artsy16

I'm not familiar with quant psych, but I want to chime in and say I wouldn't recommend a clinical program to the OP. Clinical psych requires practicum and a yearlong clinical internship in order to graduate. If that's NOT what the OP either 1) wants to do after graduating or 2) is passionate about enough that they will put in effort into being a good therapist during practicum and internship, then OP will not only be miserable but also be doing a disservice to the clients that OP would be seeing throughout their grad program. Experimental psych programs have professors studying personality and other psychological disorders. Those do not require practica and are more up OP's alley in terms of interest in measurement.

I definitely wouldn't ask the first POI to suggest someone. You could ask them who they collaborate often with, but I don't think it'll reflect positively on you to ask who else to list.

Hello all. Current first year in a counseling psych PhD program. I applied to counseling, clinical, and clinical-community programs as well as highly considered/began to apply for clinical MSWs. If you'd like any advice or information, feel free to PM! I don't check the forums as often as when I was applying, nor do I check TGC as often, but I will definitely see your PM notification as respond as soon as I can. Good luck I know how expensive and emotionally draining this process can be. Extra support to those applying in their second, third, etc time!

Been lurking the past few months and don't think I posted in this thread before. I'm all settled in to my grad school city, my apartment is all set up/fully furnished, and I'm getting used to being the mom of a cute little puppy (and I mean *puppy*). Worried about how caring for a puppy will be with grad school, but many in my program have multiple dogs and cats, and of course, children! But I knew it would be a challenge, just need to get over this hump and hit my stride. Hopefully that happens by mid semester! I see familiar and unfamiliar faces, hope everyone is well!

You won't be one of the oldest first years. I know a handful of late 20s early 30s RAs in the lab I was in last year that are entering programs this fall. In my own incoming cohort there's at least one who is almost 30. Contrary to how it may seem on TGC and SDN, it's equally common to enter a phd program in your mid-late 20s as it is to go straight from undergrad (like I'm doing). On the flip side, I'm worried about being the "baby" of the group, but as long as I'm 21 there won't be any kinds of events I can't go to that others in my program will. When I worked in a clinical setting during college, it sucked being left out of colleague bonding activities because everyone was 24-27 and I was 18. Even if one doesn't drink, not being allowed in these venues is still a barrier. I can't find the thread right now but I know there is an active one for "older" students, though posters in that thread tend to be late 30s+. tl;dr I think you'll be fine on the age front

I don't even know if FAFSA gave me the option to fill in parent information once I said I was dependent. As said above, there's no benefit and it's really not the school's business what your parents make.

When you fill out FAFSA it'll guide you through it/let you know if anything is different. You are independent for financial aid purposes as a graduate student.

I applied this year as an undergrad and I have WAY more clinical experience than research experience (pretty intensive too--counselor in an inpatient program for a few years. Only research exp I have is 2 semesters in 2 diff labs for course credit, and only 1 of those was clinical). I also applied to more clinically oriented programs (3 clinical, 4 counseling psych phd programs). But I know I wanna be a practitioner, mentioned that in my SOP and in interviews. Got 5 interviews of 7 applications, waitlisted at all 5, accepted off my top choice and subsequently removed myself from the other waitlists. Not trying to make any general statements about the process, just my experience Good luck!

You can definitely follow up and ask about your status/restate interest! Restating interest won't help you get off the waitlist if they're still waiting for someone to make a decision on the offer, but it may possibly move you up the ranks among the waitlist pool if a spot opens up.

It will be very difficult to find affordable 1br apartments in NYC; it's not the kind of place you can move to by yourself as a grad student and get your own apartment. Nonetheless, you should reach out to students in the program (or ask your program for student contact info) and see what kind of living situations they have. I doubt any of them will be in their own apartments unless they have a lot of money.

The graduate schools don't have as much financial aid money as the undergraduate College. Financial aid relies heavily on donations from alum; there are way more alum from the College, and people feel much more connected to their undergrad than their grad so they tend to donate to the former. I don't know how this program portrayed their financial and to you, but it seems like you were misled :/

I think you answered your own question—you know how important accreditation is. I'm from the north too, did undergrad here, and was offered a non CACREP master's program (also in the north) after not being accepted to the PhD. I turned it down. I would've HATED living here for 2 more winters, but I would've sucked it up because I know that it would be a complete waste of time to do a non accredited program if I wanted to use that degree to practice and move out of state. 2 years now is nothing in the grand scheme of your life, although Boston IS expensive. The BU program sounds amazing, though.

I'm in this situation as well. Told one of my waitlist schools that they were my top choice (they were, even with their abysmal funding) and I would likely accept an offer if given one off the waitlist. I ended up getting off the waitlist at another program that had been consistently my strongest top choice, and chose to commit. POI at the first school hasn't responded and it's been over a week, in the past they've been prompt. I feel kinda bad about it, but then I learned that this POI put *all* interviewed applicants on the waitlist (about 6 applicants), and I wasn't once of their top choices (I exchanged #s with other applicants and found out 2 people had been given offers off the waitlist for this POI). Maybe all the POIs at that school accept 1 and waitlist all others. At the school I'll be attending in the fall, they only waitlist 2, so you know your standing. Makes me feel less bad that, even knowing that they were my top choice and I would readily accept an offer, they extended offers to 3 people before me (1 immediately after the interview and 2 from the waitlist). I only told one POI where I'll be going/who I'll be working with, and that's only because they asked. Funny enough, I was waitlisted then rejected from this program and offered to be considered for the masters. I had just said "yes" to being considered when I got the call from my strong top choice that I got in, so I sent a follow up email to the POI asking them to cancel my masters application. They ended up knowing my future PI and said I'm in good hands .

You have to ask your program. Lots of programs assign email addresses and student IDs to all applicants (generally so applicants can submit and track financial aid documents). Seems like a waste to me, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything. I hope it's good news for you though!!

There's also a military scholarship if you're in a health profession (includes clinical and counseling psychology). You're a reserve officer during grad school and complete a predoctoral internship at a military site. You're then active duty for 1 year per year you used the scholarship. Scholarship includes full tuition waiver and ~$24,000 yearly stipend plus benefits. http://m.goarmy.com/amedd/education/hpsp.m.html