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I'm planning to reapply for PhD programs in clinical psychology after not getting accepted this past cycle, but I had a question about my recommendations.
I previously used one of my professors from undergrad as a reference, as I feel he is very familiar with my academic and research abilities and wrote a very favorable recommendation for me, but I'm unsure if I should have him as one of my references for this upcoming cycle. I graduated about five years ago, thus, while I feel he would write me another great recommendation, I'm just concerned that I've been out of school too long and have not actively worked with him or attended any of his courses in several years.
My job for the past several years has been primarily oriented towards clinical work. I already have the psychologist who is PI on my research projects writing me a recommendation, as well as another of the psychologists with whom I do neuropsych assessments (i.e. psychometrician work), but I need at least one more, which is where my professor came in. The only other source of relevant recommendations would be from other psychologists with whom I currently do neuropsych assessments and/or other clinical work, but I have little to no research involvement with them.
Would another of these primarily clinical references be better, because they are more recent, or would it be better to have the older reference, due to the focus being more on academics and research?
Despite not getting accepted in the previous cycle, I was first alternate at several programs and the feedback I received from every program with which I interviewed was unanimous that their first choices just had more research experience and productivity than I did. They said nothing about the quality or quantity of my references, so am I just worried about nothing and instead just focus on my upcoming publications and leave the recommendations the way they are?
I previously used one of my professors from undergrad as a reference, as I feel he is very familiar with my academic and research abilities and wrote a very favorable recommendation for me, but I'm unsure if I should have him as one of my references for this upcoming cycle. I graduated about five years ago, thus, while I feel he would write me another great recommendation, I'm just concerned that I've been out of school too long and have not actively worked with him or attended any of his courses in several years.
My job for the past several years has been primarily oriented towards clinical work. I already have the psychologist who is PI on my research projects writing me a recommendation, as well as another of the psychologists with whom I do neuropsych assessments (i.e. psychometrician work), but I need at least one more, which is where my professor came in. The only other source of relevant recommendations would be from other psychologists with whom I currently do neuropsych assessments and/or other clinical work, but I have little to no research involvement with them.
Would another of these primarily clinical references be better, because they are more recent, or would it be better to have the older reference, due to the focus being more on academics and research?
Despite not getting accepted in the previous cycle, I was first alternate at several programs and the feedback I received from every program with which I interviewed was unanimous that their first choices just had more research experience and productivity than I did. They said nothing about the quality or quantity of my references, so am I just worried about nothing and instead just focus on my upcoming publications and leave the recommendations the way they are?
