beherenow

Congrats on your offers, that's awesome!! And major props to you for going through this process three times, I'm dreading the thought of having to do this a second time. Interesting to hear about the GRE, I assumed since my uGPA was pretty low that my master's AND GRE needed to both be stellar. What did you do to increase your competitiveness, if you're comfortable sharing? I feel like I need to go above and beyond getting another research position (even if it's at a higher/managerial level), contacting potential research mentors, and applying to more schools. I'm considering taking psych classes through a university extension or something, since I only minored in psych (major was neuroscience, and master's was neuroimaging), but not sure if this will make a difference. And that's great to hear that it's been done successfully! Agreed, there's definitely no perfect time, I just don't want to it negatively impact my grad timeline, etc. Also, just to clarify, I won't be taking on debt if I go to either school. It's more about the fact that it's a lot of money when I could be getting a potentially better education/training elsewhere for free, and if schools ranked in the 100's impact one's competitiveness for internships/fellowships/jobs significantly.

I just came back to the US after living in the UK for a year, and I'm already itching to get out of the country again. I've been accepted to a couple PhD clinical psych programs here and am deciding what do this fall, but was just wondering how difficult it is to work abroad once you are a licensed clinical psychologist in the US. I feel like I've heard that this is impossible (unethical, even) in a lot of places, but is this true/ are there any countries that will be more feasible (Canada I'm looking at you!)? Thanks!

What about if I have external financial support that will allow me to graduate with no debt? Is it more about the principle of only attending fully funded programs, or is post-graduation debt the reason people stay away? I'm just curious because now there so, so many clinical programs that don't cover all (or any) tuition, and many people do fine. Most of these programs emphasize both clinical training and research pretty equally (in contrast to most fully-funded programs, which have a heavy research emphasis), and in this light it makes sense to me that there would be tuition since you're only spending up to half of your time conducting research. But perhaps I'm completely off with this?

This is so comforting to know! Thanks!

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone! And yeah, dormcat, I made sure the POIs I mentioned in my application were taking students, and I emailed them to express my interest in their research (although prob too late). My GRE was ~average for the schools I applied to (80th percentile), which I know must have contributed to not getting interviews. And yes I totally agree I should have applied to more schools, like I said the application process was rushed this year and I didn't have the chance to look into more schools unfortunately. But looking at how fully-funded programs admit 1-3% of applicants, I'm wondering if there's an unofficial GPA cutoff to filter applicants before even looking at the rest of their application? I really want to know what was holding me back this year and if I even have a chance next year. I'd love to reach out the schools that didn't send interview invites and find out from them directly as well- do people ever have success with this? Also I should have mentioned both of these programs are partially funded, ie you receive a stipend through an RAship and/or TAship but tuition isn't covered. Does this make any difference or still not worth it?

I applied to 6 Clinical Psych PhD programs this year (my first year doing so, and I was pretty rushed/lost throughout most of the process!), got interviews at 2, and have been accepted to both. Both are ranked ~150 in the US News & World Report for Clinical Psych PhD programs. I'm thrilled to have been accepted this cycle as I know how impossibly competitive these programs are, but a part of me is wondering if it's worth it to attend a lower ranked school with a hefty tuition fee, versus strengthen my application this year and try again for better, fully-funded programs for Fall 2018 instead. I think I have competitive stats besides my GPA (was a science major in college and physics/chem killed me, ending up with a 3.3 cumulative gpa. If you count just my psych classes, which I minored in, it's more like 3.8), and GRE (got 80th percentile for both verbal/quant). I have 3 years of research experience, including 2 years as a full-time RA at a prestigious university and 1 year undergrad. I have 7 publications/poster presentations, and am first author on 1 paper and 1 poster. I also recently received my master's, which I did well in, and have at least 2 excellent LORs. Maybe I'm overestimating my stats though-- can excellent research experience and a master's overshadow a less than average undergrad GPA? So I have a few questions. What are the actual, real-world implications of attending a lower ranked, unfunded PhD program, if any? Is it harder to get an internship/externship(s)? What about career prospects? I'm planning on going into neuropsych, which has more growth than other clinical psych fields, but also more competition. Is it too risky to decide not to attend one of these programs this year and try again next year? Is it possible to defer programs (assuming this depends on school, but wondering if this is even possible)?! It would be ideal to attend a fully-funded program, obviously, but am I crazy for trying to pursue that uncertainty for another year, when I could already be attending another program?? I'm also going to be 26 in a couple months, so definitely not getting any younger. I know this shouldn't be a big factor in my decision making process but I want to start a family eventually, and as a woman doing so while still in grad school seems kind of insane! Thanks in advance. Any input is appreciated!

Hey all, I am planning on applying to clinical psych/neuropsych and perhaps also neuroscience PhD programs this fall. I really want to take advantage of the free time I'll have this January and February to travel, but obviously do not want it to conflict with any potential interviews. After some research I couldn't find a lot of the dates for this year's interview season (to make an educated guess about next year), so figured I would ask you guys. I'm especially interested in schools in CA (UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, UCSF, UCD, and USC), and also Oregon and Washington (UO and UW). So, what were the options for your interview dates this year, and for which school(s)? Because I'm not set on my list of programs yet, I'd be interested in hearing from anyone/everyone regardless of school! Thank you!!