Help! Differences between Personal Statement for PhD and MA in Clinical Psych

[clinicalpsych1]

Hi Everyone,

I have applied to clinical psychology PhD programs, and don't think I will be getting in due to poor GRE scores.
I am now going a different route, and have decided to apply to 4 masters programs in clinical psych (MA). All 4 of these programs are designed for students planning to go on their PhD afterword.

My question is:

What do I put in a Personal Statement for a masters program?
Do I focus on FIT with just a few faculty members? Most of the faculty members? Is fit with faculty even important???
Do I write about my research interests?

I have no idea what they are looking for. The directions relating to the personal statement portion for each program are so vague.

Any help would be appreciated, because I need to get these statements written very soon!! Anyone who has been through the process or anyone who has been addmitted to this type of program would be very helpful!!

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[ClinicalTrainee]

I haven't been through this process nor been admitted to a masters program (I'm a clinical PhD student) but I have written many recommendation letters to students pursuing masters degrees and I have a few thoughts.

First, if the PhD is something you're ultimately interested in, you might want to consider also applying to Experimental masters programs. Having more research on your vita will likely offset poorer GRE scores, and more clinical experience might not necessarily help you gain admission to a PhD program.

Second, before writing anything I would look into the program itself. Does it require a masters thesis? Are there faculty at that program who are publishing research (this can be ascertained through a PsychInfo search)? If so, I'd probably tailor the statement similarly to the PhD ones. If not, then I would talk about what I'd hope to get out of the program, including gaining experience in whatever the faculty have to offer. Even if not researchers, the faculty will have their own expertise in certain areas, and you can talk about that.

 

[katciao]

I am currently in a master's program applying to doctoral (PhD) programs. (I had very high GRE scores but relatively low undergrad gpa.) I did not mention which faculty member I wanted to work with in my master's statement of purpose, but I did in my PhD statement of purpose. I think that if you communicate clearly what you'd like to do with a master's degree, you will probably be in good shape in terms of acceptance to many M.A. Psychology programs. Some of the students in my master's program in both psychology (at a state school) and business (even at a Top 20 business school) are not great writers, so if you show that you can write well, you will improve your odds. (I suggest getting an editor or a few friends or relatives who are good writers to review your statement.)

Good luck!