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The Psy.D. Program

QUESTIONS FREQUENTLY ASKED BY SOPP APPLICANTS

Applicants to the School of Professional Psychology (SOPP) ask a number of questions about our program.  We address below the questions that are posed regularly by applicants to our program.  We encourage everyone interested in the SOPP Program to pursue these issues with us during student selection interviews.  Also, we encourage all applicants to raise these same questions with other programs to which they have applied.

 1. The School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University is one of a relatively small number of university-based practitioner training programs.  Are there advantages to attending a university-based program as compared with a free-standing professional psychology program? 

We believe there are a number of advantages to attending a university-based training program.  Here at Wright State University, SOPP students can take advantage of numerous resources of the university.  These include one university library with extensive holdings of books and journals and Internet access that links students to electronic databases and journals as well as the holdings of the libraries at all other public universities in Ohio.  Wright State also has a modern Computing and Telecommunications Service that assists SOPP students and faculty in using technology in learning, teaching and research.  There are several other graduate and professional schools at Wright State, including the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, and health and graduate programs in Biomedical Sciences, Business Administration, Education and Counseling, to name a few.  The presence of these and other programs on campus allows SOPP students to interact, and in some cases, to enroll in courses and other training experiences with students from a wide range of professions and academic disciplines.  Finally, SOPP students are able to take advantage of university housing, university sports and recreational facilities, as well as numerous and varied university-sponsored cultural events, lecture and artist series and performances in music, dance and theater.

2. Since it is a university-based program, does the SOPP provide opportunities for students to gain clinical experience in the community? 

The SOPP’s faculty, students, classrooms and other training resources are housed in three locations; two of these, the Health Sciences Building and the Counseling and Wellness Services, are located on the main campus of Wright State University, whereas the third location, the Duke Ellis Institute for Human Development, is located in an urban area of Dayton, approximately a 20 minute drive from campus.  Our resources in the Health Sciences Building include classrooms, seminar and conference rooms, a student lounge, faculty offices and the School’s main administrative offices.  The Counseling and Wellness Services (CWS), located nearby on campus in the Student Union, houses faculty offices, students' offices, a student lounge and group therapy rooms.  CWS is the university’s counseling center for students.  SOPP trainees assigned to practica at the CWS provide psychological services, including outreach and crisis services to Wright State University undergraduate and graduate students.  A unique feature of the CWS is its location in the Student Union, which is a primary care health center, operated by the university, which provides medical services to the community.   

Finally, the Ellis Human Development Institute, located in Dayton, houses faculty and students offices, a student lounge, classrooms and clinical offices for individual and group treatment.  At the Ellis Institute, SOPP students are involved in providing a wide range of assessment and treatment services, mainly to a clientele drawn from the community.  In addition to their involvement in general clinical services at the Ellis Institute, SOPP students may be involved in a number of focused treatment programs developed by SOPP faculty to address issues such as adolescent violence and perpetrators of domestic violence.  The practicum placements at both the CWS and the Ellis Institute are considered “internal” practicum sites because supervision is provided by our core or adjunct faculty. 

In addition to these practicum sites, the School has many other affiliated training sites in public and community agencies and private practices in the Dayton, Drake, Warren, St Mary Counties, South Central and Southwestern Ohio, Cincinnati and Columbus areas that provide students with clinical experience in working with individuals from the community.  At present, both internal and affiliated practicum training sites provide students with a yearly stipend.

3.  Does SOPP offer a Masters degree while matriculating through the program? 

Yes, SOPP awards the Master of Clinical Psychology (Psy.M.) degree after students have completed a minimum of 96 credit hours from the first and second years of the doctoral program, including the First Year Clinical Experience.  This may include approved graduate transfer credit not to exceed 12 credit hours. Students must also complete one year of Supervised Experience (Practicum) in the second year of the doctoral program.  Students do not apply for admission separately for the PsyM degree as it is not a terminal degree program.  Rather, it is completed en passant as students matriculate through the PsyD program.  NOTE: Other degree requirements apply. 

4. Can SOPP students take courses in other departments to broaden their education?

Because the SOPP is a university-based program, there are a number of opportunities for students to enroll in coursework in other departments in the university.  In Wright State’s College of Business and Administration, a number of courses in the M.B.A. program are open to SOPP students, including courses in marketing, business administration, accounting, finance, business law, and human resource management.  Currently, the SOPP is exploring the development of a certificate program whereby SOPP students would be provided an opportunity to earn a Certificate in Business Administration.  Because the School has strong ties to Wright State’s Center for Healthy Communities and the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, SOPP students are also provided opportunities to participate in multi-professional courses with medical and nursing students.  The School has also established collaborative arrangements with the Women’s Studies Program where students can receive the Graduate Certificate Program in Women’s Studies. Other collaborative relationships are with the Counseling Department in Wright State’s College of Education and Human Services that has allowed SOPP students to enroll in coursework within these departments.                 

5. What financial support is available to SOPP students?

SOPP offers several academic scholarships for students who are accepted into the program. With respect to practicum placements, the SOPP is one of the few programs nationally that provides a majority of practicum placements that are paid.  

6. I understand that the SOPP faculty emphasizes a “generalist” model of training.  Is there an advantage to “generalist” training?  What about specialization?

 At SOPP we emphasize generalist training because we believe that students are best served by a breadth of training and educational experiences at the predoctoral level and we think that a solid foundation in generalist training is particularly important in today’s changing professional practice arena.  A broad-based, generalist foundation provides an educational base from which SOPP alumni may pursue specialist training in one or more areas as a part of postdoctoral training and, through a commitment to continuing professional education, throughout their professional careers.

 7. I have heard that the competition for internships, and particularly APA accredited internships, has become fierce nation-wide in recent years.  How have SOPP students fared in the national competition for internships? 

There is no doubt that there has been increasing competition for internships over the past several years. In fact, in recent years, as many as 800 students nation-wide each year have not been placed in internships.  In 1999, for the first time, the matching of doctoral students with internship sites was done by computer. Although the computer matching process was very new to everyone, it proved to be very simple and useful for all involved here at the school and across the nation for applicants, doctoral programs, and internships alike. For the past several years, the SOPP has maintained an outstanding record in terms of having its students place in APA accredited internships.  This has been the case each year, even as the national crisis, in terms of lack of internship placements, has worsened.  In 2009, 85% of our students were placed in APA accredited internships. 

8. My primary interest is in a career in practice, but I am also interested in research.  Does the SOPP offer students opportunities to learn about or become involved in research? 

There are numerous opportunities for SOPP students to learn about and become involved in research.  All core faculty at SOPP engage in some form of research or scholarship and students may assist faculty in their research or scholarly pursuits.  Most faculty research and scholarship is focused on clinical or applied topics and faculty scholarship may take the form of developing and/or evaluating programs addressing specific clinical treatment issues or client needs.  In addition to assisting faculty with research and scholarship, SOPP students enroll in coursework designed to develop their skills in research and evaluation.  Students who are particularly interested in gaining hands-on experience in empirical research and evaluation are encouraged to orient their Professional Dissertation topic toward an empirical research or evaluation issue.

9. How many students are admitted to SOPP each year?  What is the average class size and what is ratio of students to faculty? 

The number of students admitted to SOPP is 25 per year, although the number of students admitted in any year may be somewhat higher or lower.  Class size for required courses, most of which are taken during the first year, will be close to or the same as the number of students admitted that year.  Elective courses, most of which are taken during the second, third and fourth years have an average enrollment of 12 students.  In terms of faculty, the School currently has 16 full-time core faculty, 1 full-time faculty on special contracts funded by external state and federal sources and several adjunct faculty members who, although they are primarily practitioners in the Dayton community, teach one or more SOPP courses or are retained on contract to provide clinical supervision at either the CWS or the Ellis Institute.  In addition, the School has a clinical faculty composed of full-time practitioners in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio areas that numbers about 100.  Clinical faculty are involved in supervising SOPP students in affiliated clinical practicum sites and they may also be involved in other training activities with SOPP students.  Because the SOPP retains faculty on different kinds of full-time and part-time contracts, the student to faculty ration may be calculated in a number of different ways.  The most conservative and the most appropriate comparison, however, is that of the number of students on campus, (i.e., excluding students on internship), relative to the number of full-time, core faculty.  Calculated in this way, the student to faculty ratio is approximately seven to one. 

10. Some programs admit a large number of students each year but many fewer actually graduate from the program.  What is SOPP’s retention rate for students?  Of those who are admitted each year, how many actually graduate? 

At SOPP, we make every effort to ensure that students who are admitted to the program do graduate with the doctorate and that they graduate in a timely manner without undue delays.  The SOPP’s retention rate has been excellent over the past 7 years. Of the students who have been admitted, 89% have graduated, on schedule, with the doctorate.

11. I have taken graduate courses in another program.  Will the courses I have taken in my Master’s (or Doctoral) program transfer to the SOPP?  

Whether a course from another graduate program will be accepted for transfer credit in the SOPP program depends on a number of variables.  In general, coursework submitted for transfer credit must have been taken within the past 5 years.  Courses evaluated for transfer credit are evaluated primarily according to their match (in terms of content, course requirements, text and readings used, etc.) to courses offered in SOPP’s curriculum.  A maximum of 36 quarter hours of graduate coursework may be transferred to the SOPP program.  Graduate credit associated with supervised clinical practicum experience may also be transferred to the SOPP program if the clinical skills and the level of clinical supervision were equivalent to the skills and supervision required in SOPP practical.  A maximum of one year of supervised clinical practicum (i.e., the equivalent of 24 quarter hours of practicum credit) may be transferred to the SOPP Program.           

Please visit our website for further information or schedule an appointment with our Admissions Representative

http://www.wright.edu/sopp/apply/

110 Health Science Building
937-775-3492
Email: sopp1@wright.edu

*Please note, admission requirements subject to change 2011*