Future Students

International students will feel welcome in the diverse mix of cultures that  the San Francisco Bay Area is famous for.   Located 35 miles south of San Francisco on the  Peninsula, Palo Alto University is situated at the apex of Silicon Valley— a world-renowned center of the electronics industry, and, increasingly, of biotechnology.

The new campus in the Palo Alto foothills is just minutes away from Stanford University and downtown Palo Alto, and across the Bay from the UC Berkeley campus.  Surrounded by natural beauty and a temperate climate, PAU students can enjoy simple pleasures like hiking or relaxing on the beach to take a break from studies.  Our International students enrolled in PGSP's online Master's Degree program can study with our highly regarded faculty without leaving home.

• Student Profiles 

SUNITI KUKREJA
Ph.D. Student from Thailand

I came to PGSP from Thailand in 2005 in search of a doctoral program that could provide me with the relevant skills and training to be a successful clinical psychologist. International students have the additional stress of adjusting to a new country along with the rigors of a PhD program. My fellow classmates and PGSP faculty/staff have been wonderful and extremely supportive in helping me adjust to life in the US. My experiences with the program have fulfilled all my expectations. I have received extensive clinical experiences in multiple settings as well as specialized training in Health Psychology track. Emphasis on cultural sensitivity embedded in our program provides me with the knowledge and skills that I can apply in my future career internationally.

The courses I have taken were demanding and rewarding that I have learned to think and organize systematically not only on research but also on doing psychotherapy. In addition, the professors here are knowledgeable and approachable. They are willing to share their experiences and give practical suggestions. Staff members are very helpful to international students. I am still on my half way to finish the Ph.D. degree, and I believe I will be fully equipped to become a psychologist when I graduate from PGSP.

• After Palo Alto University

BRIGITTE KHOURY
President, Lebanese
Psychological Association

In the fall of 1992 I left Beirut, Lebanon, for Palo Alto, CA, to do a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Pacific Graduate School of Psychology.  At PAU, there were faculty members who offered me their expertise and knowledge without limit. Their diverse backgrounds and various research interests
provided a wide range of opportunities in different areas of psychology. In addition, the PGSP student body’s various ethnicities and nationalities allowed for a rich exchange among students, an educational experience deeper than that which can be found in books alone. Their differences in culture, values, tradition, even language, became my support system and my family away from home.

One of PGSP’s main attractions is its close relationship to Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA, both of which facilitate training and research opportunities. Another benefit is the San Francisco Bay Area—a physical, cultural, and ethnic environment that makes it an even more rewarding educational experience.

After graduation in 1996, I obtained my license from the California Board of Psychology and returned to Beirut, where I joined the Department of Psychiatry at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, a leading academic institution in the Middle East.

PGSP’s practitioner-scientist model program helped my career immensely. Not only did I acquire the necessary theoretical knowledge and clinical skills but also the basis of scientific research for a career as a practitioner as well as an academician in a university setting. In time, because I found it important to
share that knowledge with other colleagues in Lebanon, I established the Lebanese Psychological Association to promote the field of psychology and organize its practice.