Psych_Law

I'm starting a PhD program this fall in clinical psychology, and found out that my advisor will have a total of 4 incoming students (including myself). This was not originally intended. But due to only 2 faculty members taking students, the greater ratio of students applying to my advisor's lab vs. the other faculty member, and needing a cohort of 5 to function, my advisor ended up taking on 4. I stand out amongst the other 3, as I have more academic-related career goals whereas they have more clinical-oriented career goals. So I know I have something to stand out with, but I'm curious how I should prepare for this scenario. I'm very aware of how busy my advisor will be, but I also am aware that this may have an impact on my relationship with said advisor. Has anyone been in a scenario like this before? Or just have any words of wisdom for this scenario?

2 years ago I was waitlisted and never made it off the list. This year I was in the same position again and didn't think the outcome would be any different, which was slightly disheartening. But today I got a phone call that I was accepted off the waitlist, and it made all the agony and waiting worth it. Sometimes you'll make it off the waitlist, sometimes you won't. But you just have to keep trying. Life is short and there's only so much time to do what you want to do. So if this is your passion and what you see yourself doing, don't give up! Keep fighting and pushing forward with the confidence that you are good enough!

Oh, lovely. I'll keep an eye out for that extra letter to come.

I've received 3...THREE...rejection emails from the same school in a 2 1/2 week period. Like, I get it. I'm rejected. Please no more emails.

I’d personally just wait it out. It sucks, I know. I’m in the same position. But eventually we’ll find out. Try your best to distract yourself until then.

Not recent, but still hilarious.

From the past results section, it looks like Fordham doesn't reach out until the end of January.

Don't lose hope! Try your best to find something to distract you during this waiting period. It's early January, and a lot of schools may have taken a long break due to the way the holidays fell this year.

I have a potential conflict that I'm not sure how to approach if it becomes reality. I have an interview invitation for school A that was extended on Friday. I have 2 schools, B and C, that I am about 99% sure will hold interviews that same weekend. School B usually notifies applicants this week, so I'm waiting for that. But school C usually doesn't get back to applicants until mid-January. Obviously I can't wait a whole month to get back to school A if I am accepting the interview invitation. But school C is better aligned with my research interests than school A, and I'm worried about that potential conflict if it arises--I'm not as confident about getting an interview invitation from school C though than I was with school A. So I'm guessing I accept school A's interview invitation (I do really want to go and get to know the PI and program better), and wait and see what happens? I feel like that's all I can do, but I just wanted a second person's perspective.

School: Texas Tech University Type: Clinical Psychology, PhD Date of invite: 12/08/17 Type of invite: Phone call from POI Interview date(s): Interview Weekend 02/09

I'm in the exact same position. Way too much time on my hands.

I've put all of my documents for my applications (CV, SOP, writing samples, etc.) on a separate hard drive and am not allowing myself to look at it. I'll torture myself by finding errors.

I would focus more on the percentile rankings for those scores, and send 1 score with the best overall percentile rankings. My guess would be that your second scores would have the best overall percentile rankings. AWA scores really don't matter that much to most psychology programs. Or at least that's what I've noticed. Most of them prefer a 4.5 or better anyway, so you're good either way.

Georgetown has a program that might be relevant for you. https://psychology.georgetown.edu/graduate

What's the worst thing that could happen? You don't get in, and you try again! And then you have more time to try to figure out how to increase your scores. Many people apply more than once to clinical psychology programs due to how competitive they are, so it wouldn't be abnormal if you had to try more than once. But you'll never know if you don't try, so put all your effort now into making sure your application is as strong as it can be in your other areas (LOR, SOP, making sure you're a strong match to the faculty you're wanting to work under, etc.), and don't worry anymore about your GRE scores. We all are imperfect and have flaws in our applications that we wish were stronger. You have a lot of great research experience and your GPA is very strong. So why not apply? Good luck!