My case is a little off-center, as my GPA and GRE scores are not stellar by any means, but I have what I believe is better than average research and community experience for someone just turned 21, and I've so far aced all three of my seminar classes - Abnormal Psychology, Motivation and History of Systems of Psychology. I'll also be taking seminars in Cross-Cultural and Developmental Psychology before the end of the school year and should ace those as well.
Part of the issue with my GPA is that I took a number of classes through a community college as part of Running Start, a program in Washington State that allows you to have such classes count for both high school and college credit. Those grades don't get to have their GPA included in my four-year college GPA, though almost all of them were transferable to my four year college. The other part is that I have two Cs in Psychology classes - one as a result of a friend dying suddenly the day before the final (did much better the second time I took the class), the other being surprised with a big chunk of work as local preparation for a summer class in China which was not on the pre-application syllabus, which took up most of my time.
Bachelors of Science - General Psychology
Bachelor of Arts - Chinese Language
Time to accomplish: Four years
Cumulative GPA (Summer 2014): 3.28
GRE - Verbal: 153
GRE - Quantitative: 155
GRE - Analytical: 4.2 (....the joys of ADHD......)
GRE Psychology Subject exam - I haven't received the score back yet
By graduation in June 2015, I will have three years research experience. I am a senior researcher for a project regarding young children and families, where I supervise, train and assist five other undergraduate students. I am also a head researcher regarding a project regarding assessing the value of DBT for subjects having gone through it. I had first billing and presented on a poster presentation for the WPA event in Portland earlier this year, and am included in a poster presentation that will be presented in 2015 at the Association for Women in Psychology.
I will also have two years experience as a facilitator for adolescents that have suffered the loss of a family member, having acquired two certifications (The Doughy Center-Facilitator Skills; Stewards of Children Certification) and working on a third.
My research professor, another that specialties in baby development and a third that specializes in cognition and memory have all agreed to write me letters of recommendation. I also will be receiving a letter of recommendation from where I am a facilitator.
I am also considered moderately to highly fluent in Mandarin, with training not only at my university, but also in Beijing and Kunming. (I am Caucasian and have no East Asian background in my family.) I chased this second degree because it seemed to help me deal with my ADHD - I can interpret and retain images exceptionally well, but symbols not as well (though I've worked very hard to counteract this issue). Chinese character retention comes relatively easy for me with a little study. I was tutoring for a time, but quit after my friend's passing and the resultant bad final to focus more on my coursework.
In general, I want to benefit undeserved populations as much as possible through creating a bridge between therapy and research. One specific area of interest is working with adolescents from bilingual immigrant families, preferably where the primary language is Mandarin. I have a strong interest in research to determine optimal therapeutic methods for these adolescents in particular and their families in general. Another area of interest is the impact of emotion regulation in infancy on anxiety, ADHD and the eating disorders of adolescents, specifically determining unique risk and protective factors that would lead to lower rates of these highly prevalent disorders. A third area of interest is the potential risk and protective factors regarding father-specific impact on children’s development.
I am considering applying to a large number of clinical psychology programs. It might look scattershot at first glance, but these programs have professors working one way or another in at least one of my areas of interest above.
Boston University
California - Berkeley
Delaware
Harvard
Hawaii - Manoa
Northern Illinois
Ohio State
Oregon
Ottawa
Penn State
Simon Fraser
Southern Illinois - Carbondale
U Denver (PhD)
U Loyola-Chicago
U Mass - Amherst
U Victoria
University of Washington
UCLA
York
Utah
Waterloo
Wayne State
Windsor
I would appreciate an honest assessment of my chances of being accepted to any of these programs. I know that my research professor would love for me to apply to the school's Mental Health Counseling or Experimental Psychology masters programs, but that isn't my preference at this time.