KeepOnBrewing

Thank you for engaging with my questions and sharing thoughtful responses everyone! I hope to share some good news with you soon.

Thank you for your response, @JoePianist. I'm curious to hear little bit more about your knowledge/experience of PCSAS. I know that there are 50+ programs under Academy of Psychological Clinical Science but not all of them are part of PCSAS, which was bit odd for me. There were also programs that are NOT part of Academy but also in PCSAS. PCSAS FAQ by Mcfall seems to give a good overview of PCSAS but still doesn't answer my question of the purpose of Academy if they were going to create PCSAS. I'd appreciate hearing your observation/experience of PCSAS programs and their benefits (and even downsides if you've seen them). Thank you!

Err, I wanted to "reply to the reply" but I couldn't find that reply button! Maybe someone can give me a quick help here haha Yes - completely agree with @b_l91's comment. And thanks for sharing that you also had similar questions too, btw =) I have a undergraduate degree from a state school and a master's degree from an Ivy institution. In my experience, whenever I go for interviews or presentations, the way people responded to me were different as soon as I mention the Ivy name. In a way, I had to do less work to "prove" myself during my conversations. I understand that MOST of psych phd programs are field specific (ie. there may be schools that we may never heard of for specific subfields) in their reputations and maybe this is how "reputation" will be as we go higher in our education. Knowing that personal/professional match are big factors, I'm curious to hear the peoples' stories/experiences/thoughts who may have experienced their reputation of programs giving Ups (or even Downs). I think it's important to speculate and question all corners in making decisions =)

First, I'm grateful for many peoples' genuine effort to support one another through this forum. I have been encouraged to know that I am not alone in this process. I feel absolutely honored to having received a couple of offers (which was totally not expected.) I am in a place where I need to make some important and difficult decisions here. I'd greatly appreciate your responses. Especially, I'd appreciate it if you could also share how certain/uncertain you are with the information, so that I can weigh on your information accordingly. Thanks again. Reputation of the program: I know that having a super star PI would definitely give me UPs for my future in all I do. But what about the reputation of the program itself? How is the reputation of the program perceived after graduation when getting jobs in medical/academic settings? Aside from obvious names such as Harvard/Yale/UCLA, I'm wondering how others are perceived. I'm thinking about the schools that may be listed 60-70 in US NEWS clinical psych rank. (The methodology that was used in this ranking system is obviously not the most scientific but it seems like it gives a general ranking of the program in the US) R1, R2, R3: I'm curious to hear about peoples' perspectives (especially the ones who have been in the field after grad school) on R1,R2,R3 system of the school. In my brief research, this system meant more back in the days. Would R1 recognition give one more advantage in either academic or medical settings? Clinical vs. Scientist-Pracitioner: I am planning on pursuing research/clinical work (and also teach on the side) in medical school or children's hospitals affiliated with universities upon graduation. I'm aware that a lot has to do with my own productivity during the program. But I wondered if attending Clinical Science modality program (rather than Scientist-Pracitioner model) would give me more advantage. Academy of Psychological Clinical Science: Lastly, GENERALLY, among clinical science programs, would the the ones that are part of Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, be more prestigious than the ones who are not part of the program? Thank you for your time and your support!