Doctor of Psychology - Licensing Exam

Licensing Exam

Both the Psy.D. and Ph.D. are the only two doctorate degrees that are eligible to sit for the EPPP psychology licensing exam, and thus obtain a license to practice psychology. Traditionally, the emphasis of Psy.D. program is more clinical practice, whereas Ph.D. programs are more research based.

While Ph.D. students do perform better on the EPPP than PsyD students, Schaffer et al. conducted an analysis of EPPP pass rates from 2006-2011 and found that a high percentage of candidates from many Psy.D. programs pass the exam the first time they take it in comparison to Ph.D. candidates. This is likely due to the intensive focus on clinical practice during training at Psy.D. programs. Their analysis found that a disproportionate percentage of those candidates who fail the EPPP come from a limited number of programs: The bottom 37 programs accounted for 46.9% of all EPPP failures; the bottom 15 programs (13 Psy.D., 2 Ph.D.) accounted for 38.8% of all failures. Of these 15 programs, four were from one institution and three from another institution. These seven programs from two institutions accounted for 17.1% of the total failures. Thus, a small number of programs, in particular a subset of Psy.D. programs, unfairly clouds the reputation of all Psy.D. programs. In addition, there are many traditional Ph.D. programs that have relatively low pass rates, and 18 Ph.D. programs with a pass rate less than 60%. Schaffer et al. concluded that there are variables other than the type of degree that are more important in determining pass rates on the EPPP.

While there is an increasing number of university-based PsyD programs, many Psy.D. programs are at newer professional schools of psychology.