Outcomes & Admissions Data | Palo Alto University

Doctoral Programs

Psychology

The PhD in Clinical Psychology and the PAU–Stanford PsyD Consortium publish Student Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data, as required by American Psychological Association (APA) accreditation. The tables below reproduce the APA 2025 data editions for both programs; each disclosure also carries admissions and attrition tables not repeated here. Costs for every program are below.

Internship placement

Students who applied for internship over the ten years to 2024–25, including those who withdrew during the application process, and the share placed. Source: the programs’ 2025 disclosures, PhD and PsyD consortium.
Program	Applied	Placed at an APA or CPA accredited site	Placed at any internship
PhD in Clinical Psychology	754	70293%	72196%
PAU-Stanford PsyD Consortium	314	30998%	31099%

Licensure

Graduates whose doctorate was conferred between two and ten years before the reporting date, and the number who have since become licensed psychologists. Licensure requires supervised postdoctoral hours and a national examination, so recent graduates are outside the window by design. Source: the programs’ 2025 disclosures, PhD and PsyD consortium.
Program	Window	Graduates	Licensed	Rate
PhD in Clinical Psychology	2015–2023	344	294	85%
PAU-Stanford PsyD Consortium	2015–2025	251	240	96%

Time to completion

All students entering the program, for degrees conferred in the ten years to 2024–25. The four year columns are the disclosure’s own time-to-degree bands and sum to the degrees conferred. Source: the programs’ 2025 disclosures, PhD and PsyD consortium.
Program	Degrees conferred	Mean years	Median years	Under 5	5	6	7	Over 7
PhD in Clinical Psychology	619	5.91	5.87	112%	19732%	26142%	9415%	569%
PAU-Stanford PsyD Consortium	303	5.24	4.95	00%	24481%	4214%	72%	103%

Counselor Education and Supervision

The PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision admitted its first students in 2024 and no cohort has yet reached graduation, so it has no outcomes to report. There is no specialty accreditation that sets an outcome disclosure for the program. Its costs are listed below.

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

The Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program reports graduation, licensure examination and employment outcomes each year, as its CACREP accreditation requires. Figures below are from the program’s 2024–25 report.

Graduation and employment

On-time completion is measured against an expected enrolment period of two and a half years. Employment is reported from two separate instruments, one at graduation and one of alumni, and the two are not the same population.
Measure	Value	Basis
Graduates, 2024–25	163	—
On-time completion rate	93.2%	2.5 years
Employed at graduation	62%	81 of 131
Alumni employed, full or part time	73%	34 respondents

Licensure examinations

California Board of Behavioral Sciences examinations taken by program graduates. Licensure as a professional clinical counselor and as a marriage and family therapist each require two examinations.
Examination	Period	Took	Passed	First-time takers	Passed
California Law and Ethics (LPCC)	Jan–Dec 2024	56	4886%	50	4488%
National Clinical Mental Health Counseling (NCMHCE)	Jan–Dec 2024	18	1478%	16	1381%
California Law and Ethics (LMFT)	Jan 2024–Jun 2025	122	10284%	101	8685%
LMFT Clinical	Jan 2024–Jun 2025	101	8685%	83	7894%

Source: M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program Outcomes, 2024–25. Five students sat the National Counselor Examination in spring 2025 and all passed.

Program Costs

Tuition and fees for one academic year, 2026–27, for students entering that year. Programs are billed differently — the doctorates at a flat annual rate, the rest by the unit — so every figure here is stated per year, and the basis column gives the load each one assumes.

A year is the fall, winter and spring quarters. Summer study, dissertation and internship years are billed differently and are set out in the full schedule. Distance-learning students in the counseling program pay a separate residency fee.
Program	Level	Per year	Basis
PhD in Clinical Psychology	Doctoral	$60,240	Flat annual rate, three quarters
PAU-Stanford PsyD Consortium	Doctoral	$71,274	Flat annual rate, three quarters
PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision	Doctoral	$27,534	Flat annual rate, three quarters
Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, year one	Master’s	$24,675	Billed per unit at $717, three quarters
Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, year two	Master’s	$18,792	Billed per unit at $717, three quarters
Master of Science in Psychology	Master’s	$28,161	Billed per unit, nine units a quarter
Master of Social Work	Master’s	$25,911	Billed per unit at $717, eleven units a quarter
Bachelor of Science in Psychology and in Business Psychology	Undergraduate	$19,260	Billed per unit at $535, twelve units a quarter

Sources: Tuition and Fees Schedule, academic year 2026–27, incoming students for the flat annual doctoral rates, and the university’s estimated cost of attendance for the annual figure on programs billed by the unit.

Undergraduate Programs

The WSCUC-accredited Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Bachelor of Science in Business Psychology are degree-completion programs, enrolling students who have already begun their studies elsewhere. There is no specialty accreditation that sets an outcome disclosure for the programs; the federal graduation-rate survey counts only students who start their degree at this university, so PAU’s bachelor’s students fall outside the cohort it measures. Federal figures that do count transfer entrants are published through College Navigator.

Doctoral Licensing Examinations

The California Board of Psychology publishes examination results by school each year. These count candidates who sat in California and are not reported by program.

Palo Alto University candidates, calendar year 2025. Candidates recorded under the university’s former name, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, are reported separately by the Board and are not included here.
Examination	Took	Passed	Rate	First-time takers	Passed	Rate
Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP)	54	46	85%	47	40	85%
California Psychology Law and Ethics Examination	59	54	92%	55	45	82%

Source: California Department of Consumer Affairs, Board of Psychology, Exam Results by School, 2025.

Outcomes and Data