How much does experience matter?

[applyingtograd]

I have a good GRE score (326/ 1460), good GPA (3.9), 1 paper under review, 1 revise and resubmit paper, an honors thesis, 3 good letters of recommendation (1 from someone who is well known in the field), and a little bit of clinical experience...BUT I have only been out of undergrad for a year.
This application cycle has not gone as well as I expected. What do you think my shortcoming are? Most of the people I met on interviews had been out 2+ years...Is that the norm?
Thanks for any insight!

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[bpsydme]

From my experience (applied this cycle as well), 2 things seemed to matter the most:

1) FIT

2) Research experience.

Based on your publication records, it sounds like you're doing more than just data entry, and your research experience is significant despite being out of school for "only" a year. If you didn't get as many interviews as you liked, you may want to check over your SOP and CV. I was shocked to see the subpar, amateur CVs for some people interviewing at my lab. Your CV is pretty much you in a couple pages. Make it professional, and make sure it truly showcases your work.

If you DID get interviews and was rejected thereafter, I would say the biggest factor is fit. Fit, in my opinion, is more than wanting to do what your PI does. While some may disagree, and I have no doubt many people have gained acceptance to top programs without similar experience to the field they're applying to, but I almost everyone I spoke to on interviews, and all students invited to interview for a position at my lab had experience in the same field. It may not be the exact same thing, but most people applying for PTSD labs had PTSD experience. People applying to heavy neuroimagers had at least operated a scanner before. It was pretty shocking for me upon realizing this, since my whole lab told me that it's the research experience that matters, not necessarily which field (pshh).

Furthermore, at one particular school, I got some very very detailed questions about my field of study. It would've been virtually impossible for me to articulate my answers if I didn't have the experience I have.

Sorry this cycle didn't turn out well for you, but on the bright side, you're below the average age of matriculants and already have some pretty awesome experience.

Also, as the previous poster said, numbers really don't matter that much. They will only get you so far.

 

[fallen625]

From my experience (applied this cycle as well), 2 things seemed to matter the most:

1) FIT

2) Research experience.

Based on your publication records, it sounds like you're doing more than just data entry, and your research experience is significant despite being out of school for "only" a year. If you didn't get as many interviews as you liked, you may want to check over your SOP and CV. I was shocked to see the subpar, amateur CVs for some people interviewing at my lab. Your CV is pretty much you in a couple pages. Make it professional, and make sure it truly showcases your work.

If you DID get interviews and was rejected thereafter, I would say the biggest factor is fit. Fit, in my opinion, is more than wanting to do what your PI does. While some may disagree, and I have no doubt many people have gained acceptance to top programs without similar experience to the field they're applying to, but I almost everyone I spoke to on interviews, and all students invited to interview for a position at my lab had experience in the same field. It may not be the exact same thing, but most people applying for PTSD labs had PTSD experience. People applying to heavy neuroimagers had at least operated a scanner before. It was pretty shocking for me upon realizing this, since my whole lab told me that it's the research experience that matters, not necessarily which field (pshh).

Furthermore, at one particular school, I got some very very detailed questions about my field of study. It would've been virtually impossible for me to articulate my answers if I didn't have the experience I have.

Sorry this cycle didn't turn out well for you, but on the bright side, you're below the average age of matriculants and already have some pretty awesome experience.

Also, as the previous poster said, numbers really don't matter that much. They will only get you so far.

Thank you for sharing this! It seems to go un-mentioned, but I do see how it is really important to have experience in the same field.

I had a quick question - how close does this experience have to be? (ei - is it close enough to have experience in obesity / bariatric surgery if you want to work with eating disorders?)

 

[bpsydme]

Thank you for sharing this! It seems to go un-mentioned, but I do see how it is really important to have experience in the same field.

I had a quick question - how close does this experience have to be? (ei - is it close enough to have experience in obesity / bariatric surgery if you want to work with eating disorders?)

Sorry, don't know what bariatric surgery is, but obesity and eating disorders are definitely the same general field (or at least you can connect the two pretty easily). I'm not suggesting anyone to pursue experience that is EXACTLY what they want to do, just in the same general field. For example, if you work in a depression lab but is interested in anxiety/dysthymia, I definitely see that as good experience. But if you work in a depression lab and want to pursue histrionic personality disorder, you'd have to make a good argument for why the POI should pick you over someone who already has depression experience. In my case, I had very related experience in the field as a whole, but the method/tools I want to use (for grad school) and the direction I want to take my research is entirely different than what I have experience in. However, I was able to make the case of how having experience in A led me to B. Another thing applicants need to consider is that some people just want to get IN, regardless of what kind of research, so they generally apply to labs that match their experience, not necessarily what their passion is (some people I spoke to during interviews indirectly alluded to doing this). This isn't wrong or unethical, but for me, it makes it harder for someone who is passionate about that field but has little/no experience to compete against those who will start grad school with knowledge in that field, esp if that person already has publications.

Edit: experience alone is not everything, of course. It is just one more part of an equation with about 100 unique variables called admissions.

 

[cara susanna]

Most people I know who do ED research also have experience in bariatric surgery, so I definitely think it's close enough.

 

[foremma]

Just out of curiosity, how many semesters (including post-undergrad) research experience do you have?