PhD/PsyD Community College to IVY Leagues. Who has done it?

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TheDaoDoughnut

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This is my first post!
I know this has been discussed frequently on this forum, but I would like to know;

Who here has done it?

Do you know of anyone who has been accepted into IVY Leagues (PHD) after completing four years at a community college?

If so, what are their credentials?

Thank you,
~Dao~

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Might be difficult because community colleges usually don't have faculty that are heavily involved in research. Research experience is essential for admittance into a program.

Keep in mind though that Ivy League status isn't as important in PhD programs. Many of the top researchers are at public or state schools.
 
You have to have a bachelor's degree to get into PhD program. Therefore, you must have attended a 4-year university (i.e. NOT just a community college).
But for what it's worth, I have an associates from a CC, then attended my flagship state university, then a master's a small liberal arts university that pretty much nobody outside of its state knows and I am now getting my PhD from a university that is not one of the traditional ivy league universities, but often (not always) mentioned along with them. But as Cara mentioned, ivy league status at the PhD level is completely irrelevant and really makes no difference.
 
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What do you consider Ivy League PhD program? It aint the same Ivys...

Ands yes, you needs a coupe yars of good research experience ( not just entering data either), which you cant get at a CC.
 
College rank means almost nothing for grad school. Many of the Ivies aren't actually the top places for many of the psychology subspecialties that I can think of. Maybe with the exception of UPenn if you want to do PTSD or OCD work. But, good luck with that, Foa and Franklin have their pick of the litter when it comes to admissions.
 
College rank means almost nothing for grad school. Many of the Ivies aren't actually the top places for many of the psychology subspecialties that I can think of. Maybe with the exception of UPenn if you want to do PTSD or OCD work. But, good luck with that, Foa and Franklin have their pick of the litter when it comes to admissions.

I think Foa might actually be winding down in terms of grad students as well, although I could be getting her confused with someone else.

And as others have said, the traditional Ivy league schools generally aren't as strong in various specialty areas of psych as they are in many other areas (e.g., undergrad as a whole). Although they still have tons of money and prestige to throw at top-level talent, so Harvard's program, for example (which was only fairly recently developed and accredited), may make up some of that ground rather quickly. Yale also has a fairly well regarded, research-heavy internship, as does Brown (for internship and postdoc).

Although to answer your question, I went to a CC for a year while working in undergrad, and that didn't hinder me when it came to getting into grad school. I did, however, ultimately transfer to a state university for my bachelors.
 
I think Foa might actually be winding down in terms of grad students as well, although I could be getting her confused with someone else.

I think you're right. I think her directorship takes up most of her time, leaving little for mentoring. No matter, I can think of more than a handful of very good PTSD training sites that are just as good. Bottom line kids, throw away the US News rankings. Take a look at your personal career aspirations. Match your school based on that, not some desire to "go to what people think the best it."
 
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I attended a community college for two years and then a non-flagship state school, and was just accepted into a PhD program at a school that has a prestigious undergraduate reputation and is also highly regarded in the field. My "credentials" aren't anything too amazing, 1.5 years research experience, no clinical work to speak of, no accepted publications (yet); it is doable.

As a lowly soon-to-be-grad without the years of experience of some of the others on this board, I actually think the above are understating Penn and Yale, I would put them among the top programs, but that may partially be that those schools (Penn especially) have a lot of people doing top work in my area. That said, I couldn't apply there because none of those people were taking students this year. There's also one faculty member at Harvard who I would say would get you some prestige to work with, but otherwise I wouldn't rank it particularly high. Both of the last two sentences serving to make the point, a lot of it is about the PI and not the school. But yes, only 4 Ivy League schools even have PhD programs in clinical psychology and only two of those are likely to be called "top programs" by anybody right now, so don't apply based on undergraduate prestige. I doubt attending a CC would be a barrier to entry at any of them.
 
Thank you all for your responses! So i guess IVYs are not the places to go for great clinical PHD programs.

I want to succeed, but I am still young and naive to these things. I am conducting my own research, getting involved with the psychology club, and getting published on a few papers.

As I mentioned, transferring is not an option.

Can anyone please recommend activities/ideas to help make my PHD application as competitive as can be?
(aside from GPA and GREs).

Thanks again,
~Dao~
 
Thank you all for your responses! So i guess IVYs are not the places to go for great clinical PHD programs.

I want to succeed, but I am still young and naive to these things. I am conducting my own research, getting involved with the psychology club, and getting published on a few papers.

As I mentioned, transferring is not an option.

Can anyone please recommend activities/ideas to help make my PHD application as competitive as can be?
(aside from GPA and GREs).

Thanks again,
~Dao~
I'll just plug my web site ;)
http://psychologygradschool.weebly.com/
 
I attended community college for two years then transferred to an ivy (Penn) where I'm in the process of completing my bachelors. I understand this doesn't answer your question, but my experience seemed a bit similar so I thought I'd throw it out there.
 
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