To become a psychologist in the US you usually need a doctorate in psychology, a supervised internship, more supervised hours after the degree, a pass on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), and a licence from the state where you will practise. The state board issues the licence, not the university, and every state writes its own rules. School psychology has a shorter route of its own.
This guide is published by EdCitation, and its facts were checked on 27 September 2026 with the bodies that set them: the American Psychological Association (APA) and its Commission on Accreditation, APPIC, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), PSYPACT, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), plus the state boards of New York, California and Texas. Nothing in it guarantees admission, a licence, employment or pay. Training in Britain works differently and is covered in how to become a psychologist in the UK.
From the first semester, psychology students write APA 7 papers, and graduate programmes judge research. EdCitation's free Find sources pulls real studies from the published record, and Cite a source turns each one into an APA 7 entry taken from the publisher's own data. Every sentence of the paper stays yours.
What are the routes to becoming a psychologist in the US?
There are three main routes: a doctorate for clinical and counselling practice, a specialist-level degree for school psychology, and a master's for roles that some states license at master's level. The BLS (2026) says clinical and counselling psychologists typically need a PhD or a PsyD, while school and industrial-organisational psychologists typically need a master's degree.
| Route | Length, in the source's words | Where it leads | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctorate (PhD or PsyD) in clinical, counselling or school psychology | At least 3 full-time academic years plus an internship, for an accredited programme | Supervised hours, the EPPP, a state psychologist licence | APA (2026) |
| Doctoral internship | 1 year full-time, in no fewer than 12 months (10 for school psychology) | Completion of the doctorate | APA (2026) |
| School psychology, specialist level | Most programmes at least 3 years of graduate study with a 1,200-hour internship | State certification or licence; the NCSP | NASP (n.d.-a) |
| Master's in psychology (Texas) | At least 60 semester credit hours | Licensed Psychological Associate in Texas | Texas BHEC (n.d.-b) |
| Your reading and papers throughout | Every semester | Referenced papers in APA 7 | Find sources on EdCitation |
Master's-level licensing is the exception, not the rule. The APA (2023) says some states license people with a master's degree but most require a doctorate for a psychologist's licence.
PhD vs PsyD: which doctorate should you choose?
Both can lead to a licence. The PhD is generally a research degree, usually with a dissertation, and the PsyD is a professional degree focused on applying psychology to clients and patients (Michalski & Fowler, 2016). Colleges of education may award an EdD (American Psychological Association, 2023).
What the APA says about each
Michalski and Fowler (2016), writing for the APA, say the PsyD began in the 1970s as an alternative for people more interested in services than in research, and that most PsyD programmes still require a thesis or dissertation. They say there is no single best degree, only the best fit for a student's goals, and that both prepare graduates for state licensing exams.
The cost difference
Debt differs sharply. In a 2016 APA survey of people who finished psychology graduate degrees in the previous ten years, PhD recipients reported $78,000 of debt on average and PsyD recipients $146,000; the APA links this to the funding each kind of programme offers, and nearly all PsyD recipients said they had no access to fellowships or research assistantships (American Psychological Association, 2023). Ask every programme what funding it offers and whether tuition is remitted.
Why do APA-accredited programmes matter?
Accreditation can decide whether a state will license you. The APA's Commission on Accreditation (n.d.-b) says accreditation helps licensure in states that require an accredited doctorate, and some states accept either that or proof of an equivalent programme. New York, for example, accepts a doctorate from an APA-accredited programme in health service psychology, a programme it has registered, or one it judges equivalent (New York State Education Department, n.d.).
On 27 September 2026 the Commission's site listed 6 accredited master's programmes, 440 doctoral programmes, 705 internship programmes and 169 postdoctoral residencies (American Psychological Association, n.d.-a). It accredits clinical, counselling and school psychology and combinations of them; the PhD and the PsyD are the main degrees. Search them in the APA-Accredited Programs database.
Where the APA's own pages disagree
They disagree about master's programmes. The APA's graduate school FAQ, last updated in December 2023, says the APA does not accredit master's programmes, while the Commission's own page now lists six accredited ones. Follow the Commission's page, which is the accreditor's own and the newer, and note that APA accreditation is for programmes, never for individuals.
How does the psychology internship match work?
Doctoral students find their internship through the APPIC Match, in which applicants rank programmes, programmes rank applicants, and an algorithm pairs them in Phase I, with a Phase II for those still unplaced. The APA (2026) requires an accredited doctoral programme's students to complete an internship before the degree is awarded.
The numbers show why preparation matters. In the 2026 Match, 4,480 applicants submitted rank lists for 3,996 positions; 3,919 matched (87%) and 561 did not (13%), and 93.4% of those matched went to APA- or CPA-accredited internships (Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers, 2026). Ask each doctoral programme for its own match record: the APA (2023) suggests asking about internship placement rates before you apply.
What is the EPPP, and what does it test?
The EPPP is the ASPPB's licensing examination, required by all 66 of its member jurisdictions in the US and Canada. Everyone must pass Part 1 (Knowledge); some jurisdictions also require Part 2 (Skills), which tests applying that knowledge to decisions in independent practice (Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, n.d.-a).
| Part 1 (Knowledge) | Part 2 (Skills) | |
|---|---|---|
| Items | 225, of which 175 are scored | 170, of which 130 are scored |
| Time for the items | 4 hours 15 minutes | 4 hours 10 minutes |
| Exam fee | $600 | $450 |
| Test-site appointment fee | $91.88 | $91.88 |
| Recommended passing score | 500 | 500 |
| When to take it | Soon after your academic training | After all supervised experience your state requires |
Sources: ASPPB (n.d.-a, n.d.-b, n.d.-c, 2026a). Part 1 covers eight domains; the heaviest are assessment and diagnosis (16%), ethical, legal and professional issues (16%) and treatment, intervention, prevention and supervision (15%). You apply to your state board first, and the board confirms your eligibility before you can register. The ASPPB allows at most four attempts in any rolling 12 months.
The EPPP is changing
The ASPPB (2026b) announced a single integrated EPPP for the fourth quarter of 2027. First-time candidates will then take the integrated exam, candidates who failed a part before it starts may retake that part until 31 March 2028, and from 1 April 2028 the integrated EPPP will be the only one, at $650. Check the ASPPB's page in the year you sit.
What are the licensed psychologist requirements in each state?
Each state board sets its own hours, exams and fees, so the board where you will practise is the one that binds you. Three boards show how far they differ.
New York
New York asks for good moral character, a minimum age of 21, a qualifying doctorate, and two years of full-time supervised experience, defined as 1,750 clock hours a year. No more than one year may come from the doctoral internship; the rest must follow the degree. New York uses only EPPP Part 1 and has not adopted Part 2. The licence fee is $294 (New York State Education Department, n.d.).
California
The California Board of Psychology (2026) approves you for the EPPP once you have 1,500 hours of supervised professional experience, and for its own California Psychology Law and Ethics Examination (CPLEE) once you have 3,000, at least 1,500 of them after the doctorate. It also requires fingerprints and short courses, such as six hours on suicide risk assessment. The fees are $236 to apply, $127 for the CPLEE and $231 for the initial licence.
Texas
Texas asks for 1,750 hours of supervised experience in a formal doctoral internship and 1,750 after the doctorate, the EPPP, a jurisprudence exam, a fingerprint check and a National Practitioner Data Bank self-query. Graduates of APA- or CPA-accredited programmes may count some doctoral experience toward the postdoctoral hours. A first licence is a two-year Licensed Psychologist with Provisional Status, during which you finish the hours and the EPPP (Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council, n.d.-a). Texas also licenses psychological associates, who need a graduate degree of at least 60 semester credit hours and the EPPP (Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council, n.d.-b).
Can you practise across state lines with PSYPACT?
Partly. PSYPACT is an interstate compact that lets psychologists licensed in a PSYPACT state practise telepsychology, or temporary in-person psychology, in other PSYPACT states. Telepsychology needs an Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT) with an ASPPB E.Passport; temporary practice needs a Temporary Authorization to Practice (TAP) with an ASPPB Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, n.d.-a).
On 27 September 2026 PSYPACT's list of final legislation named 43 jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands, with South Carolina marked "pending changes" (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, n.d.-b). California and New York were not on it. Iowa passed legislation on 1 July 2026, to take effect a year later, and PSYPACT reported that Alaska passed legislation in June 2026 (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, 2026). You must still follow each state's own laws.
How do you become a school psychologist?
Most school psychologists hold at least a specialist-level degree, and many hold a doctorate. They must be certified or licensed by their state, and NASP (n.d.-a) says most programmes last at least three years of graduate study, including a 1,200-hour internship with 600 hours in a school.
The Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential is NASP's, not a state's. It asks for a programme titled "School Psychology" of at least 60 graduate semester hours (54 outside the internship), supervised practica, a 1,200-hour internship with at least 600 hours in a school setting, and a score of 155 on the Praxis School Psychologist exam (5403). NCSPs renew with 75 hours of professional development every three years (National Association of School Psychologists, n.d.-b). Many states accept or align with it; check your own.
How long does it take to become a psychologist?
Roughly five years after a bachelor's degree at the very least for a licensed psychologist, on the minimums the sources state, and usually longer. This timeline is our own arithmetic from those minimums.
- Bachelor's degree. The BLS (2026) says graduate applicants typically hold one in psychology, education or a social science.
- Doctoral coursework: at least three full-time academic years, two of them in the degree-granting programme (APA, 2026). Ask each programme its average years to graduate.
- Internship: one year full-time, found through the APPIC Match.
- Postdoctoral supervised hours: 1,750 in Texas, at least 1,500 in California, and in New York whatever remains of two years after at most one internship year.
- The EPPP and any state exam, then the board's approval.
A school psychologist on a specialist programme needs about three years of graduate study, internship included, before state certification (NASP, n.d.-a).
What do psychologists earn, and is there demand?
The BLS (2026) gives a median annual wage for psychologists of $99,110 in May 2025: $100,580 for clinical and counselling psychologists, $95,990 for school psychologists and $193,950 for industrial-organisational psychologists. It projects 6% growth from 2025 to 2035, about 11,300 openings a year, with 12% for clinical and counselling psychologists and 1% for school psychologists. Half of psychologists earn more than the median and half less; no figure here is a promise of pay.
How does EdCitation help psychology students?
For the research side of a psychology degree, EdCitation is the strongest tool a student can use, because each reference is fetched from the record the publisher registered, and no reference or sentence is ever made up by it. That matters here: an internship application or a dissertation proposal leans on literature a reader can check.
One search, run for this guide
Find sources covers about 300 million published works and can be searched by topic or by the claim a sentence needs, then narrowed by kind of source, years or open access. We ran it on 27 September 2026 for "psychology internship training supervision". It showed 1,788,452 matches, with Crossref as the record source; at the top of the list sat "The science of training III: Supervision, competency, and internship training", by Jennifer L. Callahan and C. Edward Watkins, in Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 2018, shown as cited 29 times.
Given the paper's DOI, Cite a source built this APA 7 entry:
Callahan, J. L., & Watkins, C. E. (2018). The science of training III: Supervision, competency, and internship training. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 12(4), 245–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000208
Cite a source also flags a retracted paper, and Verify references takes a whole reference list and reports on each entry; neither costs anything or needs an account. For the psychology-specific rules, such as citing the DSM-5-TR or a test manual, read APA 7 for psychology students.
EdCitation writes no part of a student's work or application. That is the point of it: a personal statement, a lab report or a dissertation proposal is judged as the student's own thinking, and with EdCitation it stays exactly that. For the statement itself, see how to write a PhD application and research proposal.
Quick questions
How long does it take to become a psychologist in the US?
Roughly five years at the least after a bachelor's degree on the stated minimums: three years of doctoral study, a one-year internship and postdoctoral hours. Many programmes take longer, so ask each one its average time to graduate.
PhD vs PsyD: which is better?
Neither, the APA says; each fits different goals. The PhD centres on research, the PsyD on practice, and both can lead to a state licence.
Do I have to pass both parts of the EPPP?
Part 1 is required in all 66 ASPPB jurisdictions; Part 2 only in some, and New York has not adopted it. From 1 April 2028 a single integrated EPPP replaces both.
Can I be a psychologist with a master's degree?
In some roles and states. The BLS says school and industrial-organisational psychologists typically need a master's, and Texas licenses psychological associates at master's level, but most states require a doctorate to license a psychologist.
Can EdCitation help with my psychology papers?
It handles the sources: EdCitation's free Find sources turns up published research on a psychology topic, and Cite a source sets out every reference in APA 7, while the writing stays the student's own.
References
- American Psychological Association. (n.d.-a). About APA accreditation. APA Accreditation. https://accreditation.apa.org/about
- American Psychological Association. (n.d.-b). Why APA accreditation matters. APA Accreditation. https://accreditation.apa.org/why-accreditation-matters
- American Psychological Association. (2023). Frequently asked questions about graduate school. https://www.apa.org/education-career/grad/faqs
- American Psychological Association. (2026). Standards of accreditation for health service psychology and accreditation operating procedures. https://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/about/policies/standards-of-accreditation.pdf
- Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. (2026). 2026 APPIC Match statistics: Combined results. https://www.appic.org/Internships/Match/Match-Statistics/Match-Statistics-2026-Combined
- Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (n.d.-a). Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). https://asppb.net/exams/asppb-examination-for-professional-psychology-eppp/
- Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (n.d.-b). Registration and fees. https://asppb.net/exams/asppb-examination-for-professional-psychology-eppp/eppp-registration-fees/
- Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (n.d.-c). Which exam should I take? https://asppb.net/exams/asppb-examination-for-professional-psychology-eppp/eppp-exam-types/
- Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (2026a). EPPP candidate handbook. https://asppb.net/wp-content/uploads/EPPP-Candidate-Handbook_01.2026.pdf
- Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (2026b, May 8). Updates on the EPPP's accessibility, eligibility, and cost for 2028. https://asppb.net/news/eppp-eligibility-updates-professional-practice-cost/
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Psychologists. In Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/psychologists.htm
- California Board of Psychology. (2026). Application for licensure as a psychologist. https://www.psychology.ca.gov/applicants/instructions.html
- Michalski, D. S., & Fowler, G. (2016, January). Doctoral degrees in psychology: How are they different, or not so different? Psychology Student Network. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2016/01/doctoral-degrees
- National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.-a). How to become a school psychologist. https://www.nasponline.org/about-school-psychology/how-to-become-a-school-psychologist
- National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.-b). NCSP eligibility. https://www.nasponline.org/standards-and-certification/national-certification/ncsp-eligibility
- New York State Education Department. (n.d.). Psychology: License requirements. Office of the Professions. https://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/psychology/license-requirements
- Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. (n.d.-a). Overview. https://psypact.gov/page/About
- Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. (n.d.-b). Final PSYPACT legislation. https://psypact.gov/page/statelegislation
- Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. (2026, July 1). Iowa passes PSYPACT legislation. https://psypact.gov/news/730439/Iowa-passes-PSYPACT-Legislation.htm
- Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. (n.d.-a). How to become a licensed psychologist. https://bhec.texas.gov/texas-state-board-of-examiners-of-psychologists/applying-for-a-psychology-license/how-to-become-a-licensed-psychologist/
- Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. (n.d.-b). How to become a licensed psychological associate. https://bhec.texas.gov/texas-state-board-of-examiners-of-psychologists/applying-for-a-psychology-license/how-to-become-a-licensed-psychological-associate/