How do you become a clinical psychologist exactly?

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. 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

Go to university and get an undergraduate degree in Psychology. You should try to get an honours degree. Helping out a professor or working on a research project would help you be competitive for graduate school. The biggest challenge will be getting accepted into an APA approved graduate program in Clinical Psychology. Once in, it will take four-five years and involves academic work, clinical training and if you are in a PhD program (the other choice is a PsyD) conducting research. Once you are finished or close to finishing your PhD or PsyD - pretty much the entry level for clinical psychologists - you'll have to get accepted into an internship or residency program. That's a year of intensive practical training. After that, you'll have to get licensed. The requirements vary from state to state, but almost all require passing a licensing exam, the EPPP (it's kind of like a GRE or SAT for psychology) and a period of supervised practice. All this will take 10-12 years, but then you're good to go!

Answer 3

One needs to go to an accredited college/university and major in psychology. Aside from the typical liberal arts classes (english, math, history and etc.), one will need classes in Statistics, Research Methodology, lots of psych and some social work classes. An internship and/or volunteering is also very helpful and sometimes required to earn a Bachelor's in Psych.

After undergrad studies, one will definitely need to work on their Master's and Doctoral degrees.

I believe that the requirements for being licensed as a clinical psychologists may differ from state to state.

Answer 4

Fail in Thoracic's or any other speciality when you are interning...