PsychGradApplicant14

I have one conference presentation and will have another by the end of this year. Will also hopefully be published by the end of this year as well. Planning on helping to design an experiment this fall. Yes, I do believe my recommendations will be able to speak about my research experience and how I was more involved than just setting up a computer for participants. I plan on applying to experimental PhD programs but I am thinking I am going to be more competitive for MA programs so that is what I am thinking about focusing on. I was just hoping that my two W's and the fact that I did Pre-med classes won't look that unfavorably.

Hi. I am new here and I was curious about my chances this coming application season. I plan on applying to Masters programs in Experimental Psych and PhD programs in Experimental Psych. I have a 3.56 GPA, 316 GRE, good letters and will have 2.5 years of research experience when applying. I am a bit scared because I have two withdrawals on my transcript. Both W's are from non psych classes. The first came when I took a lot of credits and was working and decided it was too much so I dropped a hard science (I was originally pre-health). I decided to change from pre-health to psychology actually only about 5 months ago. I graduated back in the Fall with my Bachelors but I had registered for two Natural Science classes at a CC Post-Bacc because I still wasn't 100% set on psychology. When I became 100% set on psychology, I decided to just stick it out and take the courses anyway. Do you think it looks weird to have been taking natural science classes as well after deciding on psychology? In one class, I am going to get an A but I had to drop the class with a W mostly due to scheduling conflict but also because it was taking away time from my RA and TA positions at the university. Are these going to be looked at poorly to the point where I should expect a lot of rejections for even masters programs? Should I even attempt PhD programs or are these too many red flags? Thanks for the help, I am somewhat new to this process since I decided psychology graduate school was for me only about 5 months ago. I was interested in if I have a chance or if even I should apply to higher level masters programs like William and Mary, Wake Forest, Appalachian State, Western Carolina, etc.