The Clinical Psychology program application deadline is December 1st. As a program, we adhere to the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) policy on Graduate School Offers and Acceptances.  You can view that policy by clicking here:  CUDCP Offers Policy.

You can find an application online on the Graduate School website .

In addition to the application itself, you must provide three letters of recommendation, official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions, a personal statement, and a CV. Submitting a writing sample is optional. 

Your letter writers can use the online system or they may opt to send hard copies directly to the Psychology Department. If they choose the online system, while filling out the online application you will be asked to provide an e-mail address for each letter writer. Your letter writers will receive an e-mail message with instructions for uploading their letters of recommendation.

No; in the interest of fairness to all applicants, clinical faculty initiate Interview Day meetings by contacting applicants who are selected. Otherwise, the clinical PhD program has a policy that meetings or interviews with prospective graduate students do not occur prior to interview day.

All applications are read and given thoughtful consideration. Applications are not eliminated on the sole basis of GPA alone. We consider your GPA along with other possible indicators (letters of recommendation, research experience, clinical experience) as a whole, so that no one factor is considered in isolation. 

Students are not required to have an undergraduate degree in Psychology and faculty review all applications equally although we do expect that applicants have a foundation in the science of psychology.

It’s very difficult to describe an ‘ideal’ candidate for our program. Each candidate has unique strengths and needs. Each faculty member has different perspectives on prospective students and on the question of what determines a good fit. The admissions process and outcome rely heavily on those perspectives. While our program makes admission recommendations about candidates to the Graduate School, those recommendations are shaped, in part, by those faculty members who are seeking new students. 

Competitive applicants are those who have a strong academic background and solid preparation for graduate study in Psychology. These applicants submit supportive, glowing, and detailed letters of recommendation, which are written by people who know them well and whose impressions make the case for goodness of fit with our program. In their personal statements, competitive applicants also make a compelling case for fit with our program generally and for fit with an individual faculty member’s research program.

Because our program is a Ph.D. program where students are expected to get a Master's degree en route to the doctorate, having a Master's when you apply will not necessarily increase the likelihood that you will be accepted into our program. Other Master's programs may or may not emphasize the aspects of training that we look for in successful applicants; namely, research experience and the scientific basis of psychology. In other words, the benefit of applying to our program with a Master's degree depends on whether your time in that program involved research training that would help to prepare you for a Ph.D. program.

Please see our individual clinical faculty pages for more information on publications, presentations, and affiliations, as well as background information on their research interests.

Each candidate's application is evaluated by at least one member of the clinical faculty, with most files being read and evaluated by multiple faculty members. The faculty member who you identify as a good match for your interests in your personal statement will review your application, as long as they are taking a student for the coming year. Highly ranked candidates are contacted for an initial interview. Following this connection, the admissions committee selects a pool of finalists invited to participate in our more comprehensive interviews in early to mid-February.

The Clinical Psychology program typically admits 5-7 new students per year. Present guidelines are to admit approximately one graduate student for each faculty member accepting a student. See Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data for information regarding our number of applicants, number accepted for admission, and general data on incoming classes in our program.

Please go here for a comprehensive look at the Psychology department's funding opportunities. And here for more information on our Indians Into Psychology (InPsych) program.

We do not offer online graduate level course work nor do we offer an online degree option.

Yes, our program is a full-time program requiring at least three years of study (our course flowchart is designed for four years of study prior to internship), and all of our courses take place on our campus in Missoula. Some students who are advanced in our program may have off-site clinical placements in or around the Missoula area. However, classes, teaching obligations, research, various meetings and clinic clients all necessitate residence in the Missoula area. In the final year of the program, the clinical internship, students apply for placement in settings throughout the United States.

We adhere to a scientist-practioner, or Boulder, model of clinical training. This means that we emphasize an empirical understanding of human behavior, as demonstrated through thesis, dissertation, and other research projects, in addition to the application of this knowledge in diverse clinical settings. Successful applicants to our program often match this Boulder model philosophy. Read about the Clinical Psychology training philosophy.

We do not offer a specialty in Forensic Psychology.

We offer a specialty in Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Applicants with exclusively applied clinical interests may have their needs best served by programs in counseling psychology, social work, counselor education, or other service-oriented fields. There are a number of excellent materials available for helping you to choose the type of program that would best fit your needs. It is worth your time to make sure that you are selecting programs that will meet your career goals and interests. Our graduates' career trajectories often reflect our Boulder model of training, selecting careers that involve a mixture of research, clinical, administrative, consultative, and other roles.

A number of different guides are available for this purpose, and we do not recommend one specifically over another. Our program is a member of CUDCP which has an excellent resource for students applying to clinical graduate programs. Professionals in the field may also be good sources of information about selecting a program that is appropriate for your needs.

The Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) provides a couple of excellent, comprehensive overviews, "Is clinical psychology graduate school right for you?" and "Interested in Clinical Psychology Grad School? Here's what You Need to Know", ask and answer questions about making the decision to attend graduate school for clinical psychology.

We offer specific training in working with Native American, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender), and rural populations. Several of our faculty have research emphases in diversity, as well. We welcome and encourage applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds, including differences on basis of age, gender, gender identity and expression, ability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, and socioeconomic background. We strive to represent diversity in these areas among our faculty and student body.

We prepare students for predoctoral internship placements and careers as health service psychologists.  Predoctoral internships lead to postdoctoral training experiences and jobs. In some states, predoctoral internships and doctoral degree completion are that final steps in training that qualify graduates for psychologist licensure; in other states, postdoctoral training is required.  Either way, our program is 100% oriented to helping students with career, personal, and professional development. These things are what graduate training is all about!

Our alumni work in all sorts of settings: Medical Centers (VA, Indian Health Service, Academic), community-based mental health centers, Tribal health clinics, academic departments of psychology, private practice, etc. Nearly all of our graduates are licensed as psychologists and working as mental/behavioral health care providers and/or scientists. In other words, our job placement data are exceptionally good!

Please see our webpage regarding student outcomes (Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data)

We occasionally accept students into our program who have received a Master's degree elsewhere. If this degree is in clinical psychology, we will appoint a faculty committee to evaluate the Master's Thesis for equivalency to our program's requirements. This typically means that the Thesis must be an empirical project that makes a novel contribution to the research literature in clinical psychology. If the Thesis is accepted as equivalent, students will not have that requirement as part of our program, though they will be expected to fulfill all other responsibilities of students in our program. Transcripts and syllabi from graduate level courses taken at other institutions can be submitted for evaluation of equivalency to our required coursework. In cases when courses are deemed equivalent, this may allow students to take fewer courses at UM. Because we require that ALL students take certain core classes in our program the number of waived courses is typically quite low. These required courses include clinical interviewing, psychopathology, ethics, multicultural, and practicum, among others.

Courses in our clinical training program are available only to admitted graduate-level degree-seeking students in Psychology. Some departmental graduate-level coursework that is not clinically focused may be available to non-degree seeking students, but enrollment in these courses requires the instructor's consent.