The 50 Best Doctoral Programs in Counseling Psychology

 
By Kirsten Hughes

Are you interested in a career as a counseling psychologist? We believe you will find the counseling psychology doctoral program that is the best fit for your educational and career aspirations here. Graduate programs offering doctoral degrees (Ph.D. or Psy.D.) in counseling psychology generally require the successful completion of coursework, practicum and internships, research, comprehensive exams, and a dissertation. Graduates of counseling psychology programs have a great degree of flexibility in terms of populations that they choose to work with and settings they choose to work in. Graduates can choose to become licensed and work with children, adolescents, individuals, couples, families, groups and organizations in schools, hospitals, colleges, universities, government agencies, counseling centers, community mental health clinics, and private practice. Graduates can also go on to pursue academic and other positions that do not require licensure.
Funding:
Many graduate programs offering doctoral degrees fund their graduate students through research or teaching assistantships. Several of the programs on this list fully fund their students graduate education through graduate assistantships. Graduate research and teaching assistantships typically offer students a tuition waiver, health benefits, and a stipend in exchange for a 20-hour-a-week commitment. Hourly time commitments and benefits vary by assistantship. Typically assistantships are offered to graduate students in their field of study to enhance their learning experience. This funding allows students to focus on their studies and to graduate without the burden of student loan debt. Students should also explore funding opportunities through fellowships, scholarships, and grants. In part because of funding opportunities, doctoral programs are typically very competitive to get into. Some of the programs on this list select only 5-8 students from a pool of 100-200 applicants annually.
All of the programs on this list:

• Are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA)
• Have a licensure rate of 70% or higher.
• Require students to be enrolled in the program on a full time basis.

Many of the programs on this list:

• Accept students with a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
• Follow the scientist-practitioner training model or the practitioner-scholar model. The scientist-practitioner training model focuses on the integration of theory, research and practice. The practitioner-scholar training model emphasizes clinical training and the application of research to practice.
• Emphasize the value of diversity.
• Offer some funding for students admitted into their program. We have done our best to highlight funding availability for programs on this list when available.

For more information on our methodology,