NSSRGrad07 - Sorry to hear about your situation with VT. Unfortunately, it isn't all that uncommon. Most PhD programs these days are more interested in training researchers than clinicians (at least that I have seen). I have some friends in the same boat with regards to that.
I'd recommend the "Insider's Guide to Graduate programs in clinical and counseling psychology". Its about $15 on amazon and breaks down every accredited program and rates how clinical vs. research oriented they are on a scale from 1 to 7. Might help you figure out which schools would be more open to having someone with the career goal of clinician. I'd stick to 4's or lower (which unfortunately, are increasingly rare in the clinical PhD world). May be a moot point if you have an offer, but if for some reason you decide to reapply, I cannot recommend that book highly enough.
Best of luck with everything.
I used that book too and it's definitely helpful, however I don't think you need to stick to 4s or lower. First of all, most of the top programs are 5s or higher, with most of them being at least a 6. Aside from that, however, I also expressed my interest in both clinical practice and research (on equal levels), and managed to get interviewed at 2 schools that are a 6 out of 7 on the scale, 7 being completely research-based and 1 being completely clinical based (that's generally just going to be PsyD programs). That's not to say I'm going to get in to either program, and I still don't know in either case, but they read my personal statement just like the rest of the schools and still wanted to talk to me. On the other hand, one school that I applied to that was a 5, that POI told me that he generally focused on more-research based applicants, though he did SAY it was not a problem that I had an additional interest in clinical practice. To be honest, a lot of professors have their own clinical practice or at least do some form of therapy at their own school, so for a lot of them it would be really hypocritical to not take someone with an additional interest in clinical practice.
Anyway, I basically used the book to rule out schools, like Wisconsin, that had a 7 out of 7 on the scale. Also, I know schools like UNC are trying to become MORE research-focused, so even though they have a 5 right now, they might not by the time you leave.
But yeah...the short form of this message is that the book is helpful, but it's worth trying schools that are higher than 4s because it CAN work out. I do think it's still important to be honest about your future ambitions just because you don't want to get there and (1) not be trained in one area and (2) have everybody be angry at you (I hate when everybody is angry at me), and things CAN work out (so I hear).
Thanks! I think that there are people out there with more optimism of me getting in somewhere than I currently possess myself. At this point, I'm simply waiting for rejections to be confirmed as all my other programs have already interviewed. It would take some oddity for me to be accepted without an interview, I suspect. This leaves me with two wait lists: one of which is highly unlikely since the accepted student only had one interview & acceptance offer, and one which is semi-unlikely due to some of the feedback I received during the interview. We shall see!
