ShiningInShadows

Thank you both for your input. One of my goals was to try and not make too many assumptions going into my PhD since that caused many headaches when working towards my Master's degree, and in the last few days I've begun to wonder about my assumption that my professional clinical experience will be of benefit. Okay, in fairness, as I approach my upcoming interview at my first choice school I've found myself self-generating all kinds of doubts, many of which are unfounded I know. Fortunately I have been using time at conferences to start some networking and my current supervisor is super connected so he's been a good resource to know who would be a good fit for me. My top school choice may not bring very much prestige, but the person I want to work with seems to be a really good fit as an advisor for me.

Does anyone know how to interpret the schools at the end without any ranking displayed? My former BA/MS program was on there. It used to be a really great school for clinical psych but it really went downhill badly a few years ago.

If you have the time, I would say why not? Obviously I don't know the whole story, but at the school I am interviewing at next week it is the director of clinical training that e-mails about interviews and such, even though she is not my POI who I have been dealing with. It never hurts to try and keep communication open I assume.

Here's a question for all of you out there in internetland that may have been through this (or are going through this)... I suppose you could say I am a non-traditional student. I am in my post-late-20s (interpretted early 30s and in denial) and finished my (painfully ridiculously long 3.5 year) Master's degree in 2008. I took a break from school because I just couldn't stomach it much any more and an awesome job opportunity openned up for me. I work in prison rehabilitation and you can often do this kind of work with a Master's degree so I jumped at an opportunity to work at a internationally-esteemed program in New England (even though I hate it up here, it's that good of a job). So now I'm five-ish years later with more clinical experience than I otherwise would have (I did two years working full-time in a counseling program last time I was in school) had if I went straight from my (hellish) Master's program to a PhD, and a few publications as well. Now many of my senior collegues are insane about experience over credentials, but then again some of them are (on the extreme end) anti-research and all stopped at the Master's level (in the state I am working in you can still become a licensed psychologist without a doctoral degree). The question I've been wondering is how much does this clinical experience give me an edge/advantage/hope/snowball's chance in you-know-where? As part of my interview strategy I have been planning on this balancing out my less than stellar psych gre scores (because the structure of the eye has almost no bearing on what I do, for instance!).

I don't quite know what "human development and family study" would fall under but in the Psychology forum there is a thread to ask results posters to contact people who want more info.

I wish I found this thread weeks ago! Fortunately I still have about 165 hours until interview time (probably the only interview I will have... trying to not obsess too much!). For those of you who go/have gone in with the research proposal question in mind, how developed should this generally be? In preparation I've generated a couple ideas for potential dissertations but I haven't totally fleshed them out partially because I'm not sure on what limitations I'm going to have, what the impact of my advisor will be (fortunately we have very close research interests) and in truth I'm busier starting a paper I'd like to try and get in press before I return to academia (there's an assumption or two in there I know) and I have a precon next month I'm doing solo so my attention has been fairly divided. I feel like I should get more details as to what could be in a proposal but I fear I'm overthinking it.

Fascinating. I applied to UNL back in November for the psych phd program. My bar is at the 3/4 mark as well even though I was told I'm not getting an interview/record number of applicants from my POI. I checked it a few days ago out of curiousity (as the dangling along of another program is grating at my mind). Makes me wonder what it will look like in the fall.

My first rejection was Nebraska-Lincoln. It was a bittersweet experience, being that it was not my top choice. I asked for a follow-up from the my contact person, and he informed me that they had already extended all their interviews. I very politely thank him and told him I would reapply next year if I didn't get in anywhere, and he actually offered to give me pointers if I don't get in anywhere. So in this case, I suppose this is the best case scenario, but it certainly has left me thinking it doesn't hurt to ask.

Simple, straightforward, just what I'd assume. But to quote the only quotable quote from a Steven Seagal movie, "Assumption is the mother of all _____ ups." Thanks, Woosah.

Hello all. I apologize if this is asked already, but I've been struggling to find an answer to the following question with no success. So I received an interview invitation for my second choice school today, my first invite actually (not rejected on first choice but didn't make it into first round of interview apparently). I'm returning for my PhD following being in the field with my Master's for a few years, and I don't have anyone who has been through this process to get advice from. Fortunately the internet is a splendid place with plenty of information on the application process but the one thing it is missing seems to be how to respond to this invitation. So I would assume that a polite, formal RSVP would be enough, but I had a ton of trouble mucking through my Master's program and I'm trying to avoid make so many asumptions this time around. I would appreciate any input. Thanks!