PhD/PsyD Rejected from 3 schools post-interview, help

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cuckooforcocopuffs

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So I have just found that I have been rejected from a third school post-interview and have no idea what is going and what I could be doing to have this happen. All three programs were clinical programs and I truly believe I fit well with all of them.

I have one interview left and really just feel defeated. Does anyone have any wisdom or help they could provide towards applying for the last interview?

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Did you do practice interviews with friends, or, better yet, with current grad students where you are now?

What have your interactions been like on the interviews? What kinds of things do you say or do?
 
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Ph.D programs and yes I did practice with other grad students in my masters program as well as my mentor

I feel like my interactions have all been positive, I try to express my interest in the program and describe how I fit the program as well as talking about my research interests and experiences thus far. At the second two interviews, professors had questions about one of my manuscripts under review for publication and my thesis.

I'm just bewildered at the fact that this has happened three times and cannot help but feel I am doing something wrong but am not aware of it
 
Clinical psych programs are very competitive. I would not feel down, it probably just meant the professors had other students who were better equipped for their labs. I would just continue to rehearse and be yourself. Try to gain more knowledge about the programs/labs and go in fully confident and not bewildered.
 
I would second Bryan91's comments. Although of course we do not know your stats or interview style, it is important to remember how competitive these programs are. Just as an example, I am a grad student and was involved in interviewing several candidates for my lab. All 4 of the candidates I interviewed had excellent grades, great experiences, were able to articulate their interests and why they would fit in our lab very well. Any of them would have fit well in our lab. At the end of the day, my advisor had to pick one of them to give an offer to. Sometimes it is a crapshoot, and very great candidates have to apply more than once.
 
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professors had questions about one of my manuscripts under review for publication and my thesis.

First, I want to say that other posters are probably right-- clinical psych is for some reason very competative. I wouldnt feel bad at all- honestly getting three interviews means you're likely a great candidate.

Second, the quoted text caught my eye. Were the questions about your manuiscript negative or cautionary? I ask this because when I interivewed at my doctoral program, they asked about my thesis and were relieved when I expressed some concern about my stats-- and explained that one committee member mandated that I do my stats a certain way, even though I know that to be the wrong method. I explained that were I to attempt to publish my thesis, I'd redo the stats. They both appeared relieved. About two years later, one of those interviewers was my research advisor and expressed to me in a similar style conversation that what I had previously thought was not a huge deal (the stats in the thesis) in the grand scheme of things was in fact a very large deal in determining where to rank me for the entrance to the program.
 
You may or may not get useful feedback, but I think it would be worthwhile for you to e-mail the PI at each of the three schools. Express that you are grateful for the opportunity to have met the PI/people at that program and you enjoyed your visit. Explain that unfortunately, you were not offered admission at any program this year, and that you hope to reapply in the future. Ask if the PI would be willing to provide you with any feedback about how you could improve your application for future years. I think if you do this in a very polite way that is geared towards self-improvement, you may be able to get feedback that may provide you some insight.

To be honest though, you might hear "you were great, we just can only take 1 student and many people are great" - and if that's the case, welll... this field is competitive, and sometimes you get unlucky.
 
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Acronym Allergy wrote this response for the internship Phase II thread (which is at the end of the road for clinical psych doctoral training, so it is 'advanced' advice for your stage, but some great tips. See how you can extrapolate to your situation, especially the part about enthusiasm. Good luck!

Being able to bring up specific past examples (rather than general ideas) of things you've accomplished, patients you've assessed/treated, etc., is actually something that'll come in quite handy once you get around to interviewing for jobs, so getting additional practice with it now is a good thing. Honestly, I'd say one of the most important things you can do during interviews is to genuinely sound excited. If you have two applicants who say the exact same thing, but one does it with energy and enthusiasm while the other is fairly subdued, odds are most places will rank the first person just a tiiiiny bit higher. This isn't universal, of course, but I've certainly seen it play into ranking decisions.

Try not to worry about the "blabber," either. If you go through another mock interview or two, let yourself run wild, and then let the interviewer tell you if they thought you essentially talked too much.

And always have in the back of your head a small handful of things (maybe 4-6) about yourself, your training, and your goals that you really want these sites (or, in the future, potential employers) to know about you. During interviews, find ways to tie their questions and your subsequent answers back to these points. During my internship interviews, for example, I felt that my breadth of training experiences and patient populations with whom I'd worked was an advantage, as was the fact that I was often the only neuropsych person in the area, so I worked these points into my answers as much as was possible, while also tying it all in to the types of rotations and patients I'd likely be able to see at each site that would help round out my training.
 
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To be honest though, you might hear "you were great, we just can only take 1 student and many people are great" - and if that's the case, welll... this field is competitive, and sometimes you get unlucky.

I would agree; unfortunately, this is just a reality in the field, which is a result of having more highly-qualified applicants than positions. Often times, particularly when it comes to grad school and internship spots, it's not that many applicants did something wrong, it's just that other applicants did/had more that was right. And unfortunately, there might not have been anything you could do or say at that time to change it, as sometimes it ultimately does come down to it being luck of the draw so to speak.

However, that doesn't mean there aren't things you can do to make yourself one of those "more right" applicants I mentioned. If you got yourself 3 interviews, then odds are you're a competitive applicant. If you decide to re-apply next year, just work on making yourself even more competitive. Do more of the same you've done up to this point--get additional research experience and productivity, spend time thoroughly reading through the materials of your potential programs and advisors so you can speak informatively and enthusiastically about how their and your interests are unique fits, further polish your personal statements, and (as suggested by others above) ask for feedback from the folks with whom you interviewed so that you can do even better next time.
 
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