Plans after being shut out

[Rose Tyler]

My apologies for yet another “What should I do now?” thread. I’m just not sure where else to turn. I applied to clinical psychology doctoral and masters programs and I’ve been shut out across the board this application cycle so now I’m already looking ahead to the next one. My first priority is to retake the GRE and improve my score, but what else can I do to improve my application?

My university is eight hours away from home, where I will be returning for the summer. Staying here is not an option, for a number of personal reasons. Moving in the future will only be an option in August or later, contingent on my savings and ability to get a job wherever I move.

I live in a very small town, located relatively close to several cities and a major research university. There are a couple of smaller colleges with psychology programs that are closer but their faculty do not seem involved in much research. The major research university I have heard is very selective about allowing their own undergraduates to help with research, so I’m not sure how open they’d be to an outsider.

I have two years of research experience, but it’s not in an area directly connected to my research interests. While obviously a paid research position would be preferred, I would be open to volunteering if it meant that I could gain related research experience and narrow down my research interests. Also, because two of my letters of recommendation came from professors that only know me in a classroom setting, I would really love if I could find a situation that would lead to new referees.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

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[Therapist4Chnge]

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Did you ask for feedback from any of the programs that you applied to during this cycle? If not, I'd encourage to you contact them and inquiry what you could do to bolster your application.

 

[futureapppsy2]

My apologies for yet another “What should I do now?” thread. I’m just not sure where else to turn. I applied to clinical psychology doctoral and masters programs and I’ve been shut out across the board this application cycle so now I’m already looking ahead to the next one. My first priority is to retake the GRE and improve my score, but what else can I do to improve my application?

My university is eight hours away from home, where I will be returning for the summer. Staying here is not an option, for a number of personal reasons. Moving in the future will only be an option in August or later, contingent on my savings and ability to get a job wherever I move.

I live in a very small town, located relatively close to several cities and a major research university. There are a couple of smaller colleges with psychology programs that are closer but their faculty do not seem involved in much research. The major research university I have heard is very selective about allowing their own undergraduates to help with research, so I’m not sure how open they’d be to an outsider.

I have two years of research experience, but it’s not in an area directly connected to my research interests. While obviously a paid research position would be preferred, I would be open to volunteering if it meant that I could gain related research experience and narrow down my research interests. Also, because two of my letters of recommendation came from professors that only know me in a classroom setting, I would really love if I could find a situation that would lead to new referees.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

What are your other qualifications like? Posters/presentations, GPA, GRE, clinical experience, etc? How many and what kind of programs did you apply to?

 

[473912]

Which schools did you apply for? I'm just curious.

 

[Rose Tyler]

Did you ask for feedback from any of the programs that you applied to during this cycle? If not, I'd encourage to you contact them and inquiry what you could do to bolster your application.

I haven't. I didn't feel comfortable contacting programs that I wrote off as assumed rejections for two months before I heard a real response. One school cited lack of fit and two others the stand-by "other applicants better qualified."

What are your other qualifications like? Posters/presentations, GPA, GRE, clinical experience, etc? How many and what kind of programs did you apply to?

2 posters - one third-author at a university conference and one second-author at an international neuroscience conference
GPA: Was 3.80 at the time of application, currently 3.82, should go up slightly after this semester. My psych GPA is 4.0.
GRE: V: 158 (78th), Q: 150 (4oth), W: 4.0 (56th)
Clinical experience: None. Only ABA students are allowed to take practicum courses and I haven't had any opportunities to seek experiences on my own.

I applied to five doctoral programs. Four of them were scientist-practioner oriented, one was research-oriented. Then two masters programs, one clinical and one general.

Which schools did you apply for? I'm just curious.

Doctorate: Tennessee-Knoxville, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, North Carolina-Greensboro, George Mason, Central Michigan.
Masters: North Carolina-Wilmington, Western Carolina

I had to cross a few off my list that I intended to apply to because of GRE cut-offs and then I ran into financial concerns when it came to adding more.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Off the top of my head: beyond working on bringing up the GRE scores, which you've already mentioned, I'd strongly suggest applying to more schools. Maybe aim for 12-15 rather than 5, given the competitiveness of the applications process nowadays.

Everything else about your application seems solid, so at this point, it may just come down to a numbers game. Working on your interviewing skills could also be beneficial, especially now that you're familiar with the types of questions you may be asked. When two folks are similar on paper, a LOT can then come down to how the interview went.

 

[soccercat]

What did you say your goals were in your personal statement? That is also very important with respect to whether they think your goals are inline with the types of psychologists they want to educate and if your research aligns with the professors you courted (also schmoozing and networking with them ahead of time is important to 1. get your name on their minds and 2. find out if they are even accepting students into their labs). I found it very helpful to have a psychologist mentor edit my personal statement as she changed a lot of the language around and made it more focused.

 

[Rose Tyler]

Off the top of my head: beyond working on bringing up the GRE scores, which you've already mentioned, I'd strongly suggest applying to more schools. Maybe aim for 12-15 rather than 5, given the competitiveness of the applications process nowadays.

Everything else about your application seems solid, so at this point, it may just come down to a numbers game. Working on your interviewing skills could also be beneficial, especially now that you're familiar with the types of questions you may be asked. When two folks are similar on paper, a LOT can then come down to how the interview went.

That is definitely one goal. Saving up the money isn't going to be easy but I'd definitely like to apply more widely. Working on interviewing is a good idea. I did get interviews with both masters programs and I think one thing that killed me was I wasn't able to make it to the in-person interviews. Hypothetically that should be much more reasonable this next time around.

What did you say your goals were in your personal statement? That is also very important with respect to whether they think your goals are inline with the types of psychologists they want to educate and if your research aligns with the professors you courted (also schmoozing and networking with them ahead of time is important to 1. get your name on their minds and 2. find out if they are even accepting students into their labs). I found it very helpful to have a psychologist mentor edit my personal statement as she changed a lot of the language around and made it more focused.

Working as both a researcher and a clinician (probably not my best decision), elaborating on my clinical and research interests. My masters SOPs focused solely on my clinical desires and I think it was much stronger for it. I did contact all professors ahead of time (with some exceptions that discouraged professor contact) and received mixed levels of responses.

 

[Sendtrees]

You're aware of your low Q GRE score, and I agree you should apply to more programs. The only other thing that stood out to me is that your letters were both from people in classroom settings. If you have two years of research experience, I would wonder (if I were on the committee) why you don't have a letter out of that. I think it's important to get a research experience that will yield you an enthusiastic letter from someone who has seen you in a lab environment. When I was applying to programs, I had about 3 part-time jobs, a volunteer research position, a volunteer TA position, and two volunteer "clinical" positions (not really clinical, but in that general neighborhood). And roommates, because I made very little money. But it was doable.

 

[Rose Tyler]

You're aware of your low Q GRE score, and I agree you should apply to more programs. The only other thing that stood out to me is that your letters were both from people in classroom settings. If you have two years of research experience, I would wonder (if I were on the committee) why you don't have a letter out of that. I think it's important to get a research experience that will yield you an enthusiastic letter from someone who has seen you in a lab environment. When I was applying to programs, I had about 3 part-time jobs, a volunteer research position, a volunteer TA position, and two volunteer "clinical" positions (not really clinical, but in that general neighborhood). And roommates, because I made very little money. But it was doable.

The two years of experience is all out of the same lab and my third letter was from there. That's the only one I didn't worry about being lackluster or just average. I intend to ask him to write another one next cycle.