GUIDELINES AND POLICIES GOVERNING THE OPERATION OF THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM

GUIDELINES AND POLICIES GOVERNING THE OPERATION OF THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM

January 1, 2011

The requirements for the Master's and Doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University are currently governed by three nested sets of guidelines and regulations: (1) the University's requirements as published in the current General Bulletin: Graduate Edition, (2) the Psychology Department's requirements in the current Psychology Department's Guidelines for the Operation of the Graduate Program, and (3) the Clinical Psychology Program requirements in this document. The Clinical curriculum was significantly revised by the Clinical Area in April 1988 and amended periodically in subsequent years. In addition to establishing formal amendments to the clinical curriculum, the Clinical Training Committee (comprised of the clinical core program faculty) from time to time adopts policies that influence the curriculum and other requirements. Agenda items for the CTC meetings can come from the clinical faculty or from clinical graduate students. Students participate in the governance of the department and the clinical area via the Graduate Student Advisory Committee. (The composition of the CTC and description of the Graduate Student Advisory Committee was updated August 2010 to reflect actual governance structure of the program.)

Your curriculum and requirements are ordinarily determined by the rules in effect in the semester in which you are first enrolled in the graduate program (i.e., by the University rules, the Departmental Guidelines, the Clinical Curriculum and the Clinical Policies in effect at that time). Thus, you should keep a copy of all relevant rules from the year you entered so that when you file your Master's and/or Doctoral Programs of Study you can document their propriety with reference to the rules applicable to your cohort.

Although the vast majority of students subscribe to the rules that were in effect when they entered the program, students may choose to abandon old rules in favor of the current ones if practicable. This change must be documented by a letter or by filing a modified Program of Study with the Director of Graduate Studies in Psychology. If you exercise this option, the decision is irrevocable (i.e., you cannot revert back to the old rules later). However, if subsequent revisions to the rules occur, you can elect to adopt the latest version. Thus, you always have two choices: the package you are currently under (either by virtue of your admission date or a subsequent formal election to change), or the one currently in effect. It should be emphasized that you cannot combine elements of two or more sets of rules to customize a program for yourself, nor can you ever switch to a set of rules other than the one currently in force.

General Principles and Policies

There are certain general principles and policies that underlie or otherwise govern the operation of all the specific rules and regulations:

1. Each set of requirements is regarded as minimal in that the next level is free to adopt more stringent requirements. Thus, the Department can and does have additional requirements beyond those stipulated by the University, and the Area can and does impose additional requirements beyond those adopted by the Department.

2. The ultimate authority is the student’s Committee (Master’s or Doctoral, depending upon a student’s status in the program). The Committee can always impose additional requirements beyond those of the University, Department, and Area. This is typically done in connection with its consideration of the student's Programs of Study. However, in the Clinical Area, recommendations and requirements may include mandatory experiences designed to develop or demonstrate proficiency as a practitioner as well as the need to complete formal academic coursework. Note that the Master's/Doctoral Committees, Area, or Department cannot decrease or waive requirements set by other levels.

3. It is expected that a student who receives a doctoral degree from the Florida State University will complete the majority of his or her graduate education at the Florida State University. Students who have previous graduate training should expect to take graduate courses from FSU faculty in addition to completion of required examinations and research projects.

4. Although most of the content of the documents in the governing documents available to you deal with academic requirements such as courses, grades and the like, it should be understood that the Ph.D. in clinical psychology is a professional as well as an academic degree. Accordingly, student behavior must conform to high standards in areas beyond simple academic performance. This includes, but is not limited to, professional ethics as well as personal integrity, responsibility, maturity, stability, and appropriate psychosocial functioning. Students whose behavior indicates any problems liable to interfere with their clinical effectiveness may be advised to seek help to overcome these difficulties and must resolve them or face the possibility that they may be asked to leave the program. Violation of professional ethical standards is grounds for dismissal from the program.

5. The Clinical Program incorporates all University policies on equal opportunity, non-discrimination, academic honor, academic appeals and grievances, due process and all other academic regulations and procedures as detailed in the FSU Bulletin: Graduate Edition. Please see the University Notices and Academic Regulations and Procedures sections of that document (also available on line at http://registrar.fsu.edu/bulletin/grad/default.htm) for specifics.

CLINICAL CURRICULUM

The following is a summary of the curriculum currently required for graduate students in the Clinical program. The first table below provides an overview of how the Clinical program's curriculum satisfies requirements of its accrediting body, the American Psychological Association (APA).

Courses that Meet APA Curriculum Requirements

APA Required Content Area	Clinical Program Required Courses (courses can cover more than one APA content area)	Additional Courses that Provide Coverage (this list is not exhaustive)
1. Breadth of Scientific Psychology
a. Biological aspects of behavior	PSB 5056 Biological Psych	PSB 6059 Behav. Endocrinology PSB 5347 Neuropharmacology PSY 6919 Molec. Behav. Genet.
b. Cognitive & affective aspects of behavior	PSY 5196 Techniques of Behavior Change CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac. EXP 5406 Neurobio Learn Mem or EXP 5508 Cognition & Percep.	PSY 5916 Human Memory EXP 6609 Attention Seminar PSY 6919 Cog. Mod: Aging & Cog. PSY 6919 Cog. Mod: Metacognition
c. Social aspects of behavior	PSY 6919 Social & Personality	PSY 5916 Evolutionary Psych PSY 5916 Prejudice
d. History and systems of psychology	PSY 5605 History & Systems
e. Psychological measurement	PSY 5325 Assessment CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac.
f. Research methodology	CLP 5375 Research Design and Methods
g. Techniques of data analysis	PSY 6919 Design & Analysis I PSY 6919 Design & Analysis II	PSY 5916 Intro Latent Var. PSY 5916 Advanced Topics in SEM PSY 5916 Developmental Methods PSY 5916 Meta Analysis
2. Substantive Areas of Professional Psychology
a. Individual differences in behavior	PSY 6919 Social & Personality PSY 5325 Assessment CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology	PSY 5916 Behavioral Genetics
b. Human development	CLP 5475 Child Development and Psychopathology CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology PSY 5325 Assessment	DEP 5165 Developmental Psych. PSY 6919 Cog. Mod: Aging & Cog.
c. Dysfunctional behavior, psychopathology	CLP 5475 Child Development and Psychopathology CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology	PPE 5055 Personality Disorders CLP 6349 Suicide PSY 5916 Eating Disorders CLP 6349 Psychopathic Personalities
d. Professional Standards and ethics	CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac. CLP 5941 Clinical Practicum CLP 6920 Prosem	CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum

APA Requirements (cont.)

3. Diagnosis/assessment, measurement, intervention (including training in treatment)
a. Theories and methods of assessment and diagnosis	CLP 5375 Research Design and Methods PSY 5325 Assessment CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac. CLP 5941 Clinical Practicum	CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
b. Effective intervention	PSY 5196 Techniques of Behavior Change CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac.
c. Consultation and supervision	CLP 5941 Clinical Practicum CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
d. Evaluating the efficacy of interventions	PSY 5196 Techniques of Behavior Change CLP 5941Clinical Practicum	CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
4. Issues of cultural and individual diversity that are relevant to all of the above	CLP 5475 Child Development and Psychopathology CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology CLP 5375 Research Design and Methods PSY 5325 Assessment CLP 5624 Ethics & Fund. Clin. Prac. CLP 5941 Clinical Practicum CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum	CLP 5189 Cultural Diversity
5. Attitudes essential for lifelong learning, scholarly inquiry, and professional problem-solving	CLP 6920 Prosem PSY 5908 DIS CLP 5375 Research Design and Methods

Note: Some required courses (middle column) are listed more than once because they provide coverage of more than one content area.

In summer 2010, the CTC conducted its most recent curriculum review which entailed an evaluation of coverage of APA content requirements, assessment of current and future faculty course assignments, and input from current graduate students as well as graduates of the program. Revisions made to courses at various times are noted below. The course list is followed by a table that outlines the current requirements for the initial 3-year sequence of courses in the curriculum.

PSY 5325 - Assessment (revised summer 2003 to combine Assessment I and II; revised fall 2010 to move psychometrics and test development to another course and replace it with expanded coverage of cognitive assessment and to cover testing across the lifespan beginning spring 2012)

CLP 5624 – Ethics and Fundamentals of Professional Practice (added fall 1998; revised summer 2003; revised fall 2010 to cover semi-structured clinical interviewing via a 6-week lab beginning summer 2011)

CLP 5375 - Research Design and Methods (name changed from Concepts and Methods of Clinical Psychology and revised fall 2010 to include psychometrics and test development beginning fall 2011)

CLP 5196 - Techniques of Behavior Change (revised fall 2010 to increase practical instruction on cognitive behavior therapy beginning spring 2011)

CLP 5942 - Advanced Practicum (an available option beginning in fall 2011 for students in their third year and later who want experience treating some of the most severe cases in the Psychology Clinic)

CLP 6169 - Adult Development and Psychopathology (name changed for fall 2011 to reflect coverage of human development in the adult years)

CLP 5475 - Child Development and Psychopathology (name changed for fall 2011 to reflect coverage of human development in the child/adolescent years)

PSY 5605 - History and Systems (changed to an independent readings course in fall 2006)

Initial Three-Year Sequence for Clinical Program Students:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Fall:	Fall:	Fall:
CLP 6169 Adult Development and Psychopathology	Required or elective course (see below)¹	Elective
CLP 5375 Research Design and Methods	Required or elective course (see below)¹	CLP 5941 (Clinic) or CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
PSY 6919 Design & Analysis I²	CLP 5941 (Clinic)³	Research/thesis credits
CLP 6920 Proseminar⁴	Research/ thesis credits	Required course (see below)
PSY 5908 or 5973 Research or thesis	Defend thesis prospectus⁵	Defend thesis⁵
Spring:	Spring:	Spring:
PSY 5325 Assessment	CLP 5475 Child Development and Psychopathology	Elective
CLP 5196 Techniques of Behavior Change	Required or elective course (see below)¹	CLP 5941 (Clinic) or CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
PSY 6919 Design & Analysis II²	CLP 5941(Clinic)³	Research/ thesis credits
CLP 6920 Proseminar⁴	Research/ thesis credits
PSY 5908 or 5973 Research or thesis
Summer:	Summer:	Summer:
CLP 5624 Ethics & Fundamentals of Clinical Practice	CLP 5941 (Clinic)	CLP 5941 (Clinic) or CLP 5942 Advanced Practicum
PSY 5605 History & Systems	CLP 5189 Cultural Diversity (optional but does not count as an elective)

¹Students are strongly encouraged to take substantive courses in Year 2 to help ensure timely progress through the program.

²Course meets departmental core requirement for master’s thesis – need only one of these courses to meet the departmental requirement. The Clinical area requires that both of these courses be taken. If a student gets either of these courses waived (this is unusual), then the student must take one additional statistics course.

³Prerequisites for this course are: CLP 5196, CLP 6169, PSY 5325

⁴Registration for CLP 6920 is optional if students are limited to 9 credits by residency or other requirements; students are required to attend as though they had registered.

⁵These are suggested times for these events to help ensure adequate progress on the thesis, which must be defended by the end of the 3^rd year according to departmental and Clinical area guidelines.

Required Selections for Clinical Program Students:

PSB 5056 Biological Psychology

PSY 6919 Social & Personality

EXP 5406 Neurobio Learn Mem. or EXP 5508 Cognition & Perception

Note: Each of the above courses meets departmental core requirement for the doctoral degree. Students need only two of these courses to meet the departmental requirement, but the Clinical area requires a third course to fulfill APA requirements on breadth.

Electives (requirement revised fall 2009)

Graduate students in the Clinical program are required to take at least two graduate courses in addition to required courses noted above. These electives must be graded (not pass/fail) content seminars or courses (not practica) in which at least three-quarters of those enrolled for credit are graduate students (for classes that include students from both graduate and undergraduate course numbers, this refers to three-quarters of the total student enrollment across course numbers). The CTC can waive these criteria. Students may petition the CTC for approval of courses that do not meet these criteria. The electives chosen by a student are part of their Program of Studies and are subject to approval by the student's Doctoral Committee. It is preferable that these electives are taken in the Psychology Department. A maximum of one of the two courses may be taken outside of the Psychology Department. However, students must obtain approval of the CTC to allow outside courses to count toward the elective requirement. Students should provide the faculty with a syllabus, credentials of the instructor, and provide a rationale for why the course is important for their training. The following are courses commonly used to meet the elective requirement, but students should discuss their choices with their major professor and decide which courses best meet the student’s training needs.

PSY 5916 Introduction to Latent Variables

PSY 5916 Advanced Topics in SEM

PSY 5916 Developmental Methods

PSY 5916 Meta Analysis

DEP 5165 Developmental Psychology¹

CLP 6349 Suicide

CLP 6349 Personality Disorders

PSY 5916 Eating Disorders

CLP 6349 Psychopathic Personalities

PSY 5916 Behavioral Genetics (approved by CTC in fall 2009)

¹Beginning in fall 2011, the psychopathology (CLP 6169 and CLP 5475) and assessment (PSY 5325) courses will include coverage of human development across the lifespan. Therefore, DEP 5165 is an elective course for students entering the program in fall 2011. Students who entered the program prior to 2011 must take DEP 5165 to meet the APA breadth requirement.

Electives for Professional Development Needs (Optional)

Students who are considering the possibility of licensure might want to take CLP 5189 (Cultural Diversity), which is a readings course. For all students, this topic is built into the required courses; however, some students have found it beneficial to have a dedicated course on their transcript when navigating the licensure process for various states.

Waivers for Required Courses

Some students enter the program with some graduate course work, and they might be able to get a waiver for a required course. This is unusual, and the large majority of students will take all required courses in the curriculum. If a student believes he/she has taken a substantively similar course to one that is required in the curriculum, then he/she should discuss this with his/her major professor and, if appropriate, pursue a waiver. The course waiver memo can be found on the Current Student Resources page of the Psychology department website (under the Graduate tab).

Pre-doctoral Internship

Students are required to complete a 2,000 hour APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship. The student’s committee as well as university guidelines on enrollment dictate whether a student should sign up for internship hours (under PSY 6948 – Psychological Internship). No student can be cleared to receive the Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology until after the internship facility has certified to the Director of Clinical Training that the student has satisfactorily completed the internship.

OTHER POLICIES GOVERNING THE CLINICAL PROGRAM

In addition to required coursework, the Clinical Training Committee has from time to time adopted other policies pertinent to program requirements. The following collection of relevant policies has been extracted from previous clinical guidelines, minutes of clinical faculty meetings, and archival records of past clinical meetings and passed on to the present DCT by his/her predecessors. They are roughly organized according to the stage of the student's academic career to which they apply.

1. Apprenticeships. Requirement omitted in August 2010. (Originally from fall 1983 through fall 1986 compilations.)

2. Criterion for passing required courses. All academic courses required by the program must be passed by a grade of B- or better. The overall GPA in these courses must be B or better. (Passed March 3, 1987).

3. Failure in courses.

(a) Retaking required courses. A student failing to meet the requirement of B- or better in a required graded course must retake the course (or, at the option of the instructor, the part of the course that was failed) the next time the course is offered. Students will be allowed to retake each graded course only once, and no more than two failed graduate graded courses can be retaken. If the student fails a second time to achieve a B- or better, the student may file an appeal requesting that he or she be allowed to stay in the program. The Clinical faculty as a whole will consider that appeal. (Passed March 31, 1987; modified August 2010).

(b) Failing grades: If a grade lower than "B-" is given in a required clinical course, instructors are asked to submit a memo to the student's file to provide more precise information on the nature of the individual's poor performance. (Approved 3/30/99).

4. Completion of a data-based master’s thesis. The intended goal of the master’s thesis is to provide students with a set of experiences that will enhance their ability to produce high quality research independently. That is, in the process of completing a master’s thesis, students obtain guidance and experience in summarizing existing scientific knowledge, generating questions of interest to the research community, designing research that can address those questions, conducting the research, and summarizing the resultant findings in the context of existing scientific knowledge. Therefore, although the Departmental Guidelines (Section II C 2. - 3.) are quite flexible where the requirement of an empirical master’s thesis and awarding of a master’s degree are concerned, the Clinical program has adopted the following requirements. All students seeking a master’s degree within the Clinical program must complete a data-based master’s thesis and must follow the formal process of:

(a) Establishing a master’s committee.

(b) Preparing a document in which the work to be completed for the thesis is proposed.

(d) Producing a written document that comprises the master’s thesis.

(e) Completing an oral defense of the thesis.

The written proposal and thesis should be modeled on publication quality research reports. Although the student should review and obtain mastery of a large body of literature in preparation of the proposal and thesis, a written summary of this entire body of background knowledge is neither necessary nor desired in publication quality written products. Therefore, the introduction to the proposal and thesis should not exceed 10 pages, but should be able to stand on its own in the manner that the introduction to a grant application or journal manuscript provides sufficient information to contextualize and justify the study. One purpose of the oral defense is to allow students to demonstrate their mastery of the broader literature.

Steps (a), (b), and (c) above must be completed prior to conducting the proposed study. In most cases, this will mean that the oral defense of the proposal must occur prior to data (other than pilot data) being collected. The use of previously collected (archival) data may be proposed (see policy on data collection in #5, below). However, since the committee could decide that the data are insufficient to address the questions(s) posed in the study, the committee review and oral defense of the proposal (in which the committee can evaluate the goals of the study in the context of the available data) must occur prior to the student investing significant time and effort in data analysis.

Students who enter the clinical program having already been awarded a master’s degree from another institution can petition the CTC to waive the FSU Clinical program requirement of a master's thesis. The CTC's decision will be based on an evaluation of the thesis conducted at the other institution and whether it is comparable to those conducted at FSU.

Note: This section of the requirements for the master's thesis was revised and approved 11/18/03.

5. Data collection. Except with approval from all committee members, no data collected before defense of a thesis or dissertation prospectus may be used in that project. (Pilot testing is, of course, permitted and encouraged.) This restriction is somewhat flexible for master's theses, but should be rigidly employed for dissertations. (From Fall, 1983, compilation).

6. Completion of the Master's degree by the end of the third year. Any student who has not successfully defended a Master's thesis by the end of the spring semester of the third year is expected to devote full attention to completion of the thesis until it is successfully defended. The student should not enroll in practica or substantive courses, unless such courses further the thesis research and are approved by the student's Master's committee. (September, 1984 policy statement, revised September, 1988; amended fall 2010 to make the time line consistent with the Departmental Guidelines.)

Note: This policy supplements the financial support provisions in the Departmental Guidelines (Section IV-B-2).

7. Independent project. As part of the preliminary doctoral examination process, all students must complete an acceptable independent project. This project may take a variety of forms including but not limited to: 1) an empirical study; 2) a clinical case report; 3) a review of a research area; or 4) a grant proposal. The nature of the project is to be decided by the student in conjunction with his or her advisor. The project must be based on work done while a graduate student in this program. It may involve collaboration with faculty and peers, however, the student must be the principal author of the written product. The project must be separate from the student’s thesis (e.g., it cannot be the publication version of student’s thesis) or dissertation prospectus. Regardless of the type of project selected by the student, the written product must be of the length and format appropriate for submission to a peer-reviewed professional journal or granting agency. The independent project will be included among the other qualifying examination materials and will be reviewed and approved by the student’s qualifying examination committee.

Note: This section was adopted in Spring, 1998 and modified Spring, 2010.

8. Clinical Practicum. As indicated in the Clinical Curriculum summary, all clinical students are required to complete a 12-month practicum in the Psychology Clinic, usually during the second year in the program. Students are also required to complete a minimum of 550 hours of supervised practicum experience in the Psychology Clinic. As part of this practicum, students are required to attend a series of clinic orientation sessions, which typically occur during the second six-week term in the summer session preceding the start of the practicum.

9. Practicum log. Students are encouraged to keep a running log of the number of client contact hours, supervision hours, time spent on administrative tasks, and the number of hours spent at staffing and case conferences each semester. This facilitates the completion of information on the student evaluation form and helps summarize information for the internship application. (Practicum summary omitted as a requirement August 2010.)

10. Preliminary Doctoral Exam for the Clinical Area (revision approved 8/2008; updated 8/2010). All students must pass a qualifying exam to advance to doctoral candidacy. Students are eligible to take the preliminary doctoral exam after defense of their master’s thesis, completion of coursework for a master’s degree, completion of one year at the Psychology Clinic, and completion of the independent project (which must be submitted as part of the qualifying binder as outlined below). Students who enter the graduate program in Clinical Psychology without an approved master’s thesis must successfully complete the qualifying exam by the fall semester of the 6th year in the program. Students who enter the graduate program with a master’s thesis that is approved by our faculty must successfully complete the qualifying exam by the fall semester of the 4th year in the program. It is expected, and strongly recommended, that students take the qualifying exam at least one year prior to these deadlines. Extensions of the deadline for completing the qualifying exam will occur only in unusual and compelling circumstances. Requests for extensions will be reviewed by the entire clinical faculty. Students must provide justification for the request and propose a timeline for completion of their graduate studies. Requests for extensions must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the clinical faculty. Students who are not granted an extension and fail to pass the preliminary doctoral exam by the stated deadline will not be admitted to doctoral candidacy.

The qualifying evaluation involves the student developing a binder that contains 3 elements: course work, scholarly/research activity, and clinical activity. The purpose of the binder is to show the readiness of the student to conduct the doctoral dissertation. The student should discuss his/her readiness to submit the qualifying binder with his/her major professor. A student's program of research and future plans for courses, research, and clinical work should be informed by discussions that have occurred with the major professor prior to the development of the binder. The student is responsible for initially preparing the binder for review by the major professor without aid from faculty, fellow students, or anyone else. When the binder is complete, it should be submitted to the major professor, who will then write a letter of support. At that time, the major professor may also offer the student general tips for revising items in the binder.

(1) The course work section is comprised of the Ph.D. Program of Studies (complete with grades) to show adequate progress through the curriculum; future courses should be listed to indicate what course requirements of the program have not yet been met; and any other training activities (e.g., statistics workshops) undertaken during graduate school may be listed to further indicate relevant training experiences
(2) The scholarly section is comprised of a research statement, an overview of research accomplishments during graduate school, and the independent project and is intended to show evidence of competence in research. The research statement should describe the student’s program of research including the master’s thesis and any other research activities of the student during graduate school. Future research directions (including the dissertation) should also be indicated. The research statement should not exceed 8 double spaced pages (12 pt. font; 1 in. margins). (Students are encouraged to review on Psynet sample research statements for tips on format and style.) The overview of research accomplishments can take the form of the Grants/Publications/Presentations sections of a vita. However, only research accomplishments stemming from work done during graduate school at FSU may be included. The independent project was phased in as a requirement for the binder beginning in fall 2009. This provides a means to satisfy the program requirement of having the independent project approved by a faculty committee. The qualifying exam committee will look for evidence of research achievement, which can be demonstrated in a number of ways. The student should be as inclusive as possible when compiling the research accomplishments section of the binder. For instance, list Graduate Research Day presentations along with presentations at national/international/regional conferences. The student should also be as specific as possible when compiling the list of accomplishments. For instance, for conference presentations, indicate whether it was oral or poster; for grants, indicate the date it was submitted and provide the score and whether it was funded (if known); for journal articles, indicate the decision (e.g., revise and resubmit) if it is known.

(3) The clinical section is comprised of a summary of the student’s clinical work during graduate school which describes current and past clinical placements, number of clients seen, and types of clinical work completed at each placement. Future plans for clinical placements should also be indicated (to give a sense of what additional clinical experiences the student might pursue). The student should solicit a letter from his/her most recent Clinic supervisor. The Clinic supervisor letter should be returned directly to the student for inclusion in the binder. Supervisors’ semester evaluations of work done at community placements may also be included in the binder at the student's discretion. Finally, the student will provide a case conceptualization/treatment plan for one patient they have treated (with all identifying information removed). The clinical case conceptualization/treatment plan should not exceed 8 double-spaced pages (12 pt. font; 1 in. margins). (Students are encouraged to review on Psynet sample case conceptualization examples for tips on format and style.)
(4) A letter of support should be submitted electronically by the major professor directly to Psynet (instructions for doing this can be found on Psynet). The deadline for submission of the letter is the same as for the submission of the binder (see Eligibility, Evaluation Dates, and Evaluation Timeline section).

Submission of the Binder

The student should create an electronic version of the binder and post it to Psynet (instructions for doing this can be found on Psynet). The file name should include the student’s name and semester/year of submission (e.g., John Doe Qualifying Binder Fall2008). All members of the clinical training faculty will have access to the binders, but no one else will. A student must upload only the final version of his/her binder to Psynet.

Evaluation/ Exam Committee
The qualifying binder will be reviewed by 3 randomly selected clinical training faculty members (not the major professor). One of the 3 committee members will be randomly assigned as the chair of the committee. The committee members will independently evaluate the qualifying binder and then meet. At the committee’s discretion, a meeting can be called with the student to probe for more information if clarification is needed for the committee to come to a decision. The committee will then create a brief report outlining strengths and weaknesses of the candidate as well as any recommendations for their continued professional development. The committee must unanimously decide the student is ready to move on to the dissertation OR make recommendations for continued work to remediate any deficiencies. The evaluation committee will present their recommendations to the CTC for approval. Once approved, the chair of the committee will notify the student and offer to schedule a meeting (which the major professor can opt to attend) to discuss the report and the recommendations. A copy of the committee's report will be sent to the student and the DCT by the chair of the committee. If remediation is required, the chair of the evaluation committee will notify the student and the DCT when all requirements have been met and the student has passed. The DCT will notify the department’s Graduate Studies office once the student’s binder has been approved and he/she has been recommended for doctoral candidacy.

Eligibility, Evaluation Dates, and Evaluation Timeline
Students are minimally eligible for consideration for promotion to doctoral candidacy once they have been 1) admitted to the doctoral program (typically upon successful defense of the master’s thesis), 2) have completed at least 1 year of service in the Psychology Clinic, and 3) have completed the independent project (as it is part of the qualifying binder). Eligible students can submit a completed binder for consideration to the clinical training faculty only during the first week of classes in the fall or spring semester. Formation of the evaluation committee, review process, and initial feedback to the student will occur within 6 weeks after the submission period ends (i.e., by the end of the seventh week of classes).

Note: Students who took the written comps exam (fall 2008 or earlier) will need to submit their independent project to their thesis or dissertation committee for approval.

11. Eligibility to apply for internship. To be eligible to apply for internship, students must have: (a) successfully passed their Preliminary Doctoral Examination in its entirety by October 1^st; (b) successfully defended a dissertation prospectus; (c) satisfactorily completed 550 hours of practicum in the Psychology Clinic; and (d) their readiness for internship approved by a majority vote of the Clinical faculty at the Fall evaluation meeting.

Note: Section "a" was adopted in May, 1983, and modified in 2006 to specify the October 1^st date. This date affects all students enrolling in or after fall 2006. Section "b" was adopted in spring 1998 and went into effect in fall 1998. Section "c" was adopted in fall 1988 and went into effect in fall 1989. Section “d” has existed continuously since the program's inception.

12. Completion of dissertation. The university requires that students complete all requirements for the doctoral degree (including internship) within five years of completion of the Preliminary Doctoral Examination. Requests to extend time (beyond 5 years) to complete the requirements of the doctoral degree must be approved by a majority vote of the CTC. Faculty will respond to a student’s request with one of the following options: a) refuse to support the request (student will be dropped from the doctoral program); b) refuse to support the request for an extension but the student is allowed to retake the preliminary doctoral exam (the only option will be to take the regularly administered preliminary doctoral exam); if the student passes the exam, a timeline for completion of all requirements of the doctoral degree will be specified by the faculty; c) support the request for the extension with specified conditions (i.e., anything other than retaking the preliminary doctoral exam); or d) support the request for the extension with no specified conditions.

Note: The limitations on requests to extend time to complete requirements of the doctoral degree were adopted in fall 2000. These limitations apply to all students in the program.

13. Support. Except in extraordinary circumstances, students will receive stipends, departmentally governed placements, or other support beyond their fifth year (excluding internships) only after all eligible students in years one to five have received such appointments. (From fall 1983 compilation.) Students who are not making adequate progress in the program and who wish to be employed for more than 20 hours per week must: a) have permission of the clinical faculty (majority vote); or b) request a leave of absence from the program (must be approved by the clinical faculty by a majority vote); or c) terminate their enrollment in the program (readmission can only be granted through formal reapplication).

Note: Limitations on employment of students who are not making adequate progress in the doctoral program were adopted in fall 2000; these limitations apply to all students enrolled in the program.

14. Major Professors/Research Advisors. Students in the doctoral program in Clinical psychology are encouraged to work collaboratively with faculty and graduate students in the Psychology Department. However, all students must upon entry to the program or at the point of formation of any committee have a designated and accountable major professor who is a full-time member of the clinical area of the Psychology Department. Students admitted by an affiliated faculty member must have a designated and accountable co-advisor who is a full-time faculty member of the Clinical area of the Psychology Department. In advance of any change in designation of major professor, the student must notify the DCT of their intent.

Note: This rule was adopted in fall 2000; it applies to students who enter the program in or after fall 2001. Rule regarding co-advisors of students admitted by affiliated faculty added in fall 2010 and applies to all such students regardless of entry date into the program.