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JoePianist

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Everything posted by JoePianist

  1. Pro-Tip: Next time, focus your time and energy on funded Ph.D Psychology programs at public universities instead
  2. @beyondnervous The GRE General Exam was definitely a weakness in my applications to doctoral Clinical Psychology programs too, but I wouldn't recommend investing too much time, energy, and money into testing prep & tutoring unless your score is significantly low. My research mentor is the clinical director for the Clinical Psychology program of a well-known state university institution, and she advised me to just score high enough on the exam to reach a program's average GRE score range for admitted applicants, and focus most of my time & energy into other strengths I could play up in my application. For most funded Ph.D programs, you'd roughly want to aim for a 150+ on Quantitative, a 155+ on Verbal, and a 4.0+ on Analytical Writing. Of course, if you're aiming for schools like Harvard, Yale, UCLA, etc., you'd need a nearly perfect application (and in my mentor's opinion, the best mentors are typically at a state university where the application competition isn't as rigorous). The first time taking this exam, I scored lowest on Quantitative and Writing, so I concentrated on studying primarily Quantitative and Writing with test books and private tutoring. Over the course of a month, I would study in 2-hour sessions about three or four times a week. While my GRE score on my 2nd attempt isn't impressive, I did get into the score range at my programs of choice and decided it wasn't worth my time to take the exam again. On my applications, I played up my other strengths to compensate for my average GRE score like my high GPA in natural science courses, high-level math courses (I had taken Calculus I,II, and III during undergrad), awards & poster presentations, etc. With all of that, I managed to get invited to 3 funded Ph.D Clinical Psychology programs this year (so far), without obsessing too much over the GRE
  3. There isn't an official thread for meet-ups, but I have reached out to people on the forums by private message who posted on the "Interview/Interview Invitation Thread" for the same programs I'm attending for interviews. In fact, just yesterday, I met-up with a fellow GradCafe member for a clinical psychology interview we both attended
  4. I agree with Artsy - the thread has become too cluttered since people began posting their own compiled lists. If possible, we need to make a new thread for the compilation list updates (which can just be updated once a week or a couple days a week, instead of every single hour like it is now), and we should keep this specific thread for conversations between members
  5. Interview Invite #3! School Name: Wayne State University Interview Invite Received: 01/14/2016 Degree: PhDType: Clinical Psychology (Health Psychology track)Notified via: Email from POIInterview Dates: Primary interview day is Feb. 26, with an alternate interview date on Feb. 29Additional Info: According to the email, 235 people applied for the program this year, with only 37 applicants chosen for interviews. The program expects 9 or 10 new students out of this applicant pool. A formal invitation with more information will be sent soon.
  6. Yay! My 2nd interview invite for this application cycle School Name: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Interview Invite Received: 01/09/2016 Degree: PhDType: Clinical Psychology, Behavioral MedicineNotified via: Phone call from graduate studentInterview Dates: Option to choose either January 29 or February 26Additional Info: Program will provide housing for applicants by current graduate students. An optional dinner and student mixer will be held the night before interviews. Interview day will consist of faculty presentations in the morning and interviews with faculty and graduate students in the afternoon.
  7. This is how I'll deal with rejection in a completely healthy way:
  8. You definitely need to read some of your POI's recent publications before the Skype interview - at least 2-3 papers they've published within the last five years. I heavily relied on ResearchGate's website as a fantastic resource for my POI's papers. Make some brief notes on some highlights in the papers that stand-out or resonate with you the most, and have these notes handy when you're doing the Skype call. If you're really short on time or can't focus to read the entire paper, just read the abstracts very closely. Also, make sure you have some questions ready for the POI. For Skype calls, I'd focus more on asking questions about the POI's current research projects and where they see their research direction going in the next few years. I'd save more specific questions, such as asking about the POI's mentoring style and what role they see me working in their lab, for the in-person interviews. Depending on your POI, they may ask you some questions about your current research, but I can't imagine them expecting an in-depth answer until the in-person interviews. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
  9. There was actually a thread on this exact topic a couple weeks ago, and people gave some good references you can look into. Here's the link: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/71373-plan-b-clinical-psych-paid-lab-positions-if-grad-programs-dont-work-out-this-round/
  10. Yay! Thanks and congrats to you as well. Welcome to the UAB club
  11. I'm wishing you the best of luck; from personal experience, I understand how nerve-wracking and exhausting this process can be :-< The email that I received from UAB this morning said that the admissions committee "has now completed its initial review of applications," but I'm hoping they're still sending out invites.
  12. Thank you I'm sending you a message right now to answer your questions.
  13. Thank you, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck too. I'm happy to see you've already been invited to one interview visit so far Keep me posted on how things go.
  14. I just received my first interview invite for this application cycle! School Name: The University of Alabama At Birmingham (UAB) Interview Invite Received: 12/22/2015 Degree: PhDType: Medical/Clinical Psychology Doctorate ProgramNotified via: EmailInterview Date: Jan. 19-20Additional Info: Email from the Director of Clinical Training. Interview visit on January 19-20. Dinner with applicants and current students on Jan. 19, and a day of interviews the following morning.
  15. I just received my first interview invite for this application cycle! Anyone else applying or interviewing for UAB? School Name: The University of Alabama At Birmingham (UAB) Interview Invite Received: 12/22/2015 Degree: PhDType: Medical/Clinical Psychology Doctorate ProgramNotified via: EmailInterview Date: Jan. 19-20Additional Info: Email from the Director of Clinical Training. Interview visit on January 19-20. Dinner with applicants and current students on Jan. 19, and a day of interviews the following morning.
  16. I actually woke up to one of these invites this morning from UAB's Medical/Clinical Psychology program My email was a generic mass invite; I have not received a personalized email from my POIs/potential mentors regarding the invite yet.
  17. This is my 2nd attempt applying for doctorate Clinical Psychology programs. For the past year, my "Plan B" consisted of working a crappy retail job while struggling immensely to land a paid research position in a psychology lab by applying for postings all around the United States. Then halfway through the year, I was very blessed to have a former psychology professor connect me with an open research position at my alma mater's psychology department, and I've been working full-time as a Clinical Research Assistant ever since.
  18. I primarily applied for Ph.D Clinical Psychology programs that offered a Health Psychology track or specialization, but I was also looking at programs that offered training in Neuropsychology as well. Here are the schools that I applied for that offered reputable Neuropsychology training within their clinical psychology department: - The University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) - Georgia State University - Kent State University - Wayne State University Did you consider any of these programs as well?
  19. I was in the same situation last year when I first applied for Ph.D Clinical Psychology programs. I had just graduated with my B.S. in Psychology and it was my first time applying for doctoral clinical programs. In general, I was having a very rough time landing any jobs, let alone any paid research positions. For nearly a year since graduation, I applied to just about any psychology lab positions across the country that I could find, but I wasn't landing any leads. Resources I used included the website that St0chastic mentioned, my alma mater's job posting site, and Google. Unfortunately, if you don't have any close connections with professors or people in the field who personally know the labs that are hiring, it's a herculean task getting that prized paid research position.
  20. As far the total cost for my 8 applications: Official GRE score report: $27 per school x 8 Official transcripts: $10 per school x 8 Application Fee: $50 estimated average per school x 8 Overall, I'm spending roughly $696 on applications this year I could have used this money to pay a month's worth of rent, or a Playstation 4 WITH a 40" HDTV
  21. Holy cow! I'm barely holding it together applying for 8 doctoral programs...are you managing okay with your 15 applications?
  22. Not this year, but I interviewed there this past February as a candidate. This is actually my 2nd round of applications since I wasn't offered admissions at any programs last application cycle :-<
  23. Awesome! You're definitely applying for several "heavy-hitters" that tend to be particularly competitive, and I truly wish you the best! Also, VentureIntoNothingness makes a good point: to my understanding, Cornell and Princeton don't offer graduate study for clinical psychology. What kind of psychology programs did you apply at Cornell and Princeton?
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