Chances of being admitted when re-applying to programs?

[PeterAnthony9254]

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Greetings,

I was wondering if reapplying to clinical psychology PhD programs after initially being rejected affects the overall chances of admission, either positively or negatively.

There are doctoral programs that might be closely aligned with an applicant's research interests and academic goals, especially those that place a collective emphasis on one of the specialities within the field (e.g. Clinical Neuropsychology, Forensic Psychology, Trauma). If one failed to obtain admission into a program of interest, would it be worth the effort and time for him or her to apply again? I'm curious if some programs avoid considering those who have re-applied. In that respect it wouldn't make sense especially if the admissions committee are likely to evaluate the materials less favorably in comparison to those who have never applied before.

From what I have observed on gradcafe during this application cycle, many applicants were disheartened after being rejected from programs as they believed they were a good match with specific faculty members, especially those that were waitlisted or made it to the final round of interviews. Just because they didn't obtain admission this time around, they should not feel like they cannot apply to those programs again next year.

Perhaps some might have a better chance if they were rejected on the basis of specific weaknesses in their application such as low GRE scores or lack of research experience. If those were properly addressed, then it would ostensibly stand out more favorably.

Has anybody experienced success from reapplying to doctoral programs in Clinical Psychology?

 

[MCParent]

If someone wasn't interviewed, in all honesty most likely the professor won't even remember they applied. Becoming a stronger candidate would help.
If someone was interviewed, they may well be a good match, and there was just someone else who was better. I don't see why that'd be held against anyone. Addressing deficits would help.
A small number of people may have looked good and interviewed, but done something terrible during interview (made sexist or racist jokes at the applicant social, hit on their grad student host, been hostile to the other applicants, etc.). That's probably not recoverable and is probably pretty memorable.

 

[Member6677]

I got accepted to a site I reapplied to. Was not offered an interview first round, interviewed and accepted second. My logic was that by reapplying it showed how strongly interested I was in this site; somewhere on the form I had to check that I was reapplying, so I know they knew that going in.

Good luck!

 

[PeterAnthony9254]

If someone wasn't interviewed, in all honesty most likely the professor won't even remember they applied. Becoming a stronger candidate would help.
If someone was interviewed, they may well be a good match, and there was just someone else who was better. I don't see why that'd be held against anyone. Addressing deficits would help.
A small number of people may have looked good and interviewed, but done something terrible during interview (made sexist or racist jokes at the applicant social, hit on their grad student host, been hostile to the other applicants, etc.). That's probably not recoverable and is probably pretty menorable.

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

 

[WisNeuro]

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

Oh yeah, all of the time. That was one of the most fun parts of interview day as a grad student. Waiting to see which applicant would not be able to contain their crazy over the interview span.

 

[aly cat]

If someone wasn't interviewed, in all honesty most likely the professor won't even remember they applied. Becoming a stronger candidate would help.
If someone was interviewed, they may well be a good match, and there was just someone else who was better. I don't see why that'd be held against anyone. Addressing deficits would help.
A small number of people may have looked good and interviewed, but done something terrible during interview (made sexist or racist jokes at the applicant social, hit on their grad student host, been hostile to the other applicants, etc.). That's probably not recoverable and is probably pretty menorable.

+1 on this. I think the chances of them even realizing you'd applied previously are slim. When I was in grad school my advisor invited someone to interview he'd interviewed the year before. He didn't recall... one of the other grad students noticed when we were divvying up hosting duties.

 

[psych.meout]

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

Oh yeah, it happens quite a bit from what I've seen just as an applicant.

E.g.
-Applicant was dismissive and insulting towards an undergrad who works in the POI's lab. I don't really understand how they thought the undergrad wouldn't mention it to the professor and that it would not negatively affect their admission chances.
-Two applicants insulting the quality of the university's undergrads and overall undergraduate programs (don't know if anyone from the school actually heard this discussion)
-Two applicants were one-upping and casually insulting one another during a group interview (this is part of why group interviews suck)

And ones I haven't seen personally, but have been told about by grad students and faculty
-Applicant rested her head on her POI's shoulder at a casual gathering after interviews.
-Applicant hit on oblivious grad student for the entirety of interview day

 

[PeterAnthony9254]

I guess it's really hard to be yourself at these interviews. You clearly have to be mindful of what you communicate with others.

 

[WisNeuro]

I guess it's really hard to be yourself at these interviews. You clearly have to be mindful of what you communicate with others.

Being yourself is one thing. Being yourself if you are the kind of person who gets really drunk at dinner the night before and starts hitting on the married graduate students, is a whole separate issue. There's nothing wrong with being genuine, unless the genuine you is a terrible person.

 

[MCParent]

I guess it's really hard to be yourself at these interviews. You clearly have to be mindful of what you communicate with others.

Maybe if you have a personality disorder or are a sexist you shouldn't be yourself too much.

The head on the POI's shoulder. WOW. WOW. WOW.

 

[MCParent]

-Two applicants were one-upping and casually insulting one another during a group interview (this is part of why group interviews suck)

But also why they are SUPER useful when interviewing people.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I guess it's really hard to be yourself at these interviews. You clearly have to be mindful of what you communicate with others.

Why would anyone be themself at an interview? I wasn't even myself when I was first dating my wife. Although I did serve up a home-cooked meal for her early on and now 20 years later, she still expects me to serve up good food every night. Maybe she saw right through my superficial charm and good looks.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I would encourage people to be themselves at interviews. It's a great way to see these 'gems' of behavior that lead to a resounding "oh heck no".

One of my favorite wow moments was when an applicant pulled me aside during the applicant dinner and say to me something very close, and equally rude/inappropriate/etc, to: "the girls in your program are great looking- how hard would it be for me to hook up with them?" Head on the POI should takes the cake though.. wow.

 

[MCParent]

I would encourage people to be themselves at interviews. It's a great way to see these 'gems' of behavior that lead to a resounding "oh heck no".

One of my favorite wow moments was when an applicant pulled me aside during the applicant dinner and say to me something very close, and equally rude/inappropriate/etc, to: "the girls in your program are great looking- how hard would it be for me to hook up with them?" Head on the POI should takes the cake though.. wow.

I'm not a fan of diagnosing a personality disorder from a sample of one behavior, but if there's ever a time to do it....

 

[RejectClinical]

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

All the time. In my lab, the year I interviewed there was someone who was pretty sexist. Then when I was hosting, three separate years (three separate people) I had to deal with someone who was rude. Interesting tidbit....the man I interviewed with during the graduate school process had his application thrown into the trash during the post doc process (different site) because of what he did 6 years ago during an interview. People remember that crap, will warn colleagues about it, and it will come back to bite you later.

 

[Istilldontknow]

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

Yes! The things some applicants said and did on the actual interviews was just absurd... Then, you had others who were great during the interview but said something inappropriate to the grad students at the social event.

This year, my favorite was a student who was asked to do a case conceptualization. The case was about a girl from Puerto Rico, and the applicant blatantly stated her racist beliefs-- to the professor, who happens to be from PR.

Another applicant at the social event asked me about dating in grad. school. I told her I was married and introduced her to another current student who was in the dating scene. Applicant then said, "thanks for nothing, good luck with your man child". No idea what she was even talking about, but it cost her her chance at admission

 

[rerope]

I wish I had some of these stories! Many applicants I met during interview days were incredibly nice and well-behaved (and wished each other luck; though its another story on whether they meant it). I must say during a grad social prior to interview day I did get a mixed drink that was a little too strong and it was making my brain foggy but at least I had the good sense to keep my sentences short and fill up on water and decent food afterwards. I can't understand applicants not checking everything they say when completely sober.

 

[PsychPhDone]

OP: Yes, some people get in on subsequent tries at the same program. Depends on the program/POI but worth a shot unless you have evidence you shouldn't re-apply otherwise (e.g., you put your head on POI's shoulder at the interview).

During my internship, I was SHOCKED that we had an applicant "behave badly" on interviews. I thought that would have been weeded out by now...

 

[theSteppenwolf]

It happened for me. I made myself a more attractive applicant in the interim (i.e., more research/clinical experience and a master's degree). I have seen it happen for many others as well. It's only anecdotal, but it's my two cents.

 

[singasongofjoy]

While I was in grad school we saw the occasional applicant who got a little too drinky at the social hour or spent the entire time complaining about their current program, current supervisors, everything. But the two that take the cake for me: we had one applicant who, at dinner with applicants/current grad students on the night before interviews, started asking all of these super detailed questions/making very specific comments that made it clear he had done MAJOR internet stalking of every one of my lab's grad students - especially those that had unique names- like knew how old they were, where they went to undergrad, various places/states they had lived... super creeper. Made some comment like "how'd you like living in Hawaii?" to one student when literally no one had mentioned it- all the grad students fell silent and wide-eyed. Another year, an applicant (seriously, I kid you not) complained and railed about the type of toilet paper her host had, and insinuated if not outright asked the host to go buy different toilet paper.

 

[syzergy]

But the two that take the cake for me: we had one applicant who, at dinner with applicants/current grad students on the night before interviews, started asking all of these super detailed questions/making very specific comments that made it clear he had done MAJOR internet stalking of every one of my lab's grad students - especially those that had unique names- like knew how old they were, where they went to undergrad, various places/states they had lived... super creeper. Made some comment like "how'd you like living in Hawaii?" to one student when literally no one had mentioned it- all the grad students fell silent and wide-eyed. .

There's prepared, than there's way too over prepared. Don't do this. If it's on a public lab website, fair game. Social media (facebook, etc) - no.

 

[bmedclinic]

Does that actually happen? I'd imagine those selected for interviews would want to remain on their best behavior and exhibit maturity. I would honestly not do anything that could compromise my chances.

Um, this happened to a guy I was interviewing with- he hit on 2 current students. I only know because when I showed up in the fall they were confused- they mixed up our names and thought bmedclinic was the person hitting on them. When they realized it was the wrong person- that guy didnt get in anyways, we shared an awkward laugh about it. Why he did that, who knows. I would never have hit on either of them fwiw, for a few different reasons.

 

[bmedclinic]

Also, OP- there was a guy who had applied to my program one year, and didnt make it. In the interim, he volunteered in a specific professors lab in our program. He reapplied and got accepted, but declined because he got into a better program (for him). In that one year, he went from not being able to get into a mid level program to fighting off offers from pretty elite programs. I think he had a few presentations for that health psych lab, nothing HUGE (manuscripts, etc) that I know of in that one year.

 

[foreverbull]

These stories are pretty amusing!

I recall one guy coming in to our interview day cocky and thinking he was going to get a ton of offers from schools. He bashed our program during a social gathering after interview day and propositioned my colleague for sex. Needless to say, he was not given an offer.

Another applicant thought she was guaranteed a spot because she was in our master's program, but she made some culturally-insensitive comments overheard by our current doc students and was not given an offer.

When I was participating in interview day myself as an applicant, I had concerns about an applicant I chatted with who was visibly underweight, and drew attention to it indirectly by sharing with me that she was really concerned about a friend of hers who wasn't eating and that she was concerned that the friend had an eating disorder, this as she pushed her salad around her plate during lunch and didn't eat. I wondered how faculty perceived this....either way, she wasn't in my cohort in the Fall.

We also had another student who knitted throughout interview day and didn't interact with anyone there other than her scheduled interviews with faculty. While that isn't the worst faux pas you could make, doc students were observing her lack of effort to get to know any of the applicants at all and had concerns that she didn't seem interactive with others, even minimally.

Interviews are high pressure and cause a lot of anxiety, but it's only a select few who let things slip out that are completely inappropriate or clinically concerning!

But by all means, reapply! Our program didn't weed out prior applicants; they went by the merits of the application/information.

 

[psych.meout]

These stories are pretty amusing!

I recall one guy coming in to our interview day cocky and thinking he was going to get a ton of offers from schools. He bashed our program during a social gathering after interview day and propositioned my colleague for sex. Needless to say, he was not given an offer.

Another applicant thought she was guaranteed a spot because she was in our master's program, but she made some culturally-insensitive comments overheard by our current doc students and was not given an offer.

When I was participating in interview day myself as an applicant, I had concerns about an applicant I chatted with who was visibly underweight, and drew attention to it indirectly by sharing with me that she was really concerned about a friend of hers who wasn't eating and that she was concerned that the friend had an eating disorder, this as she pushed her salad around her plate during lunch and didn't eat. I wondered how faculty perceived this....either way, she wasn't in my cohort in the Fall.

We also had another student who knitted throughout interview day and didn't interact with anyone there other than her scheduled interviews with faculty. While that isn't the worst faux pas you could make, doc students were observing her lack of effort to get to know any of the applicants at all and had concerns that she didn't seem interactive with others, even minimally.

Interviews are high pressure and cause a lot of anxiety, but it's only a select few who let things slip out that are completely inappropriate or clinically concerning!

But by all means, reapply! Our program didn't weed out prior applicants; they went by the merits of the application/information.

This happened at an interview day I went to. Applicants congregated in a meeting room in between individuals interviews with faculty, discussing interviews they have had so far, where they are from, etc., the usual small talk. Two applicants started insulting the university, talking about how everyone they knew had derisively questioned why they applied to the clinical program. One replied that they had reassured their family that the clinical program was quite good and it was just the undergrad program that was bad. They stated that the undergrads were "like community college students who weren't smart enough to get into a real school." Luckily for them, no faculty, staff, or current students were around, but it clearly made them look like jerks in front of the other applicants.