Psychology PhD and PsyD programs in Oklahoma can help you prepare for advanced work in clinical psychology, counseling, assessment, and mental health services. These programs are designed for you if you want strong practice-based training along with knowledge of research, ethics, diagnosis, and treatment methods.
During a Psychology PhD or a PsyD program in Oklahoma, you may complete coursework, supervised practicum training, and internship experiences that support professional growth and licensure preparation.
Below you will find information about some of the popular psychology doctoral programs in Oklahoma. Review each program, compare their features, and decide which one best matches your future plans.
Best Psychology PhD and PsyD Programs in Oklahoma
Some of the popular schools offering Psychology PhD and PsyD programs in Oklahoma include Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Tulsa, Walden University, and The Chicago School.
Oklahoma City University
PsyD in Clinical Psychology
The Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology at Oklahoma City University provides advanced training in the scientific practice of professional psychology through a practitioner-scholar model.
The PsyD program holds accreditation, on contingency, from the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. A program that is accredited on contingency is considered an APA-accredited program.
This 120-hour degree program prepares students to deliver evidence-based psychological services in many settings to meet different client mental health needs. It also prepares students to become capable professionals who can provide several evidence-based mental health services, including full psychological evaluations, psychotherapy services, supervision services, and consultation services for varied groups of people.
The academic curriculum is demanding and is delivered in a supportive, student-centered learning environment that promotes intellectual growth, professional conduct, and ethical conduct through active learning and individualized instruction.
By graduation, students will have built core knowledge in psychology, strengthened clinical skills through evidence-based interventions and strong methods in psychological evaluation, clinical supervision, and consultation, and will be able to use their knowledge and skills in many settings while following APA ethical guidelines.
After completing this degree and the required postdoctoral licensure hours, students may apply for licensure as psychologists. With this license, they may work in both private and public settings, including hospitals, community agencies, clinics, and private practice. Because licensure rules may vary by state, individuals should review the laws in the state where they plan to practice so they know what is required.
The PsyD program includes 120 hours. These hours include required courses in 3 areas – clinical core, general psychology core, and research core – along with elective courses, applied experiences such as internship and practicum hours, and capstone project hours.
A Master of Science degree is awarded after a student completes the first 2 years of coursework, which equals 51 hours, and successfully finishes a master’s research project. The awarding of this degree shows progress toward the PsyD. The university does not offer a terminal master’s degree that leads to licensure.
By the time students finish the program, they will have:
- Built a broad knowledge base in core areas of psychology, including biological bases of behavior, cognitive-affective bases of behavior, social bases of behavior, and development across the lifespan, along with their use in clinical practice.
- Built clinical skills in evidence-based practice for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological disorders, including understanding and use of these practices with varied individuals and in interdisciplinary settings.
- Built basic skills in conducting psychological research through the scientific method and in applying that knowledge to clinical practice.
- Built ethical and professional conduct and gained the ability to use that conduct in professional activities such as research, supervision, consultation, and practice.
Admission Requirements
Each year, the program admits 1 cohort of 8-12 students who begin in the fall semester. The number of seats in each cohort is limited, which means the program receives more qualified applicants than it can admit. Applicants must meet the minimum requirements for consideration, but students who are admitted often go beyond these standards.
To be considered for admission, students must:
- Possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university.
- Complete 18 hours of psychology courses or the equivalent, including:
- 3 credit hours of research methods.
- 3 credit hours of statistics.
- 3 credit hours of abnormal psychology or personality.
- 3 credit hours of developmental, social, or cognitive psychology.
- 6 credit hours of psychology electives.
- Possess an overall undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or an overall graduate GPA of 3.25 or higher. However, students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher are in a more competitive position for admission.
- Complete the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).
- Submit the required application materials.
Transfer of Credits
Students who completed graduate-level coursework in a related field within 7 years before admission may request a review of their syllabi. Students may not transfer more than 24 hours of graduate coursework from a related field completed within 7 years before admission to the program.
Oklahoma State University
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology
The Counseling Psychology Program at Oklahoma State University (OSU), which leads to the Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, follows the scientist-practitioner model of psychology training. In this model, theory, research, and practice are treated as connected parts of the preparation of professional psychologists. The overall purpose of the program is to give you integrated training in psychology as a behavioral science and in counseling psychology as a specialty.
Students who enter the program at the post-bachelor’s level typically complete the program in 6 years, while students who enter the program at the post-master’s level typically complete the program in 4 years.
This program prepares you for professional practice as a counseling psychologist in medical, public, family service, academic, private practice, or community settings. The scientist-practitioner model used by the program places strong attention on social justice, diversity, and multiculturalism. Students and faculty actively take part in shared research, outreach, and advocacy. The program also aims to keep a student-centered approach by matching learning experiences with the interests and skills of students. The program has accreditation from APA.
Students in the program receive an interdisciplinary experience that includes research, outreach, and academic coursework. Every student must complete at least 3 years of study at OSU. In addition to coursework, students must complete at least 12 credit hours of doctoral-level practicum and 15 credit hours of dissertation.
Courses are available on the OSU-Stillwater and OSU-Tulsa campuses, and both locations include high-quality training clinics.
You must follow an organized plan of study in which academic coursework and practicum experiences are joined together. You must also successfully complete the comprehensive examinations, a doctoral dissertation, and a pre-doctoral APA-accredited internship in order to meet the degree requirements.
Graduates of our program have secured positions as faculty members in colleges and universities, as well as counseling psychologists in university counseling centers. Graduates also work in public service settings such as Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, prisons, child and adolescent guidance centers, community mental health clinics, rehabilitation centers, family service agencies, private practice settings, academic settings, and medical settings such as hospitals.
Doctoral Dissertation
The dissertation gives you an opportunity to bring together and use a wide range of research skills in a special area of interest that is directly connected to counseling psychology. While early preparation for the dissertation may begin early in the program, the formal part usually takes place during the year before internship.
The dissertation proposal should be developed with the guidance of your advisory committee chairperson or dissertation director. The proposal must include an introduction, review of the literature, methodology, references, and appendices.
Doctoral Internship
After finishing all coursework, practica, and comprehensive exams, students must complete a 2000-hour doctoral professional psychology internship as part of the field experience requirement. The doctoral psychology internship must include at least 1 full calendar year of full-time supervised experience, which means 40 hours per week for 50 weeks, in a setting that offers a broad range of counseling psychology services and clients.
Many internship settings are available across the country through the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), and placement is competitive.
Admission Requirements
The program offers 2 admission options: post-bachelor’s and post-master’s. Applications are accepted 1 time each year and must be received by December 1. Faculty members review applications, and finalists are required to take part in a mandatory virtual interview.
To apply to the program, you must submit the following:
- Graduate College application
- Transcripts from all previously attended institutions
- Current resume/vita
- 3 letters of recommendation
- Personal statement
- Writing sample
Cost and Assistance
Students in the counseling psychology doctoral program are guaranteed full-tuition waivers and paid research-focused or teaching-focused graduate assistantships during the 1st year. Most students in the 2nd through 5th years of the program are also able to obtain paid assistantships.
University of Tulsa
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
The University of Tulsa’s APA-accredited Ph.D. program in clinical psychology equips you with the knowledge and skills needed to address complex clinical problems.
This program prepares you to become a scientist-practitioner in clinical psychology. You will develop a broad set of skills for identifying, evaluating, and resolving human problems in agency, healthcare, consulting, academic, or private practice settings. The training is built on the view that practice involves applying the theories, methods, and findings of scientific psychology to clinical problems.
Formal coursework includes core areas such as psychology, research methods, personality, and psychopathology. It also covers principles of psychological assessment and intervention, along with professional issues in clinical psychology. The program follows the scientist-practitioner model, which means that psychological practice is the use of the theory, methods, and results of scientific psychology in clinical problems.
The main goal of the program is to train you as a professionally capable health service psychologist with a broad background in psychology. You will be prepared to apply psychological theory, assessment methods, and research methods to clinical problems. To explain this larger goal, the program established specific training goals based on the APA guidelines for training Health Service Psychologists. As a Ph.D. student, you will:
- Demonstrate advanced discipline-specific knowledge related to biological bases of behavior, psychological, social, and biological development across the lifespan, theories and principles of social psychology, cognitive psychology, emotions, and the history of psychology as a science.
- Acquire clinical skills in empirically supported psychological assessment, clinical diagnosis and case conceptualization, intervention planning, implementation, and evaluation, clinical supervision, and clinical consultation.
- Gain skills in research methods and data analysis so you can conduct and share psychological research.
- Develop knowledge of academic, ethical, legal, and professional standards, and show these standards in your professional values, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Gain knowledge of individual and cultural diversity and prepare to adjust your methods and practice to meet the needs of varied populations.
Curriculum Requirements
The doctoral program requires 90 credit hours of graduate study beyond the baccalaureate. The program also requires completion of at least 3 full-time academic years of study and a pre-doctoral internship. All 3 years of academic study must be completed in residence at The University of Tulsa. Specialized issues in clinical psychology are covered in topical seminars. You must pass a comprehensive examination for the Ph.D., which includes a general written part and a clinical oral part.
Although a master’s thesis is neither required nor offered, you must show research ability by completing the pre-candidacy project, the dissertation proposal, and the doctoral dissertation. You must also pass a final oral examination on the dissertation. The program allows flexibility in your choice of electives and practicum training experiences, so you can shape the program around your individual needs.
Along with the 90-hour program, every student must complete a 1-year pre-doctoral internship in a setting and training program approved by the clinical program committee. The University of Tulsa’s doctoral training program does not provide this internship.
Pre-Candidacy Project
You are not required to complete a thesis, even though you may receive an M.A. degree while working toward the Ph.D. However, you must complete an independent research project before taking the comprehensive exams. By the end of the first year, you must choose an advisor and finalize an approved research topic for the Pre-Candidacy Project. Research completed during undergraduate study cannot be used as a Pre-Candidacy Project.
Comprehensive Examination
The comprehensive examination requires you to show full knowledge of the theories, methods, and findings of scientific psychology, along with the use of this knowledge in clinical problems. The Written General part reviews the breadth of your psychology knowledge and methods. The Clinical Oral part evaluates how you apply this knowledge to clinical problems, as well as your understanding of ethical and legal guides for practice. Each part may include several subsections.
Admission Requirements
Admission to the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology is selective, and because demand is high, not every qualified applicant can be admitted. You must meet the requirements for admission to the Graduate School, including language proficiency, as listed in the Admission section of the Bulletin. In addition, the minimum requirements for admission to the program include:
- An undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
- Satisfactory letters of recommendation.
- The Graduate Records Examination (GRE) is optional for the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. However, applicants who submit test scores may qualify for added merit scholarships and financial awards.
- Applicants to the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology usually have completed at least 18 credit hours of undergraduate psychology coursework, including courses in abnormal psychology and either statistics, tests and measurements, or experimental psychology.
- Admission to the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology is open to applicants who have completed a bachelor’s degree, as well as to applicants who have completed a master’s degree.
Applications for admission to the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology are reviewed once each year for fall semester entry. The application deadline for the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology is December 1.
Oklahoma State University
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
The APA-accredited Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Oklahoma State University is designed to prepare you to become a scientific clinical psychologist. The program holds that clinical psychology should rest on science, because the scientific method offers the best way to build new knowledge in this field and to provide services that research has shown to work.
This doctoral program is full-time, and you are expected to remain on campus during the week for classes, research, clinical duties, meetings, and other program work. Doctoral courses are generally not offered online or on weekends. The program offers four special tracks: clinical child, health psychology, pediatric psychology, and adult psychopathology. Over the last ten years, the usual time to finish the program has been six years, with the internship included.
The training is meant to help you become a strong researcher, a careful reader of scientific studies, and a clinician who uses research findings to guide practice. Every doctoral student must complete original research, and many graduates continue to add to research writing during their careers.
You are trained to work on your own as a research scientist and to use scientific proof in every part of creating and providing clinical services. These commitments appear in the program’s main goals.
Program Goals
- You gain and demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to carry out and review empirical research in important areas of clinical psychology.
- You gain and demonstrate knowledge of the wide base of psychological theory and research connected to clinical psychology.
- You gain and demonstrate knowledge of the theory behind current clinical methods, the research support for those methods, and the skills needed to carry out theory-based and evidence-based practice.
- You gain and demonstrate the skills needed to act in an ethical and professional way.
- You gain and demonstrate the skills needed to work in a culturally competent way in both research and clinical practice.
During your training, you are expected to take part in different kinds of research work so you can build the skills needed to plan and judge clinical research. The clinical faculty publish in highly respected peer-reviewed journals and serve as active leaders in professional groups.
You will take part in seminars, core courses, and clinical practicum experiences that center on the science of clinical psychology and evidence-based practice. Your clinical training comes through a department clinic and outside practicum sites.
Before you can complete the Ph.D. degree, you must finish a one-year, APA-approved internship. If you enter the program with a master’s degree, you follow a similar course plan. The clinical psychology Ph.D. program requires at least four years of full-time study on campus, plus one extra year for the internship to finish the program. At least two of those years must be completed at this university, and one year must be in full-time residence.
Degree Requirements
- A minimum of 90 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, or 60 credit hours beyond the master’s degree, is required for the doctoral degree.
- PSYC 6000 – Dissertation, with at least 15 credit hours. See the research section.
- One course from outside the department. This must be a graduate course taken at Oklahoma State University or at another recognized university.
- Completion of the comprehensive examination.
- Completion of the qualifying examination.
- Ongoing enrollment and continued participation in research.
Admissions Requirements
- A bachelor’s or master’s degree is required, but a psychology degree is not required.
- Adequate preparation for graduate study in psychology recommended, including such courses as: introductory psychology, experimental psychology or research methods, and statistics or quantitative methods in psychology.
- You may still apply if you do not have the recommended undergraduate psychology courses, as long as you have done very strong work in related areas of study. After admission, you may be required to complete undergraduate courses.
- A minimum GPA of 3.3 is preferred.
- Three letters of reference.
- A statement of purpose.
- A writing sample from a psychology course, convention, or presentation that shows your writing ability.
What are the Requirements to Get into an APA-Accredited Psychology PhD and PsyD Programs in Oklahoma?
APA-accredited PhD in Psychology and PsyD programs in Oklahoma set clear academic and professional standards to get students ready for doctoral-level clinical psychology training. Fulfilling these standards helps show that applicants are ready for the demands of both online and campus-based doctoral programs in Oklahoma.
Key requirements usually include:
- Educational Background: You need a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution. A psychology major is preferred, or you may qualify with similar coursework.
- Prerequisite Coursework: You are generally expected to complete at least 18 semester hours in psychology. These courses usually include research methods, statistics, abnormal psychology, and elective classes.
- Minimum GPA: Most programs look for an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or a graduate GPA of 3.25. Strong applicants often have grades above 3.5.
- Standardized Tests: The GRE General Test is often required. Many programs also ask for the GRE Psychology Subject Test, and strong applicants often have scores above 600.
- Letters of Recommendation: Three strong recommendation letters are usually required. These letters should come from professors or licensed psychologists who know your skills and abilities.
- Personal Statement: You must provide a clear statement that explains your career goals, research interests, and reasons for applying. Your statement should match the mission of the program.
- Interview or Assessment: Final applicants usually take part in interviews. They may also need to submit writing samples or finish other assessments.
What Can You Do With a Doctoral Psychology Degree in Oklahoma?
With a doctoral degree in psychology such as a PhD or PsyD in Oklahoma, you may work as a licensed psychologist in clinical, counseling, or forensic settings. In these roles, you may provide therapy and carry out psychological testing.
You may also work in higher education as a professor, perform research, or serve in leadership and management roles in hospitals, state agencies such as the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health, or private consulting.
Key career options in Oklahoma include:
- Licensed Clinical/Counseling Psychologist: You may work in private practice, community mental health centers, hospitals such as OU Health and Saint Francis, or outpatient clinics.
- Forensic Psychologist: You may work in the state court system or with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, where you may complete competency evaluations and risk assessments.
- Academic and Research Positions: You may teach or carry out research at universities such as the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University.
- School Psychologist: You may serve school districts in Oklahoma and help support student mental health and academic success.
- Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychologist: You may provide consulting services to companies in Oklahoma to improve workplace productivity and employee health.
How Much Does a Clinical Psychologist Make in Oklahoma?
The average salary for a clinical psychologist in Oklahoma is $190,023 per year. Top earning psychologists in Oklahoma earn well over $200,000 per year.
What is the Quickest Psychology PhD Program?
The fastest PhD in psychology typically takes 3 to 4 years for students entering with a master’s degree or through accelerated programs. Top options for speed include specialized “fast-track” online doctoral programs, such as those at Walden University, which allow for earlier dissertation starts.
Traditional, in-person clinical psychology PhD programs usually require 4-7 years, as they require significant clinical training.
Should I Get a PsyD or PhD?
Choose a PhD if you prioritize research, teaching, and lower tuition costs, as these programs often offer funding. Choose a PsyD if you want to focus heavily on clinical practice and therapy with a faster route to licensure.
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