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Clinapp2017

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Everything posted by Clinapp2017

  1. FWIW - I think LORs in general carry a lot of weight, even pre-COVID, but may carry more weight now. If a POI knows your LOR writer(s), and they write glowing letters, I think that is a golden ticket. Some POIs engage in what I frankly consider unethical behavior, which is take students with whom they have prior connections, usually resulting in less diversification of our field b/c those students are typically people with great means (high SES, traditional backgrounds, have the ability to do lots of unpaid RA work in undergrad/MA programs, etc.). It's a big gamble for POIs to take students, in the same way you want to match with the best mentor possible. If a student a POI takes one year turns out to be bat s**t crazy, imagine how frustrating that might be for a POI. A year of a student lost, essentially, out of maybe, at most 35-40 years of training people. Having LOR writers a) know you SUPER well and b) know your ideal POI super well is key. It's kind of sad that's where we are at, as that also probably biases toward well-connected, resourced students, but it's worth knowing. As I have aged in my program, my PI has been frank with me in telling me they have rejected candidates for lab positions, other PhD slots, etc. almost always based on LORs that are not strong (OR say *negative* things... yikes). Tl;dr for future applications: ALWAYS ask LOR writers if they are willing and able to write a *strong* LOR for you. If they are ethical, they will be honest, and you need strong LORs as other metrics (e.g., GRE) go away.
  2. What is the field of your authored paper? Is it related to clinical neuropsych/do you have assessment experience at all? Rather than apply for a MA program, I might consider if I was you applying to work for 2 years as a RA in a clinical neuropsych lab as an RA or lab manager. Getting the direct research experience would be helpful (no matter how 'prestigious' the unrelated RA job) would be helpful.
  3. I think your 160/158 is fine. What was your AW score? Also, do you have any posters or publications from your long time in research? That would bump up your consideration by faculty at the funded programs more than just a few points on the GRE would.
  4. What @PsyDuck90said. Also, do you have any research experience in neuropsych or clinical experience with assessment? Without that, you probably will unfortunately not be competitive for clinical neuropsych PhD programs in person (given the lower GPAs), which is the only path to becoming a clinical neuropsychologist. I am unaware of any online programs that confer an APA accredited clinical psych PhD with neuropsych emphasis. Sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but online programs are not worth the debt so do not attend any.
  5. Usually people who say "I cannot apply for personal reasons to places outside of X" normally have solid reasons, so I trust you on it OP and don't. want to push extra hard like other posters. They are correct, though, that right out of the gate you limit your chances. NYC is one of the most sought after areas to live in and some of the programs have stellar reputations (other ones are not well thought of at all -- do the research), meaning there will be floods of applications. What will distinguish you for a PhD program is research experience (which it sounds like you don't have?) and fit with the mentor(s) you apply to at the programs. PsyD models tend to reward clinical work more in post-bacc training, so you may be better positioned for these fields, though I am not a proponent of PsyD programs unless they are a good fit for the student AND the funding situation is good. The thing to consider with all of these schools are what is the funding situation; do you have to pay tuition, or do you pay you a stipend? The change in earnings potential from MA in counseling given you are already working to doctorate (esp PsyD) is not that great... it gets even worse if you take on debt and shell out a large chunk of your monthly income to pay off the predatory student loans. If you have another income stream (partner, family) you may be fine, but I genuinely don't recommend people bank on other income streams.
  6. Short answer: no. Why would an online program be worth it when so many aspects of neuroscience, in particular, require in-person work (e.g., rat research, human studies, etc.)? Sounds like you already have a good career so just keep on doing that I would say unless you have a lot of money to burn. I think some good CEU courses/conferences would be much better if you just want to learn new things.
  7. That's great -- I think the pubs will make up for it.
  8. Agree with the others assuming you are on good terms. Specifically, you should ask if they can write a strong letter of rec. Nothing is worse than neutral LORs that are boring (besides maybe a LOR that states you should not take the applicant). When you get in touch, I recommend maybe asking if they want to chat over the phone/zoom briefly, and attach an updated CV so they can know what you are up to. I had a professor I only took one class from in college (which I loved) write me a LOR; we did not talk a lot, but he was enthusiastic about writing me a letter because he loved my class project and I got the highest grade in the class. We probably had not talked for like 1.5 years before I applied, so I offered to highlight things I would like him to mention specifically on my CV and I even wrote a few "draft" paragraphs for him to have a skeleton. That's a good suggestion, too, if you are worried about the LOR being a time-suck for your former mentor. Hope this helps!
  9. Mean/median psych GPA generally falls above a 3.5. For most APA-approved programs, their website will have somewhere we you can find stats of successfully admitted applicants over the past few years. What is your overall GPA? The best ways to compensate for a low GPA if you are applying this cycle with that GPA would be: (1) have posters and ideally a publication in a peer-review journal, (2) have a stellar GRE score for schools that care about it, (3) take the Psych GRE if possible and score very well. If you don't have posters/pubs and a good GRE/psych GRE, you may want to consider applying a different cycle. You *could* get in this cycle, but it's important to be honest that you are competing with a very strong pool of applicants for a handful of slots (funded programs anyways). You could always consider applying for research assistant jobs and/or getting a master's degree in psych (more expensive, but could fix the GPA problem if your master's degree GPA is excellent).
  10. I did this and got in on the first round I applied. Just don't spend *too* much of the SOP focusing on this. If you want my example SOP, I am happy to share via DM.
  11. The only way I think you split the difference is pay $$$ to do a 1-2 years master's program abroad; I know some people who did this in the UK, for example. They then came back to the United States and pursued a PhD in clinical psych. If you are 1000000% sure you want to be an academic and not do clinical work, it doesn't really matter, though US schools tend to be well recognized both within the US and around the globe, whereas degrees from other nations may not be as readily accepted in the US academic hiring sphere. If you think even 1% that you want to practice therapy/assessment, you will want to pursue a degree in the United States or Canada, as the process of getting an international degree credentialed in the USA is such a pain in the behind, if you can get credentialed at all. An example -- someone I know from a country in South America was literally faculty at her institution there (post-masters degree), and when she came to the USA to study she had to start all over again and get a new MA/PHD, do internship, post-doc, etc. It's easier to leave the USA after your PhD vs. the other way around.
  12. It's worth a shot but I would say don't expect replies. If you interviewed for a lab and got rejected, it may be worth asking, but honestly the whole process is a bit of a crap-shoot.
  13. Not sure why this post was grave-dug (so I am more replying for any future folks applying the coming cycle), but I can say from going on 8 interviews when I applied that I got asked this question zero times. I know my evidence is anecdotal, but I don't think there is a need to be concerned about it. People may ask what you do for hobbies/fun, and being honest is great (e.g., I told them I am a huge movie buff, so at the time I had MoviePass [RIP] and now I have AMC a-list so I can go to as many movies I want for a very reasonable fee).
  14. Due to our moron-in-chief, our new incoming student (who we knew previously from work with our lab) is probably trapped in her country and may have to wait a full year to start. It's all political; Tr*mp wants to force schools to open, forcing the economy back on track at the expense of American (and international) lives. If you can, please VOTE.
  15. My thoughts: -GPA is fine, definitely keep doing well in your last two years -Keep pushing on getting posters/talks from these research experiences; a paper would be even better. -Awesome about TAing and R! R is FAR superior to SPSS, so keep working on that. -Right now: use that data from your team to start writing that paper and definitely study for the GRE/psych GRE.
  16. True, but just because a school is not requiring the GRE does not mean explicitly that POI's will not care. Some POIs, as dumb as it is, really care about GRE scores and use them to differentiate between some applicants. Unless schools have stated explicitly that no POIs will examine GRE scores, I will treat this with a grain of salt.
  17. The consensus I have heard is a safe score is 320 total; of course, closer to 160/160+ is better. It's not always a direct cutoff, but that's a good score.
  18. A little confused by this post. So you want to study this concept more in graduate school? The reason I’m confused is this is not a novel concept. All emotions can be adaptive; the definition of an emotional disorder implies that the emotions, which were once helpful to us in some way, have become aversive experiences and are impairing some aspect of daily life. The emotional disorders can be caused by distressing events, but are not always tied to a precipitating event. Most clinical psychologists agree about this, so what exactly interests you about this perspective (or am I missing something)?
  19. More of a random comment, but do you have $$$ to spend on application fees? It may make sense to consider which path you think will best fit your future career needs and apply to schools with that degree (e.g., maybe a mixture of PhD/PsyD at different schools, or just MSW). If you want to be a psychotherapist and not do research or cognitive assessments, you are probably fine to do a MSW and get licensed in your states. Saves you $$$ in other years PsyDs require and saves you time, as the road to being a practicing clinician is quicker. Being called "Dr" for the mountains of debt that an unfunded PsyD or PhD program can bring is probably not worth it in most instances; funded PhD (or the few PsyD) are ideal.
  20. 1. Do APA accredited programs or bust if you apply. Future you will thank you when you can actually get licensed and practice. I agree with the above poster that funded programs are competitive, but even better. 2. Why the Certified nursing thing and psychology? Doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. It would be more beneficial to your application to get a paid research position and try to publish some papers, ideally. That will go a lot longer of a way than a volunteer crisis line. 3. Google and read through Mitch’s guide to applying to clinical psych programs. Typing this on my phone or else I’d link it here. It’s a pretty good guide that will answer a lot of your questions.
  21. I think the fact that I, like @Psyche007, and probably others are getting a negative tone from this post is just a point of awareness I think we wish to helpfully raise about how things *might* come off. I wanted to echo this because I think it’s an important point that got driven off course by other posters. My two cents: if your current career isn’t going t substantially change by pursuing a PhD, why spend 4-5+ years of your life pursuing one? Will it change your earnings potential at all; if you are already established and writing, will “PhD” at the end of your title really change things? These are actually valid questions I’m curious about. There are programs that probably would take you on with no mentor, let you do your own thing, etc., but for what it’s worth these institutions are probably not viewed as legitimate by most academics. If academics aren’t your audience for your books, though, I doubt the general public will been keen enough to investigate your exact credentials. Tl;dr: why spend your own money unless it’s really going to change things financially for you?
  22. Not sure about NYU specifically, but from the online MSW programs I am aware of you often do not need to be in the same state/city as the university, as the university has staff that work with your area to put you in clinical practica. Of course, if you live in bum F nowhere, you might have a hard time. I would also say that wherever you start this two year program, you want to make sure you will stay there for two years. Other important factors include licensing requirements for master's level providers in states you wish to reside (it sounds like you want to reside in NYC, so look into mental health counselor requirements for the state). Some online programs have better reputations than others, but fundamentally all online programs are cash-cows for universities, so I would advise you to be aware of this and make sure that you have access to good in-person training opportunities if clinical work is your long term goal.
  23. You are free to disagree and, again, I don't think it's a requirement, but I would not underplay the importance of research products. I, too, did not have published papers (several posters and awards) when I got into my clinical phd, but it helped that I had two papers in revision that got published shortly after starting. Technical skills in research are extremely important, as is the research match, but I think the icing on the cake (but not 100% needed) is showing that you have experience to push things across the finish line. I agree with your points, too, that are important about narrowing down your research scope. I know a lot of people start off really broad in the hope of being of value to more PIs, but this can actually backfire pretty easily.
  24. I think generally this is a nice/accurate reflection, but from my understanding only parts of these apply to social and don't apply to other areas (e.g., clinical). For example, in an increasingly competitive pool of applicants, pubs/posters do matter (they are not a guarantee of acceptance and not going to sink you if you don't have them, but they are a huge pro). Similarly, in clinical programs, the interviews should be enjoyable, but interviews should be viewed formally and treated with a healthy degree of stress. I can think of several students that have interviewed for our program that have made bad impressions for being too informal with current students or faculty. Again, I think this list is nice and helpful, but I wanted to chime in about this not necessarily generalizing to all areas of psych.
  25. If you’re in the fortunate position to have even a mild amount of family wealth, I would invest it elsewhere. Long-term dividends (aside from the emotional joy of getting more education) probably aren’t great for the cost associated with unfounded PsyD programs. If you just want to do therapy (no research, no assessment), MSW route probably makes more sense for the aforementioned reasons. You can also save up the money that might be coming your way or work with your family to do something that might be useful with the funds (e.g., self-funded retirement accounts, down payment on a first home).
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