HELP!! Type of Research Necessary for Acceptance

[az_zulu]

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I'm wondering how important it is to have previous research experience in the research area you are looking to pursue in your Clinical program. My research interest lies is in the field of Autism. I have a lot of research experience in other areas (anorexia, health psych and cardiac patients, health psych and pre natal smoking, child and adolescent ODD and ADHD) but none in Autism research.

However, I do have a lot of practical experience working with children with Autism. I'm currently working as an ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapist which is an evidence based therapy. I collect data for each child I see and then analyze that data. Will Clinical programs care about this or should I simply quit the applied work and get involved in Autism research ASAP? 😕

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Psyclops]

That sounds pretty good, you want to have experience in the area you want to go in to ideally, but you have reserach experience, and you have experience working with the group, so it adds up. Unlike someone who never ran into autistic kids, and said they wanted to work wit them, that would be the problem.

 

[az_zulu]

Thanks Psyclops! You are seriously always the first person to reply. So appreciated.

My story is a bit complicated. I didn't elaborate at first but I guess I will now. Hope you don't mind. I've written this in the past but I'm currently in France with my French boyfriend that I met during my MA program in the states. I've been living here for a year and thankfully found work in my field. Actually, France seriously needs a lot of help in the field of Autism. Many professionals here still consider the psychoanalytic perspective when they think about Autism which is like the Stone Age compared to where we are in America now with children who have this disorder. So when I got here I realized how desperately I was needed which is great; even the more reason to stay before heading to a PhD program.

However, just today I found a great offer for a huge Autism research project starting up in Boston (where I did my MA and have all my contacts). All the hospitals in Boston are getting together to do this huge collaborative project on Autism and of course I'm sitting here drooling over it. So tempting!

My list for PhD is just about done and I'm looking at it scared out of my mind because all the schools on there are super tough to get into (like any of them arent I know!). I'm talking Rutgers, U of Michigan, U of Miami, Georgia State, the list goes on.

My CV in a nutshell:

Undergrad: Bucknell University, Lewisburg PA
GPA: 3.31
Majored in Pre-Med, Psych, and Spanish (way too many majors -hence the poor GPA)
Research Experience: Cardiac Patients and Religious and Spiritual Beliefs after Heart Attack, Women's Body Image and Religious and Spiritual Beliefs

Graduate: Tufts University Boston, MA
GPA: 3.78
Degree: Child Development
Internship: A 5 month internship at a center for children with special needs supervised by a well known developmental behavioral pediatrician at a huge Boston Medical Center
Thesis: Didn't do one, chose the internship instead
Research: Longituidinal Study (Adolescent ADHD and ODD - relation to mother's pre natal smoking), Child Family Webguide website to help parents and professionals find the best information on the Web on Child Development

Moved to Paris, FRANCE after getting my MA degree
I've been working with families of children with Autism for a year now and plan to work with them for another year.
Planning on getting certified as an ABA therapist.

I need to retake the GRE -this is my biggest weakness. I'm currently studying but honestly, standardized tests have always been my enemy. I took the GRE Subject in Psych and scored a 550 (not very good I know and I even studied for 3 months!

If you have read this far you deserve a medal, seriously. So with all that said, I'mpretty desperate to do the right thing and make all the right choices right now to make my acceptance to PhD possible. Please let me know what your thoughts are on leaving France and going to Boston to get serious about Autism research so I can add that to my CV before applying to PhD this fall.

In addition to applying to Clinical programs, I'm going to apply to a few School Psych and a few Speech Therapy. I can't see myself going through this process twice and I really just want to get started with my career before I'm old and grey!

Thanks again.

 

[clinpsychgirl]

Thanks Psyclops! You are seriously always the first person to reply. So appreciated.

My story is a bit complicated. I didn't elaborate at first but I guess I will now. Hope you don't mind. I've written this in the past but I'm currently in France with my French boyfriend that I met during my MA program in the states. I've been living here for a year and thankfully found work in my field. Actually, France seriously needs a lot of help in the field of Autism. Many professionals here still consider the psychoanalytic perspective when they think about Autism which is like the Stone Age compared to where we are in America now with children who have this disorder. So when I got here I realized how desperately I was needed which is great; even the more reason to stay before heading to a PhD program.

However, just today I found a great offer for a huge Autism research project starting up in Boston (where I did my MA and have all my contacts). All the hospitals in Boston are getting together to do this huge collaborative project on Autism and of course I'm sitting here drooling over it. So tempting!

My list for PhD is just about done and I'm looking at it scared out of my mind because all the schools on there are super tough to get into (like any of them arent I know!). I'm talking Rutgers, U of Michigan, U of Miami, Georgia State, the list goes on.

My CV in a nutshell:

Undergrad: Bucknell University, Lewisburg PA
GPA: 3.31
Majored in Pre-Med, Psych, and Spanish (way too many majors -hence the poor GPA)
Research Experience: Cardiac Patients and Religious and Spiritual Beliefs after Heart Attack, Women's Body Image and Religious and Spiritual Beliefs

Graduate: Tufts University Boston, MA
GPA: 3.78
Degree: Child Development
Internship: A 5 month internship at a center for children with special needs supervised by a well known developmental behavioral pediatrician at a huge Boston Medical Center
Thesis: Didn't do one, chose the internship instead
Research: Longituidinal Study (Adolescent ADHD and ODD - relation to mother's pre natal smoking), Child Family Webguide website to help parents and professionals find the best information on the Web on Child Development

Moved to Paris, FRANCE after getting my MA degree
I've been working with families of children with Autism for a year now and plan to work with them for another year.
Planning on getting certified as an ABA therapist.

I need to retake the GRE -this is my biggest weakness. I'm currently studying but honestly, standardized tests have always been my enemy. I took the GRE Subject in Psych and scored a 550 (not very good I know and I even studied for 3 months!

If you have read this far you deserve a medal, seriously. So with all that said, I'mpretty desperate to do the right thing and make all the right choices right now to make my acceptance to PhD possible. Please let me know what your thoughts are on leaving France and going to Boston to get serious about Autism research so I can add that to my CV before applying to PhD this fall.

In addition to applying to Clinical programs, I'm going to apply to a few School Psych and a few Speech Therapy. I can't see myself going through this process twice and I really just want to get started with my career before I'm old and grey!

Thanks again.

Personally, I think your clinical experiences in with manualized therapy with in this population would be a good sell. If you can, get that certification!

If you have to, I would consider paying out of pocket to take a course to bolster the GRES. A lot of schools won't read your application if its under 1200-1250- some even 1300 or higher.

 

[vesper9]

However, just today I found a great offer for a huge Autism research project starting up in Boston (where I did my MA and have all my contacts). All the hospitals in Boston are getting together to do this huge collaborative project on Autism and of course I'm sitting here drooling over it. So tempting!

I agree that your ABA experience with autistic kids is good in addition to your previous research, however I would strongly urge you to consider trying to get a position on this project. It sounds really fascinating and maybe a great way to make contacts in the field before applying! Since you're going to move to the US for grad school anyways, I would heavily consider applying for this and moving early. (although I do remember the bf issues!)....If there was something like this in my area of interest and in a geographically convenient place (sort of, for you) I would be drooling too!

 

[Psyclops]

wow...i agree with vesper for once, if you can get the experience. It will help. It may even make the difference.

BTW, wich arrondisement do you live in? Avoid the bonlieu this time of the year.

 

[50960]

I say do a PhD in the UK in your area of interest. Great schooling, close to the France thing, and very prestigious. IM me if you need more info, as I went to grad school in London
cheers

😎

 

[50960]

PS. Look into the MIND institute in Davis Ca. This is the cutting edge of all autism research and treatment. As far as UK goes the Institute of education of the university of london is great.

 

[Nelle]

I say do a PhD in the UK in your area of interest. Great schooling, close to the France thing, and very prestigious. IM me if you need more info, as I went to grad school in London
cheers

😎

If you are strictly interested in a research career, this may be the best option for you. However, if you see yourself practicing as well, you would probably find that a PhD from Britain would be restricting that part of your career because those degrees are research only. Psychologists who are licenced to practice in Britain have typically trained in and now work for the National Health Service. Good luck!

 

[butterfli73]

Also remember, even if you don't have to exact research experience, as long as you make your experience sound like it directly relates to your reseach interests in your personal statement this will help a great deal. Make sure when you start writing that you do it very carefully to show exactly why what you have done counts. And working with Autistic children will definitely give you a strong argument.

Good luck with those GREs, I know how awful they are! And I agree if you can manage taking a class to get your score higher will be worth it if you are not doing very well now.

 

[az_zulu]

Thanks everyone for all of your great suggestions!

I have another question regarding GRE TEST Prep. Which company should I look into for Test Prep? Kaplan? Princeton Review? Is anyone familiar with the costs or know of one that is good but not as costly?

Thanks again!

 

[clinpsychgirl]

Thanks everyone for all of your great suggestions!

I have another question regarding GRE TEST Prep. Which company should I look into for Test Prep? Kaplan? Princeton Review? Is anyone familiar with the costs or know of one that is good but not as costly?

Thanks again!

While I haven't taken a class, I don't think you can go wrong with either of those two. I bought the Princeton Review guidebook for the general and found it to be a "good read" but now I wonder if maybe it was not as comprehensive as the Kaplan guide. For the Psych GREs, I thought the Princeton Review guide book for psych was poorly organized.

 

[Nelle]

While I haven't taken a class, I don't think you can go wrong with either of those two. I bought the Princeton Review guidebook for the general and found it to be a "good read" but now I wonder if maybe it was not as comprehensive as the Kaplan guide. For the Psych GREs, I thought the Princeton Review guide book for psych was poorly organized.

I did not take any classes either. I was happy with the Kaplan book as well as a Princeton Review pocket size 'word book' (I can't remember the exact name of the book) that was a great introduction to a lot of GRE words.

I used Kaplan's book for the psych GRE which it was quite disappointing, especially because it contained a lot of grammatical and spelling errors that I found very distracting. Maybe someone else on the board knows of a good review book for the psych GRE?

 

[Psyclops]

With everyones personal experience the informationa bout this trickles in slowely and you should sift through it for whatever seems good, but I took two weeks or so before the psych gre and read kaplan first and then princeton review, did the practice tests that they gave me, and did about as good as you could do on the psych GREs: 810. That said I left the test feeling pretty crappy about how well I did, I tought the questions were much harder than either book, or the test they send you gave (which I thought was particularly BS, it's like they were tricking you).

The Kaplan book was fool of gramatical errors, whic even I noted which is surprising, becasue as you can see from my posts I have no idea how to use commas or spell. I'm serious, this isn't just from sloppy typing. But in the end it seemed like it worked out. Some of my cohort were studying using Barron's their practice questions were hard as sh1t. I don't know if they were good or not otherwise but they made me feel like I wasn't studying hard enough.

In the end though, if you are coming from a well known undergrad instituion iwth a good psych program schools most likly won't be looking at your scores very much.

 

[butterfli73]

Yeah really what was up with that Barron's psychology GRE book? It was reallly unneccessarily difficult. I guess if you want to overshoot the test maybe that would be good because if you do well on those tests you will sail though the real thing. The psych test such a relief after the general.

I also never took a class but I used the Princeton Review and I thought they covered as much as a quick synopsis of psychology could. I'm glad to hear Kaplan was full or grammatical errors because I always thought they claimed to be better than they actually are, charging much more than necessary for their classes.