The Master of Social Work (MSW) degree can prepare you for a career as a practitioner but also many other policy and nontraditional careers.

Many applicants believe that a PhD in Clinical Psychology is best path to a career working with people as a therapist. However, there are several other paths to a practitioner career that don't entail five to seven years of graduate work plus additional supervised hours and a dissertation based on original empirical research.  If you hope for a career as a therapist, consider these alternatives to the PhD in Clinical Psychology.

I'll admit it: I'm completely overwhelmed with all that I have to do. My guess is that if you're a student you probably also feel at least a little overwhelmed. Many of us let our to-do lists get out of hand. By the end of the semester our to-do lists are not simply unwieldy, they're unhelpful. What do you do to get a handle on all of the many things that you have to do?

1. Make sure that your to-do list is complete.
This may seem counter-intuitive when you have a long list, but the first step in getting the important stuff done is surveying the field to determine what is important.

2. Determine what is most important right now.
Many of the items on your to-do list can wait until later, even after the semester ends. Others have deadlines that set important time constraints on task completion. Organize your list tasks by due date and importance.

3. Make choices.
Once you list all of your critical tasks you may find that you need to make choices about what to complete because it may not be possible to complete it all.

Learn more about simple strategies for managing your time

I find it helpful to engage in a modified version of this process daily. I list all that needs to be done. Then I consider what is essential. I look at how much time I can allot to completing the tasks and I decide which tasks to complete, to put on hold, or to ignore altogether. It's not easy and it requires a bit of self awareness and honesty to compile a realistic to-do list. I'm not always successful but it's a start.

One of my former students is facing a wonderful, but very difficult, decision. She has been awarded admission to 3 doctoral programs in psychology. She wonders where to go - and whether she should choose a PhD or PsyD. Identifying details have been changed, but this student's decision process -- and our conversation - may aid you in making decisions about which graduate program to attend.