Clinapp2017

This is definitely not a good idea. Like @Timemachines said, doing this probaly makes you look desperate. From my experience, here’s three good times to email POIs: 1) pre Application: introduce yourself and see if they plan to take a student (if this info isn’t readily available online) 2) after receiving an interview invite: express your grattitude and share that you are excited to attend the interview (if you are going) 3) post-interview thank you: 1 day after your interview, send a kind thank you email specifying what you enjoyed about your visit and your conversations. Other then that, I’d advise against. Profs get literally hundreds to thousands emails daily, so if you aren’t already on their radar, you doing this isn’t going to help and could hurt chances with them if you reapply in a later cycle. From my experience, POIs have strong memory for candidates they find particularly annoying

Usually like "why you do what you do." There is usually a connection between most of those things I'd say. Crafting personal narratives are very important for any career.

Very interesting! I’d say your main conclusion makes a lot of sense given these metrics are likely just used to sceeen candidates out (or weed out those with poor marks and GREs). The difference between GRE 310/315+ is relatively neglible in terms of diminishing returns from what I understand from admissions. I’m curious about selection biases that drive people to disclose people to share their stats on grad cafe. That never has made sense to me since it isn’t that hard (in theory) to work backwards as a faulty monitoring this page to see an applicant disclosing the interview invites lol.

Most programs invite the first wave of applicants, and almost always the incoming cohort is selected from that group. It is extremely rare to extend invites to a second round. Best of luck!

There's quite a few web resources on this topic and you can use Google to find them. That being said, here's the common questions I ran into during my 7 interviews last cycle (I am now a 1st year at my top choice clinical program): Why my lab/this program/this city/clinical psychology? If you had unlimited funding, what research topic would you want to explore? Tell me about you/what you are passionate about. What is your long term career goal - academia, private practice, industry? A note on this one - if you are interviewing at clinical PhD programs, most always want to hear "be an academic or work in practice ~25% of the time and be faculty 75% of the time so my research can be informed. Most clinical PhD programs, ironically, are aiming to create faculty and contributors to science, not just clinicians. Saying you are just intereted in clinical practice can really be a bad thing to say... however, PsyDs and counseling psych programs tend (from my understanding) to appreciate this answer a bit more. All I can say, is if you are pursuing a clinical PhD, you should probably have at least a strong initial interest of going into the academy. What are your strenghts? What are your weaknessess? Be genuine here. I told my POIs striaght up I over-committ myself (I'm a high achiever lol). I am aware of this though and didn't want it to be a problem in grad school, so in the same statement for weaknessess I talked about my reckoning with this being an issue and how I have been addressing it/plan to address it in grad school and beyond. Tell me about your most recent research project? What are the main takeaways? What's something interesting you just read (book or research)? Really there aren't too many odd-ball questions from my experience. Just be yourself, and the right program will accept you if it is where you are supposed to be. ALSO, this is supposed to be an opportunity for you to get to know the program and the current students as well, so ask lots of questions of them too!

Whoops. Could have sworn I saw one that was valid but I guess not.

UAB actually has appeared on the TCG results page, FYI. Last year when I applied to SDSU we heard back on way or another the last week of January (in my case it was a rejection... not surprised bc my research match was a huge stretch). I cannot say if this will be the case for you all this year, but continue to hang in there and be patient.

@TakeruK thanks for the clarification! I assumed that you weren't posting as a mod and ending the thread or something, and I really value your expertise (and I imagine OP does too)! I am just wanting to paint things from a former applicant's perspective, as I do genuinely believe clinical/counseling operates very differently in comparison to other PhD programs in admissions. I love this forum because we can have discussions like this. Still just feel weird challenging a mod though. I was never saying faculty/admin put in no time, because as someone helping the admin and faculty right now at my school coordinate the visit I really, really get that point! My main point is when students are paying ~$1000 to apply to the average number of programs (~10), and then say, interviewing at 4-5 which costs $500-$750 each to attend, those costs add up very quickly for the student. Yes, the student ultimately needs to make their own choices if finances are a hindrance (that's life, despite how sucky it is that the PhD application/life process is very gentrified). I admit I misunderstood and mixed up threads... it does not appear the POI is asking OP outright to cancel the other interview. My bad. However, the basic inference from saying "I am not sure if I can reschedule" is if you want to even have a chance to get in here, you'd need to cancel and come on the weekend we proposed. I could be wrong, but that's how I read it. It seems like a subtle way of asking pre-interview rankings. For me at least, my top choice program when I applied (which I am very fortunate to be at now) was top choice by a country mile because of the far superior training climate that is tailored directly to my clinical/research training goals. (Note: when I say superior, I don't mean other schools are horrible, but the offer I received was by far the offer of my dreams.) I did not tell other schools I interviewed at that the were not my top choice, but when I did interview at my top choice I told them outright that if they made an offer I would accept, and I did. However, I was not banking on my top choice making me an offer because you never know how things shake out with funding/other applicants. This may not be the case for all applicants. I had many friends last cycle and this cycle who, pre-interivew, have essentially what is a 2-3 way tie when comparing their top interview offers. The interview weekend is designed to be two-way process where both faculty and applicants can figure out the best match in-person. For this reason, backing out of ~$400-$750 of your own money that you have spent to book arrangements for an earlier offer is frankly not your fault, and nobody should be put in a position where they are essentially forced to back out of an existing commitment to attend an interview for an equal school. Programs should realize the most competitive applicants are obviously going to get many interviews and will book them as they come. Each year, the weekend of Feb 9th, for example, has ~20 good clinical/counseling programs hosting interviews. You can't be in two (or 3-4) places at once, so if multiple overlap with the earliest offer that you have committed to attending, rescheduling (or skyping) should be allowable by the faculty if they want to be reasonable given the circumstances. All faculty were in this place at one point, and I have honestly noticed younger faculty being more gracious in this regard... perhaps the weird overlapping weekends wasn't an issue ~30 to 40 years ago. I've enjoyed this discussion a lot and hope that OP probably gets from this is that they are in between a rock and a hard place and there's not a best option, but several good ones. I am not sure if you agree @TakeruK, but it seems like we are both advocating for OP (a) thinking about whether or not they should even interview at this school and (b) if so, they need to graciously convey that they have already spent $$$ to RSVP for the other one and thus cannot reasonably back out without losing $$$, yet that being said the school in question is a top choice and they are seriously interested in figuring out a way to visit if the prof will let them.

The only way you'd be over-dressed for any interview is if you are wearing a tuxedo or prom dress... for clinical, I always suggest for the formal interview wearing suits (both guys and women - women can be pant suit or skirt/dress with nice top/blazer respectively). You want to look professional but also be comfortable, so pick what works for you. The casual dinners/social is definitely a more casual version of biz casual unless otherwise specified. I attended 7 interviews last year and for 6 of the 7 socials I (a guy) wore nice jeans or nice casual slacks with a polo or more casual button down. This was fine.

I am just wondering if the moderators know this, as they are not from the clinical psychology/counseling psychology background: For the most part, clinical psych/counseling psych programs reimburse little, if any, expenses of your visit. That means you are paying out of pocket to travel to whatever programs you are invited to attend. The most I received when I applied/was admitted was $200 reimbursement for travel. The program I am attending (which gets 600+ apps a year) reimburses nothing. The POI in question is out of line in fishing for information and should be more accommodating. Yes, if OP has no intent of going ever, don't waste anyone's time. However, if the school in question is #3 on the list (which is significantly different) than #1 and #2, they should still go. You do not know because of funding/other applicants if #1 or #2 will make you an offer, so you are putting a lot of eggs in a theoretical basket. In theory, I assume the OP is serious about applying by submitting an app to that school. Why waste ~$100 on an application if you don't even want to go there. That being said, you should not be penalized for having other interviews. And to @Eigen's point about having to make a choice about non-academia interviews, this is not entirely true (coming from someone who has two parents who work in HR/hiring in corporate America). Some companies may function like academia where they have "interview weekends," but often times interviews are scheduled around dates that work mutually for hiring managers and the applicants. I do agree about the point on balancing offers though, and that's generally the same procedure in clinical/counseling where you should not hold on to more than 1 offer at a time. Note: I am not trying to engage either of the moderators in a fight here, but I do think the grad school interviewing process is significantly different in clinical/counseling vs other fields. One major differences is many programs (e.g., human development/family studies, for example) often accept students and then ask then pay them to come tour the campus before making a choice. In clinical/counseling, interview weekends are essential to decisions which (in theory) are not made until after the interview weekend occurs.

Or, ya know, it's pretty shitty you have already RSVPd with another program and booked hotels/flights that you'd lose money on if you canceled. You'd be out of $$$ and you'd look extremely unprofessional with the school you'd already RSVPd to (and almost certaintly not be offered a reschedule date). Just a thought, but maybe programs that extend late invites (after Christmas, IMO) need to recognize that other programs have moved faster. Late programs either need to speed up the process or be more accomodating.

In my opinion, that is extremeley weird/wrong of this program to ask you to cancel an interivew you previously had scheduled. It's not your fault for moving on earlier offers, and they should recognize that and be accomodating. My top choice (where I am now - an extremely competitive program) realized that because they invited me and other applicants late in the process that many of us would have conflicting interviews. So I politely explaied my situation and they rescheduled with me (and several other students). Asking you to lose money on flights/hotels is just dumb. I think you declining was wise because from the get go the program, frankly, seems kind of manipuative by asking you to cacel other offers.

What do you gain by asking? You just look impatient. Learning to be patient and wait to hear back on things (e.g., grants, applications, jobs) is par for the course in academia. If you really must know (because of conflicting interview weekends invitational ONLY), then maybe it would be appropriate to email the program coordinator. I’d still advise against.

You can if you want to... I don't think it would hurt if anything. That being said, if you feel bad you can just express that you thought that your confirmation to the grad students would have been relayed to the PI and you are sorry for the oversight. Most PIs do this just because they do genuinely care, I believe.

This may have been said by others, but almost half of the test if social psych. If you're like me (and don't give a crap about social psych), use study guides to amp up your knowledge. My undergrad didn't require I take this course, so I did not and my GRE subject test was awful. However, I still got interviews at many clinical programs I applied to, I just didn't send my subject test scores if they didn't require them.

So last season I applied to 10 clinical programs and was extremely fortunate to interview at 7 of them. I presumed I was waitlisted at 5 of the 7, although I got offers from 2 of my top programs (and took the very generous offer from the top program - a very prestigious/competitive program). Like 8BitJourney, I noticed that after attending 2 of the interviews my anxiety went down immensely. Not everyone has the luxury/luck I might have had last season, but here's my general advice: 1) Like everyone says, do your homework about your POI. Be familiar with your POIs works from the last 5ish years, and any major pubs in the last decade. If your POI has grant funding, look up the grant on the NIH grant website and read the brief description to think about how your potential dissertation work can fit under your POI's work while being unique enough. If the POI has a good lab website, look over it carefully... from this you can get good information about what other grad students in the lab may be doing, as well as what the lab may like to do socially. (My POI actually mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she still remembers how excited I was about the lab culture and the things that they do -- information I gathered from the website.) 2) Do your homework about the program as a whole. What is the training model like? What can you expect in practicum? If these things aren't clear, ask during the interview to show that you care about your training! Some programs have some kind of weird stuff going on that have pros/cons (like an in-house guaranteed internship: rare), so asking about things like that without sounding presumptuous is important. 3) Re-read your personal statement. People will mention it to you and ask you to tell you your "story." They'll also ask you "why clinical psych (or insert XXXX program here)." This should hopefully be spelled out in your SOP if you wrote a good one, so re-reading it once or twice before an interview (perhaps on the plane ride before or something) is a good idea. 4) The 2 days before you leave for an interview, pack your bag. As silly as it sounds, I almost forgot to do this once between the stress of back-to-back interviews and my undergrad classes and other commitments. Make sure you have a suit ready and some more nice casual attire for the informal dinners/parties. I'd also REALLY recommend getting a thank you card and a small trinket from where you are from for your grad student host (if you are staying with a grad student). The personalized touch can really go a far way in showing you are thankful to them for going out of their way to let you stay in their home. 5) On interview day: don't get into a competition with other applicants, but do be social with them. There is no need to compare experiences. Even if someone appears to be far more qualified, they are not. You are all there for the same reason and on an equal playing field. The important thing is that you focus on doing your best and being yourself around the POI and the program. 6) To your main question: just be ready to have a conversation about their work and be excited about it! Talk about how your interests align with what you've read. Usually nobody is going to ask intense method details unless a background in the methods (e.g., neuroimaging) is essential to the work they do. Anyways, I hope this helps! Always willing to talk over PM too if you have any questions. Best of luck! -J

These are interesting macro goals that you have. In a perfect world, what would be your ideal career title/employer? This might help guide your search and any advice that I and others might give to you. From a policy perspective, I know plenty of MSWs from my work with a major non-profit during my undergrad that do macro-level advocacy for a niche area of medicine and research. What allowed them to get into their advocacy perspective, however, was 20+ years of applied clinical practice. Frankly, as someone who could see myself going into advocacy/non-profit work after a 25+ year in academia or private practice, I think we need more people in advocacy who have in-the-trenches experience and offer that expertise as an advocacy perspective. Book-knowledge really can only get you so far in identifying problems and advocating for solutions, in my humble opinion.

I wouldn’t hold your breath on UNC. Almost always decisions for the cohort are made based off people invited to interview in th 1st round. This isn’t always the case (if applicants are bad or accept other offers), but this is super rare... anecdotally, I’ve only heard of this happening to one friend out of ~30 I know who have gone onto clinical programs like me. What this does almost certainly mean is that you aren’t going to interview in the 1st round (and likely won’t at all).

What’s your area? Invites are still going out for a month or more

No. And if they ask (which why would they...?), you can just say that you had a surgery and need to take anti-biotics and hence cannot drink alcohol. In reality, they are not going to judge you. Alcohol is offered as a courtesy and usually because it helps people be a little more relaxed socially.

Don’t email POIs about this. My current PhD mentor and old mentor at my undergrad have both commented on this making you look impatient. If you really must know, email the grad admissions coordinator. Having gone through this process last year myself, I get the anxiety. However, you don’t really benefit at all by asking: you either learn you’re rejected or that you still need to wait. You can still work on building a backup plan without knowing your status. I’ll also add several top programs don’t send out invites until mid to late January. The program I’m attending didn’t email me until late January last year to invite me to interview in February because they receive an extremely high number of applicants because of prestige and location. Best of luck with everything! The process sucks, but resiliency and patience are important traits for the road ahead.

Here's my perspective as someone who got into my top choice last cycle (first time I applied, straight out of undergrad): This is a super awkward question and I never actually encountered this question in the 7 interviews I attended. Of course, there is a way to discuss potential projects and ideas with your perspective mentors without them directly asking if you want to come/how much you want to come. If you don't actually know, you can be honest by saying that the program is high on your list but you want to evaluate everything and sit on it before making any decisions if you were to receive a formal offer. I personally think that's how I would respond... it's not a lie, but it doesn't give them false expectations. That being said, if you get an interview at your dream program (like I did), tell them directly in your interview that their program is your top choice for BLAH BLAH BLAH reasons and that you would go if they extended an offer. Faculty wind up being screwed all the time because students don't accept and they miss getting a student. So, in my case, when I said that to my mentor, I basically assured her that if she wanted to extend me an offer that I would come in a heartbeat... and I did. I know this isn't the answer you may want to hear. That is a weird predicament your POI is putting you in by asking that question. But, I hope my response may help you... Best of luck!

Is this clinical or what program? If clinical, yes, it is too late as the application reviews are well under way. Let things pan out.

As silly as it sounds, being yourself and realizing I was invited for a reason calmed me down. It’s nerve wracking for sure, but recognizing that it’s your time to shine (in a non-self-aggrandizing way) oddly helped me enjoy the interview. Best wishes with it

FYI but most Clinical PhD programs (if that is your goal) may or may not be willing to accept your MA credits towards a PhD. They might accept some, but not all. This should be a consideration.