kayaker85

Thanks, HK, for the link. I think that this year's calendar can be found on CDUCP's other website, Getting into Clinical Psych Grad School. Here's a link to it: https://teamup.com/ks952632ef38687f3e I'm guessing this is correct, although that's assuming that this calendar has been manually updated for this year and is not just automatically repeating the same dates from last year.

I have been accepted to 2 master's programs – one in clinical psychology and one in a different field. Since my goal is use the masters as a stepping stone to a clinical PhD program, I am wondering which program will be viewed as more desirable by admission committees. A little background about me: - non-traditional student (early 30's), grew up in foster care - Just got my bachelor's in Human Development/Psychology from an up and coming but still relatively unknown state university - 2.8 overall, 3.6 last 60, 16 credits of F's on a transcript from over 10 years ago. - 2 years RA in a developmental psych lab, undergraduate thesis, 5 posters (4 regional, 1 national, 1 first-author), 1 manuscript in prep - Good GRE scores - 2 years clinical work experience School #1 (Clinical Psych): Mid-level state university, not classified as a research institution. Interviewed and enjoyed the people. Research fit is good but not ideal; however, I really like my POI and we get along well. She has loads of untouched data that I can use for my thesis and to publish as first author. The coursework is super applied and specific to clinical psych, but I am worried that some doctoral programs will see that as a negative. There is no funding and it's on the east coast, so I would go into a significant amount of debt. School #2 (Human Development and Social Policy): Flagship state university, R1. Interdisciplinary program which combines elements of psychology, public health, sociology, and economics, and graduates go on to get doctoral degrees in a wide variety of social science fields, including psych. POI is a developmental psychologist. I would take a couple of graduate psych courses as part of my degree. This is also my dream school for a clinical PhD degree, so am hoping to be able to volunteer in a clinical psych lab if I attend. They offered a 50% assistantship and I would take out very little in loans. I would love to attend here, but I am nervous about getting a master's outside the psych field. If anyone has any input on which school would be more/less helpful for clinical PhD admissions or thoughts, I would appreciate it!

Probably, but maybe not. It depends on whether or not the school has sent out interview invites yet, although most probably have since its mid-February already. I would look at the results page for psychology and search for the schools you applied to. That way you'll know whether they've sent out invites.

I'm not sure that the school would catch on to it since it's a post-bacc, but if they do, you probably will be automatically eliminated due to the intentional omission. I have six undergraduate schools and one I did poorly at. My undergrad advisor suggested leaving out the worst school, thinking that schools wouldn't notice it since I had so many schools. Every school I applied to saw the omission - sometimes it was the admissions office and sometimes the department - and I got rejected. One school even called me a "highly competitive" applicant, but that they couldn't admit me because I hadn't submitted all required documents. I would suggest proceeding with extreme caution. Make sure you've clearly thought out the pros/cons/potential consequences of not listing it.

It's a little hard to answer your question without knowing your stats (GPA, GRE), but you definitely need research experience. Most successful applicants have worked as an RA for at least 2 years and have conference presentations or publications. I would suggest doing a full 2-year master's degree in psych. The total cost is close to the same cost as Berkeley's post-bacc (30k), plus many offer assistantships in a lab to help cover living expenses. One other thought: are you sure you need a PhD -- as opposed to a Psyd -- for to reach your career goals? PsyD programs tend to be a easier to get into and are more clinically-oriented and less research-focused. For example, you are looking to do things like mental competency evaluations, you'd probably do better with a PsyD degree.

Ditto. I would really appreciate it! Thanks!