School Psychology ph.d.

[jxmagik]

Greetings and salutations!

I am a long time lurker and first time poster. I was wondering if there are any school psychology ph.d students who could answer some of my questions or offer any advice for a (fingers crossed) future school psych ph.d student.

I have a pretty good GPA, decent GRE scores and research/clinical experience blahblabhalbhalh...its the personal statement and writing sample that I'm worried about.

Soooooo here it is...
What are some of the things that you wrote on your personal statement that you think gave you the advantage when applying?
What was your writing sample about?
Was it a full fledged journal paper or a research proposal or a class paper?
What do you think you did to set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants?
Is there any free advice you'd like to give me? Something that 2011 you wishes 2007(8,9,10) you knew? Anything is appreciated!

Also if there is anybody willing to tell me where he/she is attending school and what it is like please pm me!! Thanks so much!!!

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[FadedC]

Well if you have a high GPA and high GREs then I think the final important thing is to have something in your background that makes it obvious why you want to be a school psychologist and to tie this into your personal statement. For me it was a strong research background doing research into autistic children. It should make sense looking at your interests and background why you are applying to a school psych program and not a clinical or counseling psych program. Your research experience is one of the best ways to indicate that as long as your research background is something that can be reasonably applied to children and schools and not something like studying alzhemiers in senior citizens.

Greetings and salutations!

I am a long time lurker and first time poster. I was wondering if there are any school psychology ph.d students who could answer some of my questions or offer any advice for a (fingers crossed) future school psych ph.d student.

I have a pretty good GPA, decent GRE scores and research/clinical experience blahblabhalbhalh...its the personal statement and writing sample that I'm worried about.

Soooooo here it is...
What are some of the things that you wrote on your personal statement that you think gave you the advantage when applying?
What was your writing sample about?
Was it a full fledged journal paper or a research proposal or a class paper?
What do you think you did to set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants?
Is there any free advice you'd like to give me? Something that 2011 you wishes 2007(8,9,10) you knew? Anything is appreciated!

Also if there is anybody willing to tell me where he/she is attending school and what it is like please pm me!! Thanks so much!!!

 

[aagman01]

TO second what Faded said, I would also try to tie in your research interests with a faculty member. For example, I am interested in _____, which I believe ties in with the research of _____.

Well if you have a high GPA and high GREs then I think the final important thing is to have something in your background that makes it obvious why you want to be a school psychologist and to tie this into your personal statement. For me it was a strong research background doing research into autistic children. It should make sense looking at your interests and background why you are applying to a school psych program and not a clinical or counseling psych program. Your research experience is one of the best ways to indicate that as long as your research background is something that can be reasonably applied to children and schools and not something like studying alzhemiers in senior citizens.

 

[jxmagik]

Well if you have a high GPA and high GREs then I think the final important thing is to have something in your background that makes it obvious why you want to be a school psychologist and to tie this into your personal statement. For me it was a strong research background doing research into autistic children. It should make sense looking at your interests and background why you are applying to a school psych program and not a clinical or counseling psych program. Your research experience is one of the best ways to indicate that as long as your research background is something that can be reasonably applied to children and schools and not something like studying alzhemiers in senior citizens.

Thanks! I don't have a high GPA or GREs they are about the mean of all the schools I am applying to, or at least between one standard deviation either way. Hence the reason I want to write a good personal statement. Thanks for your advice! If you don't mind me asking what kind of research do you do with children with autism? I'm interested in the same field 😀.

 

[jnine]

other things important to success are demonstrating that you are interested in doing what school psychologists do and that you have the ability to form strong professional relationships with students, teachers and administrators.

Greetings and salutations!

I am a long time lurker and first time poster. I was wondering if there are any school psychology ph.d students who could answer some of my questions or offer any advice for a (fingers crossed) future school psych ph.d student.

I have a pretty good GPA, decent GRE scores and research/clinical experience blahblabhalbhalh...its the personal statement and writing sample that I'm worried about.

Soooooo here it is...
What are some of the things that you wrote on your personal statement that you think gave you the advantage when applying?
What was your writing sample about?
Was it a full fledged journal paper or a research proposal or a class paper?
What do you think you did to set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants?
Is there any free advice you'd like to give me? Something that 2011 you wishes 2007(8,9,10) you knew? Anything is appreciated!

Also if there is anybody willing to tell me where he/she is attending school and what it is like please pm me!! Thanks so much!!!

 

[FadedC]

Thanks! I don't have a high GPA or GREs they are about the mean of all the schools I am applying to, or at least between one standard deviation either way. Hence the reason I want to write a good personal statement. Thanks for your advice! If you don't mind me asking what kind of research do you do with children with autism? I'm interested in the same field 😀.

Well I've actually moved out of autism research and into motivation research. But when I was doing autism research I was looking at imitation skill in children with autism as a predictor of language development.