JoePianist

Eh, you’re a shoe in there. And if he doesn’t give you a spot, just bail out of the lab ?

Or the Director of Clinical Training (DCT) - this is perfectly acceptable to ask for.

Damn, that’s brutal :0 I’m 27 with mediocre GRE scores and went to an average state university for undergrad and got into a PhD Clinical Psychology program with guaranteed funding for five years...

It’s typically more advantageous to take the offer to room with a current student, if you think you’ll still be in a social mood after all the interview day events. You’ll have the advantage of getting to ask more specific questions about graduate school life in the program, and an extra opportunity to “butter up” a current student who’s mentored under your prospective advisor (advisors typically ask current students about their opinion of the applicants). If you really don’t think you’ll be able to keep up a social/friendly attitude after a long day of interview events, though, it’d probably be best to opt for the hotel.

Congrats on the bartending gig

Congrats on the invite! I’m actually a fourth-year student in this program – feel free to ask me any questions about the program or about living in Birmingham ?

I’m wondering how you ended up at a “low ranked” undergraduate program with a perfect SAT score – I know the admissions committees will likely wonder the same thing.

In the very least, you may be able to assist with participant screening and administering questionnaires over phone after work. Look up a psychology research lab that’s investigating a topic of your personal interest, then reach out explaining your situation and suggest the possibility for you to help with participant screening and questionnaires over phone in the evenings.

I agree with M246. In most cases, if the letter writer makes a submission after the deadline, admissions committees still accept it without penalty on the student applicant.

Sure, anything $5 or below is fine. I’m just saying that it really won’t influence any decision making – as long as you recognize that, it’s fine

I literally got into my first choice PhD Clinical Psychology program (which is APA-accredited and provides guaranteed five years of tuition remission and monthly stipends) with those scores, lol

As another current doctoral student, I agree with the quoted person – a thank you gift to your host 100% won’t affect application decisions; save your money and just send a thank you email afterwards.

@Skibz in other words – no.

no

Yes, it’d tell the program that their interview isn’t a priority unfortunately.

Hello, 4th year PhD Clinical Psychology student here who’s a minority (multiracial) student. I admire your tenacity to pursue this field in spite of some discouragement and apprehension, especially as it relates to being a cultural minority. I will say that your specific research interests may align more with PhD Counseling Psychology programs, who are basically the identical twin of Clinical Psychology with slightly different goals. Both “Counseling Psychology” and “Clinical Psychology” are perceived as evenly matched, though Counseling Psychology tends to have more focus on the broad multicultural issues than Clinical Psychology. In any case, I just wanted to let you know that it’s possible to make it into this competitive field! Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Current 4th year Clinical Psychology PhD student here. In general, treat the externship application process similar to how you approached applying to graduate programs. Specifically, ask your prospective clinical supervisor questions like: 1. Describe your supervision/teaching model. 2. When is your availability for supervision? 3. What kind of cases can I expect to see in this externship rotation? 4. What types of intervention and assessment opportunities does your site provide? 5. (If doing an assessment rotation) How long do I have to turn in an assessment report? In general, you need a supervisor who will provide about 15 minutes of supervision for your every 60 minutes of direct patient interaction/contact. Per semester, you also need around 4 hours of direct supervision per APA-accreditation standards (e.g., your supervisor sitting in during one of your therapy sessions, or observing you through a tinted window, or listening to a recording of your session). Regarding types of experiences to choose (therapy vs assessment), that really depends on your career goal. If you’re going the neuropsychologist route, you need to primarily focus on assessment work and report writing, though getting a little bit of therapy experience is still important. If you’re more interested in interventions and plan for a clinical or research career focused on interventions, focus on therapy work. And if you’re still undecided, try a balance between therapy and assessment work. And, whenever possible, ALWAYS ask students about their personal experiences at the externship rotation and with the supervisor – ask if they had any specific issues at the site or with the supervisor, if patients typically showed up for appointments, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the site, etc. Regarding your letter of interest, make sure you state what your current specific goals are for externship and how this particular site can help satisfy your goal. This again goes back to you knowing what your career goal is (e.g., what types of populations or issues are you most interested in, what type of work do you want to do as a professional, etc)

I’m a current student in the UAB program – I’m not involved in the admissions process; but if anyone has any questions about the program, I’d be happy to answer them. Also, to answer your question @psychologygeek, UAB typically invites a majority of the interviewees sometime in mid-to-late January – I believe our interview date is sometime around early-February 2020.

If you’re invited for an interview, expect to hear back from the schools between mid-January to mid-February.

Yes, I want to know which school too.

900 applicants for ~4 spots makes for some pretty narrow odds of admission ?

Worry if you don’t hear anything by the 2nd week of February

That’s a tough situation for sure – That’s a pretty common issue, it seems. I do hope the process works out for you.

You have very good stats, but you’ve honestly narrowed your odds of admission tremendously by applying to just three (extremely competitive) programs in an already competitive field. Those California programs in particular usually accept 3-5 students/year out of 500+ applicants each – in other words, roughly 1% of applicants will receive an admissions offer to one of those programs. This isn’t meant to add more anxiety, but I’m just trying to give you realistic expectations.

yes