Questions! Undergrad Interested in Clinical Neuropsychology PhD

[teacup11]

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Hi everyone! I am fairy new to the forum, and I came up with some questions of my own as I was surfing through many threads on this forum. Currently, I am a sophomore psychology major at a top liberal arts college. I've been always interested in getting a PhD in clinical psychology, but recently I got interested in having a neuropsychological focus. So I would like some advice from you all on how I can make this work 🙂 Here are some of my questions:

1. Because my school doesn't offer all the courses every semester, I won't be able to take physiological psych until my junior spring semester, and won't be able to take behavioral neuroscience lab courses until my senior year. Consequently, when I write my honors thesis in my senior year (which I am hoping to do), it probably won't be largely based on neuropsych. I know that having matching research interests with those of your future POI is crucial to admission...so how else would I demonstrate to my POI that my real research interest lies in neuropsychology? Also, do neuroscience lab courses count as "research experience?"

2. If I work as an RA in a neuropsychology/neuroscience lab for 1-2 years after graduation, would that provide me enough experience to develop and prove my research interest in neuropsych?

3. Would having some lab courses in neuroscience and working as an RA in neuroscience labs be enough for programs that have specific neuroscience tracks? Or is it necessary to have my own independent research project on the topic to be competitive..

4. I know that "clinical neuropsychologists" usually refer to people who have gotten their PhDs in clinical psychology and have done post-doc trainings in neuropsychology. Are these post-doc trainings hard to get when your PhD didn't necessarily focus on neuropsych?

5. Do most PhD programs offer many neuropsychology/psychopharmacology courses/training? I saw that northwestern psychiatry deparment's clinical PhD program has a "neuroscience track." What other schools have such things? What other schools offer PhD programs from their medical department or have solid neuroscience tracks? If there is anyone who is reading this who is in this Northwestern program or the like, could you please share your experience?



6. For summer after junior year, what's the best thing I can do? It'd be great if I could get some neuropsychology lab exposure or be an RA/volunteer at medical center labs...how do I go about in finding these opportunities?

7. Anything else that I can do to make myself a strong candidate for programs like northwestern's?

Lastly, here is some background information about me for your information:
GPA: probably around 3.7+ by graduation at a top liberal arts college
GRE: haven't taken yet but will take in my junior year. got a 2250 on my SAT
Research experience: will be working as an RA for a developmental psychology professor at my school this summer.
Courses: by graduation, I would have taken research design, data analysis, developmental psych (+lab), personality, social psych, physiological psych, abnormal psych (+practicum at local psychiatric unit), 2 behavioral neuroscience courses, (+labs), possibly health psychology etc. in some of the lab courses, students make posters and present at conventions, which I am hoping to do.

Thank you so much for reading! 🙂

 

[AcronymAllergy]

What answers I could quickly provide are bolded in-line with the text below:

Hi everyone! I am fairy new to the forum, and I came up with some questions of my own as I was surfing through many threads on this forum. Currently, I am a sophomore psychology major at a top liberal arts college. I've been always interested in getting a PhD in clinical psychology, but recently I got interested in having a neuropsychological focus. So I would like some advice from you all on how I can make this work 🙂 Here are some of my questions:

1. Because my school doesn't offer all the courses every semester, I won't be able to take physiological psych until my junior spring semester, and won't be able to take behavioral neuroscience lab courses until my senior year. Consequently, when I write my honors thesis in my senior year (which I am hoping to do), it probably won't be largely based on neuropsych. I know that having matching research interests with those of your future POI is crucial to admission...so how else would I demonstrate to my POI that my real research interest lies in neuropsychology? Also, do neuroscience lab courses count as "research experience?"

Is it still possible to complete your thesis in a neuro-related area without having taken the class? If not, have you done any work up to this point in any type of neuropsych research lab (or any lab, for that matter) at your school? If not, unfortunately, you might not be competitive for doctoral program admission just yet.

And no, neuroscience lab courses don't count as research experience.

2. If I work as an RA in a neuropsychology/neuroscience lab for 1-2 years after graduation, would that provide me enough experience to develop and prove my research interest in neuropsych?

That would be a great start, and would help (likely) narrow your interests, sure. Having 1-2 years of research experience certainly won't hurt, and many people are accepted with similar amounts of research under their belts.

3. I know that "clinical neuropsychologists" usually refer to people who have gotten their PhDs in clinical psychology and have done post-doc trainings in neuropsychology. Are these post-doc trainings hard to get when your PhD didn't necessarily focus on neuropsych?

It depends. If you've done absolutely NO work in neuropsych in your grad program, then yes, they'll be hard to get (in no small part because getting a neuro-focused internship would be tough). If you've had neuro experience, but it wasn't the entire focus of your doctoral program, you could still become competitive. But if there aren't any neuro faculty in your grad school, that'll make things much, much more difficult for you down the road.

4. Do most PhD programs offer many neuropsychology/psychopharmacology courses/training? I saw that northwestern psychiatry deparment's clinical PhD program has a "neuroscience track." What other schools have such things? What other schools offer PhD programs from their medical department? If there is anyone who is reading this who is in this Northwestern program or the like, could you please share your experience?

Depends on the program, honestly. Many/most programs will offer at least one class in a neuro-related topic, even if it's just general exposure to assessment instruments. For more than that, you're going to need neuro faculty that are at least somewhat involved in training. A medical department definitely isn't a necessity for having a neuro component/faculty, though.

🙂

That's all I have time for at the moment, sorry.

 

[teacup11]

What answers I could quickly provide are bolded in-line with the text below:




That's all I have time for at the moment, sorry.

Hi, thank you so much for your reply! Your answers were very helpful. So when you say "For more than that, you're going to need neuro faculty that are at least somewhat involved in training." do you mean that my advisor has to be a neuro faculty member, or that the program has to have some strong neuropsych professors?

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Hi, thank you so much for your reply! Your answers were very helpful. So when you say "For more than that, you're going to need neuro faculty that are at least somewhat involved in training." do you mean that my advisor has to be a neuro faculty member, or that the program has to have some strong neuropsych professors?

It wouldn't have to be your direct advisor, per se (although if you're wanting to go into neuropsych, having a neuropsychologist as an advisor would certainly help). But there will need to be a neuropsychologist faculty member and/or practicum supervisor available who'd be able to competently instruct you on neuropsychological principles.

Basically, if the program has no neuropsychology faculty, and also has no practicum placements that offer neuropsych experience, your chances of getting decent neuropsych training are slim-to-none. Mind you, even just one solid faculty member is enough, but there needs to be someone there actually trained in neuropsych for you to be able to get any instruction in it yourself.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Just my 2 cents...

1. I know that having matching research interests with those of your future POI is crucial to admission...so how else would I demonstrate to my POI that my real research interest lies in neuropsychology? Also, do neuroscience lab courses count as "research experience?"

It is hard to have *direct* experience in a specific areas. For instance, if I'm interested in studying executive dysfunction following a TBI...I may try and gain research experience with head injury, imaging, etc. Experience is about learning some, but also gaining exposure to what is actually involved in research. If you can get a poster/presentation/publication out of an RA experience...that is bonus.

2. If I work as an RA in a neuropsychology/neuroscience lab for 1-2 years after graduation, would that provide me enough experience to develop and prove my research interest in neuropsych?

See above.

3. Would having some lab courses in neuroscience and working as an RA in neuroscience labs be enough for programs that have specific neuroscience tracks? Or is it necessary to have my own independent research project on the topic to be competitive..

You will be more competitive if you did a senior thesis (this seems to be quite popular in Canada...I wish it was the norm in the USA).

4. I know that "clinical neuropsychologists" usually refer to people who have gotten their PhDs in clinical psychology and have done post-doc trainings in neuropsychology. Are these post-doc trainings hard to get when your PhD didn't necessarily focus on neuropsych?

Neuropsychology is a sub-speciality of clinical psychology. You are first a clinical psychologist, and then you train to be a neuropsychologist. There are some programs that are trying to do neuropsych stuff from Day 1, but that path of training has mixed support. I personally think it is putting the cart before the horse because you need to be a solid clinical psychologist before trying to overlay neuropsychological principles. You need to gain experience with neuropsych before internship and fellowship, but that can happen at most programs.....most of which do not have a specific 'track' or full degree in the area. I think the 'tracks' are mostly a marketing ploy to try and get students to pass over other offers. If you have access to a neuropsych practica, neuropsych classes (or at least neuroanatomy), and you have a mentor that is trained in neuropsych...you are good to go.

As for the title of neuropsychologist...most people in the field agree that to be considered a neuropsychologist you need to have completed a fellowship that meets the Houston Guidelines (which is a document that lists the areas of competency a neuropsychologist should have prior to independant practice). Implied in the HG are all of the underlying training.

With that being said...the vast majority of people who secure neuropsych fellowships come from clinical programs, not neuroscience programs. To secure a spot you will need to have a good amount of experience with neuropsych assessment AND training about neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, etc. I think the biggest weakeness of students on fellowship is a lack of true understanding of the neuroanatomy and the commom disease processes that contribute to the person's performance on neuropsych assessments.

5. Do most PhD programs offer many neuropsychology/psychopharmacology courses/training?
Yes.

6. For summer after junior year, what's the best thing I can do? It'd be great if I could get some neuropsychology lab exposure or be an RA/volunteer at medical center labs...how do I go about in finding these opportunities?
Go find an RA position; it doesn't have to be in a neuropsych lab (those are hard to find anyway).

7. Anything else that I can do to make myself a strong candidate for programs like northwestern's?
You need a good research match, high GPA, high GRE, great letters of rec, some posters/presentations/publications, etc.

 

[VeggieDelight]

To add to what T4C said, also find out if you can tailor your training to some extent in the absence of a specified track. My school has no track per se, but I was able to take neuropsych practica earlier than most and enroll in a neuroanatomy class with brain dissection lab (outside psych), which replaced a bio bases of behavior class we usually take. Now I'm in an fMRI data analysis class in another dept. as well. I sought these courses out on my own. Basically, look outside the psych department for electives that could be nice supplements to your training- neuroscience is in a lot of disciplines now. Creating your own sort of track takes some work, but really can be beneficial.

And I will say that before jumping into assessments, having some therapy training (even if it's just basic motivational interviewing) is essential. Those feedback sessions can be quite difficult.