Clinically oriented undergrad junior year?

[gohogwild]

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[deleted343839]

I don't think this is a huge problem in itself. Even in a clinical psychology laboratory, undergraduate research assistants typically don't do a lot of "clinical" tasks. If you can get experience with face-to-face interactions (interviews, administering structured questionnaires, etc.), that would be helpful. But do make sure that you can show that a good understanding of clinical psychology and what you will be getting from your training.

 

[gohogwild]

Hi MamaPhD, thanks so much for your response, I find it very helpful. Could I ask for an example of how I would demonstrate a good understanding of what I would be getting from my clinical training? Are you speaking to the context of the grad school interview or through some other avenue? Thank you again!

 

[cara susanna]

A lot of my research experience as an undergrad was in social psych, fwiw.

 

[PsychPhDone]

A lot of my research experience as an undergrad was in social psych, fwiw.

Same, I only had social psych research experience in undergrad.

I did do a 2 year post-bac research stint at an academic medical center @ . I thought it was good exposure to a different environment after the small, liberal arts education.

 

[deleted343839]

Hi MamaPhD, thanks so much for your response, I find it very helpful. Could I ask for an example of how I would demonstrate a good understanding of what I would be getting from my clinical training? Are you speaking to the context of the grad school interview or through some other avenue? Thank you again!

Your personal statement and your interview are where you show your understanding of the field and explain how your career goals are tied to your training needs. For example, perhaps you are interested in mood disorders in people who are medically ill. You can explain how you came to be interested in this topic from a scholarly perspective, and what questions or gaps you are interested in helping resolve. Then you can explain how your work with Professor X will help you to develop necessarily skills in evidence-based assessment and treatment of mood disturbance, understanding psychological vulnerabilities in this population, and research methods to help identify when and how to intervene with this population. That's just an example, but hopefully that gives you an idea of what people are looking for.

 

[gohogwild]

Your personal statement and your interview are where you show your understanding of the field and explain how your career goals are tied to your training needs. For example, perhaps you are interested in mood disorders in people who are medically ill. You can explain how you came to be interested in this topic from a scholarly perspective, and what questions or gaps you are interested in helping resolve. Then you can explain how your work with Professor X will help you to develop necessarily skills in evidence-based assessment and treatment of mood disturbance, understanding psychological vulnerabilities in this population, and research methods to help identify when and how to intervene with this population. That's just an example, but hopefully that gives you an idea of what people are looking for.

Thank you! Great response. Thank you for being direct & informative

 

[gohogwild]

Same, I only had social psych research experience in undergrad.

I did do a 2 year post-bac research stint at an academic medical center @ . I thought it was good exposure to a different environment after the small, liberal arts education.

Was your post-bac due to the nature of your undergrad research? I plan on taking an “application year” but I was just curious 🙂

 

[gohogwild]

A lot of my research experience as an undergrad was in social psych, fwiw.

Good to know!

 

[PsychPhDone]

Was your post-bac due to the nature of your undergrad research? I plan on taking an “application year” but I was just curious 🙂

I didn't get in straight out of undergrad. I did get interviews at a few programs. I was waitlisted at all of them. The faculty I wanted to work with at each said I was impressive applicant but the other applicants all had 2-3 years postbac experience. So I did that myself, and then I got several offers.

I grateful I did that because it exposed me to the soft-money AMC lifestyle I ended up most interested in.

 

[gohogwild]

I didn't get in straight out of undergrad. I did get interviews at a few programs. I was waitlisted at all of them. The faculty I wanted to work with at each said I was impressive applicant but the other applicants all had 2-3 years postbac experience. So I did that myself, and then I got several offers.

I grateful I did that because it exposed me to the soft-money AMC lifestyle I ended up most interested in.

Interesting and good to know! Can I ask what the “soft money AMC lifestyle” is?

 

[WisNeuro]

Interesting and good to know! Can I ask what the “soft money AMC lifestyle” is?

Your salary depends largely on the extramural grants you bring in.