Hey everyone! I’m new to the site and had a few questions I was hoping to get answered. I am an IL female extremely interested in pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology and I don’t know where to start. Currently transferring to a mid tier university (started at a community college with an overall GPA of 3.85). I just wanted to know what I would need to do to make myself competitive for a decent PhD program that focuses in clinical psychology (besides of course scoring well on the GRE and maintaining a high GPA).
Aspiring Ph.D in Clinical Psychology.. *need help*
- Thread starter cece21
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You will need research experience. If you have an idea of what areas in which you want to specialize in clinical psychology (e.g., eating disorders), then find a professor who conducts research in that area. Otherwise -- or if you've already selected your new university -- look at the faculty pages on the school website and find out what research they're doing. If something interests you, then reach out to that professor and ask if the professor is taking research assistants. The goal is to gain experience in conducting research, but try to get poster/oral presentations at conferences or publications where possible.
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Also, not having exact research match is ok. It's better to have one but I wouldn't chase different universities just to potentially join a specific lab. Think broadly- if you are interested in an area, are there other that study similar things that you can describe programmatically. So, say you want to study PTSD, you could see if labs do work on RCTs, depression because of the comorbidity, veterans, etc.
