Students entering the School of Professional Psychology's (SOPP) Doctor of Psychology program in the Fall (accepted an offer of admission) who have taken graduate-level course work in a Master's, Doctoral or other graduate program may have a course waiver approved. If the content covered in a course taken in another graduate program is judged to be equivalent to that covered in a SOPP course, a course credit waiver may be approved. If a student is granted a course credit waiver for one or more graduate-level courses, the student will not be required to take the equivalent course in the SOPP curriculum. Credit for supervised clinical practicum experiences may also be waived if it is substantively equivalent to a year of supervised practicum in the SOPP program. Waiver of credit for prior courses or supervised clinical experiences will make time available during which students can enroll in other courses, work on their dissertations or involve themselves in other educational experiences.
Guidelines for Waiver of Graduate Coursework Credit
- All students, including those with prior graduate education, are admitted to SOPP with the expectation that they will matriculate on a five-year curricular plan. Waiver of course or practicum credit will not shorten your time in the program.
- A maximum of 30 credit hours of equivalent coursework may be waived. This corresponds to the credit associated with approximately 10 SOPP courses or seminars.
- In general, a course credit waiver will be granted only for courses or seminars taken in a Psychology Department or Clinical Psychology Program within the past five years. Exceptions to the five-year time frame may be made if the student can demonstrate that he/she/they have continuously been involved in applying the skills and/or content of the course in a practice or other setting since the course work was originally taken and has participated in continuing education to be current in the course content.
- Decisions concerning a course credit waiver are based upon the extent to which a course taken in another program does or does not match, in terms of the content and depth or extent of coverage of an academic subject, a course in the SOPP program. If a course credit waiver is not granted for a course taken in another program, that decision should be viewed only as an indication that the SOPP faculty consider the content or coverage of the course as not matching that of the SOPP course. The decision by SOPP faculty regarding the match of prior graduate coursework with SOPP coursework to determine a course credit waiver is final.
- In general, individuals requesting waiver of course credit will have a Master's degree in clinical psychology, although requests from students with graduate coursework in closely related fields will be reviewed.
- Only under very unusual circumstances would one course or seminar taken in another program be waived in such a way as to count toward more than one SOPP course or seminar.
- Currently, all courses and seminars are open to course credit waiver with the exception of Diversity I, Diversity II, and Diversity III, Professional Dissertation, Practice Tutorial, Professional Development, and Internship. Note that the courses which are open to course credit waiver may be modified by the faculty at any time. The faculty reserves the right to require demonstration of proficiency/competency prior to approving waiver for any course or seminar.
In any event, the following courses require demonstration of proficiency/competency prior to approval of a course credit waiver: Cognitive Assessment and Lab (PSI 8110/8110L), Objective Personality Assessment (PSI 8120), Interviewing (PSI 8300); and Statistics and Research Methods (PSI 9040/9050). The course syllabi will be made accessible upon request to aid you in matching coursework and labs from your previous educational programs. Prior to granting a course credit waiver, instructors of the assessment courses or laboratories and interviewing course will want to evaluate work samples, either psychological assessment reports you have done previously or in vivo, videotaped administrations of one or more assessment instruments, and an in vivo or videotaped clinical interview. Instructors want to ensure that you have mastered administration and interpretation of basic psychological assessment instruments and can demonstrate adequate skill in clinical interviewing.
For PSI 9040 and 9050, Statistics and Research Methods I and II a course credit waiver will be granted based on a student having completed equivalent course work and passing a written proficiency examination. Students who have completed equivalent coursework and who wish to obtain a course credit waiver for this course may also want to review their texts and course notes, or the texts used for SOPP's course in Statistics after which they may contact the Office of Academic Affairs to schedule a time to take the proficiency exam.
- Instructions for requesting a course waiver for graduate-level coursework will be sent to incoming students in late April/Early May following the deadline for accepting offers of admission each year. In general, course waiver requests require a cover letter, transcript with courses highlighted, and course syllabus.
Guidelines for Waiver of Course Credit for Clinical Practicum or Fieldwork
- Credit from prior supervised clinical practicum or fieldwork experiences may be waived if it is equivalent to supervised clinical practicum in the SOPP program. One year of supervised clinical practicum in this program involves clinical work for two days per week for one calendar year (minimum of 700 clock hours) under the direct supervision of a licensed psychologist on site. Students may receive partial credit for a minimum of 400 hours of graduate practicum training that is supervised on site by a licensed psychologist.
- Students who request a course credit waiver for supervised clinical practicum or supervised fieldwork should highlight the course and grade received on the transcript. In addition, each clinical supervisor will need to complete a Documentation of Training Supervision form. This form will be sent to incoming students with the course waiver instructions in late April/early May following the deadline for accepting offers of admission each year. If a syllabus for the supervised clinical practicum or fieldwork course is available, this should also be submitted.
- In order to waive course credit for supervised clinical practicum, a student must also have course waivers for graduate courses considered prerequisites in the SOPP program for beginning the first practicum. These courses include: Interviewing, Psychopathology, Cognitive Assessment, Cognitive Assessment Lab, Objective Personality Assessment, and Behavioral & Cognitive Therapies (or another course in psychological theory, e.g., Psychodynamic). Since students are not allowed to waive Diversity Integration I (a required first year course), students seeking course credit waiver for clinical practicum must document prior graduate-level coursework in individual and cultural diversity competence by submitting a syllabus for the course with their practicum course waiver request.