justacigar

Hey - wondering if you've thought at all about a clinical-community program? It's not quite forensic per se, but there are a lot of faculty doing research around sexual assault and social justice. Check out Michigan State University, specifically Rebecca Campbell. She does work with law enforcement around prevention, and I think she also does some policy type work. Not sure if it will be exactly what you're looking for, but worth a look. Community programs in general might be a good fit for what you are interested in!

That's what I was initially thinking, but they had over 300 interested folks at their virtual open house. Of course, not all of those were students, and not all students that attended are ready to apply this year. But I have to imagine their numbers will be significantly higher than this program. Not sure though, will be interesting to see the stats from their first year! My scores are decent. Not noteworthy, not concerning. I wish they were more definitively good.

I have yet another GRE related question. One of the programs I'm applying to hasn't accepted a clinical psych cohort yet, so there are no averages to use for comparison. I can assume the averages will be quite high as the university has a stellar reputation (UC Irvine). Not sure what to do in this case.

PSA to double check the requirements for all programs! I had a few on my list that initially listed the GRE as required, so I was planning to send a score report this week. However, I looked again before sending and they had all shifted to either optional or not accepting. I also had a question about when GRE scores are optional: are you sending official score reports? Or uploading unofficial reports/including elsewhere in your application? I think I would report my scores to some programs, but really don't want to give ETS anymore of my money ?

I'd ask each mentor individually when they want the links. I send them all at once and try to do it closer to when they need them. Otherwise they have to dig through their insane inboxes, or you'll have to resend links later.

Unfortunately, no. The best solution is to ask them when they want the links emailed, and email all the links in one batch. That way, they are at the top of their inbox together. They are your recommender, they want you to succeed! It's part of being a mentor.

I'd say it's much more common for advisors to accept only one student, unless they are a new faculty member or have a ton of funding.

It's getting so close to the December 1st deadline. I really hope programs don't want till the last minute to make these decisions! I've appreciated programs that made the decision early and communicated it with applicants so we didn't latch on to the program or start on work for applications.

Oh no!! Time zone differences are the worst. I've made my fair share of mistakes surrounding time zones!

How much prior research experience do you have? Are you only applying to one program?

I usually asked questions that might be inappropriate to ask a potential mentor, or that would be better answered from a student. This includes questions about lab culture, grad student duties on current projects, program environment, and questions about the PI's mentoring style. Sometimes I also ask about practicum experiences if I'm unsure what is available. It is super helpful to get their feedback!

Our psychology PhD lord & savior Dr. Mitch Prinstein held a zoom meeting about "Getting Into Psych Grad School During the Time of COVID" and has a lot of helpful tips about all aspects of applications. Link is below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-5DjLRKCHQ&feature=youtu.be

Hey! I have similar research interests as you - how trauma impacts parent-child interaction/functioning and the various intersectional contexts that might influence this. I'm wondering why you aren't interested in clinical psychology? I actually considered a developmental degree but had a hard time finding folks that were doing trauma research. I'm interested to hear if others have different experiences, but most of the trauma research I've been able to find tends to be housed in clinical psychology programs. Ideally, I was hoping to go to a developmental-clinical dual program, but those are tough to find as well especially for parent-child research.

I will say the majority of my programs seem to only require unofficial for the application. They stipulate that if offered admission, then you'd have to send in official transcripts before beginning the program. I feel you on sending multiple transcripts....I have *5* different transcripts to send because I was a flighty undergrad who attended 4 different schools before earning my degree ? I wish they would just accept the transcripts where a degree was earned!

Hi, I'm not an intern or postdoc but I do work at a VA research center. We also received notice that all diversity trainings have been stopped. It's absolutely awful.

I don't think it looks bad to use the same letter writers, but you might want to talk with them about what they will say in the letter. Did you give them any guidance about what skills/characteristics you'd like them to highlight? And I'm also curious who the third writer was last year!

Hmm this is interesting, because you do know her in a professional capacity. My gut is telling me that a parent for whom you nanny is not a good choice of a letter writer, but I'm interested to hear what other folks have to say

I wonder if they will be taking student from their current programs as new cohort members for the clinical psych track - I've seen other programs note this in their Student Outcomes Data PDF. Other than that, I have to think they are going to be deciding on admissions in a relatively similar manner to any other program UCI is such a reputable university that I can't really foresee any issues with internship matching when the time comes, especially if they have contingent accreditation, but of course there are always possibilities of hiccups for the first cohort

I would definitely not wait until December 1st on the dot, because tech fails do happen. But as far as an advantage to applying early, that doesn't usually have any impact on clinical psych admissions. They typically gather all apps and take them to admissions committees on the same day.

I just saw on UMN's program website that they may not be able to take a cohort this year, and to check back before submitting an application on December 1st. this is for their clinical science and psychopathology research program. Here is the link: https://cla.umn.edu/psychology/graduate/how-apply

As far as I know, this is fairly program dependent. Sometimes, they will accept a master's thesis if it fulfills certain qualifications. I personally wouldn't count on many courses being applicable.

Soo I took the plunge and started my online applications today...it's getting more and more real every day! I have moments of panic but overall looking forward to getting everything submitted and having a BIG sigh of relief afterwards. How is everyone holding up? Where are y'all at in the process?

I wonder if this can sort of backfire, though? Last year I initially wanted to approach writing this way, but very quickly got conflicting feedback from multiple people. I eventually went back for more feedback from one mentor that I really trusted, and that got me much farther in less time. I would really only use friends/family for grammar/spelling checks, because they don't know what is expected for these types of statements.

The only reason I email PIs is to ask specific questions about their research/lab to make sure they are indeed a good fit for me. And, the only reason I have to do that is if the lab website isn't updated with current projects. I think if you approach it with the mindset of "I want to gather more information for my own purposes" rather than "I need to make a good impression for applications" it shifts the experience a bit (at least for me)

shits getting real, guys...I can't believe it's almost October! Hope everyone is hanging in there so far!