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dancedementia

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Posts posted by dancedementia

  1. Hey all,

    I'm currently in a lockstep cohort program for my masters (everyone in my graduating class takes the exact same courses in the exact same sequence with the exact same professors). Unfortunately, due to financial hardship I am not able to continue paying the full-time tuition. There is an option to drop to part-time status and thus take an extra year to graduate. When applying for PhD programs, will this be a red flag to them? I am not taking an extra year because of academics or because I screwed around too much (my GPA is perfect and my professors can vouch for my situation). I know I can explain it in my application, but at first glance, will they throw judgement on me for taking 3 years to finish instead of 2?

  2. I had a bachelor's in Economics and made it into several great masters program; eventually matriculated at a mental health counseling program, but got accepted to several psych ones too. I actually had really really bad grades - 2.8 GPA hahaha. So yes, it is possible. My biggest sell was that I had done the econ thing as a job for several years, and while working in industry I noticed a lot of colleagues suffering from mental health problems but unwilling to seek help due to social stigma. I sold this as my motivation for pursuing psychology (obviously it was a truth, I wasn't just pulling a sob story out of my ass) and it worked :)

    tl;dr -- have a truly compelling reason for why psychology. You have good grades so your academics and discipline are not the issue, it's making sure that you actually legit want to go into the field. Good luck!

  3. Hey all,

    I'm currently working in a great lab, but there's a small problem. Given that my PI is pretty well known and tends to travel a lot for conferences, etc. we haven't actually interfaced a lot. One of his doctoral students more or less runs the entire lab for him, and she has gotten to know me very well and highly recommends me. I would like a letter of recommendation from the lab. Would it be seen as a red flag or "not as prestigious/respected" if I asked the doctoral student instead of the PI to write my letter? I have a feeling she would say much better things about me.... but the PI is definitely a big name in his field. What should I do?

  4. I just think interaction is something I really need in my career. Hence the debate between an MPH/Ph.D.

    My suggestion to you is to consider what you want to be doing after you graduate from grad school, whatever it may be. MPH graduates are often more "in the trenches" in terms of designing public interventions, putting them into place, etc. A PhD graduate will either be doing research or more direct clinical work (in a hospital or clinic). You won't get a systemic or macro focus with a PhD - if that's your interest, I would recommend the MPH.

    Another thing to consider, if you like the public policy work *and* clinical treatment work... maybe look at doing a clinical MSW.

  5. If you're interested in working in schools, I would suggest either an MSW or potentially even getting a School Psych EdS, which will give you a lot more power compared to a simple counseling degree, but then again it comes down to what you want to do in school counseling.

  6. Also keep in mind that most Psych programs do not directly involve going in for "lab work" per se. Biology, chemistry, "hard science" PhDs have to be in lab 10 hours because they're most likely monitoring experiments. As a clinical psych student, you'll probably be going in to lab to run human subject experiments when scheduled, doing some large dataset crunching on the hefty school computers, and meeting with advisors. Most of my friends in clinical/counseling psych programs say that they have a lot of flexibility during the day to get stuff done whenever they feel like it. Want to take two hours midway through the day to go take a pilates class? As long as you don't have class/experiments/meetings, go for it! It's really much more flexible than people make it out to be.

  7. Research jobs (like being a clinical research coordinator, etc.) are definitely very available to you and are pretty stable gigs so long as you're working for a large institution (i.e. teaching hospitals, federal, etc.) And you can definitely teach at the community college / junior college level with a master's degree. A psychology prof at the junior college in my hometown taught there for 15-20 years and eventually became department chair.

  8. I'm a bit confused. Is there such a thing as research-based clinical master's programs?

    No, not really. Let me backtrack. You say you want to do a PhD in Clinical Psychology, right? The biggest thing that matters going in is strong research experience. The clinical stuff they'll teach you during practicum and internship. But you can't teach someone how to research when they need to be doing it in Year 1! So PhD programs actually prefer someone who has done a research-oriented masters program (e.g. General Psychology, Experimental Psychology) and then segues into a PhD in Clinical Psychology.

    There are definitely good terminal masters programs, but the reputable ones are usually training grounds for LMHC/LPC types, so they're clinical mental health counseling masters. Clinical Psych doesn't really get it's own terminal masters program (at least, not very many good ones out there). It is absolutely possible to go from clinical mental health counseling masters -> PhD in Clinical Psych, but you do need to find research opportunities so you can produce some presentations/papers come application time.

  9. The regular GRE is a terrible predictor in terms of academic skills.

    This may be true, but it is generally perceived (whether it's true or not is another issue) as a better predictor than the subject tests, right? I'd say the GRE measures more fluid intelligence ("intelligence" used lightly) while the subject tests are more crystallized intelligence... and FI seems more important for admission purposes.

  10. The psychology GRE is really not that "advanced" - just a lot of memorization/regurgitation of information that you probably glossed over in an undergrad class. As such, it's not really a good predictor of your academic skills in the same way an assessment of critical reading, math, and writing is. From what I've heard (others feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the GRE proper is much more important, and if it is low, that is a major red flag. It definitely trumps subject GRE.

  11. Your life will be SO much easier if you're CACREP accredited. Writing up that petition for licensure and having to defend every single class you've taken (with syllabuses, course descriptions, linking them to CACREP standards, etc.) is a nightmare. It also makes things easier if you want to transfer licenses between states. And frankly, CACREP isn't a difficult accreditation to get (even for-profit degree mill programs like Walden and Capella have it!) so if a school isn't CACREP, I find it a red flag unless they also have the reputation to back it up.Your life will be SO much easier if you're CACREP accredited. Writing up that petition for licensure and having to defend every single class you've taken (with syllabuses, course descriptions, linking them to CACREP standards, etc.) is a nightmare. It also makes things easier if you want to transfer licenses between states. And frankly, CACREP isn't a difficult accreditation to get (even for-profit degree mill programs like Walden and Capella have it!) so if a school isn't CACREP, I find it a red flag unless they also have the reputation to back it up.

    Especially for college counseling, which is a crazy competitive world - they will most likely prefer a CACREP graduate to someone who's not.

  12. Here's the "Mindfulness" list from the latest Insider's Guide:

    • Illinois School of Professional Psychology
    • Carlow University
    • Catholic University of America
    • Drexel University
    • La Salle University
    • University at Albany/SUNY
    • University at Buffalo/SUNY
    • University of Montana

    The Positive Psychology list:

    • Colorado State
    • Fuller Theological Seminary
    • George Fox University
    • Immaculata University
    • Marquette University
    • Marywood University
    • Miami University
    • New York University
    • Pepperdine University
    • Seton Hall University
    • Teacher's College at Columbia University
    • Tennessee State University
    • University of Memphis
    • University of Denver
    • University of Georgia
    • University of Kansas
    • University of Pennsylvania
    • University of Texas at Austin
    • Washington State
  13. But see, the fact that you guys are using phrases like "only had one first author submission" and "lots of [research experience] but limited in pubs/presentation" makes some of us nervous because we don't have anything remotely close to that! I have some research experience, but it's not necessarily in my area of focus. And pubs/presentations are not even a remote possibility by the time I apply. It seems like the baseline requirement is at least 2-3 years of research doing "real" things (i.e. not just data entry like I am) and at least a presentation or pub on the way.

    So anxiety inducing, haha!

  14. Why do you think you should've done an MA in experimental psychology if your goal is a PhD in counseling psychology?

    I've always been told that if one is interested in a PhD, one should do a research-based masters instead of a clinically-based one. Maybe I've been looking at advice that was more aimed towards research-based PhDs like Social or Developmental? :(

    Otherwise, thanks very much to everyone who responded. It really is quite reassuring. My only concern is that I'm also in the midst of a two-body problem, so location is going to be very restrictive. Thankfully the Significant Other is bound to a state with a lot of options (Texas), so fingers crossed that I can get in somewhere nearby. (And luckily, UTexas has a faculty member I am very interested in working with...)

  15. Thanks for the advice! I guess I'm just terrified because I read so much on here and SDN about people who have multiple pubs and presentations who are STILL rejected from PhD Psychology programs. It seems so hard to stand out, especially when I've gotten a late start :(

    On that note: publications - are they absolutely ESSENTIAL to getting into a PhD program? I haven't yet met someone (accepted) who didn't have one.

  16. Long story short: I'm a career changer. I worked in something not even remotely related. I originally started college as a psych major, but switched in my sophomore year to something that would "make more money". I don't want to give identifying information because my experience is kind of unique, but imagine a computer programmer trying to get into a PhD psychology program. That's about how drastic this career change is.

    My undergrad profile is dismal. My GPA was a 3.0. I was involved in a lot of unrelated student organizations (lots of leadership experiences!) which was super fun... but also destroyed my work ethic. My GRE is really good (96% percentile for both, perfect writing score). Strong LORs, but they speak mostly to my work ethic/character instead of my psychology strengths because... well, I don't have a psych background.

    I'm currently in a respected master's program for counseling. It's a terminal masters program, and being a total newbie, I didn't know that I probably should have done an experimental psych program instead, but I'm not going to quit halfway through when I've already sunk so many student loans into it and only have a year left. My master's GPA is a 4.0 thus far and should stay above 3.8. I had no research experience in undergrad but am working in two labs right now (one is a social psych lab, the other is a counseling psych lab).

    I want to get a PhD in Counseling Psychology.

    I've done everything that the books and Internet have told me to do - research experience, networking with professors, finding a mentor, boosting GPA, getting a good GRE. But I'm still terrified that, come interview time, people are going to look at my application and wonder "why the hell doesn't this woman have any direction in her life?"

    Can anyone offer some tips on how I can strengthen my application so it sounds like i'm serious about what I want to do?

    EDIT: My intended research focus is emotion regulation in personality disorders. Particularly BPD but I'm open to faculty who are conducting related research (histrionic, etc. is fine by me)..... or should I be more specific?!

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