what should i do

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Maroon

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-Senior
-Changed major from biology to psychology last semester
-No psych research
-GPA 3.0

I'm not going to provides excuses for my performance..it is what it is. The thing I am asking is what I should do now. I haven't taken the GRE's yet but plan to. I don't know where I should go from here, since I was working to go into a different field before.

What is the avg GRE score I should get to compensate for the GPA?
What schools would accept me or do I have a chance of getting into?
Should I forget about PsyD programs and focus on Masters in psych?
Do you think I have some hope of getting into a graduate program?
 
Of course, there's always hope.

3.0 is low enough that you'd likely be cut automatically though. You'll probably want to do some more coursework to raise the GPA either before or after you graduate.

Get some research experience. Every little bit of it helps!
 
There is hope, alot goes into getting into a program besides just raw numbers. There are somethings to do that can help.

1. Get on board some research - by helping a professor as research lackey, I think this is the easiest way to get some research experience in the late stages of the game if you dont already have experience
2. Network with your professors at your school and start asking them for advice and directions
3. Go for the masters and then PhD/PsyD - if it is a possibility for you
4. Remember that there are multiple options to practicing the mental health field such as LPC or LCSW, that you may be well suited for also
5. Be really creative when writting personal statements
6. Apply very broadly and apply to as many schools as you can afford to apply to

Good Luck

Jeff
 
GPA is problematic, but fixable. Take psych classes. Buttloads of them. Every .1 you pull it up helps a ton.

Do you want to practice or do academics? I assume practice since you mentioned the PsyD but figured I'd ask to make sure.

Nail the GREs. 1300+ preferably 1400+ will help a lot if you are looking at PhD programs. No idea for PsyDs. Mine were considered pretty poor at 1250 and got me eliminated from alot of places (again though - PhD).

GO START RESEARCH RIGHT NOW. Find a lab at your school to work in that interests you and is something you'd consider focusing on in graduate school. Work your butt off, make them love you. Once you've been there enough to get into the swing of things, see if you can get involved in putting together a poster for a conference, getting on a pub is even better. Be warned they aren't likely to let you do that on day 1, but if you bust your butt in the fall, there's a chance in the spring you can get involved.

Master's is a good idea for you. Might want to look into those. Many let you transition to doctoral work from their master's programs.

Realize you may not be successful applying next year. No harm in trying but realistically you may need more time to fix this then you'll have if you apply in the fall. Many of us take time off, so this is not a bad thing...most schools see it as a plus! Gives you more time to get experience.

All is not lost by any means, but realize its not going to be easy getting in🙂 Some places will love that you have a solid bio background, so that helps. If you do the above you'll have no troubles getting into a decent-to-good master's program as those are much less competitive (though still not easy). If you're successful there chances are you'll be able to get into a doctoral program.

As someone else mentioned, if you want to practice you can also go for an MSW or something along those lines. MUCH MUCH less competitive to get in, though its usually a completely different training model. If your goal is to "help people with emotionally difficult times" though, it CERTAINLY allows you to achieve that, just in a slightly different capacity.

Almost hate to bring this up since it usually turns into a flame-war, but if you have tons of money to throw around, there are some PsyD programs with really low acceptance standards. You might even have a shot as is, but if you do the above you'll have no problems getting into one of those. Downside is 150k (ish) of debt, vs. near-zero debt (or much less at the very least) elsewhere. I'm not a strong believer in this gameplan, though others here may disagree (do a search, you'll find a few thousand posts of people screaming at eachother). Personally, my recommendation is to take an extra year or two off improving your psychology CV and go to a more competitive one than do the above. I'm trying to be objective though, so I wanted to make sure you were aware its an option.
 
Have you thought about putting off graduation for at least a quarter/semester? Rather than going through a cycle of applications (without much hope of acceptance into a Ph.D. or good Psy.D. program), I would suggest working on your GPA by delaying graduation, following Ollie123's advice, and taking a ton of psych classes. I would think that since you just switched majors you probably still need a lot of psych anyway right? And don't forget stats classes!

Other than that, definitely get on a research team this summer if at all possible. The more research you have under your belt by application time, the better. When looking for a prof to research with, you might also ask if you would be able to work on any publications. If you have any authorship (even 3rd or 4th) on a pub or poster on your CV at application that's also really good points in your column.

I agree about the 1300-1400 GRE scores. The higher they are, the more likely a selection committee is to overlook a slightly lower GPA.

Good luck!
 
-Senior
-Changed major from biology to psychology last semester
-No psych research
-GPA 3.0

I'm not going to provides excuses for my performance..it is what it is. The thing I am asking is what I should do now. I haven't taken the GRE's yet but plan to. I don't know where I should go from here, since I was working to go into a different field before.

What is the avg GRE score I should get to compensate for the GPA?
What schools would accept me or do I have a chance of getting into?
Should I forget about PsyD programs and focus on Masters in psych?
Do you think I have some hope of getting into a graduate program?

I strongly suggest you make an appointment with an academic advisor in your faculty. One thing that occurs to me is that it might be better if you go ahead and graduate with a BSc in Bio, then do a BA in psych. You should be able to apply the courses you took in your BSc to your second degree, meaning that you'd just load up on psych courses and be done in two years. (If your school allows that! Check with the advisor!)

This has the added advantage of giving you two more years to get some research experience. Were you to apply for Sept. 2008, you would have a few months of research experience. This could be a problem--the majority of people I know who were accepted to a program had at least a full year of research exp., if not two or more.
 
Thanks for all of your help.
 
something to keep in mind:

some schools will also just look at your last two years, so since you are a senior, make sure you ace this last year so when schools ask for your last two years, you will have something great to report. When I applied, my cum. gpa was a 3.49 but my last two years (or last 60 credits) was above a 3.7, which I think helped me a lot.

the best thing to supplement a poor gpa in my opinion is experience in research. especially if it was in the topic you were interested in, you could easily try to network. often times when I am doing literature reviews, I would email the authors with questions about their methods/results/discussion, and that usually can get the ball rolling. You could later ask them if they know a colleague who is accepting students, etc.
 
Unfortunately I am at my final year so reflection of improvement will probably not be appreciated so much into my GPA.

As for research, you are all correct. I doubt professors are accepting students now, but I'll just have to work with the situation I'm in. I'm very concerned about my position and taking a break between undergrad and grad is really an option I'd like to consider after I've done all I've can to get in somewhere. Hearing from people who were in my position before would be great.
 
Ask an academic advisor about the solution I suggested! (Not to toot my own horn, but I think it could work well!) If your school allows it, you'd end up with a BSc, a BA in psych, 2 years to bring up your marks, and two years to get some really great RA experience! I know it sucks to wait it out for even longer, but I think the average age of people entering psych PhD programs is quite a bit higher than 22/24 anyway.
 
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