Hey guys, thought I might get in on the advice action
GPA:
3.72 cumulative, 3.84 within Psych (well-respected university)
GREs:
V: 640 (92%)
Q: 710 (72%)
Writing: 5.0 (84%)
(raised score from 1190 on my first attempt to this 1350 on second attempt)
Psych subject test: just took it, felt like I did well.
Research Exp.:
Significant experience, 3 years by the time I graduate this year.
- 3 years in a health psych lab, looking at human motivation and cravings. Wrote an undergrad thesis on our work
- 1 summer in an emotion regulation lab at Stanford as a RA with a well-known prof, wrote undergrad thesis on this work
- 2 years in a memory lab as an honors studen, independently doing brain surgeries and fear conditioning with rats. Designed studies looking at the neural mechanisms of memory reconsolidation. Wrote 2 honors theses on this work.
- 1 year in a trauma/PTSD lab as an honors student. Designed and am currently running a study using a drug to dull or "erase" the emotionality of specific drug-related memories for drug addicts in rehab. Also worked on a few other trauma-related projects. Writing my 5th thesis on this (3rd honors thesis)
Clinical Experience:
- Co-founded an NGO (initially a student club) that works with homeless shelters in the montreal area to prevent homelessness among the mentally ill. Participated in interventions and psychoeducational groups.
- Currently doing a clinical placement for a course I'm taking. Working with high school students with severe learning disabilities and at least 1 comorbid disorder. Independently leading group interventions and working with individual students on issues such as bullying, anxiety and social relationships.
- Participated in CBT therapies as a role player for people with social anxiety.
Pubs:
- 1 publication with the health psych lab (coauthor).
Random stuff:
- Was the sophomore and junior representative of psych students at my university
- Currently being considered for the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship
- Dean's honor list
- Varsity rower (hardly relevant, but I'm hoping to push the 'dedication' card...it was certainly hard keeping everything up with 12 brutal practices and trainings/week)
- Will have strong LoR's, all from psych faculty, one from a prof at stanford
- Haven't finished my SoP, but it should be good, emphasizing interest match and research experience
Schools I'm applying to (there are specific people at each of these programs that I'd kill to work with):
Harvard (top choice + top interest match)
Yale
UPenn
UMichigan
Duke
Columbia
UCLA
(considering Vanderbilt, Winsconsin-Madison, Boston University)
I know I'm a strong applicant and am not here to pretend otherwise or to be a jerk about it. But with these programs, I feel like there will be at
least 20 or 30 other applicants that have just as good, if not better stats and experience (those people with 12 pubs, or who started some sort of clinic, or invented something
), or that have some sort of personal relationship with members of the psych department. And I've heard that at these types of places, the tiniest details become important.
Here's the main question: How many students are typically invited for interviews at these places? With my stats, do you think I'll make the interview cut? I interview well, so I feel like that if I can make it there, I'll be able to edge out some of the other applicants that might look better on paper. I'm just pretty intimidated about the "400 applied, 6 were accepted" stats of some of these places. I'd appreciate any insight or advice!
(sorry for the novella...)