Overwhelmed, whats the next step in preparing for graduate school?

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stephsters2936

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I am an undergrad at the University of south florida majoring in psychology. I've got two internships for research experience, I've joined psi chi and have become an undergrad APA student affiliate. My grades are awesome and I plan to take the GRE next year. I just don't know what else to do. Honors college is an option but it is a huge commitment of conventions, honors thesis, research, seminars... I'm going to school full time, working and spending 40 hours at my internships. is it worth the massive commitment to do it? and what else should I be doing? I don't know anyone who has beyond a bachelors degree and I need some guidance. Thanks in advance!

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Are your internships clinical experience or research experience? What are you doing at your internships? You say they're for research experience but I've rarely heard research positions referred to as internships. Just want to make sure you're getting adequate research experience given how important it is for a strong application.

At least for me, joining the honors college was a great decision. I was able to do a self-directed honors thesis and this came up during every single interview. I'd say this was the strongest part of my application. Figure out exactly what the honors college requires and if you can find the time, definitely join. It seems like your college asks for a lot though. How much of it is actually required? We just had to take honors classes, do a thesis, and present at an end of the year student forum. All good experiences.
 
Here is my advice:

Schedule an appointment with your adviser and maybe even a second appointment with another faculty member and bring these questions to him/her. While you may get good advice on this site it will be almost impossible and completely counterproductive to sift through the bulls***. In a nutshell, don't use this site as a resource for help on getting into graduate school. Rather, consult with your adviser(s) and/or purchase APA's guide to getting into a clinical psych. graduate program.
 
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Here is my advice:

Schedule an appointment with your adviser and maybe even a second appointment with another faculty member and bring these questions to him/her. While you may get good advice on this site it will be almost impossible and completely counterproductive to sift through the bulls***. In a nutshell, don't use this site as a resource for help on getting into graduate school. Rather, consult with your adviser(s) and/or purchase APA's guide to getting into a clinical psych. graduate program.

*Note - It is also required to sift through the bulls*** in real life.
 
I have two internships in research, one is tobacco use cognition, the other is alcohol expecntancies in children over five years period. In both settings they have trained us and we run participants, gather data and interpret it ourselves. I plan on getting more experience this is only my first year.

The biggest problem is that honors college is a huge commitment at my school. I have to spend at least 18 hours on the project a week plus 15 credit hours, working full time and doing 20 hours at various research labs.
 
Here is my advice:

Schedule an appointment with your adviser and maybe even a second appointment with another faculty member and bring these questions to him/her. While you may get good advice on this site it will be almost impossible and completely counterproductive to sift through the bulls***. In a nutshell, don't use this site as a resource for help on getting into graduate school. Rather, consult with your adviser(s) and/or purchase APA's guide to getting into a clinical psych. graduate program.

I have talked to advisers, and because they don;t have their PhD their advice is to talk to professors, but our school is a public university so everyone's first priority is their own research. I haven't been able to find someone that is willing to help me with more than the basics. This is a problem that a lot of us are running into. Advising can only help so much. I need someone who has gone through the process themselves. Advisers don't hold your hand through this process like they have to in high school when you apply to college.
 
Here is my advice:

Schedule an appointment with your adviser and maybe even a second appointment with another faculty member and bring these questions to him/her. While you may get good advice on this site it will be almost impossible and completely counterproductive to sift through the bulls***. In a nutshell, don't use this site as a resource for help on getting into graduate school. Rather, consult with your adviser(s) and/or purchase APA's guide to getting into a clinical psych. graduate program.


While SDN certainly isn't perfect, there are a lot of faculty who don't give great advice either, tbh (I had one tell me post-grad clinical experience was the key to getting into PhD programs and didn't mention research experience at all).
 
stephsters2936 said:
I have talked to advisers, and because they don;t have their PhD their advice is to talk to professors, but our school is a public university so everyone's first priority is their own research. I haven't been able to find someone that is willing to help me with more than the basics. This is a problem that a lot of us are running into. Advising can only help so much. I need someone who has gone through the process themselves. Advisers don't hold your hand through this process like they have to in high school when you apply to college.

I actually got a chuckle out of this b/c we didn't have advisers during high school who did this either. You figured that **** out on your own if you were planned on going to college. I think the only students who were well-equipped to apply were individuals with parents or other folks in the family who had already attended college themselves.



While SDN certainly isn't perfect, there are a lot of faculty who don't give great advice either, tbh (I had one tell me post-grad clinical experience was the key to getting into PhD programs and didn't mention research experience at all).

This. The faculty at any of the institutions I attended were poorly equipped to advise anyone re: what it takes to apply to a clinical PhD program. Even the few individuals who came from clinical/counseling backgrounds graduated such a long time ago, they had no idea how competitive the field had become because "we just applied where we wanted and got accepted." I had another professor who applied to ONE program (UT-Austin) and was accepted, so she really didn't get the big deal why students needed to apply to umpteen programs or put so much preparation into their applications, etc.
 
I am an undergrad at the University of south florida majoring in psychology. I've got two internships for research experience, I've joined psi chi and have become an undergrad APA student affiliate. My grades are awesome and I plan to take the GRE next year. I just don't know what else to do. Honors college is an option but it is a huge commitment of conventions, honors thesis, research, seminars... I'm going to school full time, working and spending 40 hours at my internships. is it worth the massive commitment to do it? and what else should I be doing? I don't know anyone who has beyond a bachelors degree and I need some guidance. Thanks in advance!

Honors college isn't necessary, although it certainly does look good to prospective PIs if you've designed and run your own study. Not necessary, but a bonus.

On your internships, do you have any opportunities to learn data analysis or work on a poster presentation? Some movement toward publication and presentation would be a good idea.

As for who to talk to, if you can't get access to the faculty, find a grad student. As others have said, take their advice with a grain of salt. People will tell you what worked for them as if these are facts, but they aren't. Remember that.

As a faculty member, when I look at applicant files, I look at GPA/GRE (not because I think they are the most important things in the world, but there are some funding strings attached to these numbers at my institution), some research experience, preferably with some presentations (maybe publications), and I read the letters of rec and the personal statements very closely for (in no particular order): (a) writing ability, (b) a coherent sense of why clinical psychology is a good career choice, (c) research match, (d) capacity for independence/initiative/effort.
 
Honors college isn't necessary, although it certainly does look good to prospective PIs if you've designed and run your own study. Not necessary, but a bonus.

On your internships, do you have any opportunities to learn data analysis or work on a poster presentation? Some movement toward publication and presentation would be a good idea.

As for who to talk to, if you can't get access to the faculty, find a grad student. As others have said, take their advice with a grain of salt. People will tell you what worked for them as if these are facts, but they aren't. Remember that.

As a faculty member, when I look at applicant files, I look at GPA/GRE (not because I think they are the most important things in the world, but there are some funding strings attached to these numbers at my institution), some research experience, preferably with some presentations (maybe publications), and I read the letters of rec and the personal statements very closely for (in no particular order): (a) writing ability, (b) a coherent sense of why clinical psychology is a good career choice, (c) research match, (d) capacity for independence/initiative/effort.

All good advice - demonstrable research experience that results in a tangible product (like a publication or poster presentation) is likely to really boost your interview stock. The other factors mentioned above are more important in determining whether or not you get in...

To the original poster: it sounds like you're overloaded with things. Focusing on what you really want to do (like picking one or the other labs) with consideration for constraints (like how much you have to do paid work) could help you be more efficient. I can't speak for everyone, but when I select students I'm not looking at the breadth of their experience so much as the depth.

Another thing you can do that hasn't been mentioned is to attend professional conferences (again, with respect to time and money constraints). You'll be able to meet people with whom you might like to interview and may be able to broaden your network of student contacts as well.
 
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