getting into grad school as an international student

[sonya21]

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Hi all,
I'm an applicant from Singapore, just got several rejections from several clinical psych programs. I've got a year's neuropsych research experience in clinical neuropsych, assessment experience, experience setting up a memory center, a first author pub, a 3.63 GPA and pretty decent GREs. I honestly don't know what else to do to make my applications more competitive for next year (I'm not giving up yet, although it's pretty discouraging). Any advice would be much much much appreciated 🙁

 

[nononora]

I don't think getting into grad school as an international student is any different than as a local student. Although the GPA/GREs come into play in the screening process, it really is all about research fit (I'm assuming you're applying to research-oriented programs).

What programs did you apply to and who did you specifically apply to work with? Did you get any phone interviews?

 

[yazzmin841]

hi, as an international student myself, I think that getting accepted in a clinical psych program as an international student is harder than getting in a non-clinical, more research based program (like experimental, neuroscience etc.) I think that might be because of 'stereotypical' doubts about your communication/language skills since those programs require patient contact in the first place. Or it may be simply that clinical programs are more competitive than any other program. The first time I applied to clinical phds, i was in Turkey and I got rejected from all the programs I applied. Then I came to the US for a masters and made some contacts during my masters. Among the places I applied, I got 4 interviews and 2 offers. Still, I got many rejections as well. But I think it might be helpful if you can to come to the US for a masters and to let programs that you are interested in know you in person meanwhile. Hope this helps, good luck!