Jung&Psyched

Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, U of Southern Mississippi, and U of Louisiana at Lafayette would all be good places for you to look at! 

I applied with interested in resilience and parenting and these are a few places that had labs that may match your interests (mostly counseling psych) - Southern Mississippi, Nebraksa, Marquette, and University of Massachusetts.
 
Good luck ! 

Hi all,
I wanted to start a thread to allow us all to share our thoughts and reflect on this application cycle now that it is almost over. This was my second time applying to Counseling Psychology programs, and I know that I have learned a lot about myself (and the ridiculous admissions game) through this process. 
To give you a bit of background, my first application cycle, I applied to 6 programs (all CounPsy) and though I had a mix of preliminary and in-person interviews for 4 of them, I was eventually rejected from all. I was devastated, and literally had mental breakdowns every few days. So, I really understand the struggle of having to wait, but never getting the news you want. 
This time, I applied to 17 programs (yeah I know, it is a lot!). I interviewed at 9 - one of them being a School Psychology Ph.D. program - and out of those, ultimately was rejected from 1, waitlisted at 1, and received offers from 7.
Based on my experience, I want to share a few thoughts and pieces of advice: 
Rejections do not determine your self-worth. Please do not feel like you are not qualified/smart/unique enough if you did not get in. I say this because my first time applying was last year, and I have not really gained any more relevant experience since then. I didn’t even change my personal statement besides 2-3 sentences. I improved my interview skills a little bit, but the big difference was where I applied. Which brings me to #2. Last time, I was picky about location/perfect fit. This time, I chose to apply to places where I would actually bring something new to the lab/POI, and I was flexible about location as well. You might think “I would never go here”, but sometimes the interview will change your mind. That happened to me with multiple programs this time. So my advice for both new applicants and applicants who are applying again, is that do not be stuck to one area if it’s possible. Of course, family/partner relocation and finance might be something you have to consider with this. Submit apps early! I submitted materials a month in advance in case I missed anything. Of course, if this is not financially possible for you, then try to review the checklist of materials for each school multiple times. This will give you enough of an idea to fix something if needed.  If you can’t afford to interview in person, don’t. Out of my 9 interviews, I did 6 over Skype/phone (although one of them didn’t have in person interviews). I was accepted to 5/6 of the programs I interviewed at on Skype, and 2/3 for the ones in-person. In fact, one of the programs strongly discouraged Skype interviews, and still ended up accepting me in the first round. This goes to show that your interviewing skills can sometimes matter more than your in-person presence. And if you do get in, you can always visit during dates that are more convenient/cost-effective as well. Be proud of yourself for completing and submitting your applications. That is a difficult task in itself. If you got to the interview stage, congratulations on that as well. No matter what the result, don’t give up on your dream of getting a Ph.D. I hope this reflection can be insightful to folks in some way. If you would like to ask any questions, I’d be happy to answer! 
It would be awesome if all of the wonderful Ph.D. applicants out here could share their reflections as well I’m sure you all could bring much more to this conversation! 

Graduate student (Ph.D.) opening in the NDSU Mind, Body & Baby Prenatal Health Lab begining Fall 2019.    Lab Description: The Mind, Body & Baby Lab is directed by Clayton Hilmert, Ph.D. The lab is dedicated to examining interactions among the mind, body, and environment as they pertain to health and health-related outcomes. Our primary focus is on how stress affects pregnancy. We apply social psychological methods to help us determine who is most susceptible to the effects of stress on health and how these effects can be attenuated. We consider how stress affects the functioning of the central, autonomic, neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and immune systems to better understand how stress impacts health. Current projects include the effects of stress and stress reactivity on blood sugar metabolization during pregnancy and the the Healthy American Indian Pregnancy Project.  For more information about the lab go to: https://hilmertlab.com/   Program Description: The NDSU Department of Psychology doctoral programs are designed to produce graduates with strong research skills who will be competitive in the academic job market as well as in public and private applied research settings. The programs include coursework to provide a solid grounding in the content of one's chosen area as well as in research methods and statistics, laboratory experience in an apprenticeship model of research training, and teacher training which culminates in the students' preparation and teaching of their own courses. To find out more about program requirements and funding go to: https://www.ndsu.edu/psychology/graduate_programs/   Please contact Dr. Hilmert directly if you have questions or are interested in the position. clayton.hilmert@ndsu.edu

We have moved numerous times at this point for school (husband's undergrad and  grad school and now mine) and the best thing I can recommend is get rid of as much stuff as you can so you can cram it into the smallest moving truck possible. Last time we moved the only furniture we kept was our mattress and a coffee table that my husband had hand made. Everything else we bought after arriving and pretty much got everything second hand.  Check around the different rental truck company for prices, its surprising how much they vary ! We've been putting extra money aside the past couple of months in preparation for this because moving really is a blow to the budget .  

Today I officially accepted my offer from the University of Tennessee Knoxville Counseling Psych PhD program.  I'm so excited!  Is anyone else moving to Knoxville soon too?

If you're concerned about your next apartment's security deposit (obviously a major expense on top of the actual moving costs), you can look at subleases. That will give you more time to save up for the deposit for your next lease.

I lived just outside Blacksburg for a few years!  Roanoke is pretty up and coming.  When we first moved to the area (5ish years ago) Roanoke was honestly ...kind of gross.  The downtown area had a super cool farmer market on the weekends and a couple cute local shops, but then the rest of the buildings were empty.  However,  in the past couple years there has been a lot of improvement! A lot of cool new breweries opened (if you like beer - Chaos Mountain Brewing is probably like 20 min outside of Roanoke and was our favorite!), some new shops were going in downtown, the mall area was improving, etc.  There is also FANTASTIC hiking nearby - if you like to hike definitely check out Tinker Falls and Dragons Tooth. It definitely has a small city vibe and is very easy to navigate. The area is very economically depressed and unemployment rates are very high, pretty conservative politically, and high crime in certain areas.  
The education you will get through Tech and Carilion is top notch!  I only ever heard good things from people receiving their education through both of those institutions. 

Southern Mississippi

Southern Mississippi

I mailed a handwritten thank you note with a small box of fudge from a local chocolate maker. Nothing crazy, but an extra gesture to say thank you for the time they put into advancing my career and education

I’d like to inquire about this fee, willing to pay BIG for someone else to make this decision for me ? 

Northern Arizona, New Mexico State, Ball State, Villanova, and Towson are the first ones to come to mind. I also think that maybe Northern Iowa offers funding but I'm not sure.

I'm an undergrad at William & Mary and would like to vouch wholeheartedly for my school. The faculty here are really great. 

Master’s programs tend to be much more forgiving and accepting than PhD programs for applicants with terrible GPAs. I had an abysmal 1.9 GPA for my first year and a half of college before taking several years off to work on myself. I then transferred and got a stellar GPA at my final school, as well as excellent letters of rec and several conference presentations. Although my cumulative GPA was well below a 3.0, I received offers at several well-respected master’s programs in psych, including a funded one. I would suggest applying to quite a few programs and not limiting yourself geographically. In addition, some schools will calculate GPA based on the last 2 years and use that number instead of your cumulative GPA.
Hope this is helpful!

Nice! Similarly, the "scariest" thing I've heard from people about the small town I'm moving to is that I might actually end up falling in love with it ?

just got accepted by the top choice from the waitlist!! plan to accept! don't lose hope guys!!!

I'm assuming if you're going PsyD that you're interested in primarily clinical work. In that case, the minuscule difference in "prestige" between two programs won't be a big deal. You'll have access to the same prac sites, and both programs are highly respected in the area. You can't go wrong with either! I remember we talked about Post being your top choice - if you liked the program, go for it! Don't let ideas of "prestige" get into your head

I am super excited to have just formally accepted my offer at Southern Miss! I would love to chat with the other posters who have accepted offers there as well

I think going to visit will really help you decide ! I was choosing between two programs - one right outside a large city and one that is a medium sized town surrounded by a lot of very rural area and I thought there was no way I would like the town vs city. I was completely wrong. When I went to visit I was really surprised by how many restaurants and stores they had, current students shared multiple different community activities that they are involved in outside of school, and the people were just super friendly.  I quickly felt much more at home at the school in the smaller town. I think visiting is the only way you will know if its the right fit! 

Received the official offer letter in the mail today for VCU’s Clinical program! Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!!
 

I received this email as well. I asked the person who sent it what masters program they were referring to, because a masters doesn’t exist in clinical psych and there is not doctoral track in their only masters program. He said it’s for students who are admissible to the PhD program, but don’t have their master’s yet. He said that you go directly into the doctoral program after the masters is complete. In other words, referring to the non-terminal masters that you pick up along the way to a PhD.
I think this may be good news, in which case I will be an incredibly happy person!!!

Thank you, that's very helpful! ?

I remember that Grandin Village was a good area ! Further out by like Cave Springs, Mill Mountain, and Hollins are all nice and pretty safe areas. You would also probably be in a great location to live behind the large Carilion Hospital in the woodcliff area- it would put you right by the hospital and there is a shopping area with starbucks, grocery store, pharmacy, etc nearby (When I would go to Roanoke to see friends or for work I often ended up around this area near the hospital and never felt unsafe). I would avoid nearly all of downtown and there were some rougher areas out by the mall. 
 
Also, while 26k is not a lot, I do think you will be able to get by on it. Being a fairly rural small city cost of living is pretty reasonable! If you are good with budgeting I think you will be ok! 

may be biased since I am likely attending my undergrad institution... so take this with a grain of salt, but I don’t think this is the case if you are applying for an academic position outside your alma mater. I know of multiple faculty members who attended the same institution for their graduate degree as their undergrad degree. I’d argue post-docs are an opportunity to diversify, and you’re going to have to do multiple post-docs anyways if you want an academic position. 
With that being said, it certainly is better in some ways for students to attend new institutions to get exposure to new researchers and labs as well as opportunities for a wider network. It’s just about what’s best for you as a student, and sometimes the best program for you is the same place you did your undergrad. I would just go with your gut and attend the place that you fit well with. You’ll do better quality research if you’re happy with where you are & interested in the research you’re doing, which will, in the long run, be what matters most IMO!