CuppyCakerton

My best friend and I have a plan: If I don't get into any graduate programs we're both going to go in on opening a cat café. We've already started a rough business model. It makes exactly no money but we'd get to spend our time hanging out with cats.

If it makes anyone feel better, I applied to 8 clinical psych PhD programs and it would seem that I didn't get a single interview. I got wait listed at one program without interviewing, which means I'm basically bottom of the barrel. Go me. I guess I'm not too surprised, my scores and grades were pretty good but there are plenty of people who are better. I'm more disappointed in myself, and I feel bad for my parents who paid my application fees as their Christmas present to me. But the world keeps moving and we keep moving with it. If anyone is in the same boat, just remember that. Also anyone feel free to PM me if you want someone to vent to / someone to chat with.

@Charlsa I've been thinking of reading Sharp Objects. What did you think of it? I'm currently reading Dr. Derald Wing Sue's book Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence. He recently spoke at a diversity conference held by the university I work at and he was really captivating. I'm really loving the book so far as well, his writing isn't dry at all imo I certainly recommend it to anyone who's interested in examining race relations in the United States and the discussions surrounding them.

I wouldn't get too discouraged. I was just talking to a friend who's currently in her second year in a clinical program, and she said a lot of her interview invites didn't come until later in January and even into February. She said she had started to panic when she saw other people getting interviews but not her, but it worked out in the end. And she said her program hasn't even finished offering invitations to interview yet. I know it's anecdotal, but it really helped me put the brakes on my own anxiety and hopefully it's at least somewhat comforting for you as well. But it also never hurts to be proactive if it will help take your mind off of things. I kind of went into the process with my plan B hashed out and it's made the process a lot less stressful for me personally. So you may find it helpful to start thinking of one as a "just in case". But don't let it be one extra stressor on your plate, you know? You've got this. Things don't always work out the way we want or expect, but the fact that you've made it this far in the process means you've got the skills to make it work out in the end.

I'm trying to cut back on checking but LET ME TELL YOU my mailboxes have never been so clean. I took a night last month to clean out everything in the social and promotions tabs (I used to just ignore them). That was like 30,000 emails each. Then I cleaned out the spam box. It was oddly satisfying. Nothing like a little early spring cleaning amirite? hahaha Good luck to everyone, stay strong! You've all got this

That's really awesome. My interests involve translational research targeting trauma and suicide in the Veteran population, particularly women Veterans (now that women will be entering combat roles), and that naturally involves a lot of PTSD research. I actually just recently participated in a webinar about using service dogs for Veterans to target PTSD/depression/suicidality. There isn't much evidence-based research regarding the practice, so I think it's amazing that you're going to be doing it It seems so promising, I'm happy to see people interested in doing the research to back it up.