PsyDuck90

A PhD, just as any degree, is often a means to an end. I would look into the exact jobs you'd be interested in and see the types of credentials these people hold. If most of them have a PhD, then that may be an important requirement for attaining that job. If the majority don't, you may run the risk of becoming "over-qualified" for the position.

At my institution, it is based on credit hour, so you just multiply that by what the credit hours are (is it a 3 credit course, 4 credit, etc.). That's the most common I've seen, but that could definitely vary per school.

I know it's nerve-wracking, but remember, out of all the applicants you made it onto the short list! You've already impressed them on paper. Just go in confident that you would be an asset and talk about your interests, goals, and why you think x school is right for you. Most of the questions I remember being asked about my goals and why I wanted a doctorate, my experiences, and my research interests. Another tip is be friendly! Even with your "competition." The students and faculty will notice the people that are friendly with their potential cohortmates and those who are standoffish. Also, I interviewed with a student as well, and I think being as professional with them as your POI or any other faculty is also super important.

Whatever you feel comfortable in that still looks professional. Interviews usually include a campus tour and if walking in high heels make you look like a baby deer (such as for myself), it may be better to wear some flat shoes. No one is going to criticize your outfit unless it sticks out. Just make sure you're professional and comfortable.

To become competitive, you want to gain more research experience. You want to be as active in research as possible, and try to get a poster or two presented at a conference. Changing one of your majors may not necessarily change anything. You just want to make sure you've taken the pre-requisites that psych programs want to see. You can most likely get those as the minor, but I would look into it a bit further.

Publish. Publish. Publish. One of the biggest things they look for is research productivity and the ability to garner grant money to fund research. Also, sometimes it comes down to what kind of domain they are looking for. For instance, one of my friends got her current tenure track position because the university was looking to add more courses in her specialization and were looking to higher faculty with her specific expertise. Also, more teaching focused universities (such as small liberal arts universities) will want a decent amount of teaching experience.

The 3rd option would be the most formal, and what I would go with. CUNY alone can mean 1 of like 10 colleges. In some spots, you may be able to just say the Graduate Center, but I would use the full name at least for the 1st time.

Even PsyD programs require some research. Honestly, both train clinicians. The vast majority of people from PhD programs also go onto clinical careers. In regards to counseling versus clinical, there's also very little difference. Whether you choose a PhD or PsyD in counseling or clinical will get you the same goal. As the previous poster suggested, go to the APA website and look at programs to see what programs offer the experiences you think you'd like and the research that interests you (even PsyDs require a dissertation). So really, you will be ok regardless of which options. Just ensure that you are applying to APA accredited programs and look at outcomes: how many people get APA accredited internships and pass the EPPP, the national licensing exam for psychologists. All of this data is required per APA guidelines. Also, if you aren't interested in doing assessments for severe mental illness, you can also look into masters level clinical degrees such as mental health counseling and social work. You may me be able to achieve your goals in less time by pursuing a masters. The majority of hospitals and clinics hire masters level clinicians for therapy, and plenty of these providers open up private practices.

If the schools specifically ask for a "statement of intent" or "statement of purpose" then it should be academic and directed towards your professional goals. If they specifically ask for a "personal statement" then you can break away from the academic a little. I would stick with how you've done it.

I wouldn't send the email. At best, it will do nothing. At worst, they may find it annoying. If a program doesn't ask for something, they probably don't want it.

There's a few questions you have to ask yourself: 1. What is the average starting salary for someone with this degree? Also, what is the average salary for a more experienced individual within this career trajectory? 2. What percentage of graduates at this program have found relevant jobs right out of the program? What are their salaries like? 3. You say this is a well revered school. Is there an equivalent program with similar opportunities at a less expensive school, maybe a state school? It looks like this program is in an incredibly high cost of living area. 4. Do you need this degree to get the type of job you want? 5. Are you able to work while in school to limit the amount of student loans you need to take out for living expenses? 6. Can you cut costs with living expenses, such as living with roommates, eating at home, etc.? 7. How much debt do you have from undergrad, if any? This should be included in your total debt cost. 8. What are your other life goals? If you are saddled with $100k of debt and start out at $50k a year, owning a home or starting a family may be difficult to achieve for some time. These are just a few questions off the top of my head. I knew that I personally could not stomach a lot of debt so I did my BA and MA at a very cheap state school with cheap tuition and worked full time for living costs, and now I'm also on track to not accrue any loans during my doctorate. I have a personal rule against taking out student loans for non-tuition based expenses. However, everyone is different. I know people that took out more loans and they are equally as happy. It really depends a lot on your own personal outlook and the feasibility of paying off the debt. I don't know anything about your field, so I can't speculate. However, if for example, someone accumulates $150k in total student loan debt and those in their field typically max out at $75k a year, then that may not be a smart investment. You also always want to look at the average incomes, or even modal incomes if you can find them. There will always be those 3 people in the field who make an exorbitant amount of money within the field. You don't want to look at those outliers, but what the majority of people are making.

I would suggest you reply to School A within their requested time-frame, and if school B extends an invitation see if they can work with you regarding dates. If you have no interest in going to school A, then I would reject the interview offer. You do not want to reject an offer after travel arrangements have been made, as that represents poorly on you and academic communities are small, so that can hurt you in the long run. Also, another possibility is that you reject School A and School B never comes calling.

Not every program does it and not every year. I had heard of it before applying and then I heard an adcomm faculty mention it this year. My quant was well below 50th percentile (my verbal and AWA were good). Honestly, so much of this process is chance. I've known people that had horrible application packages that got into programs and people with amazing credentials not get in. So much of it is variables that we as applicants have no control over.

I don't know if there are really a lot of rules in asking questions. Just make sure they are thoughtful and cannot be answered somewhere on the website or by reading any recent publications by the POI. Some good ones might be based on specifics of their current research project and directions the lab is moving, the culture of the lab and the POI's mentoring style. Although I only interviewed at 1 school last year, I did get in on my 1st cycle so I must have done something right. I made sure to be up to date on my POI's more recent publications and the project they lab was currently working on. I asked questions specific to those things during the interview. I asked cohort culture questions to the student interviewer. Make sure you are prepared to talk about your research interests and goals, as well as any information on your CV, in depth. Also, be friendly with your fellow interviewees. If the culture of the program is that everyone is supportive of each other, then they are also looking for people who would fit within that culture. If you're being competitive and rude with fellow applicants, that can look bad.

This is usually done before it gets to the POI. When you have 300 applicants and 8 spots or less, you are likely to have your pick of tons of great applicants. Statistically, they don't need to thoroughly read 300 applications when they can pull 30-50 high quality applicants to interview from a list of 150 rather than 300.

I was in your shoes last year. I applied to 10 schools. I only got an invite to 1 and I got accepted there and love it. The rejections sting, but it happens. You'll end up in the right place. There are just so many qualified applicants and so few spots, it makes the process hard for everyone.

Unfortunately, some schools will use the GREs as an easy metric to just drop some applicants quickly. If a program gets hundreds of quality applications, they are not going to individually read each one. Sometimes they "trim the fat" using some sort of minimum GPA and GRE to make the pile more manageable. A faculty at my current program was mentioning possibly needing to do that this year based on the number of applications.

A PhD is a research degree, so the most important thing you can do is get a lot of research experience, including products (posters and maybe publications if you have the chance). If you do well in your master's program, that can mediate your poor undergrad GPA as it shows you can handle graduate level coursework. As far as schools go, you want to pick universities based on faculty research match more so than geographic location. Fit is another major factor in making you a competitive applicant. If you have an interest in studying x and no one in that program does research even remotely in that area, they probably won't look at you as a viable candidate, even if your application was stellar in every other capacity because.....what are you going to do there? TLDR: research experience and research fit are the 2 most important things for grad school applications.

If you are applying to a US based school, I would say they typically want the transcript. From my experience, that is the only thing US schools will ever issue, so that is what they are looking for.

I know a few people who identify as LGBT+ and went to UNC Chapel Hill. From what I've heard, the research triangle is pretty LGBT+ friendly.

I think if you're curious about it and think you can handle the additional workload, why not. If you don't like it and it isn't required, you probably won't have to commit to it after that semester. Teaching is great experience even if you don't have any intention of becoming a professor. It helps you with your public speaking, you learn a lot (research shows that teaching information to others improves your own learning), and it looks good on your CV. You are leading a group of college students, so it helps your supervisory skills a little bit too.

Agreed. It doesn't have to be R1/R2 or bust. I am just finishing my 1st semester in an APA accredited partially-funded university-based PsyD. I am already involved in several research projects in my research lab, we have a small cohort, and all of my professors graduated from APA accredited R1 research universities. Students should absolutely do their due diligence about programs, but you also shouldn't write off programs just based on the funding. I've known people at R1s who lose funding because their faculty member couldn't get a grant or something. Things happen.

I would save it for the interview. Make sure you update your CV as you'll want to bring it for interviews.

Have fun, but maintain professional. Conferences are a fun way to network with people in your field and get a better sense of what kind of research is happening. You're going to have a shared interest with pretty much everyone there. You want to try to network and get to know people (you never know when these connections can come in handy). It's basically a chance to geek out on your particularly area of interest with someone who gets it.

1. Once the conference is done, you're on your own. Check out cool things to do in the city you'll be in. Are there any cool museums or attractions around? Also, see if there are any student mixers. Often times, conferences will hold mixers. See if you can network with any faculty or students from other schools. If you are still in undergrad, this is a great way to make connections with possible graduate mentors. 2. I would always err on the side of business casual for a dress code. A nice pair of jeans and nice shirt are fine, but I would not wear flip flops. If you're a female, I would wear a pair of ballet flats or maybe dressier sandals. If you are a male, then maybe something like boat shoes or something. I would advise against sneakers or flip flops. Conferences are always networking events, and you want to "dress to impress." 3. You can take notes on whatever you would like. I would just caution that it might be uncomfortable to take notes on your laptop as you will be sitting in a chair with the computer on your lap and your bag on the floor. If that works for you, awesome. Also, be mindful of how loudly you type. If your laptop makes that loud click sound with every key stroke, you may make it difficult for others (the speaker included) to concentrate. I've typically just taken quick notes in a notepad at any conference I've gone too. I don't really remember too many people with laptops out.