JoePianist

This is a great topic post! I'm pursuing a career in Clinical Neuropsychology, although my interests also extend into Health Psychology. As far as clinical programs with Neuropsychology tracks go, I've been extended one interview from the University of Arizona's clinical Ph.D program so far. I've also been extended an interview from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro's clinical Ph.D program as well; but unfortunately, they don't offer a specialized track in Neuropsychology (although, my POI at this program is primarily interested in neuro-endocrine and biological pathways to depression). My research interests involve the neurology and physiology of cognition and emotions. I am particularly interested in the neuroscience and treatment of depression and anxiety. Also, I am interested in neurocognitive disorders (such as Alzheimers and Parkinson's) and developing treatments for these disorders as well. I'm curious to know the answers to your own questions as well, @Rosiesg2

I received an interview invite at UNCG's clinical psychology program today, and I'd be happy to PM my prospective mentor :-)

HOLY SMOKES, I JUST RECEIVED MY FIRST INTERVIEW INVITE!!! (University of Arizona - Clinical Psychology program)

"The End" But seriously, I just ended mine by reiterating my unique strengths that I can offer to the school's program and that I would be honored to be a graduate student in their department.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm saying about the importance of POI's responding to emails from prospective students. Why would I waste my time, energy, and money applying for a program and mentor who never bother to contact me back, even with just a pre-prepared cut-and-paste response? I am totally understanding that professors are extremely busy, and in the very least, I would find a generic, pre-prepared response still acceptable. Although, I will admit that I give top-priority to programs and mentors who took the time to actually write a positive and personal response -- that tells me that these people are interested in me as an applicant, which gives me an incentive to really pursue them. In my original post, I never said that an applicant would be guaranteed an acceptance letter if they sent or didn't send an initial email to their POI's. I only said that I personally felt it was important for me in my own application process. I feel cultivating some sort of connection with someone that I hope to invest the next 5-6 years with is extremely important in how I approach the application process.

Personally, I felt contacting POI's and receiving a response from them (even if it was a polite, generic form response) was very important to my application process of choosing the programs and POI's I would ultimately apply for. During the summer, I had my heart set on a certain mentor at a program whose research was truly fascinating to me. I emailed her back in September with a brief message expressing my interest. After a month, I never heard back, so I emailed her again in October. To this day, she still has yet to respond. I also emailed my back-up POI at this same program to express my interest, but she never replied either. To me, not hearing back from both professors at the same program was a HUGE red flag for me, so I had to drop this program from my application list. Meanwhile, I received very friendly, personal, and prompt responses from POI's at other programs that I was initially unsure of applying to, and it was this interaction and attention to potential students that persuaded me to strongly pursue these programs.

With most programs' deadlines now past, I'm curious to know which schools did everyone apply for? This year, I applied to joint MA/Ph.D tracks in Clinical Psychology, with most of my POI's concentrating on the biological factors of cognition and emotions. Here's my list (in no particular order) 1. University of Florida 2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3. Georgia State University 4. University of Louisville 5. University of Arizona 6. University of North Carolina - Greensboro 7. University of Pennsylvania Good luck to everyone on getting accepted to your dream program! :-)

I'm too busy working at my hectic Toys "R" Us seasonal job to worry about applications for long. I'm making money, interacting with several good people, AND keeping my mind off graduate school application notifications :-)

I'm applying to UPenn's clinical program, and I'm keeping my SOP at the standard 2-pages (12-font, Times New Roman, single-spaced), as suggested by clinical psychology grad students at my undergraduate program.

The way I approached my rough draft SOP was to ignore the word limit and type my essay using the general guidelines from sites people have suggested on this forum. I also made sure to include the most important strengths about myself. After that, I went back and cut away any extraneous materials (e.g. needlessly lengthy introductory phrases; passages that repeat main ideas I had mentioned earlier in the essay). If my essay still was over the word limit, I would go through the process again and concentrate on how I can isolate the most important main ideas in a more succinct and shorter way. Also about choosing faculty members for your grad program, you'll just have to do your research into each processor in the program whose interests match yours. It might be a bit late in the game to contact these professors, though, especially from a prestigious university like Cambridge. What kind of program are you applying for?

Does anybody know if it matters which order you send application materials in general? I can't find any specific information on any of the schools' application guidelines. I needed to send official transcripts to Clinical Psychology programs before submitting my online applications, because I was working on my personal statement essays until the last minute. I'm wondering how these schools keep track of materials they receive in the mail if a person hasn't even submitted their application yet Thanks!