How do people afford this - doctorate

[Smoshed]

Hello

I am hoping to train as a clinical psychologist.

Some of these are funded by the NHS but the places are very limited and from doing my research, it can take years to even get an interview.

There is an option to self fund like you would if you were doing a phd.

But looking into this you get the post graduate loan which is £29k for 3 years and the course alone is £15k.

So how can you work and study FT (which it is) and afford your bills etc.

Has anyone done this?
Am I missing something?

Everyone I know who's done it has saved for years before doing a postgrad degree (admittedly not a doctorate so I may be missing something, but a similar course) - and tends to work either PT or FT alongside it/maybe moves back in with parents if that's an option etc.

Not a doctorate, but my employer funded my masters (and I will be doing another thanks to them from September)

Someone I know works for their university and is being funded through them for their doctorate

I did mine p/t over six years and worked full time, paid for my own. No loans.

Thanks for the replies.

I haven’t looked into doing it PT.

These courses tend to be 4 days working in placement and 1 day in uni and so it wouldn’t be possible to work FT and I don’t think working PT would be enough to cover my bills.

Moving back with parents isn’t an option and I’m a single parent, so there’s a limit if places I can live to try and get my bills cheaper.

I’d explore p/t @Smoshed if you’re self funding it might be an option. I compressed my week into four days at work and did about an hour and a half of work on my work days once the kids were in bed so that I could spend time with them after school. That gave me three work free days a week.

I read in every spare minute and had every other weekend to myself for about four years before XH moved abroad.

My kids were heading towards the end of primary school when I started.

It was tough at times and destroyed my social life even more than being a full time single parent does in itself 🤣, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I absolutely loved it.

I also got an alumni discount too which reduced my fees a bit.

Most people with DC can’t afford postgrad education.

What’s your degree and what do you do now?

apologies I don’t know the psychology field, but you seem to be referring to a “doctorate”
and a PhD as if they are different things? Is a doctorate taught?

No one I know has self funded a PhD (including me). Usually research departments offer bursaries under their research grants.

the alternative to doing a bursary funded research PhD was get a staff position in an academic (university) department then you could do the PhD part time while working- no fees.

@Smoshed Most people won't be familiar with the clinical / educational psychology phds, so you're going to get a lot of answers about funding and part time working etc that are unfortunately not relevant to this specific training.

But the bottom line is that the people taking up unfunded places, can afford to fund them. They have their own money, a wealthy partner, or wealthy parents.

The closest I came was an unfunded offer for the educational psychology doctorate at UCL - they were only funding 3/10 places at the time. Unfortunately it wasn't financially viable for me, so I wasn't able to take it up. It was already my third time applying, and shortly afterwards I got pregnant and just never really went for it again.

I know lots of people who spent years applying for funded places and eventually gave up. They went on to be OTs, speech therapists etc. For people who can't get on to the clinical route for whatever reason, I would think a number go and work in paid talking therapy type jobs instead. Start as trainee PWPs and work their way up for example. Not quite the same thing, but similar in many ways, and it's paid all the way, so a reasonable alternative for those who can't self fund.

I did my MA part-time 10 years ago when my kids were tiny. I worked part-time and my employer paid half the fees and a bit towards travel expenses when I had to do face-to-face sessions.
I would love to do a PhD and have had a proposal accepted but just can’t afford it - an arts subject so little to no funding about. Maybe one day when the DCs have left home.

I think the sad reality is that if you have kids or aren’t wealthy then it’s not possible to do the degree self funded.

Perhaps I will try to get one of the funded places and have a back up option if I don’t get on/in the meantime.

Thank you everyone x

Mine cost about £2.5k a year from memory before alumni discount. I put each year’s fees on a 0% interest credit card. Paid it off over ten months, found a new 0% deal and did the same each year.

I was offered a studentship, but I couldn’t make the cash work and the university (not the one I did it at) was too far away.

Loads of people self fund in corporate land. Obviously not relevant to you OP.

The friend I know who is now a clinical psychologist just kept trying for funded places, and working some crappy retail jobs while volunteering in roles she felt would improve her chances. This was a while ago, though, but I know it took her several years to get a funded place, and she was living on lentils in a bedsit during that time. Which is obviously not going to work for you.

Most people either spend years developing enough experience to succeed in their application for a funded place or move onto an alternative career path. I would be inclined to say that the years of experience obtained before the ClinPsyD are important to succeeding in it, not just a hoop to jump for the sake of it.

Really you need enough experience to land an assistant psychologist post (which are very competitive themselves) and to have done well in that post before you have any realistic chance of making a competitive application for the ClinPsyD.

How far down this path are you? Just GBC or do you have experience under your belt too?

That sounds exactly like my friend's route. I remember her working in a drug rehabilitation treatment clinic, and in a centre for people with intellectual disabilities, among other places. Maybe a prison. She's now a clinical lead in child psychology in an NHS hospital. This was a long time ago, but I do remember it took her several years to get a funded place, and from what I remember she was on the verge of thinking she needed to give up and switch to another plan when she was finally accepted.

My background is working in prisons and more recently with SEND children.

I have tried getting assistant psychologist jobs but I don’t even get to the interview stage.

I also have my masters in psychology.

So I feel I have good qualifications and experience but as you say the assistant psychologist positions alone are incredibly difficult to get into.

I think perhaps I just need to keep trying to get experience in a clinical setting which I don’t have.

Clinical doctorate, which is at the same level of a PhD but a different qualification that involves clinical practice. Some are funded by the NHS, some aren't.

@Smoshed , it's crazy, isn't it? I've looked into the Counselling Psychology doctorate and it's mainly self-funded too. All seems to be geared towards people who are young with few responsibilities (which seems like the opposite of what you might want in a psychologist).

I too have always wondered about this particular postgraduate degree, as I know how much the fees are. A PhD is much cheaper. I slightly know someone who’s doing the PsychD degree down south, full-time and self-funding but she’s comfortably off. It’s usually full-time as well. But, did you know you could pay for the fees via a doctoral loan? I appreciate you’d have to support yourself in living costs, though. Or maybe do a PhD instead?

Yeh, you will need clinical experience - e.g. the experience suitability statement needs to come from a nominee who saw you working in a clinical context. They want people with experience of clinical settings and the NHS with all its constraints etc. They are also very hot on candidates demonstrating reflective practice.

GBC is really just the starting line for clinical psychology. It's necessary but not special.

If you're not getting to interview stage for assistant psychologist posts and you don't have clinical experience then there's unlikely to be much point applying for doctoral training yet (or self funding it). Read up the guidance available about what makes a good application, what they're looking for in the candidates they select, and what experience they want.

Familiarise yourself with that and if it's still what you want to pursue (and you can commit the years to get there) then craft a strategy. Identify some smaller stepping stones to get from your current role to eventually an AP post.

Don't think of it as a barrier, but valuable time and experience honing your skills so you can succeed with the training and career.