Counseling or clinical psychology doctoral programs

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Need for Counseling and clinical psychology Professionals
Globally, current and predicted mental health and substance use treatment needs based statistics indicate an ever increasing prevalence rate for these disorders with an increasing need for qualified mental health professionals. Clinical and counseling psychology fields have been two disciplines taught North American universities to meet exactly this need.

Applicant pool for Counseling and clinical psychology doctoral programs
Both liberal arts and sciences majors consider pursuing and practicing counseling or clinical psychology as their future work fields. Not all pursue higher education beyond Master's degrees, so the admission processes to doctoral programs are competitive.

Purpose of the present article
The purpose of this short article is to help future clinical or counseling psychology doctoral students identify whether clinical psychology or counseling psychology is better for them to obtain their doctorate degrees in. It is hoped that this article is useful for undergraduates who plan on pursuing clinical or counseling psychology doctoral studies and be able to confidently plan for on-going academic and professional training that they will need to serve their client populations of interest and as trained and qualified mental health professionals, be able to work most effectively with them.

There are many good doctoral programs for counseling and clinical psychology in the US universities, from Ivy leagues to well-known programs at state universities.

Applicant related program selection factors
Because pursuing a five - seven year graduate level study plan is a long term commitment, time, distance, money investment and personal life adjustment factor in when someone decides to enroll in a doctoral program. All of these factors bear influence on which programs to apply to for admission consideration.

Academic requirements for doctoral program applications
Academically, when applying to doctoral programs, five important requirements include: GRE exam scores, recommendation letters, college transcripts, any prior research work or volunteer work experiences and the personal statement detailing reasons for seeking admission into a competitive doctoral program.

Preparation work for selecting programs
As a basic rule, applicants should compare multiple programs at various universities to which they would like to submit their applications. Mission statement, program philosophy, faculty bios and doctoral program handbooks are helpful in determining programs' suitability for oneself. Collecting, reading and comparing this information will prove very helpful in selecting programs to which one will eventually apply for admission.

By mid-March or early April, decisions are made by admission committees and perspective applicants are informed of admission decisions. Applicants who are offered admissions are ...