I have 2 more years of my undergraduate degree to go and will be doing my Honours thesis next year. I will most likely be writing the GRE this summer and hope to get accepted to a Clinical Psychology program eventually. There's a grad student I am working with now who has offered to help me with my application and applying for funding.
I realized I may as well write the GRE this summer so I have time to retake if I need to. My GPA is competitive but will only improve as I take more classes. If I apply next year I will have my name on 2 posters, but if I wait another year there's a strong possibility I will have a publication or two as well.
Originally I was going to wait until I finished my degree, apply, and take a gap year. But the grad student seems to think I should apply next year. They will be leaving next year, which is why they're offering help now. Money is an issue for me, so I'm just trying to decide if it's worth to apply next year when I am a good applicant, or wait another year when I know I will be a great applicant? I was wondering what other people's experiences have been with situations like this? Also, if I don't apply next year, I will still accept the help to get some of my application ready, but I'm wondering what parts of the application it makes sense to get ready that far in advance?