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pinksoil said:


Also, as someone who is attending a Psy.D. program, I would have to say that there is nothing less about a Psy.D. than a Ph.D. They are equal degrees, one being focused in research and the other in clinical studies.
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Actually, there are more differences between the PsyD and PhD than "just research." The statistics prove it.

In general, those students in PhD programs are higher quality students because they are accepted into programs and paid to goto school. PsyD programs, most of the students pay themselves. The average acceptance rate for PsyD programs is 40-41%. By contrast, the average acceptance rate for clinical PhD programs is 11-15%.

Students in PhD programs get more training, they take on average 1-1.5 years longer to finish their doctoral degree.

One disconcerting trend is that PsyD graduates do not perform as well as PhD graduates on the national licensing examination for psychologists (Kupfersmid &amp; Fiala, 1991; McGaha &amp; Minder, 1993; Yu et al., 1997). That is, doctoral students who graduate with PsyDs score lower, on average, than doctoral students who graduate with PhDs on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), the national licensing test.

The training models are different ~ the PsyD program uses the Vail Model whereas PhD uses the Boulder Model.

Also, match rates are much lower in "non-respected university based PsyD programs." For example:

Argosy Santa Ana: 45.5% Match
Forrest: 59% Match
Walden
17% Match Clinical
12% Match for Counseling

"Respected Psyd programs- university based with PhD programs as well"
Baylor: 89% Match
Rutgers: 92.6% Match

The match rates for PhD's are generally above 90%.

Furthermore, PhD's hold 85% of academic faculty positions (Morris et al, J Psychology and Theology, 2004)

For these reasons, it is important to understand the training a PsyD has had, where they went to school, whether it was APA accredited, whether they had an APA internship, and how long they have been practicing. Additionally, because not all PsyD's are equal, I would do research on the university or professional school that they received their degree from and understand whether it is accredited or not and the history of the accreditation.