How do i become a clinical psychologist?

Question

i want to go to NYU, get a PhD.
Im also a IB student at my school.
what are the steps starting from a junior in high school?

Answer 1

In high school, start to research colleges. Narrow down your search to a few and then browse the faculty roster. Do an online search and read about the faculty's research (they will be impressed if you can talk competently about their work). Start to take classes in behavioral sciences, biology, and statistics (if your school has it). Look into volunteering. Check with your local United Way. They usually keep a list of non-profits in need of volunteers. Beef up your application and apply to a college or university.
You have 4 years of undergraduate college. After graduation, you should get some real experience before heading onto grad school. It will prepare you in more ways than one. While you are working, begin researching graduate schools. Look at everything from the program, to costs, to the internship placement rate. Then apply to a program, call for questions and go on an interview.
When you are accepted, your first year will consist of only classes. Many schools suggest that you only focus on education and not work part-time (although I worked full-time and it was a nightmare). You will take the basic courses your first year. Before you head to your second year, consider getting your masters. Some grad schools allow you to get a terminal master's degree. Do it. Some clinical internships will only consider you if you have a master's. The second year, you will have a lighter load of classes, but will take your first practicum. This is basically a 9 month internship doing either therapy or testing. Third year, you will take a second practicum and begin studying for your comprehensive exam and writing a dissertation proposal. In the spring/summer of your third year, you will take your comprehensive exam (or comps) to assess and apply everything you learned in the past 3 years. If you pass, during your fourth year, you will start looking for clinical internships. This is a nationwide search and highly competitive. 400 students will not have an internship this year. I included the appic website, who manages the internship process. Basically, you will apply to about 15 sites, get interviews at about 6 or 7 and then have to find the money to fly all over the country to go on interviews. You interview from November to February. End of February, on a Friday, you find out if you got an internship. You won't know where until the following Monday. If you did not place, that Monday, appic and the training directors list all the internship sites that have extra slots and you have mere minutes to prepare your application and e-mail it to the training directors (it goes very quickly). This year, over 700 students did not match and only 300 slots remained. You then have to wait and wait and wait to see if any training directors call you for an interview (hopefully, you will never get to this point).
If you get an internship, you then have to prepare for moving (if necessary). Your fifth year, you will be at an internship for 12 months, 40 hours a week, while also completing your dissertation. After you complete this internship AND your dissertation, you will graduate with a PsyD or PhD. You then have 2 choices: you can try to find a place that will let you work as an unlicensed psychologist while providing supervision or you can get a postdoc. After practicing for awhile under a licensed psychologist, you can then apply to take your licensure exam (the EPPP). The number of hours of experience required depends on your state. If you pass your EPPP, you are then technically a clinical psychologist.

Answer 2

Basically you should major or take a strong minor in Psychology at any good college. Get good grades. Do some research with a professor. Score high on the GRE general and subject exams.

Then pick a Ph.D. or Psy.D. program. The better programs have fee waivers and stipends, so if you did a good job as an undergrad, you won't have to pay for grad school.

But there are lots & lots of Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs that don't have stipends that just about anyone with a 3.0 (sometimes lower) can get into if they're willing to pay lots of money. Get into a good school if you can though, it will make your career much easire.