Clinical PhD/PsyD admissions advice/help

[DN27]

Hello everybody,

I've been lurking the forums for a while but finally decided to post for some advice.

Heres my situation.... I have recently graduated college with a B.A. in Economics, but am looking to become a competitive applicant in Phd/Psyd programs. I was fairly motivated during the earlier years of my education obtaining a 3.5 gpa at a community college before transferring to a university, which I attended for three years. I recently graduated with a 2.5 gpa at the university with no research experience whatsoever and no relevant psychology work experience.

What is the best thing for someone in my situation to do to become a competitive applicant? I believe scoring high on the GREs is part of the answer. I have also begun looking for volunteer experience and research opportunities, but it is difficult without relevant education. Would taking online classes or courses at a community college help? Would pursuing a post- bacc. in psychology be a viable option?

Any advice or help would be extremely appreciated.

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[PsychBA]

Why not take a few courses as an unclassified student at the university? Economics requires quite a bit of math, so I assume you can take some psych stats courses and ace them. If you are interested in clinical psych PhD program, then you should also take some courses in abnormal psych and clinical psych and perhaps biopsych. It's quite important that you do very well in whatever courses you decide to take.

Number one focus is getting that GPA up, and then, research experience. Don't do research just to get it on your CV. Do the kind of work that you are interested in, and you wanna end up doing as a grad student. If there is a prof at the university psych department who does the kind of thing you interested in, volunteer to do research in his lab. Typically a match between the professor and student's interests is key. And the prof's opinion--who is going to be your future supervisor--carries quite a bit of weight in most PhD program's admission process. The other nice thing is that you can get good letters of reference this way.

And finally, most programs (thought not all), require GREs. Most likely you will do well on the quantitative section, and also the analytical portion. Work on the Verbal section though, very important.

And good luck.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

In your situation, given that you have limited psychology coursework, no research experience, and (compared with most other applicants) a relatively low GPA, my first recommendation would be to look into clinical/experimental psych master's programs. It'll be tough to find a funded spot, but if you're able to swing two-ish unfunded years, such a program would help you gain relevant coursework, would give you the chance to be involved in research (particularly an experimental thesis), would provide the opportunity to raise your GPA to show you can handle graduate-level classes, and would allow admissions committes/POIs to see that you're making an informed decision when switching from economics to psychology.

 

[wigflip]

In your situation, given that you have limited psychology coursework, no research experience, and (compared with most other applicants) a relatively low GPA, my first recommendation would be to look into clinical/experimental psych master's programs. It'll be tough to find a funded spot, but if you're able to swing two-ish unfunded years, such a program would help you gain relevant coursework, would give you the chance to be involved in research (particularly an experimental thesis), would provide the opportunity to raise your GPA to show you can handle graduate-level classes, and would allow admissions committes/POIs to see that you're making an informed decision when switching from economics to psychology.

My undergrad mentor prescribed this as a great path to doctoral training: if your undergrad record isn't tops, kick ass in a good MA program. S/he mentored a grad student with a similar background to yours who got into a top doc program that way.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

There is a stickied thread I created last year for doctoral application, it is at the top of the forum. There are some useful threads in there, particularly the Program Director thread. It is not active anymore, though it has a ton of good information in it about a program's perspective on applicants, and what they view as important.

 

[DN27]

Thanks for the support and advice. I am definitely going to look for these programs.