1. Time to Completion

The following table provides data regarding time to completion, shown in years, for students who have graduated from our Ph.D. program during the past seven years. These data are listed by cohort for the academic year in which degrees were awarded (GRAD YEAR). Within cohorts, graduates are organized according to whether the were admitted into our program with a bachelor's degree (BA), or with advanced standing by having previously earned a master's or specialist degree in psychology (MA). The mean and median number of years from time of enrollment until graduation are shown for each cohort cell, as are the numbers (and where applicable, percentages) of graduates who earned their degree in less than five years, five years, 6 years, 7 years, or more than seven years.

Comments: Although there is always variation across graduate students in the number of years that are required to complete a doctoral degree, these data indicate some fairly consistent trends. The large majority of students who are admitted into our Ph.D. program with a bachelors degree receive their doctorate in five years. For students who are admitted into our doctoral program having previously earned a masters or specialist degree in psychology, most finish their Ph.D. in four years, and some in three years.

2. Program Costs

For the 2010-2011 academic year, full-time tuition (9-16 credits) and basic student fees for our graduate students who are Oregon residents is $5,221 per academic quarter (Fall, Winter, Spring) or $15,663 for the academic year. For our students who are not Oregon residents for tuition purposes, tuition and basic fees are $7,246 per academic quarter, or $21,738 for the academic year. For more detailed information on costs, please go to the website for the University of Oregon Registrar at http://registrar.uoregon.edu/. The Registrar's website also includes information to help estimate other costs, such as the one-time graduate student matriculation fee, books, housing, and personal expenses. Additional fees are assessed for practicum courses and for some courses that have a lab component.

Comments: For at least the past 15 years, all full-time on campus students in the UO school psychology program have had their academic year tuition costs paid through training grants or graduate assistantships, from their 2nd year throughout the duration of their program. These funding sources also provide additional stipends for living expenses. In addition, many of our students have received supplemental funding through scholarships, travel grants, and college or program-sponsored research grants. Although these forms of student funding are competitive and are not guaranteed to students, our program has an excellent record in the area of student financial support. Please check our Prospective Students section of the website and our program information brochure for additional details on financial aid, training grants, graduate assistantships, and scholarships.

3. Internships

As an APA-accredited doctoral training program, we require our students to complete a supervised predoctoral internship. These internships are usually completed during the student's last year in the program, and may be completed full-time over the course of one academic year, or half-time, over two academic years. The following table includes internship data (numbers and percentages) for the seven most recent years. These data include students who obtained internships (OBT), students who obtained paid internships (PAID), students who obtained internships that were member sites within the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), students who obtained internships that were accredited by the American Psychological Association or Canadian Psychological Association (APA/CPA), students who obtained internships that met all guidelines of the Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs internship training standards (CDSPP), and students whose internships were completed half-time over a two year period (1/2 TIME). The percentages in all cells are calculated using the total number of students who applied for internships that year.

Comments: Virtually all of our students are able to obtain paid internships with little trouble. During the previous seven years, only 2 out of 52 students who sought internships accepted positions that were not paid, and these two students elected to accept these unpaid situations because they were place-bound in a specific geographical locale and did not wish to accept positions outside of those areas. Like many school psychology training programs, the percentage of our students whose internship setting was APPIC and/or APA accredited is relatively low, a fact owing to the general dearth of formally accredited internship programs that are located in public school systems, causing many of our students to choose non-accredited internship placements. However, during the past seven years of internship placements, all of our students who have sought APPIC/APA internships sites have received offers.

4. Attrition

The table in this section shows the number and percentage of students, by cohort and overall, who failed to complete our Ph.D. program after they were initially enrolled. For the seven most recent complete years of enrollment in our doctoral program, these data include the total number initially enrolled, the number graduated with a doctorate from our program, the number still enrolled in our program, and the number and percentage no longer enrolled, which reflects the attrition rate.

Comments: These data indicate an attrition rate of 22% (11 of 50 admitted students) over the past seven years. We note that of the 11 students over the past seven years who are no longer enrolled in the program, only 1 was terminated from the program for failure to stay in good standing. The remaining 10 students no longer enrolled either left the program early at their discretion to complete our specialist-level master's program, or withdrew from the program for personal reasons such as health or family problems, or to make a career change.

5. Licensure

The U.S. Secretary of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity for program accreditors, including the APA Committee on Accreditation, expect doctoral programs in professional areas of psychology to report the number and percentage of program graduates who have become board-licensed psychologists within the preceding decade. The table in this section shows the number of Ph.D. graduates of our program by year during the past decade, the number and percentage of these graduates who have become board-licensed psychologists, and the states in which licenses were awarded. The two most recent years of graduates are not included in these data, because board licensure generally requires two years beyond receipt of the doctoral degree.

At first glance, a licensure rate of 9% among our graduates over the past decade may seem unusually low. It is important to recognize that our program curriculum prepares our graduates to qualify for the national psychology licensure exam (EPPP) and to qualify as board licensed psychologists in the various U. S. states. However, like most school psychology doctoral programs (as opposed to doctoral programs in clinical and counseling psychology), our program is strongly focused on research and provision of psychological services in school settings rather than in clinic, medical, or independent practice settings. Because working in school settings requires a separate State Department of Education school psychologist credential, and because psychology board licensure is usually not accepted as a means for obtaining such a credential, only a small percentage of our graduates have pursued board licensure. All of our graduates are eligible for obtaining State Department of Education credentials as school psychologists, and virtually all of them hold such credentials in one or more states. In addition, many of our students have also received the Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential. Potential applicants to our program should be aware that if they desire to pursue predoctoral internships in non-school settings and to eventually become board licensed psychologists, our program structure accommodates and provides support for achieving these goals.