New here - is where you graduated from for your BS important?

[glasscandie]

I'll be going into my junior year as an undergrad. psychology major in the fall '08. My husband is military, and we've moved around a lot - consequently, when we finally settled in our current state, I only applied to an open-admission university college because of how long I'd been out of school. It is affiliated with the state university, but as I said, open-admission. How much will this hurt my chances at a doctoral program? I am looking at clinical psych. programs, with an emphasis in adult psychopathology, particularly personality and psychotic disorders (I've been working with a lot of people with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder at my internship).

My resume is pretty strong - (1) my G.P.A. is 3.92; (2) I'm doing an internship with a psychiatric rehabilitation program for the more severe disorders (schizophrenia, etc), where I'm heading two research projects (one independent research by myself, and two evidence-based practices recently implemented, where I'm tracking the outcomes) under the supervision of my supervisor at the clinic and a professor at my college, as well as getting experience in group therapy, medication monitoring (I just became trained and certified to do it) and I have a 5 client case load where I follow and track their progress; (3) I'm the editor for the undergrad. psychology newsletter at my college; (4) a member of Psi Chi, and trying to get into an higher position there such as vice-pres.; (5) am the head of the Client Advisory Board at my internship, where I field client complaints and try to come up with solutions to their problems; and (6) will eventually have some teaching experience at the internship, as they'll be letting me head a basic skills course sometime in the near future.

As you can see, I'm sort of paranoid that the open-admission college is a big downer on my resume, so I've over-compensated. I'm also paranoid about the GRE's, I never do well on those types of tests.

The top 4 schools I'm looking at are: the U of MD College Park's Ph.D clinical psych. program; George Washington University's Psy.D in clinical psych. program; American University's Ph.D clinical psych. program; and Loyola College's Psy.D clinical psych. program. I have 3 other doctoral programs on my list of who to apply to, but UMD and GWU are my high hopes, there's faculty there with research interests similar to mine. I'll also be applying to 3 masters programs as back-up.

Any thoughts?

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[Thrak]

Honestly, I think the name of your undergrad institution will mean far less than your GRE score. You've got a pretty impressive c.v.; while I don't know much about the programs you're applying to, GRE scores are generally important in the early stages of the application process. I think if your score is good enough to make the cut, you've got a good a chance as anyone, regardless of where you went to undergrad.

Good luck!

 

[glasscandie]

Thanks, I appreciate the input! That's good to hear about the scores vs. college. I guess I'll just have to study extra hard, test-taking isn't my strong point!

 

[erg923]

It really matter very little. A 3.9 from Harvard will look stronger from a 3.9 at a state school, but thats about all. You've done all the right things, grades, research experience, GRE, etc. will trump the school you went to.

 

[psy19]

I'll be attending UMD's clinical program this fall, and my (soon to be) mentor is the schizophrenia researcher there. I think you have a very strong CV, so I wouldn't worry too much about where you got your undergrad degree. I can tell you that the grad students & applicants I met there on interview day came from a wide variety of schools (from Brown to big state schools like Ohio State to colleges I had never even heard of).

feel free to PM me if you want!

 

[EquestriAnn]

Not to cause any drama, but when I was recently on an interview trip, one of the grad students told me a little gossip about what her advisor (my POI) said about the two students he brought in to interview (me and let's call him Joe). Apparently the advisor said that Joe had a great GPA, higher than mine, but he went to a tiny liberal arts school so he had no idea what that high GPA meant. He said that Joe took really easy classes too, so his high GPA wasn't necessarily better than my average GPA from a top ranked school. That said, we both got interviews, so take it with a grain of salt.

Disclaimer: this does not necessarily reflect my opinion regarding the importance of the level of prestige of one's undergraduate school.

 

[deleted176373]

It is affiliated with the state university, but as I said, open-admission. How much will this hurt my chances at a doctoral program?

I went to University of Texas, San Antonio. Not exactly an academic powerhouse. I did everything possible though to show I was academically strong. Honors College, 4.0 GPA, Scholarships, undergraduate thesis.

My resume is pretty strong -
(1) my G.P.A. is 3.92;
(2) I'm doing an internship with a psychiatric rehabilitation program for the more severe disorders (schizophrenia, etc), where I'm heading two research projects (one independent research by myself, and two evidence-based practices recently implemented, where I'm tracking the outcomes) under the supervision of my supervisor at the clinic and a professor at my college, as well as getting experience in group therapy, medication monitoring (I just became trained and certified to do it) and I have a 5 client case load where I follow and track their progress;
(3) I'm the editor for the undergrad. psychology newsletter at my college; (4) a member of Psi Chi, and trying to get into an higher position there such as vice-pres.;
(5) am the head of the Client Advisory Board at my internship, where I field client complaints and try to come up with solutions to their problems; and (6) will eventually have some teaching experience at the internship, as they'll be letting me head a basic skills course sometime in the near future.

My 2c, which matters naught!

1- Great
2- Awesome <- THIS IS WHAT REALLY COUNTS (RESEARCH AND CLINIC TIME)
3- Probably won't matter much
4- Definitely seems to not matter - Don't know if I would waste my time here
5- Good solid experience
6- Might help

As you can see, I'm sort of paranoid that the open-admission college is a big downer on my resume, so I've over-compensated. I'm also paranoid about the GRE's, I never do well on those types of tests.

GRE will be huge for you, the faculties look at it as being the great equalizer. A way of comparing Joe from state with Christie from ivy. Joe has a 4.0 and Christie has a 3.65, but one school was harder than the other. If both come cruising in with 1350 GRE scores, they are considered fairly equal.

The top 4 schools I'm looking at are: the U of MD College Park's Ph.D clinical psych. program; George Washington University's Psy.D in clinical psych. program; American University's Ph.D clinical psych. program; and Loyola College's Psy.D clinical psych. program. I have 3 other doctoral programs on my list of who to apply to, but UMD and GWU are my high hopes, there's faculty there with research interests similar to mine. I'll also be applying to 3 masters programs as back-up.

Any thoughts?

Don't even bother applying to masters programs if your end goal is a doctorate, your resume is plenty strong. I CLEP'd out of all my first two years and did a low level state school as a junior/senior (basically open enrollment!) Focus on nailing the GRE, it will be the biggest determinant in where you actually get interviewed given the above information. In my case, without the level of research and clinical experience that you are looking at, I was able to secure interviews pretty high up the food chain. Going by US News and World reports rankings (which are pretty meaningless) I was able to interview at many schools in the top 100 and some in the top 25. The faculties are more concerned (for better or worse) with the quality of student than the quality of the school you went to.

Still a more prestigious undergraduate school will help your chances, nothing like having Harvard or Yale on your application, but without a sufficiently high GRE and a reasonably high GPA, you won't do well. A more prestigious university might allow you to run a lower GPA and still be competitive. For instance my 4.0 at UTSA doesn't carry the weight of a 3.5 from Cornell. Obviously (in the case of me) I wasn't sufficiently challenged as an undergraduate. I now run a more realistic 3.5 Graduate GPA.

Hope that helps.

Mark

 

[Jon4PsyD]

I think 9 times out of 10 it means nothing. In fact more often than not, if you are at a smaller school you get more personal attention and there are more opportunities given to you.

Having gone from a small school to a major name university and seeing what some of the undergrads do here, I have to say a name is sometimes just a name, and a lot of hype

Jon

 

[glasscandie]

I'll be attending UMD's clinical program this fall, and my (soon to be) mentor is the schizophrenia researcher there. I think you have a very strong CV, so I wouldn't worry too much about where you got your undergrad degree. I can tell you that the grad students & applicants I met there on interview day came from a wide variety of schools (from Brown to big state schools like Ohio State to colleges I had never even heard of).

feel free to PM me if you want!

I don't know if we're allowed to say names on here, but I know exactly who you're talking about at UMD. I love his work, and that's who I'm looking at for who I'd like to work with there. I'm contemplating applying to the Schizophrenia Research Training program associated with it, but I'm still not sure if I only want to focus on just research - I think I'd like a healthy mix of research and psychotherapy in my career. I was interested in the Borderline Personality researcher at UMD, but I've just learned that she won't be there in the fall, so that nixes that!

 

[PinkSoil]

I think that you had a lot of great credentials that could get you where you want to go. I went to an state school in NY-- it was one of the less (non?) recognized schools that people actually looked down upon in the area. It was a school that was unfairly judged-- if you went there it was a completely different perspective and got a wonderful education. Like you, I graduated with a strong GPA, worked in the field from the time I got out, and went on to get my Master's. I had no problem getting into a doctoral program.