Okay so I'm a senior undergrad psych/*high-minded liberal art field that will remain unnamed* double major at a mid-sized, elite(relatively)/well-regarded public university with a well known clinical psych ph.d. program.
Applying to clinical psych phd programs.
Stats: GPA 3.59 (3,75 in last two years) GRE 167V (97th), 156Q (64th), AW: 5.5 (98th).
Have worked as an RA in labs on campus for about a year and a half, and am an undergraduate assistant at the psychological training clinic (a very competitive position).
My largest strength is likely my relationship with my "faculty mentor," the director of our psychological clinic and a top-40 producer of scholarly publications in clinical psych. he is very well regarded, and seems very motivated to get me into a top school (often mentions that he knows profs at ivy-league or similar programs, and will def. speak to them about me). I haven't seen his letter of rec, but based on previous ones he has written me, it's one of those "so-and-so is the best student i've ever had, he is doing grad. level work as an undergrad, etc." letters, which should hopefully help. he seems to really and truly believe in me, which has helped me immensely throughout the process. of my other two letters, one should be very good and one I have no idea about - but it is from a very up and coming, also well regarded clinical prof. who I've taken classes with and worked with (and is known to write great letters for everyone he agrees to do it for).
I got a fairly large (for an undergrad; a few thousand dollars) competitive grant and ran an experimental study regarding depression and cognitive bias as PI under my "faculty mentor's" guidance. manuscript is currently submitted and waiting to hear back from a peer-reviewed journal. it's fairly creative and did something new, but using a somewhat niche theoretical framework. first author.
have one more publication in the works for a paper me and a phd. student are doing, second author on that one but not submitted yet.
paper presentation at an undergrad conference in a different field, but the paper was on psychology and I won an award for it.
personal statement will be very good, I am a published (in the literary field) writer -- though it may not be apparent to based on this post.
also have some clinical experience as a counselor, but that seems like it will have a negligible effect.
the schools i'm applying to range from harvard to CUNY, but tend to cluster around the #15 - #40 rankings. I'm doing about 15, assuming I get all the specific aspects of the statements done in the next week.
please let me know what you think, based on the fact that my GPA is low for most places I am applying (as is my Quant GRE) ,and that I have no actual accepted publications yet, I kind of feel like I won't get an interview anywhere. this is somewhat disorienting when my faculty mentor thinks I can get into harvard (and he knows my stats, has seen my essay). one thing he expressed concern about was the quant score. so, second opinions are much appreciated. I know without specifics it is difficult, but there you go.
EDIT: also, i'll likely apply to Masters programs as a backup. I've heard from various people that this won't help my applications, but surely it must as it gives more research experience, etc? Other option is working in a lab for a year or two. Thoughts on that?
Thanks guys!