Curriculum

The Clinical Science program includes coursework, research, and practicum training. Formal coursework is completed over a four-year period. The sequence of some coursework is fixed (as outlined in an additional information given to all clinical students) in order to provide the necessary background for simultaneous research and practicum activity. More flexibility is provided in the timing of Departmental breadth requirements and elective courses. The Clinical program of study requires a minimum of 80 credits from coursework, attendance of colloquia, and research hours. Students receive additional credits for their work in clinical settings under supervision and an internship, and should discuss the timeline of this additional work with the Director of the Clinical Science Program. In contrast to the other concentrations, all Clinical Science faculty serve on the Advisory Committee for Clinical Science doctoral students. ​

First-year Research- Students start research involvement in the first year. By the end of this year, a First-Year Project must be defended to the clinical faculty.

Second-Year Research and Master's- Second-year Research must be defended to the clinical faculty and can be submitted to the Graduate College by the end of the fall semester of the third year for a Master's Thesis. The fourth and usually fifth years are devoted primarily to Dissertation research.

Students may elect to get a Master's Degree (M.A. in Psychological & Brain Sciences) after defense of the Second-Year Project. By the end of the fall semester of their third year, students will defend this project by presenting it in writing to the clinical faculty, by presenting it orally to the clinical faculty and graduate students, and by answering questions about the project following this presentation. At least one week prior to the oral presentation and defense, students must submit the manuscript to each member of the clinical faculty. Electronic submissions are fine, but students must offer to provide a hard copy of the document to any faculty member who requests it. The written document should be prepared in a format suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. The clinical faculty will decide whether students successfully defended the project; a positive decision requires that the clinical faculty judge the project and manuscript to be of high quality. If students do not successfully defend the project, the clinical faculty will develop a detailed remediation plan. This plan will vary depending on the nature of the concerns, but may entail additional data analysis and/or writing and/or a second defense before the clinical faculty. Students will be required to complete the remediation process by May 31 of their third year. At that time, the clinical faculty will again decide whether the student successfully defended the project. If his/her performance is still deemed unsatisfactory, he/she will be terminated from the program. Students will need to reformat the second-year project as a Master's Thesis according to University guidelines. The Master's Degree is optional and does not advance or retard progress in the Clinical Science concentration.

Practicum- Some practicum training starts in the first year, when students typically conduct their first assessment at the ICMH Clinic​​. Practicum intensifies in the second year, when students serve as primary therapists under close faculty supervision at the ICMH Clinic​ or affiliated sites where faculty supervise (e.g., Early Learning Center). In the third year and beyond, students work in external clinical practicum sites or continue to work at the ICMH Clinic​.

The internship is usually taken during the sixth year. Students may apply for internship only if they have successfully defended their dissertation proposals. The Ph.D. cannot be awarded until both the internship and dissertation are completed.​

For Clinical Science students, four question-based essays will be completed, following a somewhat different procedure than for students from the other concentrations. The Clinical Science concentration-specific procedure is documented below.

Students take the comprehensive exam in the summer of their third year, after they have:

• Completed the three years of coursework and cleared all incomplete grades
• Successfully defended the First-Year Project
• Successfully defended the Second-Year Project 

Areas covered by the comprehensive exam include but are not limited to:

• Psychopathology and Developmental Risk
• Assessment/Tests and Measures
• Psychotherapy and Prevention
• Personality and Individual Differences
• Professional Issues
  
• Ethics
• Diversity
  
• Research Design and Methods 

Question-based essays are intended to be integrative and will generally involve more than a single substantive area. Reading lists for each area will be reviewed each fall by the entire clinical faculty and updated as needed to reflect the most current developments in these areas. Updated reading lists will be provided to students by October 1 of their third year. 

The format of the written exam is as follows:

• The written exam will be administered over two consecutive days and will include six possible questions.
• Half of the questions will be administered on the first day of written exams, and the second half will be administered on the following day. Students are to answer two questions each day.
• Exams are administered in a take-home, email format. Each day's questions will be sent electronically to students at 8:30 am of each written exam day, student's word-process their responses from their homes, and email their responses to the Graduate Academic Advisor by 4:30 pm of each written examination day.
• The essay answer to each question should not exceed five double-spaced pages (12-point font, 1 inch margins on all sides).
• Students should include a reference page with each of their answers. This can be cut and pasted from the electronic copy of the reading list.
  

Anonymity of written responses will be accomplished by having students select a four-digit identification number to be included with all responses, rather than their name. Students will inform the Graduate Academic Advisor of their identification number when they submit their written responses via email. The Graduate Academic Advisor will de-identify students' responses before distributing them to the Director of Clinical Training (DCT). After grading of the written portion of the comprehensive exams is completed, the DCT will get the list matching students' names with their identification numbers from the Graduate Academic Advisor.

Within one week of the written exam, students will be scheduled for a 45-minute oral exam administered by at least the Advisory Committee PLUS two others (in the case of Clinical, it will be the full program faculty). The purpose of the oral exam is to allow students to expand upon the written answers that they provided. Following students' oral exam, the clinical faculty will decide whether students passed or failed each of the four questions, taking into account both the written and oral performances.

If a student fails any exam question(s), the clinical faculty will prepare brief written feedback on the reasons for the failure and steps the student should take in preparing for the makeup exam. This feedback will be prepared as soon as the oral defense is complete, and the DCT will provide the feedback to the student within a day.

If students fail any exam question(s), they may take a makeup exam for that/those question(s) within 1-3 months after the original exam, on dates that are acceptable to both the student and the faculty. The new question(s) will be on the same content area(s) as the failed question(s); a choice of questions will not be provided. Four hours will be allotted for the written portion of each makeup question, and up to 45 minutes will be allotted for the oral portion of the makeup exam for all makeup questions combined. Since it is likely that only one student will take a makeup exam at a time, it will not be possible for responses to remain anonymous. All other aspects of the makeup exam procedure will parallel the procedures followed for the original exam. If students fail any makeup question, this signifies failure of the comprehensive exams, and they will be terminated from the program.

When students have passed all questions on the comprehensive examinations, the DCT will write a letter stating that they have completed the comprehensive examination requirement. The original of this letter will be given to students, and the DCT will provide a copy to the Graduate Academic Advisor to place in the student's file.

If students are seriously ill or experiencing serious personal hardship (e.g., death in the family, fire, accident) immediately before or on the days of the exam, they may request a make-up exam. This request must be made in writing and approved by the clinical faculty. Make-up exams should occur within one month of the regularly scheduled exam, but students will be allowed a maximum of three months to schedule make-up exams. Make-up exams will consist of new questions written and approved by the clinical faculty. ​