Generis

Me too!

California has one of the highest rates of MFT counseling individuals per capita, so it can be very difficult to get started because there are already 10 counseling office on any busy street. I think it might be helpful for you to get more active/more experience with the LGTBQ community, then from that figure out what role you could see yourself in for this community. This will also make you look more attractive if you apply to graduate school, because you'll be bringing some experience in. The Psy.D. seems like a good fit for you if you ultimately wanted to end up being a counselor at that level, but they are ridiculiously expensive ($100k) with very limited financial support. There are other options with less financial dedication, such as life coaches, etc. that are aimed in the same direction but don't require that level of education or subsequent student debt. Another good idea might be to look at non-profits that work with this community, and contact them to obtain some advice about the education needed to work with this population. If they are all Psy. Ds, you could apply now and just give it a shot! Best of luck!

California is a license-state for sure. You could probably find a job in a supportive role with clients, but it would be hard to find a job where you are directly working with clients without some sort of license.

Does anyone have experience with the NSF GRFP in the field of STEM Education? Everything I've been able to find so far has been for the physical sciences, and I was really hoping to find an example of a successful statement for STEM edu. And ditto, smg.

The first time I took the old GRE I scored a 5 on the writing. The second time I changed 3 things, and got up to a 6. Here is what I changed: 1. Use short and long sentences. Example: Is it a cogent argument that statistically significant results can be extrapolated based on a sample derivated of convienent participants who happened to walk into that lab today and were persuaded to sign a letter of consent due to a stack of $100 bills? I think not. 2. Have some pocket $20 words that can easily be thrown in. These can be things like extremes (exorbinant), common verbs (ameliorate, mitigate) and words to describe good arguments (cogent) or ones that aren't really there yet (jejune). You know you are going to have to talk about the status of an argument, or a thought process, so have some good words ready. 3. Use examples from different fields. If you read some headline news from biology, physics, chemistry, or technology, apply them as metaphors to your argument. Then you can get all fancy and say things like "If we look to the modern field of physics, we can see this example played out in the research currently being conducted at MTI in superconductors... Alternatively, in biology this can be viewed as ______" Being able to signal to the reader that you are not only correct in the reasoning of your argument, but can lend on different fields to express your point makes you seem like an even stronger writer! I hope this helps...

Did you email your CV first or just give a brief description of your background/interests?

They usually ask for cumulative GPA, GPA after first two years, and major GPA. Thank the universe =)

Sorry, been out on vacation! Thanks for the GRE comfort, I think I will come out alive! For graduate programs, my interests fall at the intersection of Developmental, Cognitive, and Education. My main interests are the role of divergent thinking and creative problem solving in education and learning and the role non-cogs play in academic achievement. My preliminary list goes something like this Stanford- Developmental and Psychological Science UCLA- Developmental Psychology Berkeley- Cognitive and Development in Education UT Austin- Develpomental Psychology NYU- Applied Psychology Northwestern- psych Cornell- Human Development University of Oregon- Education Studies University of Maryland, College Park- psych I have to soon start limiting things down. I know these are all top notch schools, but I'm coming in hard =) (and also looking for more medium tier schools). The issue is that my partner needs to be in an area that has work for 3D modeling and some presence of the video game industry to work, so where I can, I'm trying to look toward the schools in more "active" regions. Anyone have any advice on sorting through schools besides looking up literature, searching the internet, etc?

I'm definitely feeling nervous too! It's good to know I'm not the only one who is in this same boat. If anything, I feel like just keeping pace of all the little things is a lot to do! Overall, I got good grades in my major (Human dev, 3.9) and both my minors (psych, 3.9, statistics, 3.9), with a cumulative GPA of 3.72 (damn those lazy first two years!), so at least that's over with... I'm also approaching my 4th year as a RA for my undergraduate lab, 2nd year as a research analyst for a large research firm, have one publication out, one under review, one in revision stage. GREs are next month. But still... I'm SO nervous! I know there is a terrible amount of luck involved, and it's so competitive!!! Glad to know it's not just me. For your letters of recommendation, anyone who can speak to your challenges and justify why you are an excellent canidate despite any flaw in your record would be fantastic--then you don't have to spend precious lines in your SoP explaining it yourself. I heard it's good to have at least one professor who had you as a student write a letter to talk about your aptitude as a student, and definitely the PI of your clinical lab would be good. Everyone is different, but it seems like one of each would be a good combination. Best of luck!

Definitely give it your best shot this time around, but clinical programs that are research driven heavily value previous research experience, especially for clinical. One of the reasons for this is that there is a big difference between working with a population that clinical psychology serves and conducting clinical psychology research. Colleges stress that previous research experience because of the slews of people who apply because they want to help people and feel that connection to clients, but once they begin to submerge themselves in that research lifestyle they realize that they don't like it, and they drop out. Maybe if you were able to craft your application to show that you understand this research way of life and that it motivates you, that could help push you through. Are there areas in clinical psych you are particularly interested it? You could try to talk about your experience in IO and cog, and link that to your interest in clinical. Best of luck!

The only research on interpretation of MOOCs http://www.rti.org/newsroom/news.cfm?obj=57DEBC2F-0128-FA4E-9FE9BB3D87532C7A But I agree, listing skills or showing in some way your motivation to learn more could be helpful

Could be a good thing!

I'm more on the research side of the fence, but from what I hear the Bay is one of the most competitive places for practition psych education and even work once you are done with school (I think one of my undergraduate mentors said there are more therapists per capita in the Bay than anywhere eles in the US). Because of this, the programs are going to be very competitive and probably require a good foundation of experience. (Plus, our weather and culture is awesome, so everyone wants to be here!) It would be helpful to first look through the websites of the different colleges (SF state, SJ state, CSUEB, Stanford, Berkeley, and even Alliant if you want to keep your options open) and read up on what their students look like and what they value during admissions. Because your undergraduate is not in psychology, I would highly recommend taking the Psychology subject GRE to show that you know your stuff. You could also look at job applications for work you think you would find interesting, and see what they require in terms of degrees. That could help point you into the right direction, and ultimately inform your decision as to what works best for you =)

Anyone applying for Developmental, Social, or Cognitive programs =)? I want to study divergent thinking, creative problem-solving, and psychosocial factors affecting educational outcomes, which lands me with promising-looking faculty in all three programs (plus education)! I think it is smart to start writing SOP now as clinicalpsychphd20 mentioned, especially if my application period is going to cut across all three areas... I heard it is better to wait a little bit into the summer to start contacting faculty, so they have down time to respond but you are still fresh in their mind. Has anyone else heard this?

Great! Thanks Munashi & juilletmercredi!

Hi all. I'm starting to identify potential POIs to apply under this fall an am wondering if anyone has any insight as to POIs that are listed under two areas (in my case dev and cog psych), and which area to apply under. Common sense dictates whichever I want to end up doing more of, but my interests also bridge the two. I have a stronger educational background in dev, but more applicable research experience in cog. I'm just curious if anyone else has faced this dilemma, and if so, if they can share some insight as to how they made their decision. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'll be applying for graduate programs this fall, and am collecting information about Berkeley's POME program right now. If anyone was accepted and is willing to share info (GPA, research xp, gre scores) it would be most helpful! I'm trying to determine if my qualifications would be enough to be accepted.