Master's in Psychology - Low Cost & CBE Suggestions Needed

[Wiser Indigenous]

Hello. I have looked at Walden, SNHU, and Capella. Are there any other recommendations for online master's degrees in psychology that are in the United States, low cost, competency-based education (CBE), and can be accelerated?

[Jonathan Whatley]

The University of Phoenix has a subscription-priced CBE (Direct Assessment) MS in Psychology. Direct assessment programs tend to be accelerable.

Kairos University has a CBE MA in Marriage and Family Therapy (COAMFTE accredited) and MA in Counseling (not CACREP accredited). As they’re licensure preparation programs with practica and around 60 semester hours, they’ll be less accelerable than a non-licensure master’s in psychology, other factors held constant. Kairos and a student would have to be comfortable with each other in the context of Kairos’s strong Christian bent.

WGU, which is all CBE, has been hiring for a master’s in the psychology/counseling space that might launch soon.

[Stoic]

Hello. I have looked at Walden, SNHU, and Capella. Are there any other recommendations for online master's degrees in psychology that are in the United States, low cost, competency-based education (CBE), and can be accelerated?

Kairos University gives me a good vibe. I forgot if they got psychology, but they got mental health counseling which is probably even more specific and career oriented. Most psychology programs that are cheap seem like bs to me that you could learn via free classes. But the curriculum of the Kairos program is amazing at that price point. It even goes into pharmacology, and In the end you end up potentially as a licensed counselor.

[bjcheung77]

@Wiser Indigenous, Have you completed your undergrad yet? I hope you're almost done if not complete already. I would focus on that first, if you have the energy or time to research options for Psych, you may want to take a look at similar roles and see if there are certification or licensing needs for those health related professions. I just skimmed through your previous thread from January here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ime-caller

[studyingfortests]

A lot here will depend on what you intend to do with your psychology degree.  If you want to be a therapist, competency-based education is, for the most part, going to be of the table due to licensure and programmatic accreditor requirements.  If you do manage to find one, it will most likely not have programmatic accreditation from CACREP or COAMFTE, the accreditors for LPCs and LMFTs, respectively.

About half of current MFT/LPC (licensable psych degrees) are not accredited by one of the above accreditor. That might be OK if your state does not currently require graduation from an accredited program. But more and more states are requiring accreditation. Additionally, in general, non-accredited programs are substantially inferior, even if, as they often do, they make claims such as "Our program and curriculum is in compliance with accreditation requirements of CACREP or COAMFTE". Rarely are these claims actually true in pare because, if they were, the school would likely be accredited.

Here's the thing: thing: If you are wanting to be a therapist, I'll give my standard pitch for the MSW degree over a licensable psychology degree. Reasons include:

• MSWs have a wider scope of practice as a therapist than LPC or MFTs do. This is true in every state.
  
• There are many roles an MSW can fulfill that MFT/LPCs cannot, but no roles an MFT/LPC can fill that an MSW cannot.
  
• MSWs have greater consistency in all states; every state requires graduation with an accredited degree (thus there are pretty much no unaccredited MSW programs.)
  
• Every state uses the ASWB social work exam. There is no universally accepted exam in every state for MFT or LPCs, so moving states could require retaking an exam. This won't happen with social work.
  
• Social workers typically command 15-20% higher wages than MFT/LPCs do.
  
• The majority of social workers are in clinical practice (not as some assume, working for child protection.
  
• The MSW generalist curriculum includes nearly all of the training that MFT/LPCs receive (differential diagnosis/DSM diagnosis, treatment planning, case conceptualization, advanced biopsychosocial practices).
  
• Only about 45% of MFT/LPC programs are programmatically accredited, while over 99% of MSW programs are accredited. This not only potentially impacts you and your education, but impacts the professions themselves, since there are many graduates from substandard programs that get them n trouble.
  

In short, other than personal bias, it is hard to make a claim for the MFT route when compared to the MSW route. I have met many LPC/MFTs who have said that if they had it to do over, they would go the MSW route, but I have never heard an MSW say they wish they'd gone LPC/MFT.

All three are great professions, and I know highly capable and qualified therapists with all three licenses, and equally terrible therapists that among the