Mentorship model PS's

[katiecl]

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I have a question about the "appropriate wording" for a personal statement sent to a clinical PhD program that uses a mentorship model in their application process.

I am currently applying to seven programs, and I have generally been customizing my personal statements for each school, making sure to mention one or two faculty members whose research interests I share. One of these programs, however, explicitly asks that I must direct all application materials to a single professor of my choosing, and this professor will ultimately be the person who decides to offer me acceptence into the program.

Now I am lucky, in that there is one professor in this program with whom I share my primary research interest, but there are also other professors in the program who I feel would be interested in related research questions I have. I count it as a good sign that I feel this way towards the faculty, as well as a signal that I am a good fit with the program, but I'm unsure whether I should express my excitement over this fact when the school really asks that I direct all materials to a single person (who would eventually be my advisor and mentor). How should I change my approach to writing my personal statement for this school, given all of this? Any thoughts on what would be alright to mention in regards to other faculty members, or what I should really leave out?

Any help would be really appreciated!

 

[JockNerd]

Have you contacted these profs to make sure they're actually taking people in the coming year?

 

[katiecl]

The school's website claims that all full-time faculty are accepting students for the 2008-9 school year, and also I spoke to a current teacher in the counseling division (who is also a former clinical psych department head for the school) and she specifically recommended this professor to me (I already had him in mind though). This same woman told me that the reason they adopted this model at the school is because the faculty in general never seemed to agree on what type of applicant to admit... everybody wanted something different, so they decided to let each professor choose their own students.

I don't think I would be applying to this program if I literally only liked the specific professor I'm going to be mailing my application to, but at the same time if there's unrest or professional tension in the faculty in general then I certainly want to tread carefully...has anyone else out there applied to a program with this model before? If so, then what was your experience?

 

[KillerDiller]

Why not simply phrase it the way you did above? That is, make it clear which professor you are applying to, but mention these other professors in your personal statement and frame your interest in their work as evidence that you are a good match for the program as a whole.

 

[Ollie123]

Isn't this the norm though?

I feel like at most places everyone is involved in the initial weeding through of applications, but I was always under the impression at most schools it was largely up to individual faculty if they wanted to accept someone into their lab.

I don't necessarily think it implies there's some sort of tension or the faculty hate eachother or anything. The VAST majority of schools are mentorship models, and I think in nearly all cases the professor whose lab you apply to has the final, or at least the most heavily weighted opinion on who to accept for that spot. I can only think of a few clinical programs off the top of my head that don't operate under the model you described.

 

[katiecl]

Thank you, this is reassuring; actually, of the seven schools I am applying to, this is the only program operating under a mentorship model. So, I felt a bit uncertain of how (or whether) to change my approach. Intuitively, it seemed like an obvious choice to promote my enthusiasm for the faculty as a whole, but still - what can I say, I can't help but obsess and overthink the process! Is it April yet?!?

Thank you again for the advice, I really appreciate it.

 

[Ollie123]

Wow.

Are you applying mostly to PsyDs? I don't know if I could find 6 PhD programs that aren't mentorship model if I was specifically looking for them. Are you sure they aren't mentorship model? I encountered a few websites that don't expressly state that they are, because its basically just a given at a research-oriented boulder-model program.

I think its fine to mention how other peoples work may segway with your own. That said, the entire idea of the mentorship model is that you are accepted specifically to work with one professor. You work in his/her laboratory, you work on their projects, etc. If you don't come across as focused on a specific line of research...your chances of being accepted drop to near-nil. If you make a convincing argument that you want to combine across research lines, that's fine (and potentially good). You just want to avoid saying "I'm interested in depression, and eating disorders, and addictions, and personality disorders, and you have faculty that work on all these things so I'm a good fit at your school". That's obvious a very extreme example, but hopefully you get my point.