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Before bringing up a topic like this, which has been belabored ad nauseum, do a search of the forum.
Secondly, nobody can tell your real chances of PhD admission until you take the GRE and which schools you're going to apply to.
Secondly, nobody can tell your real chances of PhD admission until you take the GRE and which schools you're going to apply to.
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I would also suggest that if your goal is to thru school quickly and make money, psychology is not the field for you. grad school will take 5-6 years and then intership is slave wages. Although potential is good, you have to think about reality and the most likely scenario (ie., the mean). The mean salary for a staff position is in the 50s and 60s.... 40s in some cases. PP has more potential, but again average will still be under 100k and that is after several years of practice.
If you have weak research experience, an RA will be benefical to you and will help you to build the skills necessary to be competitive. It will also be a good real world exposure and allow to mature and truely deciede if this is the career for you.
If you have weak research experience, an RA will be benefical to you and will help you to build the skills necessary to be competitive. It will also be a good real world exposure and allow to mature and truely deciede if this is the career for you.
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It depends.
Are you going into Clinical Psychology to please yourself or to please others? If you are doing it to please yourself then how important is vanity to you?
Are you going into private practice or do you want to work in public settings?
If you are not a good student, then it won't matter which program you go into; you won't get enough out of either to excel. Likewise, if you are a great student it won't matter which program you attend either, because you will make up for the program's quality with incite, focus, and extra-work. The only reason it could matter is vanity related IMO.
It really comes down to vanity more than anything else, and the fruits of vanity (a famous POI, leading to a famous placement, leading to prestigious appointments, etc.). In private practice, you will rarely find anyone asking where you went to school, let alone what the program was like. Likewise, most job interviewers are more interested in your last job than your school after you have been in the workplace for awhile (most being the key term here...). So the program may give you a push in the right direction, but ultimately you still have to float on your own after that initial push. At the same time, there are people who did just fine without the push because they were guided into important positions by their passion for their area of interest. Being the "right person," at the "right place," at the "right time," can sometimes be just as important as "who you know."
That being said, you can't be the right person, at the right place, at the right time without background experience in your CV. 😉
You will always come up against pompous elitists in any field you pursue, so you have to consider how much you care about what other people think. If it is a big issue, then perhaps that is something to explore about yourself. Likewise, if someone is being pompous and elitist, you have to ask yourself why that person chose a field of study that is antithetical to their personality. 😛
That's just my .02 cents worth...
Are you going into Clinical Psychology to please yourself or to please others? If you are doing it to please yourself then how important is vanity to you?
Are you going into private practice or do you want to work in public settings?
If you are not a good student, then it won't matter which program you go into; you won't get enough out of either to excel. Likewise, if you are a great student it won't matter which program you attend either, because you will make up for the program's quality with incite, focus, and extra-work. The only reason it could matter is vanity related IMO.
It really comes down to vanity more than anything else, and the fruits of vanity (a famous POI, leading to a famous placement, leading to prestigious appointments, etc.). In private practice, you will rarely find anyone asking where you went to school, let alone what the program was like. Likewise, most job interviewers are more interested in your last job than your school after you have been in the workplace for awhile (most being the key term here...). So the program may give you a push in the right direction, but ultimately you still have to float on your own after that initial push. At the same time, there are people who did just fine without the push because they were guided into important positions by their passion for their area of interest. Being the "right person," at the "right place," at the "right time," can sometimes be just as important as "who you know."
That being said, you can't be the right person, at the right place, at the right time without background experience in your CV. 😉
You will always come up against pompous elitists in any field you pursue, so you have to consider how much you care about what other people think. If it is a big issue, then perhaps that is something to explore about yourself. Likewise, if someone is being pompous and elitist, you have to ask yourself why that person chose a field of study that is antithetical to their personality. 😛
That's just my .02 cents worth...
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It very much depends on what you want to do after you graduate. If you want to be a practicing clinician, then yes, the program you attend is not a big deal (so long as it is APA accredited and can find you some good externship/internship placements). But if you are planning to do research or go into academia, then it matters a lot more.
I think your anxiety about school is coming from the context that you live in rather than what is actually occurring in the area of clinical psychology. Since you've probably only been to one college, your frame of reference is what those around you think. In psychology, Ivy League doesn't matter. If the best in whatever you like to do is at Back Woods University, that's where you would be striving to go. Like QueueCumber said, "prestige" in psychology is traced through lineage of mentors. That being said, this lineage is not as important if your ultimate goals are not involving heavy research. It sounds like by the time you'll apply you'll have a solid 12 months of research. That's nothing to shake a stick at 😀 especially if you are doing something other than punching in numbers and scoring measures. And, I think you're under the impression that every undergraduate has posters... far from the truth. So... I say it's a go to apply next year if your GRE is above a 1200. That being said, be careful about your parents goals encroaching on your own. It's important to balance what commitments you have to your family and maintaining your personal goals so you won't be miserable. Also, do forget to keep perspective 🙂. You live in a high achievement, competitive bubble, and the rest of the world doesn't really operate that way. It's weird... I know. I certainly didn't go to an Ivy, but my undergraduate was very focused in producing students who would continue their education and be the best and I encountered similar attitudes.
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Finikpalma, I'm in a similar boat. I took some time off in the middle of my BA and can't afford to take off more time before grad school. While taking time off to work as a paid RA is super benificial, not doing it is not a kiss of death. Just make sure to make the most of what you are doing now and look for opportunities. You have been volunteering as an RA? Volunteer for projects that include more than basic data entry. Even within data entry, really look at what you are entering. I did data entry and wrote down theories I had about the data as I went along. I mentioned one off hand to my mentor and since then it has been turned into turn into a couple of posters and an honor's thesis.
Also, don't be afraid to work with the professor you are RAing for. Ask for a sit down with them and be honest. Let them know you are going to be applying for a PhD programs in a year or so. Ask them what needs they have that could help you prepare for this and ask if they are comfortable with you using a facet of their data set to do a poster. Just make sure your poster idea doesn't infringe on their hypotheses and make sure you aren't making things "me me me".
That's the best advice I could offer in order to make up for not doing the paid RA route. Oh, volunteer in another lab if you have time. Work in both right up until app time. Good luck!
Also, don't be afraid to work with the professor you are RAing for. Ask for a sit down with them and be honest. Let them know you are going to be applying for a PhD programs in a year or so. Ask them what needs they have that could help you prepare for this and ask if they are comfortable with you using a facet of their data set to do a poster. Just make sure your poster idea doesn't infringe on their hypotheses and make sure you aren't making things "me me me".
That's the best advice I could offer in order to make up for not doing the paid RA route. Oh, volunteer in another lab if you have time. Work in both right up until app time. Good luck!
If you are most interested in private practice, I would strongly consider going into social work. You can get your clinical license (LCSW), it's two years, and if you're focused on a "prestigious" school (Columbia, Penn, NYU, etc. for an MSW), it's really not terribly competitive to get into.
Honestly, a clinical PhD is a really hard road even for people who are 100% devoted to a research career. There are highs and lows, and it's financially challenging - even with 100% funding. Living off of a stipend for 6 years is brutal. If I wanted a clinical career, I would have gone for the MSW.
And FWIW, I went to a very highly ranked/prestigious undergrad, but ended up at a large state school for grad school for many of the reasons already described. In the "bubble" I came from, a lot of people scratched their heads and thought that I had somehow been demoted. But the program was incredibly strong, my mentor was highly regarded in my sub-field, she was doing the research I wanted to be doing, and had access to the populations/resources that helped me be successful. So don't underestimate the party schools. 😉