math, including statistics. Neurbiology is good. A large university is more likely to offer an undergrad elective in child clinical.</p>

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<p>Would that be like Rice, who is affiliated with Baylor?</p>

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<p>Northwestern is known for its developmental and children’s psychology labs, though more for cognition than clinical, as far as I know. Any strong broad based psychology department and program will prepare her adequately for graduate school, so she should focus somewhat on the school’s environement too.</p>

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<p>Many colleges and universities have solid psychology departments. Put more emphasis on choosing the school for its overall fit and academic quality. Yes, you want a good psychology department, but make sure all the departments in core disciplines are good. Even though she thinks she knows what she wants to do now, students often change their majors after greater exposure to several fields. Even if one stays in psychology, her areas of interest may change while in school or during her career. It’s far too early for her to specialize, or to choose an undergrad program just based on the number of advanced courses in child psychology. Most departments will discourage early specialization and require a distribution of coursework in both “softer” areas (e.g., abnormal, developmental, etc.) and “harder” areas (e.g., cognitive, neuro, perception, etc.) Beyond the requirements for a major, I would recommend choosing additional courses in related fields rather than trying to overload on psychology courses or a particular subspecialty.</p>

<p>Admission to clinical psychology doctoral programs is extremely competitive. Graduate clinical programs tend to be of two types: scientist-practitioner programs (PhD) and professional programs (PsyD). Some PsyD programs offer specialty tracks in child clinical, but more often, they tend to be general clinical programs. I think there are more scientist-practitioner programs that offer subspecialties. They also would tend to offer more related coursework in developmental psychology. For PhD clinical programs, quantitative skills and research experience are important for admission. So look for undergrad programs that have opportunities for undergrads to do research. Also, beyond courses in the core subfields, look for undergrad seminars in advanced topics of interest. These may be important for helping an undergrad focus their interests before applying to a particular grad program and also provide a basis for identifying topics for an undergrad thesis.</p>

<p>A school with practicum opportunities might be something to consider in order to check out her interests. While some volunteer or practicum experience at the undergrad level can enhance her credentials for grad school, it is probably far less valued than research experience.</p>

<p>Since admission to doctoral clinical programs is so competitive, keep the options open for related fields (e.g., counseling psychology, clinical social work, school psychology). Admission is easier than for clinical psych, but they are still competitive. Also, within child clinical psychology, there are several subspecialties that your daughter might not even be familiar with, e.g., brain injury, behavioral pediatrics, autism and other developmental disabilities, applied behavior analysis, etc. So, again, she shouldn’t be too quick to overspecialize at the undergrad level. However, if she might be interested in those areas, whether or not there is a medical school, autism/developmental disabilities clinic, etc. might be something to consider as they may provide some research and practicum opportunities.
During graduate studies, a required internship also provides additional opportunities to specialize.</p>

<p>Check out the American Psychological Association website. They publish some guidebooks on graduate study in psychology and on applying to graduate psychology programs.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about Simmons, but the other schools you mentioned would all provide a good undergrad psychology program. Also, in your part of the country, the University of Washington is absolutely outstanding in psychology. While I discourage early specialization, outstanding programs in the child area include the Human Development majors in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, and the Institute of Child Development in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota (their courses also count for credit in the psychology major in UM’s College of Liberal Arts).</p>