Psychoplasmics

I hope it works out the way you want. Kudos on making a decision based on your specific needs.

That must have been incredibly difficult. Do you mind me asking what program you landed on?

I agree with the previous poster that it is usually a case by case basis. There is also some difference by specialty. Counseling psych programs are more likely to accept masters credits than clinical psych programs. Further, some counseling psych programs require a masters degree for admission.

Congratulations! That's awesome! What program?

The drive to begin now can be overwhelming. It can be very difficult to see the benefit of delaying graduate school in order to secure better options when faced with somewhat viable options available now. Oddly, graduate school is an exercise in delayed gratification. Perhaps the best way to begin to make your decision is to imagine looking back on it 20 years out. What will you think about this decision when you are mid-career and dealing with the consequences of what you decided? Taking on an enormous amount of debt for any program will significantly impact the quality of your life and the decisions you are able to make in the future. I must admit that I am biased. I am a non-traditional student that decided on psychology as a second career. I wound up doing two masters degrees (one unfunded, but cheap, the other fully funded) in order to make myself an attractive candidate for fully funded doctoral programs. I'm finishing up my second masters and I just completed my third application cycle. I was lucky enough to get into my number one program. All that to say, try to do the right things and make decisions based on your long-term goals and also recognize that luck is an ever-present factor in the process. Fortify yourself as best you can and meet opportunity with preparedness. Just my two cents.

I forgot to post that I declined WVU Counseling Psychology. Hope it helped someone out.

When I talked to other applicants at the interview, no one seemed to be familiar with these forums.

Congrats!

That had to be a tough decision. I hear the Psy.D. program at Rutgers is phenomenal.

Don't know. I did clearly state that my eventual goal is academia. Also the program I'm going to is an R1 school. I would think it would be clear, but who knows.

I didn't get it either.

Awesome. Congrats!

Congratulations! Baylor has a great program.

Congratulations!

Congratulations! It's heartening to see these offers finally begin to come. It's also pretty amazing having communities of support like these forums as we go through the process.

The Ford Foundation application looks different when you log in now. It says the competition is closed and no further action can be taken on the specified application. Has anyone heard anything?

This is really going to come down to personal preference and circumstance. I had 11 interviews scheduled this cycle and was prepared to attend all but two because of conflicting dates. I only stopped attending interviews when I received an offer from my top choice. This was my third cycle and I had decided it would be my last. I thought it was important to cast as wide a net as I could to ensure a spot in a program in which I felt I could prosper. For me, that meant 16 applications. I never dreamed I would get so many invites, but I was ready to capitalize on the opportunity. In previous cycles I got offers from programs that were not fully funded or were not yet APA-accredited. I decided I wanted to give myself every advantage over the long term so I declined those offers.

What did you make of Jackson State? I declined the interview after I was accepted elsewhere. I've heard really good things about the program.

For me, looking for ways to collect clinical experiences and coursework that qualify me for neuropsych pre- and post-docs is high on my list. I'm also planning on attending area-specific conventions much more frequently than before for networking.

This was my third cycle. I got in to doc programs in previous cycles, but they were either not funded or not yet accredited. After undergrad I completed a research-oriented masters. Unfortunately, it wasn't funded so I had to work full time while attending school. My grades suffered, I wound up with a 3.5. As a result, I did second masters degree (counseling psych) with additional research experiences. I was lucky to find a funded program. Every cycle of applications is different. You may get invites from a program one year and not the next. There are so many factors outside of our control as applicants. You could guess about about why you were attractive last go around and not this time until the cows come home and never hit on the real reason (and even if you were correct you would never know it). The same professors may or may not be a priority for taking new students. Funding may be scarce. Other applicants may be more attractive for any number of reasons. Departments may be shifting focus to new areas of research. In short, a million things that happen behind the scenes of a university that people outside of the faculty will never be privy to.What I really focused on this last time around was being strategic about the POIs and programs to which I applied, contacting POIs sometimes a year before applying (I was able to exchange emails, have phone calls, Skype calls, and in-person meetings with many), obtaining bullet-proof recommendations from professors that know me well and can speak to my strengths at length, and crafting the best SOP/PS that accurately reflected my interests and career aspirations. Basically, I have devoted myself to being the best candidate I can be and recognizing that the rest is totally up to chance.

Congratulations!

Don't know the exact date.

https://www.gemfellowship.org/students/gem-fellowship-program/

GEM Fellowship & APA Minority Fellowship applicants are welcome to stress out here as well.

I'm hoping others on the boards have applied for the fellowship and we can commiserate while we wait to be notified.