Substitute or Waive One Course for Another: Clinical Program Course Requirements

A student may request to waive a course required by the Clinical Program on the grounds that a course previously taken at another institution substitutes for the required course. 

To Substitute or Waive a Domain Specific Knowledge Course

To assure that a course waiver of a Domain Specific Knowledge course (e.g., social, cognitive, affective or biological aspects of behavior, history of psychology) is justified, the student must follow these steps:

(1) The student discusses a course substitution and waiver possibility with his or her advisor. 

(2) Given the advisor's agreement that the substitution would be in the student's best interest, the student provides the instructor of the relevant UMass course with a copy of the course syllabus of the course taken at another institution and asks that instructor to assess whether the course proposed as a substitution is substantively equivalent to the UMass course.

(3) Given the UMass course instructor's assessment of substantive comparability; the student will send an email to request a waiver with the Director of Clinical Training (DCT) along with four attachments:

(a) A copy of the course syllabus

(b) An indication of endorsement from the advisor

(c) A statement/copy of email of substantive equivalence from the instructor, and

(d) Evidence of successfully completing the proposed substitute course with a grade of B or better (typically a transcript).

(4) The DCT will present this request to the Clinical Faculty. They will consider the petition and vote on whether to approve it. A simple majority will carry the vote.

To Substitute or Waive a Clinical Psychology Course

Since the Clinical Program will be required to verify a student’s clinical competence and readiness for a pre-doctoral clinical internship, waiver of a clinical course (e.g., intervention, assessment, ethics, multicultural courses) is unlikely to be granted and will require an additional demonstration of clinical competence.  The steps for waiving a clinical course are:

(1) The student discusses a course substitution and waiver possibility with his or her advisor.  This discussion will typically include how waiving the course may affect the student’s ability to succeed in our program and how the course waiver might impact future licensure.

(2) Given the advisor's agreement that the substitution would be in the student's best interest, the student provides the instructor of the relevant UMass course with a copy of the course syllabus of the course taken at another institution and asks that instructor to assess whether the course proposed as a substitution is substantively equivalent to the UMass course. The student must also demonstrate clinical competence with the subject matter of the course. This can be accomplished by several means, including the following:

a) the student can provide a work product from the course he or she wishes to use as a substitute that demonstrates clinical competence (e.g., an assessment report, a term paper on theories and techniques of psychotherapy)

b) the student can take an exam designed by the course instructor that demonstrates clinical competence (e.g., the UMass course final exam, a demonstration of interviewing/assessment skills).

(3) Given the UMass course instructor's assessment of substantive comparability and clinical competence; the student email a waiver request to the Director of Clinical Training (DCT) along with four attachments:

(a) A copy of the course syllabus

(b) An indication of endorsement from the advisor

(c) A statement of substantive equivalence from the instructor as well as a statement from the instructor that the student appears to have clinical competence in the course content, and

(d) Evidence of successfully completing the proposed substitute course with a grade of B or better (typically a transcript).

To waive a Departmental Course requirement, students must adhere to the “Waiver of Courses” policy in the Graduate Program Policies and Procedures document.