Spotlight: Unmatched–Psychology PhD Program is a Collaborative Gem

During one cold weekend at the end of February, nearly 70 of the most highly ranked PhD hopefuls from more than 60 colleges and universities across the country and beyond, don their interview-best and huddle in the crowded hallways of the Donahue Building, hoping to meet their “match.” They’ll experience Suffolk’s clinical psychology program up close during two demanding days of individual and small group interviews and info sessions designed to enable the candidates, faculty, and current PhD students to get to know one another, and their research interests, work styles, and career objectives. After the weekend-long mix of grueling questions and more casual get-togethers, the psychology department will identify those faculty-student matches with the greatest synergy and potential for success.

Training researchers, practitioners, and teachers

From left: Professor Debra Harkins, Professor David Gansler, and Professor and Psychology Departmet Chair Krisanne Bursik, of the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology

Suffolk’s Psychology PhD program graduated its first class in 2000, and attracted 314 applicants for just 13 program openings this year. According to Department Chair Krisanne Bursik, it is the scientist practitioner model of training that distinguishes the College of Arts & Sciences’ highly competitive program from other more applied programs in the area. “Our research component is front and center,” she says. “And our students are trained to be active researchers, clinical practitioners, and teachers. We’ve developed a program that provides training and supervision in all three areas, and this absolutely sets us apart.”

Throughout the six-year program, students and faculty work side by side in the research lab and classroom, and in clinical placements. “Though all of our faculty members serve as teachers and mentors to all 85 doctoral students currently enrolled in the program, the bond that naturally forms within each faculty-student research team is a very close and critically important one,” says Bursik. “Faculty members actively pursue their research interests with their student collaborators, while making a significant long-term investment in the career development and success of each of their students.” Read more