I just visited this forum and thought I'd ask a few questions. I've explored MD and DO, and I know a little bit about clinical psych. right now, my goal is MD or DO (whichever accept that is in NYC) but would also consider columbia and nyu for clinical psych. I have read a bit that research is necessary, at least a full year. I am starting research in a nutrition lab on fragile X and early cocaine/Pb exposure in mice and rats respectively, and by application, it will be a full year. is this good enough or should I really try to get research experience in a psych lab? I have the option of working with a wonderful professor who specializes in gerontology in my major (Human Development) and he said I could do research with him on a Human Development research he's doing collecting senior's life history and something about that. I was just curious what kind of research we should pursue to be competitive for clinical psych? thanks.

Any research experience will be well-regarded, and if it's more medically oriented than psychological research, that's probably fine, depending on what your interests of study will be in clinical psych (especially areas like clinical neuropsych, behavioral medicine, etc.). You should focus on doing something that helps you identify your specific interests, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to work in more than lab, or on more than one project, to do this, if possible. It will help support your application if you have been doing work directly related to what you hope to do, but it's not a requirement, just try to have some exposure to your desired area that you can talk about.

You can also explore psychology areas outside of clinical, such as neuroscience or human development, but you would not be able to practice with such a degree. I'm not sure from your post why you prefer clinical psych to medical degree, but I wish you luck.

Also, if you are interested in New York City, you should note that NYU does not have a clinical psych PhD program any longer (though I continue to hear rumors of a new PsyD program somewhere there, perhaps through the school of education?), and that Teacher's College's program at Columbia is not well-funded, not highly-regarded, and is very psychodynamic (likely not a good fit for someone of your apparent interests involving the medical field). However, City College (also psychodynamic but generally better regarded and much cheaper than TC), Rutgers (in NJ), Stony Brook (on LI), and a plethora of other programs exist in the city. You should do a lot more research on the available programs and make sure you want to stay in New York - there are many other fine programs outside the city that may match your interests better.

I don’t want to be discouraging, but I would carefully consider whether or not applying to two clinical psychology programs as a med school back-up would be a good use of your time. Clinical psychology is incredibly competitive to begin with, and NYU is considered difficult to get into even within clinical psych. Columbia is a little easier but the acceptance rate is still somewhere around 5%. So you would have to get an entirely different set of LORs, study for the GRE, write another series of essays, and pay two additional application fees for a relatively remote chance of gaining admission. If you want to be a doctor then devote this time and money to improving your med school applications or your MCAT scores. If you want to be a psychologist, then you need to apply to about 9 schools of varying degrees of selectivity. If you aren’t sure, you could do both but that application year is going to suck.

As for research, experience is important but a match between your research interests and those of your prospective research mentor is more important. You will eventually need to relate what you are doing now to what you would like to do as a graduate student. It helps if this relationship is really easy to see (i.e. gerontology research experience will help with admission to a lab studying suicide among the elderly), but an exact match is not necessary (researching fragile X syndrome could be related to researching Alzheimer’s disease if you were creative enough). Take a look at the research interests of the faculty at the schools to which you want to apply, target the labs you’d seek to join, and use this information to help you decide between your options. I don’t think having research involving a psychology lab is particularly important as long as your research experience is related to that of your lab.

I'll echo the two previous responses. I don't think applying to a few clinical psych programs as a back up is worth it. First oof ,the research needed to go into a successful clinical psych application as well as the GRE, psych GRE, etc really isn't worth it. Also, in general, NY clinical psych programs are very weak compared to the rest of the country. Funding is precarious at many of these programs. As Clinapp said, NYU no longer accepts people into its clincal psych program. Many of the other NY are so underfuneded I believe that it wouldn't be worth it monetarily. If med school is what you want to do, I say concentrate on that. Also, consider applying outside NY because you are puting yourself at a disadvantage due to the volume of apps NY schools get.

Also, if you are interested in New York City, you should note that NYU does not have a clinical psych PhD program any longer (though I continue to hear rumors of a new PsyD program somewhere there, perhaps through the school of education?),


Wow, when did this happen. When I was applying (during the Garfield Administration :laugh: ) NYU was a well-respected program.