School Psychology Program of Study
The program is housed in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and requires 90 graduate credit hours for the doctoral degree. The residency requirements for the program includes at least 1 year in full-time residence at Syracuse University and at least 2 years of full-time study at Syracuse University. A minimum of 3 years total of full-time study is required for the doctoral degree.
Students are engaged in three strands of training throughout the program: course work, clinical service, and research. Consistent with APA guidelines, exposure to coursework, clinical practice, and research occurs in a graded fashion beginning in the student's first year. Nine program goals guide doctoral training and 22 objectives describe student performance in relation to coursework, research, and clinical practice competencies.
A typical sequence of coursework, clinical practice, and research expectations across the five years of graduate study can be found here. Official program requirements include at least 90 credit hours, including a 6 credit master's thesis (for those students entering the program without a master's degree), a 12 credit dissertation; and a 6 credit internship in school psychology. Prior to beginning the dissertation or completing the internship in school psychology, students must pass a doctoral qualifying exam, which consists of a critical review of a substantive area of research in school psychology and an oral examination of the area of research. A full-time, one-year internship is required before the doctorate is awarded. It is usually completed in the fifth year of the program. Please see the Course Catalog for specific requirements.
In addition to completing the degree requirements in school psychology, students in good academic standing can also enroll in the Neuroscience Concentration, which appears as a graduate specialization on a student's transcript. The Concentration is a 4-course sequence that spans broad areas of Neuroscience, including the biological and psychological processes, and is meant to provide students with a breadth of knowledge across core disciplines.