PhD/PsyD Should I only apply to mentors whose research I have experience in?

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brightbluebirds

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One of my PI's mentioned that I should only apply to mentors whose research I have experience in. For example, I have a lot of autism research and experience. However, I want to apply to Clinical Psychology programs with mentors who study neuropsychology. She told me that those mainly studying autism would be interested and I shouldn't really apply outside of that. Is this true? Have any of you all applied to mentors whose research differed from your experiences in undergrad? Thanks!

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You can definitely apply to mentors who have different research experience, you just need to connect the dots. Talk about the skills you learned from doing research in the autism area, and connect what you have done with what you want to do. Jumping from autism to neuropsychology is a plausible jump (even less of a jump if you're talking about child focus neuropsychologists, but still reasonable for adults). I can imagine a statement that essentially talks about becoming interested in the brain's functions after working with participants/patients on the autism spectrum, etc.
 
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Hi, I would say it's very doable. I've done research and worked with patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in the past and now I am working with adult patients with psychiatric disorders (dep, bipolar, schizophrenia) doing neuropsych assessments in clinical research. This will lead me towards applying to neuropsych programs later on. So I would also agree on that you have to know how to connect the dots. You have to know how to connect each research experience.
 
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+1 to emotregulation.

The reality of undergrad research experience is that not every is able to get involved in the type that they end up wanting to do in graduate programs. Even at large schools, the research may not match up. Thats why we apply to so many places all over the country in grad school; We're trying to match our interests and they aren't everywhere. And this assumes that no one changes their mind in the early part (lets just pretend thats the only time) of their training. Talk about what you learned from the research in terms of skills, thought processes, etc.
 
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Quality experience is more important, as others said. The reality is that there isn't a person to cover every topic at every uni, so some people aren't able to get much direct experience with exactly what they want to do in grad school.
 
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I would totally apply to professors who don't do research in the exact area you have experience in. Another way of approaching it could be discussing how your research experiences augment what their lab is already doing.

I also think, as my mentor once said, many prospective doctoral students are still figuring out what they enjoy in research, so it's understandable to not have figured out that "path" just yet.
 
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Happens all the time. My advisor studied depression and anxiety using psychophysiology and imaging. I focused on PTSD and neuropsychology. Mutually beneficial, they still do trauma research now.

Forgive me for resurrecting an old thread but I was searching the forums for essentially this answer. My clinical experience is heavily weighted in PTSD (VA therapy) and my current research experience is also PTSD related. That said, I want to approach my potential future research more from the brain-behavior perspective, much like you've mentioned. I've found a few PI's out there who are doing work like this (say psychophysiology of stress, etc...maybe some anxiety related issues). Do you think it would be a hard sell to craft a statement that allows me to connect those dots? I think the broader category of stress and anxiety, including PTSD fits my interests more so than pigeon holing myself into just PTSD.
 
Forgive me for resurrecting an old thread but I was searching the forums for essentially this answer. My clinical experience is heavily weighted in PTSD (VA therapy) and my current research experience is also PTSD related. That said, I want to approach my potential future research more from the brain-behavior perspective, much like you've mentioned. I've found a few PI's out there who are doing work like this (say psychophysiology of stress, etc...maybe some anxiety related issues). Do you think it would be a hard sell to craft a statement that allows me to connect those dots? I think the broader category of stress and anxiety, including PTSD fits my interests more so than pigeon holing myself into just PTSD.

Not at all. In fact, I always try to advise people (especially if you are going for a predominantly clinical career) to have more breadth of experience. Trying to parlay your past history of PTSD work into a broader category of stress/anxiety would actually be very easy, especially in a CBT and/or psychophys sense. It's all the same theories, in a sense.
 
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I would totally apply to professors who don't do research in the exact area you have experience in. Another way of approaching it could be discussing how your research experiences augment what their lab is already doing.

I also think, as my mentor once said, many prospective doctoral students are still figuring out what they enjoy in research, so it's understandable to not have figured out that "path" just yet.
I know a few faculty who are still sorting it out too ;p
 
You should only apply to mentors who you can at least weave your experiences and skillsets to. For example, if you have a lot of experience with substance abuse treatment, you could still apply to a lab that does research with borderline personality disorder...if you can tie in experience with DBT.

But if you struggle to weave or match your experiences into a faculty member's research, I do think that will be an uphill battle. It doesn't have to be a "perfect fit," but you should be able to express to the faculty member that you apply to that you would still be a good fit with their lab.
 
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