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Coming out of undergraduate school, I wasn't sure whether or not to apply straight to doctoral or head to a masters program. I studied for the GREs and took the Kaplan test and ended up with a score below 900. I had a GPA of 3.94 and a 4.0 in psychology. Both Masters programs that I applied to accepted me. (Adelphi and Long Island University-- CW Post). I didn't particularly like either either of these programs (I started Adelphi over the summer and then transferred to LIU). I ended up moving to Philadelphia and decided that if I wanted to do a doctoral program I would have to select a school that I could stay at (a lot of schools prefer selected their own Masters students) and a school that was very consistent with my theoretical orientation (psychodynamic). I applied to Chestnut Hill College and was accepted once again, even with my horrible GRE scores. When I decided to apply for the Psy.D. in August, I realized that I could take the MATs and at least have a better chance with them because I much better at anything that does not involve math. I studied for them and took them and ended up with a horrible score. (400 which falls on a scale from 200 to 600). At this point I had no good test scores to back me up, so I had to use everything else I've got. At Chestnut Hill, I have maintained a 3.97 GPA-- I have been working in the field since I got out of undergrad and I have been in psychodynamic therapy for awhile, which I used as one of the main points of my essay, in order to demonstrate my understanding of the process. I got recommendations from my internship supervisior, as well as the chairman of the Masters Dept and one other professor. I submitted a resume to show my work in the field. During my interview I was told that what stood out the most about me as a candidate was my openness to talk about my own therapeutic experience as far as me being the patient. Chestnut Hill was the only school I applied to, and I got in.
I wanted to write my story because like so many others, I worried so much about my standardized test scores. I also knew that no matter what I did, my results would pretty much suck. So to make sure that I got where I needed to be, I made sure to do the research beforehand-- select a school where I could do both my Masters and Doctoral, a school that looks at the whole person, rather than having a cutoff score, and a school that was a great fit for me in terms of theoretical orientation so that I could really demonstrate my understanding and passion for that.
I wanted to write my story because like so many others, I worried so much about my standardized test scores. I also knew that no matter what I did, my results would pretty much suck. So to make sure that I got where I needed to be, I made sure to do the research beforehand-- select a school where I could do both my Masters and Doctoral, a school that looks at the whole person, rather than having a cutoff score, and a school that was a great fit for me in terms of theoretical orientation so that I could really demonstrate my understanding and passion for that.
