Clinical Science Requirements
Synopsis of the program
The clinical science program for Psychological & Brain Sciences graduate students a the University of Delaware includes coursework, research, and practicum training. The program is a 12-month per year commitment. Students will be actively involved in research and clinical work when relevant for the entire year, including winter and summer sessions.
General Curriculum Requirements
The program of study requires a minimum of 80 credits from coursework, attendance of colloquia, and research hours. Students receive additional credits for their work in clinical settings under supervision and an internship, and should discuss the timeline of this additional work with the director of the clinical science program. In contrast to the other concentrations, all clinical science faculty serve on the advisory committee for clinical science doctoral students.
Coursework
Formal coursework is completed over a four-year period. The sequence of some coursework is fixed in order to provide the necessary background for simultaneous research and practicum activity. Flexibility is provided in meeting many program requirements, including departmental breadth requirements, elective courses, and the completion of independent projects in lieu of some courses.
Research Requirements
Students start their research involvement in the first year. By the end of this year, a first-year project must be defended to the clinical science faculty. The second-year project must be defended to the clinical science faculty by the end of the fall semester of the third year. The fourth and usually fifth years are devoted primarily to dissertation research.
Practicum Training
Some practicum training begins in the first year, when students typically conduct their first assessment at the Institute for Community Mental Health (ICMH) Clinic. Practicum intensifies in the second year, when students serve as primary therapists under close faculty supervision at the ICMH Clinic.
In the third year and beyond, students work at external clinical practicum sites or continue to work at the ICMH Clinic. At the end of the third year, students must successfully negotiate the comprehensive exam, which includes both written and oral components.
The internship is usually taken during the sixth year. The Ph.D. cannot be awarded until both the internship and dissertation are completed.
Program Requirements
Consumer Disclosure: State Licensure
For more information on licensing requirements, including licensing boards and requirements in each U.S. state, territory, and Canadian province, visit the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. All states require the completion of supervised predoctoral practicum hours and a predoctoral internship. These aspects are also required for the doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the University of Delaware. In addition to education requirements for the doctoral degree, however, many jurisdictions require post-doctoral professional experience. These requirements are beyond the curricular requirements described below.
Note that in some jurisdictions, in addition to being licensed as psychologist, an individual can obtain prescribing privileges. The University of Delaware’s program does NOT fulfill requirements for licensure as prescribing psychologists in those states and jurisdictions that allow for it. Typically, additional coursework in pharmacology is needed in addition to the doctoral degree. Note that the District of Columbia has its own regulations aside from the states listed here. The University of Delaware’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program meets D.C.’s requirements.
Review the department's list to learn where UD's clinical science program meets state curricular requirements. An asterisk (*) indicates that earning a doctoral degree from a program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) satisfies educational requirements for licensure. UD is currently and has been continuously accredited by the APA since 1975. We have also been continuously accredited by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) since 2011.
Students with Master's Degrees
Although students may receive a general master's degree after completion of their second-year project, only students intending to finish a full doctoral program should apply. Students with a master's degree from another school may get credit for their master's thesis if it meets the standards of our clinical science faculty. It must be a complete research thesis rather than a pilot study or library research. The thesis must be defended and submitted to the previous school prior to enrollment at the University of Delaware. Students who come with a master's degree, or graduate coursework from other schools, are generally expected to take all of our clinical courses, required seminars, and practica. An exception may occasionally be made if the student can demonstrate (with syllabi and reading lists) that a previous course covered the same areas as the corresponding course given by our faculty.
Research Requirements
Students start research involvement in the first year. By the end of this year, a first-year project must be defended to the clinical faculty.
Second-year research must be defended to the clinical faculty and can be submitted to the Graduate College by the end of the fall semester of the third year for a master's thesis. The fourth and usually fifth years are devoted primarily to dissertation research.
Students may elect to get a master of arts degree (M.A. in Psychological & Brain Sciences) after defense of the second-year project. By the end of the fall semester of their third year, students will defend this project by presenting it in writing to the clinical faculty, by presenting it orally to the clinical faculty and graduate students, and by answering questions about the project following this presentation. At least one week prior to the oral presentation and defense, students must submit the manuscript to each member of the clinical faculty. Electronic submissions are fine, but students must offer to provide a hard copy of the document to any faculty member who requests it. The written document should be prepared in a format suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
The clinical faculty will decide whether students successfully defended the project; a positive decision requires that the clinical faculty judge the project and manuscript to be of high quality. If students do not successfully defend the project, the clinical faculty will develop a detailed remediation plan. This plan will vary depending on the nature of the concerns, but may entail additional data analysis and/or writing and/or a second defense before the clinical faculty.
Students will be required to complete the remediation process by May 31 of their third year. At that time, the clinical faculty will again decide whether the student successfully defended the project. If his/her performance is still deemed unsatisfactory, he/she will be terminated from the program. Students will need to reformat the second-year project as a master's thesis according to University guidelines. The master's degree is optional and does not advance or retard progress in the clinical science concentration.
Practicum Training
The Clinical Science Program at the University of Delaware emphasizes diversified practicum experiences in a range of clinical settings with varied patient populations and staff from different disciplines.
The first and second year practica take place at UD's Institute for Community Mental Health Clinic. Some practicum training begins in the first year when students typically conduct their first assessment at the ICMH Clinic. The first year practicum typically involves a few hours per week.
Practicum intensifies in the second year, when students serve as primary therapists under close faculty supervision at the ICMH Clinic or affiliated sites where faculty supervise (e.g., Early Learning Center).
Second- and third-year practicum experiences generally involve one and a half to two days per week in an approved clinical setting and are required as prerequisites for the internship.
In the third year and beyond, students work in external clinical practicum sites or continue to work at the ICMH Clinic. Third year practica are available in campus settings, hospitals, child inpatient facilities, medical schools, and community mental health and child guidance clinics. Every effort is made to arrange a third-year practicum site that is consistent with a student's professional goals.
Although not required, most students continue with external practica for at least one day per week in their fourth and fifth years.
The internship is usually taken during the sixth year. Students may apply for internship only if they have successfully defended their dissertation proposals. The Ph.D. cannot be awarded until both the internship and dissertation are completed.
Qualifying Exam
Clinical science students must complete four question-based essays, following a somewhat different procedure than for students from the other concentrations. The clinical science concentration-specific procedure follows.
Students take the comprehensive exam in the summer of their third year, after they have:
- Completed the three years of coursework and cleared all incomplete grades
- Successfully defended the first-year project
- Successfully defended the second-year project
Areas covered by the comprehensive exam include but are not limited to:
- Psychopathology and Developmental Risk
- Assessment/Tests and Measures
- Psychotherapy and Prevention
- Personality and Individual Differences
- Professional Issues
- Ethics
- Diversity
- Research Design and Methods
Question-based essays are intended to be integrative and will generally involve more than a single substantive area. Reading lists for each area will be reviewed each fall by the entire clinical faculty and updated as needed to reflect the most current developments in these areas. Updated reading lists will be provided to students by October 1 of their third year.
The format of the written exam is as follows:
- The written exam will be administered over two consecutive days and will include six possible questions.
- Half of the questions will be administered on the first day of written exams, and the second half will be administered on the following day. Students are to answer two questions each day.
- Exams are administered in a take-home, email format. Each day's questions will be sent electronically to students at 8:30 am of each written exam day, student's word-process their responses from their homes, and email their responses to the Graduate Academic Advisor by 4:30 pm of each written examination day.
- The essay answer to each question should not exceed five double-spaced pages (12-point font, 1 inch margins on all sides).
- Students should include a reference page with each of their answers. This can be cut and pasted from the electronic copy of the reading list.
Anonymity of written responses
Anonymity of written responses will be accomplished by having students select a four-digit identification number to be included with all responses, rather than their name. Students will inform the graduate academic advisor of their identification number when they submit their written responses via email. The graduate academic advisor will de-identify students' responses before distributing them to the director of clinical training (DCT). After grading of the written portion of the comprehensive exams is completed, the DCT will get the list matching students' names with their identification numbers from the graduate academic advisor.
Oral Exam
Within one week of the written exam, students will be scheduled for a 45-minute oral exam administered by at least the advisory committee PLUS two others (in the case of clinical, it will be the full program faculty). The purpose of the oral exam is to allow students to expand upon the written answers that they provided. Following students' oral exam, the clinical faculty will decide whether students passed or failed each of the four questions, taking into account both the written and oral performances.
If a student fails any exam question(s), the clinical faculty will prepare brief written feedback on the reasons for the failure and steps the student should take in preparing for the makeup exam. This feedback will be prepared as soon as the oral defense is complete, and the DCT will provide the feedback to the student within a day.
If students fail any exam question(s), they may take a makeup exam for that/those question(s) within 1-3 months after the original exam, on dates that are acceptable to both the student and the faculty. The new question(s) will be on the same content area(s) as the failed question(s); a choice of questions will not be provided. Four hours will be allotted for the written portion of each makeup question, and up to 45 minutes will be allotted for the oral portion of the makeup exam for all makeup questions combined. Since it is likely that only one student will take a makeup exam at a time, it will not be possible for responses to remain anonymous. All other aspects of the makeup exam procedure will parallel the procedures followed for the original exam. If students fail any makeup question, this signifies failure of the comprehensive exams, and they will be terminated from the program.
When students have passed all questions on the comprehensive examinations, the DCT will write a letter stating that they have completed the comprehensive examination requirement. The original of this letter will be given to students, and the DCT will provide a copy to the graduate academic advisor to place in the student's file.
If students are seriously ill or experiencing serious personal hardship (e.g., death in the family, fire, accident) immediately before or on the days of the exam, they may request a make-up exam. This request must be made in writing and approved by the clinical faculty. Make-up exams should occur within one month of the regularly scheduled exam, but students will be allowed a maximum of three months to schedule make-up exams. Make-up exams will consist of new questions written and approved by the clinical faculty.
Application Deadlines and Information
The deadline for graduate applications is December 1. We admit students for fall admission only. We generally schedule campus visits and interviews in January.
For more information regarding the criteria for admission please refer to the Graduate College website. For more information regarding the Graduate College application process please refer to Applying to UD.
Criteria for Admission
Students are admitted directly to the doctoral program. A combination of criteria are used in evaluating candidates for admission to graduate study in psychology.
- Undergraduate and/or graduate coursework and grade point average
- Research experience
- Personal statement
- Letters of recommendation
- In some cases, a personal interview.
- OPTIONAL: Scores on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination)***
***Application process update
The Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences is waiving the GRE requirement for our graduate program. If you wish to apply without a GRE score, please enter a future GRE exam date into the application. It need not be a legitimate exam date. Entering a future exam date causes the system to finish your application and send it on to our review committee where it will receive full consideration.
Clinical science concentration applicants, please note: The Psychology Subject GRE is not required and will not be used for evaluation purposes during the admission process. However, it is helpful for fulfilling clinical science program requirements, and students who enroll in our program may choose to take the test any time before the end of their first year.***
International Students
Foreign students whose language of education is not English must also arrange to have original TOEFL scores submitted; a minimum score of 100 on the IBT (600 on the paper-based test, or an equivalent IELTS score of 7.0) is required for admission. Foreign students who hold a university degree from an institution in an English-speaking country are not required to submit TOEFL scores. Foreign students whose native language in not English and who are awarded a teaching assistantship must successfully complete the University's ITA program.
Meeting the Requirements
Those who meet these requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet the requirements necessarily precluded from admission, if they offer other appropriate strengths. Research experience is looked upon favorably. An undergraduate degree in psychology is not required for admission, but students may be required to make up deficiencies in their background by enrolling in appropriate courses.
Application Essay 1:
The University of Delaware and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences has a long tradition of academic excellence. Upload an essay that addresses each of the following:
- Outline how your proposed plan of graduate study and scientific research experiences relate to your career goals.
- Describe your interest in working with a particular faculty member(s) or lab group (e.g., What about this faculty member’s research is a good fit with your career goals or research interests?)
- Describe how your previous experiences and skills (broadly defined, which could include work, academic, research, internship, extracurriculars, etc.) have prepared you for success in graduate school or may contribute to your future academic pursuits.
- Address any special circumstances that you feel we should know about (e.g., Were there any personal, social, economic, physical, or academic obstacles or challenges that had a significant impact on your educational performance or research experience?)
Application Essay 2:
The University of Delaware’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences is committed to supporting the diversity of the graduate student body and promoting access and opportunity in higher education. A diverse student body is an essential component of academic excellence as we train future scientific leaders, educators, and clinicians to operate within and serve a diverse population. The purpose of this essay is to get to know you as an individual and potential graduate student. Please use this statement to describe how you can contribute to the inclusivity of graduate education, our university community, and the field of psychology. You may discuss how you could broaden the participation of underrepresented and underserved groups in society through your lived experiences or in other ways. You may include educational, cultural, social, familial, nationality, immigration status, or economic opportunities and disadvantages that you have experienced, and ways those experiences have affected the development of your career plans and graduate school goals. This statement can also include ways that you have initiated or participated in outreach and services designed to further educational, cultural, and economic equity.
Research Experience
The clinical science program is especially interested in receiving applications from individuals who have previous research experience. Students with a strong motivation and interest in research, as well as some undergraduate experience in research, fit well with the program. Familiarity with computers, and the ability to use statistical software packages for data analysis, facilitate students' progress in the program. Although not required, a background in psychology is helpful, especially courses in research design and statistics.
Mentor Selection
One important criterion for admission is the fit between student research interests and those of faculty members in the program. During the admissions process, each student is matched with a faculty research mentor, on the basis of his or her research interests. The mentor trains the student throughout the program in research and helps to plan coursework and practicum training.
The following faculty will be interviewing for new students for 2024-2025:
- Jean-Philippe Laurenceau
- Jeffrey Spielberg
- Institute for Community Mental Health (co-mentorship with ICMH faculty)
Interview Policy
The clinical science program at the University of Delaware receives approximately 200 applications a year. We conduct an extensive review of applications and invite approximately 20 people for a virtual interview. Interviews are considered an important part of the application process. We appreciate your interest in our program, but because of the number of applicants, we can only virtually interview invited applicants and usually do so in late January. We will contact directly the applicants we are interested in interviewing. The program typically admits three to six students each year.
The clinical science program at the University of Delaware supports the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) policy for graduate school offers and acceptances.
