Bubbala

We recently had interview day at my program. After the day ended, we met with all the faculty members and were asked to briefly provide our thoughts and any potential red flags we noticed about applicants. Feedback included social awkwardness, being under dressed, saying judgmental things, asking great questions, being personable, having admitted to not being interested in research, being (un)able to coherently discuss their research interests, (not) being a good fit, etc. No matter how casual your interactions with current graduate students may seem, remain professional; the faculty will likely ask for their input on you. The moment you step on campus, act as though you are being interviewed the entire time. If you are staying with a current grad student, the same advice follows. Don't say anything to anyone that you wouldn't say to a faculty member. I know of several instances where students or staff affiliated with a program told faculty about unfavorable things applicants said/did, which resulted in rejections (admitting to not liking research, fighting over where to sleep at a grad student's apartment, being mean to a secretary, etc).

Unfortunately, I do not think you will be competitive for PhD programs. Your GPA is relatively low, and your Quant and Writing GREs are below the 50th percentile. Looking at this concordance chart, your Quant is in the 28th percentile, Verbal is 63rd, and Writing is 38th. GPA should be at least 3.5, with 3.8+ being competitive. I fear your scores may cause your application to be passed by without much review as the faculty narrows down their applications. It depends on the program, but I've found programs don't care very much about clinical experience (just that you have some) and are more concerned about applicants having extensive research experience. Your lab experience is good, but with no publications, the faculty may pass you by for someone who has had the experience of completing a project, writing up a complete manuscript, and having it accepted by a journal. That said, I think a master's degree would serve you very well. It would give you an opportunity to get more research experience and a competitive GPA, which would demonstrate that you are capable of completing high quality graduate-level work.

My program invited ~21, if I recall correctly, and accepted 5. This was last year. My friend who interviewed at Teacher's College said they invited ~40, but I'm not sure how many they accept each year. It usually seems like ~20 is the norm.

I applied to Counseling Psychology PhD programs that had professors who focused on LGBTQ issues, and I will be entering one this fall. I'll copy and paste my list for you: Boston College: Paul Poteat, Jim Mahalik University of California – Santa Barbara: Tania Israel University of Florida: Bonnie Moradi University of Maryland: Jonathan Mohr, Richard Shin University of Massachusetts – Boston: Sharon Horne University of Miami: Debbiesiu Lee Teacher’s College, Columbia University: Melanie Brewster, Brandon Velez University of Wisconsin – Madison: Stephanie Budge, Francisco Sánchez

The other commenters covered quite a bit, but I want to add that it's important to have research experience not only to be competitive, but also to help you discover whether psychology research is something that you most definitely enjoy and want to commit 5-7 years (and perhaps your entire career) to. How can a person know that they like research without ever having done any? One might volunteer at a lab and find that the research process and manuscript preparation is tedious, boring, or just overall unenjoyable. A person should really know that s/he loves psychology research before committing so much time and energy to it. This may or may not be an option that you have considered, but completing a Master's degree before starting a PhD might be beneficial in solidifying your desire to pursue psychology research and filling any gaps in your psychology knowledge base. But getting involved in research might be enough for you, too.

I'm in my last year of undergrad and am entering a Counseling Psychology PhD program this fall. Going straight to PhD from undergrad without working or getting a Master's in between can be difficult, but it is certainly still possible. As other users said, make sure you have lots of relevant research experience in your area of interest to create a cohesive narrative for yourself and your academic path. Continue finding relevant summer internships as well. My experience with TC is limited and, admittedly, unfavorable. I was offered an interview, but I didn't want to book my travel without making sure TC was still a competitive option for me since I had other offers, so I reached out about 2 weeks before the interview to inquire about potential financial packages. The Insider's Guide said only 66% of students had assistantships, or something like that, and I was unsure if all students received tuition remission since it said nothing on their website about this, so I asked. I waited ~2 weeks, sent follow-up emails, and never got an answer other than "I'm waiting on info," so I withdrew my application the night before the interview (yet they still sent me a rejection this week...). With my friend dropping out of their EdM program because it was too easy, TC rudely "congratulating" PhD applicants for getting into their EdM program in past years (see Results in 2012 and 2013), inviting lots of people to interview just to advertise their EdM program, two of my professors speaking poorly of the program, waiting 2 weeks for no info, and their apparently non-competitive funding, it made the decision easy. But that is just my experience - perhaps yours will be different, and I bet there are current students who have had positive experiences with TC, so don't let mine influence you too much. Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them.