In defense of the poster, not being a great tester can be a really difficult experience for someone interested in a field such as ours, so maybe that is why this poster keeps on focusing on GPA and GRE, and why they think it matters. At the same time, knowing that there are systems that re not totally fair (such as ones that screen student out with GRE, and there are great candidates who are lousy at the GRE), I am surprised you are more critical of the students than APPIC. if anything, my experience in graduate psych education has moved me a touch away form the "i can do it! I am control of my own destiny!" uber independent ethos to a belief that we are parts of multiple systems and that in order to have the most agency and power we need to have systems that allow for that, because many do not and people, despite real efforts and hard work, do not always get what they should.
But I will concur with Erg and with just a vast amount of info on this forum and my own experience as an advanced student that no one cares about your gre/gpa at this level. One of the best matched students i know, just a stellar match, top placement bundled with postdoc and great benefits in a very competitive major city, had a 3.6, which in grad school is not standout and i know entered our program with a meh gre (great interviewer, strong research record prior). once she got in, she was the same gal, not an amazing test taker, not great in drawing within the lines and acing exams, but a skilled clinician and researcher, a go getter, passionate and dynamic, and after not matching the 1st time around, matched the 2nd. Same crappy gre, same meh gpa, same great practica, 2 more pubs but they had a lot to begin with so it wasn't a major up in comparison--they were already advanced and awesome, they just didn't match the 1st time due to a flawed system and the die rolled a bit more in their favor the 2nd. like another poster, i am sure the 1st time around they were ranked heavily, but one again we have the story of canidate good enugh to get a ton of interviews not matching: gre gpa basically don't matter at this point, this is way beyond that. the system is seriously broken and there is only so much we can do, individually, in terms of our own approach to the internship crisis, to make us match. We can improve our chances but we cannot make it happen.i mean, we can do a lot, we can really up our chances and we should-- we can do our best and apply to best fit sites and apply broadly and try to maximize our match potential, but there will still be a real and sizeable X factor because this is a broken system which we need to try to address systematically and through advocacy because of our love of the profession and commitments a better mental health care system, on that values psychology, even if our efforts won't necessarily help us right now in our particular 2012 match.
Different people find different things comforting and helpful. i say this as someone who does not think that things happen for a reason, who does not actually think that tings will work out, and who finds, personally, just for me, those view points actually not comforting at all. i know others who do like to think that way and feel better. i am comforted by my own efforts to do the best i can by taking charge of my training and educating myself, and by taking part in advocacy, and by seeing students like mike who don't just sit there, they try to make a change.
Now they are saying things like, "We hope you get an internship here for selfish reasons!" And I'm like, "Ummm...thanks??"
