Clinical Program

Ph.D. Program--Clinical Psychology

• Program Philosophy and Mission
• The Field of Clinical Psychology and Competitive Admission
• Program Goals and Objectives
• APA Accreditation
• Representative Course of Study and Practicum Sites
• Clinical Program Handbook and Program Timeline
• Student Financing
• Admission (includes forms and GRE info)
• Evaluation of Applications
• Performance and Outcome Data
• Transfer Credit
• Applying to the Program (includes additional forms)
• Program Faculty
• UNLV Graduate Catalog
• Contact us

Program Philosophy and Mission

The UNLV Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, in the scientist-practitioner tradition, prepares students to address psychological concerns through both scholarly research and the application of psychological knowledge and skills in practice. We recognize psychology as an empirical science and expect students to have a broad understanding of existing psychological knowledge and methods. We train students to base their scholarly and professional activity on the scientific foundation of psychology, including an understanding of and attention to human diversity. We train students as generalists who are prepared to conduct ethically appropriate scientific research and clinical interventions with children and adults in an increasingly multicultural society. We provide an integration of didactic study, supervised clinical activity, and mentored scholarly research. This mission is consistent with and complementary to the mission of the Department of Psychology and UNLV.

The Field of Clinical Psychology and Competitive Admission

Those who are not familiar with the field of Clinical Psychology or the process of competing for admission can find additional information or the American Psychological Association website at: http://www.apa.org/students or click here for a list of additional resources.

You can also view Recent Applicant Data by clicking here.

Program Goals and Objectives

The central goal of our doctoral program is to train psychological scientist-practitioners who possess a broad foundation of psychological knowledge, the ability to design and implement scientific investigations, and the skills necessary to intervene in psychological concerns. We have five corresponding objectives:

Objective 1: To provide students with broad knowledge of the discipline of psychology. Students should possess a broad foundation of psychological knowledge including an understanding of basic areas of psychological science, individual differences and human diversity, and ethical and professional behavior in psychology. This knowledge should be accompanied by the skills and values necessary to maintain currency in the evolving knowledge base of our discipline.

Objective 2: To teach students the methods of psychological science and the ability to employ these methods to develop new knowledge. Students should understand psychological methods including being able to design, implement, and evaluate scientific research.

Objective 3: To give students the knowledge and skills necessary to address psychological problems. Students should have the knowledge and skills necessary to intervene in a range of psychological concerns with both children and adults.

Objective 4: To train students to integrate their science and practice knowledge and skills in addressing both familiar and novel professional challenges. Students should be able to integrate their psychological knowledge, understanding of the scientific method, and intervention skills to address familiar and novel professional challenges.

Objective 5: To give students the skills necessary to communicate effectively with others both verbally and in writing. Students should have well developed verbal and written communication skills.

APA Accreditation

Clinical Psychology doctoral programs are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) if they are judged to be in compliance with the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional Psychology established by the APA. The UNLV Clinical Psychology Doctoral program is accredited by the APA as of October 7, 2005. Contact information for the APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation: Office telephone: 202-336-5979; Office fax: 202-336-5978; web address: http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

Representative Course of Study and Practicum Sites

The doctoral degree in clinical psychology requires a minimum of 96 credits. En route to doctoral candidacy the student will complete the requirements for a Master’s degree in psychology. Students are expected to complete the requirements for the Master’s degree (48 credits) during their first two years of study.

Year One: Fall

Year One: Spring

PSY 708: Statistics for Psychologists I

PSY 709: Statistics for Psychologists II

PSY 736: Psychopathology

PSY 716: Assessment of Adults

PSY 715: Assessment of Children

PSY 726: Intervention with Adults

PSY 725: Intervention with Children

PSY 714: History and Foundations of

Clinical Psychology

Summer after Year One

May: PSY 755: Ethics and Professional Issues

Year Two: Fall

Year Two: Spring

PSY 707: Research Methods

PSY 712: Stand. Tests & Measurements

PSY 750: Diversity Issues in Prof. Psy.

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum I

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum I

PSY 769: Thesis

PSY 769: Thesis

Elective or Open

Defend thesis proposal

Year Three: Fall

Year Three: Spring

Breadth Course Selection*

Breadth Course Selection*

Elective or Open

Elective or Open

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum II

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum II

PSY 770: Dissertation

PSY 770: Dissertation

Defend thesis

After defending thesis, able to take

comprehensive exam, must have

completed 66 credit hours

Year Four: Fall

Year Four: Spring

Breadth Course Selection*

Breadth Course Selection*

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum III

PSY 767: Clinical Practicum III

PSY 770: Dissertation

PSY 770: Dissertation

Year Five: Fall

Year Five: Spring

PSY 771: Professional Internship

PSY 771: Professional Internship

Defend dissertation proposal

*Breadth Course Selections currently include PSY 701: Physiological Foundations of Behavior; PSY 742: Psychopharmacology, PSY 703: Cognitive Psychology; PSY 704: Social Psychology; and PSY 705: Developmental Psychology. See Graduate Catalog for details.

Click here for representative practicum sites.

Clinical Program Handbook and Program Timeline

Click here for the Clinical Program Handbook. Click here for the Program Timeline.

Student Financing

UNLV strives to provide competitive funding offers with reasonable tuition and fees to doctoral students. Our program attempts to provide funding to all students that request it. The most common source of funding for first and second year graduate students is a Graduate Assistantship. Students in years three and beyond are often funded through Assistantships which involve teaching two sections of introductory psychology or a similar course. Some students are funded on faculty research or service grants. In past years nearly all students that have requested funding have received some form of funding similar to a Graduate Assistantship. For additional information regarding financial aid and other possible sources of funding, click here.

Admission

The program admits students for matriculation only in the Fall semester of each academic year. The application deadline is December 15th prior to the Fall for which matriculation is being requested. The admission process is typically completed by April 15th.

We anticipate entering classes of approximately 5-8 students each year. Typically, admitted students have GPAs above 3.40 and GRE scores above 550 on each required subtest.

Admission Requirements*

• A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution or a master’s degree or equivalent from an accredited institution.

• Applicants should have completed at least 18 hours of undergraduate psychology courses including Statistics, Abnormal Psychology, and Experimental Psychology.

• Scores on the Verbal, Quantitative, and Advanced Psychology sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). For the GRE Testing website, click here. GRE score reporting is cumulative. Current GRE Board policy states that your scores are retained for the 5 testing years following the testing year in which you tested.

Psychology Department Forms*

• Three letters of recommendation. Each letter of recommendation written should include a Psychology Department Letter of Recommendation Form (click here) for each recommender. Original letters and the department form required must be sealed in an envelope addressed to the Psychology Department (link to contact info). The recommenders signature must be written across the back envelope seal. It is best to send all 3 letters of recommendation along with your Psychology Department Graduate Program Application form (see above).

• A Letter of Intent written by the applicant. This letter should include detailed description of which professor the applicant would primarily like to work with and how the applicant’s training matches the research interests of that professor.

• A personal interview with members of the program faculty is required for finalists in the selection process. Typically, applicants are notified if they are finalists by late February or early March. If a personal interview is not feasible, a telephone interview may be substituted.

*In unusual circumstances, students who do not meet these admission requirements may be admitted.

Evaluation of Applications

The Admission Requirements represent the minimum standards. Meeting these minimum standards does not guarantee admission. Admission is a competitive process in which the faculty judge each applicant’s credentials with the goal of selecting those who are most qualified and represent the best fit with our Clinical Psychology program. Consideration of fit includes factors such as the applicant’s goals and the program’s goals.

Performance and Outcome Data

Although it is impossible to predict admission decisions in advance, some sense of an applicant’s likelihood of being admitted can be gained from comparing qualifications with those of recently admitted students. Please note that the listed qualifications do not include factors such as fit with the program, relevant experience, letters of recommendation, and letter of intent. Click here to see some information regarding students that have been admitted to the program during past years. Outcome data for recent students are presented as well.

Transfer Credit

The Clinical Program Committee evaluates requests for transfer credit only after students have been accepted into the program.

Applying to the Program

Students are admitted only for the fall semester of each academic year. The application deadline is December 15th of each year for the following fall semester. Applicants are encouraged to submit their materials as early as possible. The admission process is typically completed by April 15th.

To apply to the program, you will need to send materials to both the UNLV Graduate College and to the UNLV Department of Psychology.

To obtain the UNLV Graduate College Application Packet, click here.

Students interested in being considered for a Graduate Assistantship should file an application by the December 15th deadline. The UNLV Graduate Assistantship Application form (click here for the form) is included in the Graduate College Application Packet.

Material to be Sent DIRECTLY to the UNLV Graduate College:

• A Graduate College Application for Admission form
• An Application for Fellowships and Scholarships (if desired) – Click here.
• An Application for Graduate Assistantship (if desired)
• One official transcript from EACH university/college attended
• An Application fee of $60.00, made payable to “The Board of Regents, UNLV”

Send the above materials along with $60 application fee to:

Graduate College Admissions
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Box 451017
4505 S. Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154-1017

Please note that the Graduate College is currently in the process of receiving applications electronically.

Material to be Sent to the UNLV Department of Psychology:

• A Department of Psychology Graduate Program Application (Psychology Department Graduate Program Application).
• Three letters of recommendation evaluating the student’s potential for doctoral studies. Each letter of recommendation written should include a Psychology Department Letter of Recommendation Form (click here) for each recommender. Original letters and the department form required must be sealed in an envelope addressed to the Psychology Department (link to contact info). The recommenders signature must be written across the back envelope seal. It is best to send all 3 letters of recommendation along with your Psychology Department Graduate Program Application form (see above).
• One official transcript from EACH university/college attended
• A Letter of Intent describing your clinical and research interests, educational and professional goals, faculty whom you might be interested in working with, factors that you would want the admissions committee to consider in evaluating your application that are not evident from other materials, and some background information describing how you became interested in these areas
• Official scores on the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and the Psychology GRE. For the GRE Testing website, click here. GRE score reporting is cumulative. Current GRE Board policy states that your scores are retained for the 5 testing years following the testing year in which you tested.

When requesting to have your GRE scores sent to UNLV, please use the following GRE Codes:

Institution: 4861 for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Department: 2001 for the UNLV Dept. of Psychology

Send the above materials to:

Clinical Admissions Committee
Department of Psychology
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 S. Maryland Parkway MS 5030
Las Vegas, NV 89154-5030

Contact Us

If you have additional questions, you can contact Angeline Garbett-Marcotte in the the Department of Psychology’s Office of Doctoral Studies at (702) 895-0176 or via e-mail (psyunlv@unlv.nevada.edu).

PLEASE NOTE: We do not grant personal interviews to prospective applicants apart from the formal admission process.

Program Faculty

All Psychology Department faculty are involved in the training of Clinical Psychology students. The following faculty are centrally involved:

Daniel N. Allen, Ph.D.
• Neuropsychology
• Schizophrenia,
• Substance abuse

Michelle Carro, Ph.D. (no research supervision of graduate students)
Associate Director of Clinical Training
• Child Clinical
• Psychological Assessment

Bradley Donohue , Ph.D.
• Externalizing child and adolescent disorders
• Domestic violence

Douglas P. Ferraro, Ph.D. (Dr. Ferraro will not be accepting clinical students in fall 2009)
Director, Experimental Ph.D. Program
• Psychopharmacology
• Forensic psychology,
• Behavioral medicine
• Health psychology

Christopher L. Heavey, Ph.D. (Dr. Heavey will not be accepting clinical students)
• Inner experience
• Depression
• Emotion

Russell T. Hurlburt, Ph.D.
• Sampling inner experience
• Introductory statistics pedagogy

Christopher A. Kearney, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Training
• Internalizing problems of children
• Anxiety disorders
• School refusal behavior

Jeffrey M. Kern, Ph.D.
• Social skill deficits
• Childhood sexual abuse
• Psychometrics
• Mental retardation

Marta Meana, Ph.D.
• Women's sexual health
• Sexual pain disorders
• Female sexual desire

Cortney S. Warren, Ph.D.
• Eating disorders
• Multicultural Issues

Other Faculty with Clinical Psychology Interests:

Kim Barchard, Ph.D.
• Emotional Intelligence
• Psychopathy
• On-line data collection
• Psychometrics