"We've always has strong students apply to our experimental psychopathology program," said Hooley. "With the clinical track, we're going to see a huge increase in applications."

There will be at least a few years lag time between the inception of the program this year and its accreditation by the APA.

"The program should have students at all levels of matriculation, at least three to four years" in order to be accredited, says Tia M. Scales, who is manager for administration and governance at the APA's Office of Accreditation.

Having the accreditation is key, but the current lack of APA approval is not really a problem, says Ann Masten, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development.

"There are jobs and internship training sites that require accreditation, but the University has a fine history in psychology... ideally it's preferred to go to an accredited program" said Masten, such as Minnesota's, which has had a clinical program accredited by the APA since 1948.

According to Scales, the major pieces of the process include a self-review to be written by the department, a site visit and the department's response to the site visit, each piece of which goes to the committee for the review.

"When you have a new program that is unfolding, I think students have to look at the likelihood of accreditation. If I were an applicant, I'd be reasonably confident that some kind of pending accreditation might happen," Masten says.