(Sorry im reposting this, but I really wanted to get others' input.)
Hello all! I'm new to this forum and I nearly jumped for joy when I saw this thread. Anyway, let me tell you about my credentials and the schools I'm applying to for Fall 2012.
First off, I am a junior and 1/2 (I will graduate next winter) and I am a psychology major wanting to become a clinical psychologist with a Psy.D and I want to specialize in personality disorders.
Okay here it goes:
Current School: U. of Cincinnati
Residence: Ohio (all my life)
I am a
minority, I'm African American/Black.
Current Cumulative GPA: 3.67
Current Psychology GPA: 3.85
(The rest of my classes should be quite easy since I got all of the difficult ones out of the way last semester. I'm anticipating A's for the remainder of my undergrad career.)
GRE Scores: I have not taken the GRE yet, but I plan to in April. However, I purchased Kaplan's $500 GRE course and I've taken four computer adapted practice GRE exams and I've been ranging around 1050-1150. 580-600ish for verbal, 480-550 for quantitative (I suck at math
)
-I still have 3 more months to study and the rest of the Kaplan course to get through -hopefully my scores will improve.
Classes taken: Abnormal Psych, Senses & Perception, Intro&Intermediate Stats, Research Design, Personality Psychology, Psychobiology
Research Experience: I have been working under a world renowned personality psychologist as a research assistant for two consecutive quarters, and I plan to work with him until I graduate.
Clinical Experience:
-I just started an internship at a Mental Health Services clinic and I will be shadowing (of course, not in an actual session) and studying under the CEO who is also a psychologist and therapist.
-I also just started volunteering at a support group clearing house where I get the opportunity to sit in on round-table discussions with psychologists around the area.
-I will be a "Buddy" in the support group clearing house's Buddy program that assigns a friend to people with psychological disorders who recently were released from the hospital/psychiatric treatment facility. I basically will help them ease back into things.
-I'm volunteering as a crisis counselor for a Suicide Hotline.
Letters of Recommendations: So far I have at least three solid letters, all from psychologists (one of them is from England and published a popular textbook on Personality Psychology)
The Psy.D schools that I will be applying to: (In order of personal ranking)
1. Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH)
2. Wright State University School of Professional Psychology (SOPP)(Dayton, OH)
3. Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne, FL)
3. Nova Southeastern University SOPP (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
4. Massachusetts SOPP (Boston, MA)
5. Chicago SOPP (Chicago, IL)
6. University of Hartford (Hartford, CT)
7. University of Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN)
8. Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL)
I know this is a lot of information but I like to be thorough lol. Please let me know what you think!