Our department has eliminated the GRE General Test for admission to the fall 2024 class. Applicants should NOT submit their GRE scores through ETS nor report their scores in the application portal or on their CVs or personal statements.

Please note that our interviews for the Fall 2024 class will be offered virtually.

The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University is dedicated to training outstanding students to become responsible, innovative, and scholarly clinical psychologists. Our program embraces the scientist-practitioner model, providing balanced training in the science and practice of clinical psychology. Our faculty view scholarly empirical research as the foundation of clinical psychology, and we seek to train students who are eager to embrace the research mission of the program. Graduates of our program are well-positioned to pursue a variety of career options, including academic appointments, clinical research, and the provision of clinical services. The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University has been fully accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1956. Please see below for more information.

Student Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data

Data on students’ time to completion, program costs, attrition, internships, and licensure are collected and reported in keeping with the requirements of programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. These education and training outcomes can be found at this link: Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data.

Promising applicants will be invited for a zoom-based personal interviews. Applicants will be notified of their status by April 15th or earlier if possible. We encourage all admitted applicants to visit the campus and meet Clinical faculty and students before making a decision to accept an offer. The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University does not discriminate based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Please also see the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) policy regarding Admissions Offers and Acceptances.

State Professional Licensure and Certification Disclosure Information

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in Clinical Psychology

The Syracuse University Clinical Psychology doctoral program is committed strongly to promoting diversity with respect to race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and veteran status. Our doctoral program also seeks to prepare students to be sensitive to issues of inclusion and diversity in all aspects of their culturally competent work.

We strive to maintain a diverse student population and historically underrepresented students are especially encouraged to apply for our doctoral program. The Clinical Psychology program is dedicated to the active recruitment of a diverse group of students and faculty. See here for an overview of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility efforts across the university, college, and Department in terms of curriculum, research, clinical practice and programming.

We strongly support Syracuse University's institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Financial Support

Funding

The Department of Psychology makes a determined effort to provide at financial support for all graduate students in good standing. For decades, all Psychology graduate students in good standing have been funded. Financial support consists of tuition scholarship, assistantships that provide a competitive stipend, research funding, and the opportunity for summer assistantships.

Tuition Scholarship

Students receive 24 hours of remitted tuition per year (at $1,683 per credit hour), up to 90 credits in total across the span of the graduate career, which funds the full PhD program of study. The tuition scholarship does not cover the costs of student fees or student insurance.

Funding for Academic Months

Students receive a competitive stipend that meets or exceeds the cost of living in Syracuse from one of several different sources including teaching assistantships, clinical assistantships, clinical externships, research assistantships, community or university externships, or university fellowships. In most cases, these are 9-month appointments although some are 12-month positions. Teaching assistants support the education of undergraduate students by teaching lab or recitation sections, grading, providing reviews, proctoring exams, or other activities. Research assistantships support a specific research project, typically one funded by extramural funding agencies such as the NIH. Fellowships provide protected time to pursue independent research projects. Clinical assistantshipsCommunity or university externships involve providinge mental health services to community and campus clients. Clinical externships are offered in conjunction with university and community partners.

Funding for Summer Funding

Although not guaranteed, most of psychology graduate students receive summer funding in the form of independent teaching, clinical assistantships, clinical community or university externships, research assistantships, or fellowships.

Research Support

The department offers a research fund to support the research and professional development of each student. These funds can be used for the collection or analysis of data, to attend a scientific conference or workshop, or other purposes that will enhance student training (such as attending professional or statistical workshops or traveling for predoctoral clinical internship applications).

Cost of Living Comparison

Syracuse is a very affordable city. We encourage you to use a cost-of-living comparison (such as the one available at this site) to compare Syracuse to other cities.

Program Information

Official program requirements include at least 90 credit hours, including a 6-credit master's thesis and an 18-credit dissertation. Prior to beginning the dissertation, students must pass a doctoral qualifying exam. A full-time, one-year clinical internship is also required before the Ph.D. is awarded.

Program of Study

The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University admits students to begin full-time study in the fall semester. Our curriculum has evolved in order to meet both responsibilities to the profession of Psychology as well as individual student needs. Doctoral students in Clinical Psychology typically follow a common core sequence in their first two years of study. The course content in the first two years is structured to ensure that all doctoral students receive comprehensive training in statistics and research design, theoretical underpinnings to Clinical Psychology as well as developing core foundational skills in evidence-based treatments. Students are also expected to complete their Master’s thesis in their second or third year of study.

This core sequence is then followed by an opportunity for students to tailor their training and study to match personal interests. These subsequent years of doctoral study include elective courses, additional research and dissertation work, clinical practica and a one-year predoctoral internship.

Consult the Course Catalog for specific requirements.

Our APA accredited Clinical Psychology doctoral program is also identified as New York State licensure-qualifying. This ensures that the education of program graduates will be accepted for licensure immediately in New York. The core courses that our doctoral students must complete are those required by New York State for licensure.

Optional Concentrations

In addition to completing the degree requirements for the doctorate in Clinical Psychology, students in good academic standing can also enroll in one of the two optional concentrations: (1) the Neuroscience Concentration and (2) the Concentration in Advanced Quantitative Methods in Psychology (CAMP), which appears as a graduate specialization on a student’s transcript. Your Ph.D. in Clinical psychology will be awarded the Psychology department with your concentration listed as an area of specialization in your degree. More information about the concentration can be found here.

Application Information

The Clinical faculty considers the mentoring of graduate students to be an integral part of our professional endeavors. Graduate students are carefully selected from a pool of applicants and work closely with a major advisor in a research apprentice training model. Although admissions decisions are made by the faculty as a committee, major advisors and students are matched based on shared research interests at the time an offer of admission is made. The following is intended to provide a quick reference for potential applicants. Please see the rest of this page for more detailed information about the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University.

1.Applications are due no later than December 1.

2.Application requirements include but are not limited to:

• CV or Resume
• Transcripts from prior and current institutes
• Three letters of recommendation
• Personal Statement of Purpose (please indicate at least oneup to three faculty members within the clinical psychology program you are interested in working with; please see the below list of clinical psychology faculty members who will review applications for the fall 2024 class)

3.All application materials must be submitted via the online application for graduate study.

• To begin the application process visit https://www.syracuse.edu/admissions/graduate/apply/
• Click the online application link and create a New User account with Embark
• When queried as “to which program and degree do you intend to apply?” select “Clinical Psychology, Ph.D.”

4.Please direct questions about our program to psygrad@syr.edu (preferred) or 315.443.3087.

Additional Resources

• Before you apply
• Other useful forms can be found via the Forms & Resources page
• Steps: Defense Procedures

Questions related to the program's accredited status should be directed to:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336 5979 / E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

Clinical Psychology Faculty

The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University is dedicated to training outstanding students to become responsible, innovative, and scholarly clinical psychologists. Our program embraces the scientist-practitioner model, providing balanced training in the science and practice of clinical psychology. Our faculty view scholarly empirical research as the foundation of clinical psychology, and we seek to train students who are eager to embrace the research mission of the program.

Kevin Antshel, Ph.D.
Dr. Antshel’s research and clinical interests focus on developmental psychopathology, with specific emphasis on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the lifespan. Dr. Antshel investigates the heterogeneity of ADHD (e.g., ADHD in the context of autism spectrum disorder, ADHD in medical disorders such as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome) to further explore mediators and moderators of treatment outcomes. For more information, please visit Dr. Antshel's faculty page. Dr. Antshel will review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Joseph W. Ditre, Ph.D.
Dr. Ditre’s research cuts across basic and applied work in the areas of health psychology and behavioral medicine, with an emphasis on the intersection of addictive behaviors and comorbid medical disorders. Broadly, this research examines how the use of substances may influence the onset and progression of comorbid medical disorders, and vice versa. Specifically, his research applies a multi-method approach to the study of complex interrelations between pain, affect, comorbid psychopathology, and the maintenance of addiction. For more information, please visit Dr. Ditre's faculty page. Dr. Ditre will review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Les A. Gellis, Ph.D.
Dr. Gellis is an associate teaching professor. His research and teaching focuses on cognitive and behavioral elements that contribute to stress, insomnia, and other sleep disorders. Dr. Gellis is currently interested in testing and designing techniques to treat insomnia and understanding and causes and consequences of sleep problems in University students. For more information, please visit Dr. Gellis’ faculty page. Dr. Gellis does not accept PhD students.

Afton Kapuscinski, Ph.D.
Dr. Kapuscinski is an assistant teaching professor and director of the psychological services center. She is interested in the treatment of mood, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other concerns particularly relevant to the young adult population, including body image, disordered eating, and religious/spiritual issues. Her clinical work and supervision utilize an integrative approach that emphasizes psychodynamic and humanistic therapy models. She also provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in adults. For more information, please visit Dr. Kapuscinski’s faculty page. Dr. Kapuscinski does not accept PhD students.

Katie Kidwell, Ph.D.
Dr. Kidwell’s research focuses on pediatric health behaviors (primarily eating and sleep) as predictors, mechanisms, and intervention targets for improving physical and mental health. Dr. Kidwell employs a multilevel, multimethod approach to understand the relationships among physical health, mental health, and health behaviors within a larger social context in children and adolescents. This research program combines subjective and objective data with technology to build rich datasets to answer complex questions about the best way to improve children’s health. For more information, please visit Dr. Kidwell's faculty page. Dr. Kidwell will not review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Aesoon Park, Ph.D.
Dr. Park's research interests focus on individual risk pathways of the development and escalation of alcohol use/misuse involving and co-occurring high-risk health behaviors (such as sleep and substance use/misuse) within developmental contexts. She is also interested in statistical techniques that account for the time-varying and multi-level nature of human development (e.g., structural equation model, multilevel model, latent mixture model). For more information, please visit Dr. Park's faculty page. Dr. Park will not review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Jillian R. Scheer, Ph.D.
Dr. Scheer’s interdisciplinary research program focuses on (1) identifying biopsychosocial determinants of hazardous drinking and PTSD among sexual and gender minority people and (2) developing tailored evidence-based interventions for this population. For more information, please visit Dr. Scheer's faculty page. Dr. Scheer will review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Shannon Sweeney, Ph.D.
Dr. Sweeney is an assistant teaching professor. She teaches Foundations of Human Behavior, Psychology of Childhood and Pediatric Psychology. She also focuses on transferring theory to practice and in so doing provides her students with a strong foundation for their own practices in psychological service delivery. For more information, please visit Dr. Sweeney’s faculty page. Dr. Sweeney does not accept PhD students.

Peter A. Vanable, Ph.D.
Dr. Vanable's research focuses on psychological aspects of health and illness, with an emphasis on behavioral aspects of HIV/AIDS. Current projects include studies designed to characterize the coping challenges and experiences of men and women who are living with HIV disease, as well as studies that evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to reduce high risk sexual behavior. Dr. Vanable's interests also include the prevention and treatment of addictive behaviors. For more information, please visit Dr. Vanable's faculty page. Dr. Vanable will not review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Sarah Woolf-King, Ph.D.
Dr. Woolf-King is a licensed clinical psychologist with a combined interest in health psychology, epidemiology, and behavioral medicine. The overarching goal of her work is to inform the development of behavioral and psychological interventions that can enhance the wellbeing of patients and families coping with chronic medical conditions. For more information, please visit Dr. Woolf-King's faculty page. Dr. Woolf-King will review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Michelle Zaso, Ph.D.
Dr. Zaso’s research focuses on sources of vulnerability and resiliency to alcohol-promoting environments. Her current projects work to identify in-the-moment cognitive processes in stress- and trauma-related drinking. Dr. Zaso’s research program utilizes ecological momentary assessment, intensive longitudinal data analysis, experimental laboratory paradigms, and other mixed methods approaches to model alcohol etiologies. For more information, please visit Dr. Zaso's faculty page.

Dr. Zaso will review applications for Fall admission in 2024.

Research Training

Research training is a primary mission in the Clinical Psychology training program. Through both coursework and supervised apprenticeship, doctoral students learn skills that will enable independent research upon graduation. Skills that provide the basis for our research training model include how to critically evaluate the existing knowledge base, formulate new hypotheses that can be empirically tested and disseminate research findings. Training in manuscript preparation, grant writing and presenting data orally are all core components of our research apprenticeship model.

Members of the Clinical faculty collaborate with each other and with colleagues within the Syracuse area and across the country. There are ongoing collaborative research projects at the Syracuse V.A. Medical Center and the State University of New York - Upstate Medical University. Both of these institutions are within easy walking distance of the Psychology Department and provide valuable research and clinical experiences for our students.

Clinical Training

Our clinical training is centered on providing doctoral students with a thorough grounding in evidence-based practice. Our goal is to equip students with core skills in assessment and intervention so that the student is fully prepared for the predoctoral internship training experience.

Students begin their formal clinical training by completing a year-long assessment course sequence and a year-long therapy practicum course. Both of these year-long sequences are completed before the students spend the third-year training in the Department's Psychological Services Center (PSC). The PSC provides psychotherapy and assessment services to university students and to members of the greater Syracuse community. Upon completion of the year-long PSC practicum, students are able to complete advanced practica at multiple local sites in the broader Syracuse community.

Clinical supervisors vary in their conceptual approaches to understanding and modifying behavior, which promotes lively discussion of clinical topics and the development of flexibility in clinical skills. Supervision is complemented by seminars in multicultural issues, ethics and psychopathology, as well as by regular case conferences.

Teaching Training

Many students also obtain teaching experience to help prepare them for academic careers. Initially, students may work as a teaching assistant, usually during the first year, in the undergraduate Introduction to Psychology course (PSY 205). Subsequent to this initial teaching experience, students may serve as course instructors and have full responsibility for an undergraduate course. Doctoral students interested in pursuing an academic career can be confident that they will receive significant teaching opportunities and mentoring on the essential skills of college instruction. Students frequently rank teaching among the most rewarding experiences of their graduate training. Many of our students also obtain additional training in teaching and career development experiences through the Future Professoriate Program and Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Future Professionals Program.

Contact Us

For more information about the program, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Please direct requests to: psygrad@syr.edu.