xChrisx

I'm not sure if this helps, but I emailed the admissions office to ask basically if I should assume I am rejected at this point if I haven't received an interview and the response was, "Many of our faculty members are still making decisions around their shortlisted candidates and once I receive their choices, I will continue to invite candidates." so, let's not lose hope yet! I'm still waiting to hear from them 🤞

I just got accepted into the Epidemiology (PhD) program at Umass Amherst!

Just received Harvard Health Policy (Decision Sciences track) interview request. 4 faculty members, 30 min each.

Hi everybody,
Has anyone heard from Johns Hopkins (Mental Health Track)?
Please let me know.
Thanks

I received an interview from Duke’s pop health PhD program for mid-January. Still waiting to hear from one more school. Any tips on how to prep for these interviews? Good luck to all ???

I appreciate how warm and encouraging folks in this forum are! Last year, I was devastated when I was rejected from Every.Single. Program that I applied to. I just wanted to share my experience with everyone, especially those who have not heard from any of the programs they applied to.
After receiving all the rejections, I took some time to reflect on ways to improve my application while pursuing other public health opportunities that I was interested in. I ended up consulting for two local organizations in my country on some really cool projects. And fortunately for me, things picked up at work due to COVID, and I ended up gaining more responsibilities and experience (I work in International development btw).
Last year, I applied to 6 schools. This time around, I applied to 7. I thoroughly researched the schools I was interested in and spoke to numerous faculty and current students. I typed up every answer they gave to my questions and read through them when I was writing my personal statement. This was extremely helpful to tailor my statement to each of the schools that I applied to. I revised my personal statement from last year and wove the past year's experience in the essay. I also understood what I wanted to research better, and I believe the time I spent reflecting on how to improve my applications was the cause. I listened to podcasts, watched YouTube videos, and stalked the faculty members' Twitter accounts I was interested in. It also helped to see what they were interested in and really understand their areas of expertise.
So far, I have been accepted to two programs without interviews (Temple University & OHSU). And I have also been interviewed for UMD, Duke and Vanderbilt. This is all to say, hang in there! Don't give up! If a PhD is what you want, and you didn't get into any programs this year, remember the wise words of Aaliyah: 
If at first you don't succeed
(First you don't succeed)
Then dust yourself off and try again
You can dust if off and try again, try again
Also, if y'all have "academic" Twitter accounts, I'd love to follow you. It would be nice to have this community when pursuing my PhD studies, and I would also love to help folks when they submit new applications. My Twitter handle is @nana_add0 ?.

Got accepted into the UC Irvine, Public Health PhD, Disease Prevention through an informal email from the admissions committee chair tonight.  Had a group interview last Friday. 
 
It's a nice relief after hearing how tough it is.  I was very worried.  I am 44 year old classical musician with a decent performing and college teaching career, teen age kids and bills.  A few years ago a I met a retired epi/biostatician from Johns Hopkins/Harvard selling some furniture on Facebook.  We became friends and then he hired me for research.  Never thought I would be doing this! 
I have three more to hear back from, but good luck to everyone.  

Hi everyone, I don't know how to process emotions well and I am still in shock but I just received notice of my acceptance from Johns Hopkins into their Mental Health PhD program. For the past week I have been feeling so much anxiety waiting for their response to the point where each time I slept, I had a dream that I received a response (both good and bad) from them. I'm happy to say I can finally sleep in peace after this! Lol Anyways, before I tell the rest of my friends, I felt the need to come on here and share this news with you all. I just want you all to know how grateful I am to have found a community as supportive as yourselves. You have all been so encouraging through this process and it made it easer for me to handle each rejection I faced (UWashington, Boston, Michigan, and Brown). You all taught me to handle rejection as a redirection, and I was beginning to come to terms that if this year wasn't my year then I would simply have to try again. This is my second time applying to doctoral programs btw. Nonetheless, I appreciate you all and hope you all receive great news soon. May the universe bless you during this time. 

So I've heard from people that "every year gets harder" for getting into psychology programs (particularly clinical psych), but this year is just insane. I'm feeling so frustrated because I got waitlisted at the only school I got an interview from, and now I might not get into grad school this year despite applying to 15 programs. This is my second time applying to clinical programs, and this time I applied with 2 years of full-time research experience (plus 3 years part-time research experience), 3 glowing LOR including one well known PI, and a paper in revision which then was accepted for publication shortly after apps were due (I notified all my potential PIs right away) plus 1 paper under review and 2 in prep, plus 4 first authored posters and a dozen other posters I've worked on as second or third author. (My undergrad GPA was 3.95 so that also shouldn't be an issue). My supervisors, an associate and assistant professor at an R01, were confident I would receive several offers this year with my CV and after looking over my personal statement as well. And yet here we are... 
I'm sure I'm not the only qualified applicant facing this. And I also know that people who are receiving offers are super amazing so no shade to them. It just sucks that funding is so down this year and there were suddenly so many more applicants. 
I'm feeling especially frustrated today because a grad student in one of the labs I work in was asking for my help with stats, and it's like if I can teach current grad students things they don't know and still not get into a program, what the heck?! Is it even worth it to keep trying to get into this field? I just feel so discouraged. 
Feel free to vent about this crazy app season or anything else psychology field / application related below. 

Has anyone heard from Boston College Counselling Psych or is it just vibes?

So I got rejected from the one program I applied to. I feel like I could write a book about why I decided to do that (lol). My research interests are pretty specific/behavior analysis programs seemed to fit/there aren't many people that research what I want to research/whatever. But I did it and I felt good about it. But ultimately I got rejected and the PI suggested I pursue a masters first (in the end she chose a someone with a masters over me IT MAKES SENSE). This is my third cycle and honestly at this point I guess getting a masters is my only choice if I really want to pursue this/a phd and I have to be honest I'm really not happy about that. I understand all of it but I am so not happy. 

Has anyone heard from Boston College Counselling Psych or is it just vibes?

Has anyone heard from Boston College Counselling Psych or is it just vibes?

100000% completely agree. I’m nervous to apply next year because I feel like there are people applying with 5+ pubs, 10+poster presentations, 4.0 GPA, etc etc. Do programs not know that not everyone has a pipeline to do research equally at their universities? And that finding a CRC/RA job is almost impossible without the right connections? It absolutely disadvantages diverse applicants. For a field that praises itself to be inclusive, programs have a long way to go in terms of actual inclusiveness. It’s insane how competitive it is. People shouldn’t have to apply 3+ times to get into a program. It also really sucks to know that the people most passionate about being psychologists or doing research in a specific area get denied spots in labs. Aggggh sorry rant over. 

Anyone else having a hard time focusing on work/school/interview prep because of the inauguration? Or, is that just me ? 
Feeling very grateful for the overall supportive nature of this forum. Sending positive energy and wishes of acceptance to everyone here. It's been a grueling process for sure, but I am thankful I am not alone in this boat ❤️ 
Sorry for the side note!

Some People Have. Check the results page

Yup- another one bites the dust. I guess the amount of posts on here just goes to show that they must have received an insane amount of apps, but that doesn't make it sting any less. Really struggling now that over half my programs have rejected me without an interview- I knew this would be a grueling process but damn it's been getting me down! I'd like to think I'm a competitive applicant, and it sucks that I feel as though I've been burning the candle at both ends in an RA job for years post-undergrad to not even be considered seriously as an applicant... at least we're all in this together ?

Hey! Californians mostly don’t say “Cali,” and USC is notorious for its pretentiousness so if you get accepted and go there (good luck, btw!) I would advise against saying “Cali.” When Californians refer to Southern California, we call it “SoCal,” but USC is just referred to as USC.

Did anyone else start off applications super stoked because they waived the GRE, also secretly hoping no one will apply this year because of COVID (yes, not a smart thought) only to find out that a record number of people are applying and so it's even more competitive this year and the GRE will be back next year, which means you will probably not apply to all schools you wanted to, and now has a borderline mental breakdown. ?
Also did anyone else start off feeling very confident in themselves just to feel like they will get 0 interview invites. I consider myself a somewhat competitive applicant (Masters, 3 years of research experience, 3 years clinical experience, one publication and a bunch in prep) only to feel like it won't mean shit because there's basically about 900 people applying for 9 spots.. (making this last part up but it's probably true).  
Oh the joy.

School: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Type: Clinical Psychology Ph.D.
Date of invite: 1/15/21
Type of invite: Official invite from department
Interview date(s): Feb 19-20th
DM for POI: Yes

There has been some discussion about determining Plan B after this cycle. Options include post-bac research positions, clinical work, and master's programs. There are MANY master's programs in psychology, either clinical or general/experimental/research, that provide funding and offer really good training to help build experience before applying to doctoral programs.  This is not an exhaustive list, but a good start, and may help you think about and identify similar programs at schools near you. So many of you have great experience and would be very competitive at many of these schools, particularly the research-based ones, as they tend to get much fewer applications than clinical programs.
Middle Tennessee State - Clinical
University of Tennessee - Chattanooga - research
University of Memphis - research
Missouri State University - clinical
Cleveland State University - clinical
University of Dayton- clinical
Western Kentucky University - Psychological Science research
Murray State University - clinical and research
Morehead State University - clinical
University of Kentucky - counseling MA - specifically for those interested in pursuing Counseling PhD
Eastern Illinois University - clinical
Illinois State university - clinical
Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville - clinical
Ball State University - clinical
Eastern Michigan University - clinical
Western Carolina University - clinical
University of South Carolina - Aiken - clinical
Catholic University - research
Wake Forest - research
College of William and Mary - research
Villanova - research
UMASS - Dartmouth - clinical and general
Northwestern Feinberg - clinical research (1-year master's)
Fordham - clinical research methods
 
 

Hi all, I too am on the boat of applying to 15 programs and hearing radio silence from all of them. I know anxiety levels are skyrocketing these past few days, so join me in saying these words of affirmation for yourself out loud! We are all qualified and deserving of reaching our goals! ?
 
1. If I do my best throughout this process, I will end up at exactly the school and program where I belong.
2. Setbacks and mistakes are a natural part of this process. I’m taking a big risk by being honest with myself about my dreams and goals—and being willing to go after them!
3. At all moments—right this moment—I am being drawn toward the people, places, and opportunities for my highest good and my highest service to the world.
4. There is enough time, money, energy, and opportunities in life for me to make a difference. There is room at the top for me!
5. I am dedicated to enjoying this journey. Not every part will be fun or easy, but I will not let my life whiz by me in a race to “the next best thing.” I live and enjoy my life today.
6. I’m either winning or learning. Even if things don’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, I will gain valuable lessons that will be invaluable to me and to others in the future.
7. I give myself permission to go after the opportunities that excite me, to reach out to the people I want to meet, and to apply to the schools that I’d love to attend.
8. I am willing, ready, and going to take one step today toward reaching my goals of getting into my dream school. I know that even just one small action is better than doing nothing.
9. I give myself permission to rest, relax, and take a break from thinking about “grad school stuff” all the time. I know that I don’t have to push myself to exhaustion in order to reach my goals, because my goals want to reach me as much I want to reach them.
10. I surround myself with uplifting people and abundant thoughts that affirm my journey toward the graduate program of my choosing.
 

Sorry clogging this up I just need to let some “AAAAHAHAAHHAHGGGGGG” frustrations out. Y’all I am a nervous wreck seeing all the invites go out and still no peep from any school/POI!
but forreal I am very happy for everyone that has been accepted//interviewed//etc! 
(I just want to hear somethinggggg even if it’s a rejection at this point)
 
❤️ 

me watching everyone post their interview invites on the results page, having not heard a single word from my schools albeit 1 rejection:

This is my third round applying! After the first rejection following my undergrad I decided to complete a masters (neuroscience) for more research experience! Then I got waitlisted last year and pursued more clinical experience by working admin at a psychology clinic. For me it's not a question of if I'll become a clinical psychologist, but how! So I'm definitely a fan of plan B to build up your resume  My sincerest good luck wishes to everyone.