July 8, 1998 Contact Ross West (541) 346-2060 Sources: Anne Simons (541) 346-5093; Scott Monroe (541) 346-4968; John McQuaid (619) 552-8585, x3693; Diane Spangler (801) 378-6475; Kate Harkness, (541) 346-1981 EUGENE--Graduates of the University of Oregon's doctoral program in clinical psychology are at the head of the class when it comes to passing a professional skills test known familiarly as the EPPP exam--the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. Newly compiled data indicate that, for the period of 1988 to 1995, UO graduates' EPPP scores ranked first among graduates from more than 180 institutions, according to an article recently published in Psychological Science. That's better than graduates of such institutions as Yale, Berkeley, Northwestern and UCLA. "This is high praise for our program and the value our graduates get from it," says Anne Simons, UO clinical psychology program director and associate professor of psychology. "These impressive findings confirm what we have always known about the program and confirm the other high rankings we receive, such as consistently being rated in the top 10 clinical psychology programs in the country by the Gourman Report." Psychology professor Scott Monroe adds that "The EPPP tests cover a great deal of material that students study both in courses taken specifically in clinical psychology, as well as in courses taken in other areas of psychology within the department, which also provide excellent training." These kinds of comparative figures have not previously been gathered, Monroe says, "so when we received the news we were quite pleased and excited." The program is relatively small, accepting only three or four new students per year out of an application pool of between 150 and 200. The size contributes to a high student-to-teacher ratio and close working relationships between faculty and students. Along with Simons and Monroe, the clinical psychology program's faculty includes Paul Collins, Tom Dishion, Don Tucker, Bob Weiss and Rick Zinbarg. Another strength of the program, notes Simons, is that it stresses scientifically proven methodologies, statistics and research modeling. "Oregon can't be beat in training for how to do research," says program graduate John McQuaid, now a staff psychologist with the San Diego Veterans' Administration Medical Center. "The quality of the research training was truly outstanding," agrees Diane Spangler, another graduate, now an assistant professor at Brigham Young University. "Perhaps more important, though, was that the training went beyond instruction in scientific and statistical methods and also included application to important clinical problems." Both of these graduates of the program attribute much of the success of UO graduates on the EPPP test--an exam similar to the bar exam that law school graduates face--to the quality of the faculty. "The clinical faculty have high standards for their students, and are extremely supportive and generous with their time, resources and intellect," Spangler notes. Presently in her final year of study, Kate Harkness was drawn to Oregon's clinical psychology program because "I was very interested in the important research that Scott Monroe and Anne Simons are conducting in the area of major depression and life stress. I was also attracted by the Oregon psychology department's excellent reputation for graduating clinical psychologists who are both highly rigorous scientists and well-trained and sensitive practitioners," she says. -30- #O-7356/Local,OrSci,OrDailies,PDX