healthypsych

Yeah @chef-web, do you mind sharing your stats?

The UK is great for psychology! I just finished my Master's at King's College London and the psychology department under the institute of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience is ranked #2 in the world. #1 being harvard.

I am biased because I studied at KCL but I thoroughly enjoyed my time there for my MSc. Both are prestigious schools and both set you up for good graduate job prospects but KCL is ranked actually higher in a lot of sections related to what you are doing than UCL. The program itself is also better. Either way, you are in a great position!

Hi! Thanks for the reply. It seems that the programs don't really have an area of strength they want to see. I am applying to a mix of public health and pysch phds and most just want above 60-70% the weird thing about my tests is that each section is above that cut off in each distinct test. So as mentioned before, Q was above the mark one the first exam, V was above the mark on the second, and AW was above the mark on the third. I did not plan it to come out like this but now I am not sure what to do?

bump? :)

Hey everyone, So I took the GREs last week for the third time. My last two exams were in 2013 and I wanted to see if I made any progress. Needless to say, the scores this time for V and Q were the median of the three scores. My first exam has the best Q and the second has the best V. Ironically enough though the best AW score was on the third test. I don't know how heavily AW is weighed but I dont know if I should bother sending in my most recent exam. The scores were literally two points below for V from my highest and a point below for Q. I am afraid that since its my most recent exam they may only look at that even though the other two sections are better from 2 years ago. Should I send in all three exams or am I better off sending the scores from 2013 and forgetting about the high AW score on the third test (I went from 56 percentile to 84 percentile)?

Sorry for so many posts! So I have reached out to a few professors at schools I am applying to and so far I have had phone convos with a majority of the professors. Any professor that I have spoken to over the phone has said they would be delighted to have me in their lab. How much does this weigh in the application process?

I mean some programs have the GRE cut off of 50% and some say 60% what is it generally? For both, yes it does pass the "cut-off" And I do have other aspects that are strong: strong GPA, letters, and researcher experience. 2 papers (1 first author), 2 in prep as well, and about 4 presentations/conferences.

I know most programs use the GREs to weed out applicants in the first round but I already have completed a Master's in Health Psychology. Considering that GREs are technically used to "assess your likelihood of success under the graduate environment" and I have completed my Masters (with top marks), how much do you think okay scores will hurt my application for a doctorate program? I am taking them again next week but I dont know if they are really going to make a difference in change of scores from when I last took them 2 years ago. The school I went to is highly ranked, globally speaking, but it was in the UK. The scores I got in 2013 are not bad but they aren't stellar either exactly and I feel that my application overall is strong in itself. I am just scared that my GREs will be my downfall even though I have already proven I can handle graduate level coursework.

Hi everyone, I am sure you read this here on the forum quite a bit but I have a concern I was hoping you guys would help me with. So when I enrolled into college, I enrolled as a bio major. My first two years were horrible as a bio major as I suffered from severe anxiety (was diagnosed my sophomore year) and I was unhappy in the major. Once I switched to psychology my junior year, my grades were like night and day. I started getting straight A's and A-s and my life really turned around. I knew I wanted to get a PhD in health psych but didnt have enough research experience by my senior year (3 labs in two semesters and a clinical internship and research internship) (as i only switched in my junior year) and my bio grades really dragged down my GPA. My overall GPA was a 3.0 but my psych GPA was about a 3.9 and my last two years my GPA was a 3.76. Anyway, I decided to complete a Master's instead to show I can handle graduate level work. I completed my masters of science in health psych this september at a really well established school (#2 for psych/psychiatry in the world) and I did really well. Because I decided to do it in the UK (I am a dual citizen and health psych is more established there than it is in the US and the program was really strong) the grading system is a bit different. My final grades are to come out in November but I should be getting a high merit or distinction (so either a 3.7 or 4.0). I am applying to doctorate programs now....I know they look at undergrad GPAs...how badly do you think my first two years (back in 2010/2011) will influence me given I have completed a Master's in the same field I intend to do my doctorate in? I know other aspects of my application matters and other than my grades I think my overall application is pretty strong. I am working on improving my GREs but I just wanted to know they wont completely ax me out based on my GPA from undergrad which is dragged down by my first two years as a bio major. I will put in a sentence or two explaining that too in my SOP. Thanks!

Thanks! Well technically I am not an international student since I have a dual citizenship. I am originally from the United States, I just took a year out to study in another country where I also have citizenship. The master's does translate over so it shouldn't be an issue, just like funding.

Hi everyone, So as I mentioned in a few posts earlier, I just completed my MSc in Health Psych at a very highly internationally ranked school in the UK. I am now looking to apply for PhDs in the US (i am a dual citizen and i completed my undergrad in the U.S.) within the same area. I am trying to assess how competitive I am as an applicant and I am planning on taking my GREs again b/c i think that may be my downfall. I read somewhere that if you show strengths elsewhere they may overlook it. GRE (2013): v-157 q-155 I know its low compared to others scores but I have one publication, about three manuscripts that are in prep, and I have been involved in about 7 research projects/labs (3 undergrad/ 4 grad). all of the research projects I have been involved in include different types of studies and I conducted different types of analyses. In addition I did 3 clinical internships in undergrad and one major work placement and one internship from my time during my masters. I chose to do this master's because I was a bio major my first two years and had GAD so my GPA overall for undergrad was low even though my psych GPA was 3.9. We havent received our final grades for the masters but I know I received either a merit (equiv of a 3.7) or a distinction (4.0) depending on my Master's thesis. I chose this particular program in the UK because it was leading in the field and health psych isnt as established in the US as it is in the UK and I wanted to work with the profs leading in their field. This also helps me gain some strong rec letters, including one from a professor who is a leader within the health psych field (he helped develop a big health behaviour model in the 1980s still used to this day). Not to mention any other extracurricular work I have done in my undergrad/ grad school. So all of what is mentioned above has lead me to believe that I may be hopefully a strong candidate and I shouldn't worry too much about my GRE scores? I also have spoken to potential PIs in PhD programs so they know who I am. How much do you think my GRE scores are going to weighted compared to the rest of my application?

Yeah I think there may have been some confusion. I am not asking for people who are in grad school looking for jobs. I have my MSc in Health Psych and I want to pursue a PhD in the same field. I already have one manuscript published and an insight report for a pharmaceutical/ health psych company is published for the company as well. I have been involved in three research projects since starting my MSc and I want to show grad schools that there is something coming out of my time spent on those projects. We put off publishing for two weeks b/c they wanted me to focus on completing the dissertation first. Now that is done I can focus on polishing the other papers to submit them within the next few weeks. In case they are not at that stage by the time I apply, I want to make sure it is highlighted in my CV/ SOP. Just wanted to check if this was a normal convention, which it appears to be.

I already have a manuscript published and a white paper published. The white paper is published for a pharmaceutical company however so I don't really count it as a published paper, although it is relevant to the area i want to go into (health psychology). I just want PhD programs to see the work that I have come up with from completing my Master's and there are drafts that I can give them so it's not like I am making things up.

Thanks for all of the replies! Yeah all the ones I want to list for "Manuscripts in Preparation" are papers that are drafted already and need a bit of tweaking before I send it out for publication. Two are first author (my Master's dissertation which we are shortening to be a published paper and a systematic review) and one of them I believe I may be second or third author (another systematic review). I am hoping this will help as I apply for PhD programs!