Going the experimental/pure research vs. applied route?

[futureapppsy2]

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For those of you who are on an academic/research/otherwise non-clinical career path, what made you choose an applied (clinical/counseling/school psych route) over a pure experimental (developmental/social/experimental/stats/ed psych/etc/etc) route? Do you feel you made the right choice, and do you have any intentions to practice clinically (part-time, in the context of intervention research [though I've never seen a PI by the actual clinician in a study myself], clinical supervision of students, etc)? Alternately, has anyone left an applied program for an experimental program, and if so, why?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

 

[Psychadelic2012]

For those of you who are on an academic/research/otherwise non-clinical career path, what made you choose an applied (clinical/counseling/school psych route) over a pure experimental (developmental/social/experimental/stats/ed psych/etc/etc) route? Do you feel you made the right choice, and do you have any intentions to practice clinically (part-time, in the context of intervention research [though I've never seen a PI by the actual clinician in a study myself], clinical supervision of students, etc)? Alternately, has anyone left an applied program for an experimental program, and if so, why?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

This isn't the exact answer you're looking for but here goes anyway. I haven't done it, but I'm considering it myself. I am in a clinical master's program now (licensure-bound) and applying to PhD programs--my first choice is an exclusively research-focused program with a mentor I've worked with for a couple of years. She does the exact research I want to do, with a population that I have years of real-world experience with--this work is the reason I decided to pursue training in research. I'm at the point where I would rather focus on the exact research I want rather than play around with something that is sort-of close. My mentor seems a little suspicious at times, repeating to me that theirs is not a clinical program.

I figure that I can do clinical/applied work, if I want to, with my current training. The clinical work, for me, is more of an economical decision--plenty of jobs/work/opportunities. My main issue is not having the stats (especially GREs) or the research experience (again, economical--can't volunteer anymore at my older age, and clinical work is easier to find) to make the cut at my mentor's program. So, alas, I may end up on a clinical track (or staying with a master's only) for this reason, when ideally I'd like to jump in on my mentor's research!