Research Interests on Applications

[WaitingKills]

For those of you who have done your Clinical Psych applications, for the questions relating to your research interests/goals, did you go specific or general?

I am really anxious with this as I went quite specific. I changed it around a bit depending on the school, but I'm not sure now whether this was a smart idea or not...

What did you guys do?

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[Psych_Ho]

The personal statement should include some discussion not just about YOU but also about your broad research interests. It is totally ok to tailor your statement to the school/profs research focus as it relates to your broad area of interest - in fact, if you should be pointing out why your interests match with that 1 or 2 profs. On the other hand, it will not benefit you inthe long run if you are just fabricating interest in an area because you want to be in the program in general. Your superficial interest will show through. Believe it or not, applicants do that. However, you are generally NOT expected to have a very detailed research focus except at soem of the very very strict research oriented programs. Many psychologists have primary and secondary research interests (and even more than that).