PhD/PsyD What are some less well known/less competitive Clinical Psychology PhD programs with a neuropsychology bent?

[fellwynd2]

I'm currently planning on applying to clinical psychology PhD programs to become a neuropsychologist, however I'm finding more and more that my school list is top heavy, mostly due to my current PI's advice. I'm beginning to realize I need to look at more programs, especially since I ideally would like to live in a rural area ideally. However information about lesser ranked and rural programs is hard to come by, so I was wondering if any of you all could help. Thank you!

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[Therapist4Chnge]

I tried doing a search for older threads, and I'm not sure if they changed the search features/database, but I know this has been discussed in a variety of neuropsych threads over the years. In trying to search, nothing came up...so that is a bit of a curve ball.

One of the wrinkles of clinical psych programs is that undergrad program prestige often doesn't align with grad school or clinical psych program prestige. Some of the top programs are large public universities in more rural areas, as compared to being in NYC, Chicago, LA, etc. As for neuropsych programs, you can start w. looking at Div 40 and programs listed w them. Also digging up articles published in your area(s) of research, and see who comes up. Due to the delay in publishing, sometimes labs have shifted topics in the 1-2+ years since they did the research and then published it, but it's still a good place to look.

 

[cara susanna]

University of North Dakota is lesser known and has pretty strong neuropsych training (several of their graduates are certified neuropsychologists)

 

[futureapppsy2]

University of Montana has neuropsych faculty and good outcomes, though their funding can be iffy.

 

[WisNeuro]

University of North Dakota is lesser known and has pretty strong neuropsych training (several of their graduates are certified neuropsychologists)

Based on some reputations, that is a good and bad thing

 

[RejectClinical]

I'd say there are a lot of strong programs that get fewer applicants because of geographical location (EG Washington State and as noted above University of North Dakota). I would check division 40's website as well.

 

[jdawg2017]

I have a few colleagues who have carved out neuropsych training paths with good internship/post-doc outcomes and beyond at Texas A&M University. To my knowledge, no PI currently is a neuropsychologist by training (I could be wrong), but they had co-mentors with 1 being in the clinical department and 1 being in neuroscience. For practica, there were several neuropsych training opps in the area, BUT they also commuted 2 days a week to/from Houston to get training at the VA.

My only personal reservation as someone still in my doc training in clinical NP is that having a wide breadth of neuropsych training experiences (different settings, different client populations) will likely set you up better for internship and beyond. University-based clinics and research studies can only really get you a certain amount of exposure, so having access to good practica is key.

 

[PsyDr]

Gallaudet. Drexel. Indiana.