Advice

[star04]

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Hi, I was wondering if you have to be really strong academically to make it in psychology?
Thanks

 

[Sanman]

define "really strong" and "make it". Your grades are highly dependent on your goals in psychology. A PhD in clinical psychology is fairly difficult to get into; I would venture to say the difficulty is comparable to med. school.

 

[lazure]

It is actually more difficult to get into than med school - acceptance rates for good programs vary from 5 to 10%. At the same time, this does not mean that it is impossible... 🙂

 

[Allotheria]

It is actually more difficult to get into than med school - acceptance rates for good programs vary from 5 to 10%. At the same time, this does not mean that it is impossible... 🙂

Yep, it's pretty competitive to get into a school that only accepts classes of 6 or fewer.

 

[PsychMode]

Hi, I was wondering if you have to be really strong academically to make it in psychology?
Thanks

It's good to have a high gpa and good gre scores. Look at the web sites of different schools. The ones for clinical programs will usually show the average gpas and gre scores for those who got in. Graduate Study in Psychology, published by the APA, is a good source of info. These are not the only criteria that are used by the way. There are usually steps you can take to boster your credentials, like taking graduate classes and doing well in them. You should definitely have some kind of research experience. Your academic or research interests (even if you haven't done research), and/or goals should fit the program or a faculty member studying a particular topic that interests you. By the way, clinical psych, as others have stated, is very difficult to get into. Counseling psych is still competitive, but not as hard. You could also look into getting an EdD in counseling or counseling psych. But it realy would help if you could explain what you main by not being really strong academically. This could mean that you have a 3.5 instead of a 3.9 or a 2.0 or that you just don't like school.

 

[PsychMode]

Hi, I was wondering if you have to be really strong academically to make it in psychology?
Thanks

By the way, if you mean that you have to be really strong academically to do well as a psychology major in an undergraduate program, I would say that you probably do. There are a few classes that may be a cake walk, but usually courses like biological psychology, sensation and perception/ sensory processes, or statistics require more academic strength.