- Joined
- Jun 27, 2014
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 2
Here are my immediate reactions based on what I consider when approving RAs for the lab I manage, and on my own experience in graduate applications and admissions over the years.
Posters are good, but it depends on your degree of authorship, and there's a very low ceiling & quickly diminishing returns in this area.
Forget about the thesis--everyone has done this. Same goes for the just-started manu.--unless it's closer to being submitted than not, don't make it more than a footnote or something. Similarly, define "wrapping up"--this still means "in prep" and having a bunch of papers in prep, esp. with no submissions, can sometimes be a red flag.4 posters, 1 UG thesis, currently working on 3 manuscripts (1 just starting out, 2 are wrapping up)
Posters are good, but it depends on your degree of authorship, and there's a very low ceiling & quickly diminishing returns in this area.
To what degree? Which specific competencies and experiences make you better than the other applicants? What tests are you qualified to administer, and how many times have you administered them? Be explicit, otherwise you're allowing people to make their own inferences, which may very well be "can't be that much involved experience; any good clinical psychologist requiring significant, considerable testing abilities would only hire a psychometrist with significant experience or education." Same goes for research experience.4+ years research experience
Spent 1.5 years working as psychometrist for clinical psychologist
Not relevant.Interested (and have years of experience) in studying the relationships between stress and cognitive impairment in US military veterans (I want to mention CTE but don't want to get too specific)
Your GPA is low. Especially if your psych GPA is in that arena. You don't list your psych GPA specifically, you just say that it's "essentially" the same as your overall GPA, which leads me to believe that it's lower than 3.48, which is almost twice as bad. "Cum laude" is irrelevant--there's no set standard for what defines honors such as this, and therefore many schools set their own. For example, a 3.48 GPA wouldn't qualify you for anything where I got my undergraduate, whereas I've heard of schools that consider anything above 2.75 to be honors. And, to be honest, attending the school that qualifies anything less than a 3.5 as an honors graduate might also be a red flag.3.48 UG GPA (essentially the same psych GPA) - Graduated cum laude with advanced and research honors
Not relevant. For some, may be a red flag.I also took 25 credit hours my last Spring and Summer terms (not sure if that's at all relevant)
Q score is low, and much lower than the other two, which is the opposite of the norm (if I remember correctly). Your Q score would likely concern a researcher.GRE: 161V; 155Q; 4.5AW
Again, things that haven't come to fruition to any degree, aren't really considered as experience or therefore all that relevant.Applying for NSF GRFP with a proposal related to aforementioned area of interest ^^^
What does "solid" mean? To me, that reads as "good, but could be better." You should only submit letters of recommendation that regard you as the next coming of Jesus Christ of the field, or whatever you can get that is closest to that. Don't ask current advisors if they can write you a letter of recommendation, ask them if they can write you an excellent letter of recommendation.Solid LOR's
Good experience, but this is surprisingly common. It depends upon the extent to which you were involved, the level of the course, etc., and if this doesn't tie back to your affinity with a POI, they'll probably just skim this over.Gave a couple guest lectures on a specific area of interest of mine (early college enrollment) as an undergraduate (listed as teaching experience on CV)
In my experience, this will only really help your application if you're applying to the same school for which you served in the Psi Chi chapter. Otherwise, this doesn't really make you stand out amongst other applicants.Editor for my UG's Psi Chi newsletter/Exec board member for my UG's Psi Chi chapter
Interesting, yes, but not really relevant (esp. considering your GPA). This actually could end up being a red flag--not only might some worry about your maturity level, but also wonder why you haven't done more with so much 'extra' time and/or advanced skills that you seem to be implying by mentioning this. I wouldn't EVER offer your age/DOB like this, but that's me; there's a reason why it's illegal for potential employers and the like to ask this question.Started college at 16, graduated at 19, took 3 years off to work in research/clinical positions - Now applying as a 21 year old