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I'm a clinician so this is based on my experiences being involved in admissions for my lab during my funded PhD program
Excellent, not having a focused research area is often a barrier to good PI/program fit.
Even if a reviewer makes the connection between a strong LOR but weaker grades in that prof's classes, my hunch is that it won't matter any/much.
If all of your schools have profs interested in ACT research, they can value your research experience and think that your future directions synch up better with their research programs than somebody else with better stats/other research. But compared to another applicant with similar research background/output, I think you'd be at a disadvantage since they would have demonstrated more previous success and programs are always wary of possible attrition.
When I applied, I remember quant being prioritized over verbal; no one really looked at writing, IIRC.
ditto
This is a great list (thanks Mitch!). What stood out to me the most is how helpful it is to show times you have created and followed through on your own ideas, whether that is in research or work. Grad students need to be independent and self-driven, so showing a history of that curiosity and creativity will go a long way.
Yes since it's clearly your professional work.
Yep, just clearly indicate it's being currently reviewed and has not been accepted yet (e.g., 'poster submission under review'). Some people will also list potential projects as "under development" when they haven't been submitted yet.
Are your other letter writers psychologists? If they agreed to write you a rec, I would think they'd be willing to give some feedback. It would be concerning to see a PhD/PsyD application from somebody who has zero letters from PhD/PsyDs.
While personal background and motivation to pursue a doctorate is important (and when written well and concisely, can help you stand out), the bulk of your personal statement should describe what's prepared you to be successful in doctoral studies (e.g., previous research projects you've worked on and what you learned from these contributions), how your intended doctoral research interests line up with your POI's work, and your fit with the program (e.g., interest in being trained in the scientist-practitioner model).
With an MA, professional clinical experience, and some research output, I think you'd be generally competitive for self-pay PsyD programs but I don't have direct knowledge of how competitive the NYC grad school scene is. I also don't know how many of your programs are self-pay, partial assistance, or fully funded but have you and your family really mapped out what (if any) debt load would be manageable when factoring in compounding loan interest, any debt you already carry, and realistic future net income?
Is that program in NYC and if so, are you applying there? If so, I would imagine that could be a good shot since they have worked with you directly.
Totally understand that not everybody can be flexible but have you given thought to internship? According to APA, there are 60 accredited NY internships, including many outside of NYC. Would you be able to move temporarily out of state in 4-5 years? Do a split residence in upstate NY or a neighboring state? Or would you delay matching for a year to build up a CV (but potentially pay another year of tuition and without future guarantee of a NYC match)? Or take a non-APA accredited internship and potentially limit future job opportunities?
Admissions is a crapshoot. Let's say a program has 5 slots and each PI can realistically interview 6-8 candidates. If 100 people apply, some applications will clearly be from people who aren't ready and some will immediately stand out. The rest will be people with potential to be successful in grad school but we can't logistically interview everybody so cuts need to happen.
I think your raw stats are fine and line up with what many successful PhDs have upon admission.
A lot will depend on fit and then luck in terms of your direct competition for interview offers. The quality and quantity of applications will likely ebb and flow from year to year for each program and each PI so I think a lot of applicants are feeling uncertain regardless of their CV. Good luck!
Hi to those reading!
I was hoping to get advice on what to work on to help prepare me for the application process next fall. A little background:
Undergrad GPA: 3.70 Psychology and Criminal Justice (completed honors program with honors thesis)
Experience: Worked as an undergrad RA in two labs in my alma mater for 2+ years, and worked as a part-time RA at Brown for almost a year now and now currently working at another Ivy League university as a full-time RA. (One semester as a TA for a course on clinical psych)
Publications: Have over 20 poster presentations and two publications as fourth author and currently working on a first-author publication. I hope to get a few more posters from my new position and at least one more publication (as third or fourth author maybe).
My interests revolve around psychology and forensic/law so I am planning on applying to a couple of different programs that had faculty that fit my interests: Clinical Psychology PhD, joint JD-PhD (in Clinical psych), and Clinical Psych Phd-MPH programs. Some of the schools currently on my list are University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Drexel, John Jay, Clark Univ, GSU, among many others I still need to narrow down. Does anyone have any advice on what I should be focusing on? I plan on taking the GRE in February and LSAT in April and am starting to study now. Should I get an additional part-time RA position or what should I focus on in the personal statements? If you have any suggestions for faculty who is interested in forensic, sexual assault, prevention and policy or anything along those lines that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!!
Your numbers and research activities are fine but it is tricky to suggest a program without knowing your specific research experience and interests... Most important is how you fit with a given mentor or program. Often, students prepare well but the preparation is futile without a direction or specific focus. For every site you apply, you should have a solid grasp on the literature where your potential mentor is focused. APA accredited PhD programs are the most competitive of all graduate programs. This is because nationally there a so many psychology students and so few APA accredited programs. Thus, mentors have the ability to be very choosy even at R2 and R3 programs, and tend to pick students who are already active in their perspective fields.
"be active in their fields"
I don't know if there is a prepared list of programs where there are faculty conducting research in your friend's specific area, but a good place for your friend to start is potentially looking for papers of work that your friend would like to eventually do during graduate school and beyond and then seeing who the authors are, what institutions they're affiliated with, and if they're in a psychology department. Professional societies sometimes have this information (for example, ABCT's Sexual and Gender Minority Special Interest Group maintains a list of faculty conducting research in LGBTQ+ health who are taking students each year).
The Georgia State Counseling Psychology PhD program is highly competitive, with an acceptance rate of roughly 2.5% (my estimate). In 2019 the average GRE scores were 160 for Verbal (86th percentile for all GRE, not just psychology) and 160 for Quantitative (76th percentile) [I used the Magoosh percentile calculator.]
I would recommend retaking the GRE is possible (should be offered online now due to COVID if you can't/don't want to do it in person). Otherwise you have a good chance of getting to the interview stage- good experience! (in my opinion)
I think you are in good shape- you have an impressive amount of research for a recent graduate and a good GPA with an honors thesis could help boost your application. I don't think it matters that you started your new job until September since it is understandable that not a lot of labs were hiring or even working from late March- end of summer! Clinical experience I have heard is not necessarily needed for clinical psych PhD programs so you're good there. If you have experience working in the field you want to go into and you know those three letters of recommendation are strong, then I think you should expect to hear from at least 1-2 schools for interviews! Best of luck!
Lacking research experience like that is a very significant "flaw," especially at programs like Penn, which is clinical science oriented and gets a lot of applicants, the most competitive of whom have extensive research experience.
Was figuring that for Penn State but what about UPitt or Duquesne; those have intrigued me the most. With CCNY as honorable mention
Pitt is another PCSAS program, so it will be a similar situation to Penn. For Duquesne, It's less about the orientation and more about the limited spots. If the program only has a handful of openings because it's fully funded, why should they pick someone who doesn't have research experience over someone who does?
It isn’t like I wasn’t going to enroll in a lab which I was supposed to which I had made known. A faculty member at Duquesne didn’t directly say anything about an interview but gave me his personal number and told me if I want to call him back in second week of Jan. How should I interpret that??
For me, the biggest predictor of success for completing a PhD is demonstrated previous engagement and contribution to original, peer reviewed scholarship.
I have a poster contribution in the world but just one however.
The schools I had applied to are in some of the responses above.
