The Radford University Psy.D. Program is not yet accredited by the American Psychological Association; however, we expect to apply for accreditation during the 2011-2012 academic year, when the first students go on internship. Please see the first section of the FAQ page for more information on how we are preparing for accreditation.

If you have questions about the accreditation process for doctoral programs in psychology, you can contact the APA via the following means:

American Psychological Association

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation / Commission on

      Accreditation

750 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-5979
TDD/TTY: 202-336-6123
Fax: 202-336-5978
E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Internet Webpage: http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

Although the Psy.D. Program is not APA-accredited, Radford University is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (http://www.sacs.org/).

The Radford University Psy.D. Program is a psychology program intended to educate and train psychologists. We are an identifiable program within the Psychology Department, which is located within the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences.

We have 6 core faculty members, all of whom received their Ph.D. from APA-accredited Counseling Psychology programs; details about the faculty can be found in another page. Dr. Mullis will be retiring after the Fall 2008 semester but will remain available for consultation; we anticipate initiating a search to fill Dr. Mullis’ position in the Fall of 2009 with the person starting in the Fall of 2010. The core Psy.D. faculty have primary responsibility for the core and specialty areas in the curriculum and the Psy.D. Program Director has authority to act for the core faculty in these regards within the Department of Psychology and elsewhere at the University.

The first cohort of five students started the program in the Fall of 2008; details about these students can be found on another page.
 

The American Psychological Association Commission on Accreditation requires that accredited programs post information in five areas on their websites. Although the Radford program is not yet accredited, we want to make sure prospective applicants have the same information in order to be able to compare our program with others. The specific requirements can be found on page 48 (C-20. Disclosure of Education/Training Outcomes and Information Allowing for Informed Decision-Making to Prospective Doctoral Students) of the Commission on Accreditation Policy Statements and Implementing Regulations document located at:

 http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/implementregs200524.pdf

If you have questions about this rule or about the accreditation process you can contact:

The American Psychological Association

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation / Commission on Accreditation
750 First Street, NE

Washington, DC  20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-5979

TDD/TTY: 202-336-6123
Fax: 202-336-5978

E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org

1. Time to Completion

In their public materials, programs should provide the mean and the median number of years that students have taken to complete the program from the time of program entrance. These data should be provided for all graduates over the past seven years. Where applicable, these measures should be provided separately for students who began the program as bachelor level graduates and those who began with advanced standing (e.g., after having completed a separate master's program in psychology). The program should also provide the percentage of students completing the program in fewer than five years, five years, six years, seven years, and more than seven years. 

The Radford Psy.D. Program enrolled its first cohort of students in Fall 2008. The program will only accept students who already have a Master’s degree. Thus, currently we have no graduates so we cannot provide a mean or median time to completion. Our goal is for students to complete their coursework, dissertation, and internship within 4 years. 

 2. Program Costs

Programs are expected to make available the costs (i.e., tuition and fees) per student for the current first year cohort. This information should include full time student tuition, tuition per credit hour for part time students, and any fees assessed to students beyond tuition costs. Programs may also provide information regarding current adjustments to tuition including, but not limited to: financial aid, grants, loans, tuition remission, assistantships, and fellowships.

We first list the costs and then explain how the Radford program will offset these costs. The planned curriculum requires students to take 1-13 credits per semester, depending on the particular term. According to the 2008-2009 Graduate Student Handbook (p. 24), tuition and fees for in-state students taking 1-11 hours are $300/credit hour while tuition and fees for out-of-state students are $576/credit hour; for 12-18 hours tuition and fees are $3597 per semester for in-state students and $7194 for out-of-state students.

Based on this information and the proposed curriculum we have developed, we offer the following projected tuition and fee costs for the program:
 

Term	Number of Hours	In-State Costs	Out-of-State Costs
Fall 1	12	$3597	$7194
Spring 1	12	$3597	$7194
Summer 1	12	$3597	$7194
Fall 2	12	$3597	$7194
Spring 2	12	$3597	$7194
Summer 2	9	$2700	$5184
Fall 3	13	$3597	$7194
Spring 3	10	$3000	$5760
Summer 3	3	$  900	$1728
Fall 4	1	$  300	$  576
Spring 4	1	$  300	$  576
Summer 4	1	$  300	$  576

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, if tuition and fee costs go up then the expenses will go up. Also, if students are able to waive doctoral courses because of courses taken as part of their Master’s program and do not take electives to fill in the time when those courses would have met, the costs would go down accordingly.

In terms of adjusting for these costs, like most schools, Radford offers various forms of financial aid. Of most relevance and importance to prospective Psy.D. applicants, pending adequate funding from the Commonwealth, the University has committed to providing tuition remission (for both in-state and out-of-state students in the first year and for those who qualify for in-state tuition in their second and third years) and an assistantship for qualified students throughout the three years of coursework, provided the students remain in good standing. The 20-hour assistantship for 2008-2009 is $13,800; the amount in subsequent years will depend on funding from the Commonwealth. Thus, in 2008-2009 (and we anticipate in future years), instead of paying for school, students will not have to pay tuition of fees and instead will be paid while taking courses.
 

3. Internships

Programs are expected to provide data for at least the most recent seven years of graduates showing their success in obtaining internships. These data should show the number and percentage of students in the following categories:

• Those who obtained internships

• Those who obtained paid internships

• Those who obtained APPlC member internships

• Those who obtained APA/CPA accredited internships

• Those who obtained internships conforming to CDSPP guidelines (school psychology only)

• Those who obtained two year half-time internships

NOTE: In calculating the percentages, the program must use the total number of students applying for internship that year. 

As we noted above, our first cohort of students entered in Fall 2008, so we will not any students eligible to begin internship until Fall 2011. Therefore, we do not have any data yet to report.

 Program faculty and University administrators have discussed the issues associated with internship placement and we are actively working on several possibilities that we expect will maximize the likelihood that all of our students will be placed in APPIC-member or APA-accredited internships, including creating our own internship site that will guarantee placements for Radford students.

4. Attrition

Programs are expected to report the number and percentage of students who have failed to complete the program once enrolled. These data should be calculated for each entering cohort by dividing the number of students in that cohort who have left the program for any reason by the total number of students initially enrolled in that same cohort. These data should be provided by cohort for all students who have left the program in the last seven years or for all students who have left since the program became initially accredited, whichever time period is shorter.

 

The format below is EFFECTIVE as of January 1, 2008. 

Year of Enrollment	#Enrolled*	# Graduated with Doctorate	# Still Currently Enrolled	# No Longer Enrolled
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006

* Consistent with institutional definition and policy 

As with some of the previous items, we have no data to report yet on attrition.

Our goal is to provide thorough information and “informed consent” to students regarding the Psy.D. Program foci, work-load, and expectations. We also plan to very carefully screen applicants and only offer admission to students who we believe are a good fit for the Program and who we believe have the background necessary to succeed at Radford and as a Counseling Psychologist. Thus, we hope that the attrition rate will be low.

5. Licensure

This section EFFECTIVE January 1, 2008 and for published materials for 2008-2009

Reporting of program licensure data is an expectation of the US Secretary of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity for program accreditors, including the APA Committee on Accreditation. Programs are expected to report the number and percentage of program graduates who have become licensed psychologists within the preceding decade. This percentage should be calculated by dividing the number of students who have both graduated and become licensed psychologists within the 8 years spanning the period of 2-10 years post-graduation by the number of doctoral degrees awarded by the program over that same period. That is, the figures reported by a program for 2007 would be number of students who graduated from the program during the period 1997-2005 and who have achieved licensure divided by the number of students graduating from the program during that same 8-year period. Program licensure rates are to be updated at least every three years. Programs may interpret their licensure rate in light of their training model and program goals and objectives. 

As with several previous items, we do not have data yet on the percentage of students who have become licensed psychologists. 

 Because we are a Psy.D. Program and have a focus on training practitioners to provide mental health services in rural areas, we hope to have a very high percentage of graduates who become licensed psychologists.

 

. . .

As we discuss in both the Accreditation page and the first section of the FAQs page, the Radford University Psy.D. Program is not yet accredited by the American Psychological Association. If you have questions about the accreditation process for doctoral programs in psychology, you can contact the APA via the following means:

American Psychological Association
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation / Commission on Accreditation

750 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-5979
TDD/TTY: 202-336-6123
Fax: 202-336-5978
E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Internet Webpage: http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation