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Declined at Idaho State University’s clinical psych program. Excellent program and genuine people!

Officially accepted the offer from University of Utah's School Psychology program. SO PSYCHED!!! Mountains here I come ?

Thank you @yeahsouh! Is anyone attending University of Utah's school psychology program? I am narrowing down my options and this program seems to be a very likely possibility for me. Just waiting to hear back about funding.

Great! Thank you so much for the insight! Would you mind telling me who your POI is?

Hi! CONGRATS!! When did you hear back from them? I have a friend who interviewed for the program but hasn't heard back yet.

Thanks for the info!!

Gotcha! If and when they get to me on the waitlist, would the expectation be that I would get an admission offer or would they want to do an interview prior? Ha! This sounds delusional since it looks like it's pretty much impossible, especially given the caliber of the program. But I guess it doesn't hurt to ask!

I have a question regarding waitlists. Has anyone been waitlisted pre-interview and heard from the school? I'm interested in knowing about the process for waitlists before an interview. I'm assuming if any admitted students decline, they may then go into the post-interview waitlist? And then if those don't work out they go into the pre-interview waitlist? Or maybe the pre-interview waitlist is in case they have interviewees decline an interview? Not sure what to think. The program I was waitlisted to is one of my top programs and it has better funding options than the other top program I've been admitted to.

I agree with @TiredOfApps that although you want to make sure your reasoning makes sense, at the of the day you also want to end up somewhere you’ll be happy. My interests are very specific to a particular population, age and condition. I applied to and interviewed with a couple of programs whose emphases were more broad and not necessarily in line with my interests. There was however, one professor at each school with research and clinical work related to my population of interest. I made sure to emphasize my interest in their work and really voice my passion for working with that population when I interviewed with them specifically. When asked why that particular program, I brought up their work and said something like, “I’m very interested in population X and Dr. So-and-So’s research provides me an opportunity to look into some of the questions I have regarding Such-and-Such in that population. I understand the program has a more generalist approach which would provide me better breadth of training given that This-and-That is also as important as Such-and-Such when considering outcomes for population X and others involved.” I should say I got admitted to both of these programs but I turned them down because I’m truly too passionate about Population X to spend 5 years doing anything else. Good luck!

What are your interests? You will also likely want to look for programs with clinical opportunities that match your population of interest or your theoretical approach interest. Some programs lean more heavily on certain populations (especially if they have special access to the population due to geographic location; ex. rural v. urban populations) or have faculty with more expertise or interests related to specific approaches or theoretical values (ex. CBT). If you want more breadth of training, then a generalist program might be best.

This is extremely helpful! Thank you so much for the insight. Food was one of the things we were worried about, although I kept reading about diversity of food choices in the city.

I'm hoping to give them gear from the university I will be accepting to with a handwritten thank you note; possibly a nice pen.

Thank you for your input! This is really helpful ?

Gotcha!

No, I just received the call today. Were you waitlisted?

Will be declining at James Madison University's Combined-Integrated Clinical and School Psychology PsyD. POI: TS. I feel like I connected very well to this POI but I have been admitted at another program that is a better fit for my interests and long-term goals. I'm hoping to say that in my email to the program director. But what should I say to the POI I interviewed with? I feel like I should also reach out to him to thank him for the opportunity as I feel he advocated for me.

School: James Madison University Concentration: Clinical and School Psychology Type: PsyD Date of acceptance: 03/04/19 Notified by: Email and phone call from DCT I was given until the end of the week to provide my decision. I will be declining. POI: TS

The program I fell in love with was the second of 5 programs I interviewed with. I loved it so much I kept comparing all of the other programs to it subconsciously. This is how I know which one I will ultimately end with. However, it is also a program that offers a less enticing funding packet. It's not bad but some of the other programs I was accepted to are better with funding. I think ultimately my husband and I will choose to sacrifice some things in an effort to go where I feel I would get the best professional development. We are thinking of looking at housing in the university as well as other cheaper options at least for the first year until thing settle down and we get the hang of the new city.

My GRE scores were 152 V, 154 Q, and 4 A with a 3.69 undergrad GPA and a 3.97 grad GPA. I have 5+ years of clinical experience with my population of interest, 5 summers working for research programs (2 summers for a nationally acclaimed one) and 3 years of full-time research coordinator experience. I also have 3 poster presentations and no publication. I had POIs during interviews mention that my extensive experience and LORs were impressive. I think these were what got me in since my “stats” are not great. That and my SOP. I’ve mentioned this multiple times but I’m an older candidate and I have very well established goals which I think came through in my SOP. I applied to 9 programs (80% with excellent research fit) and got interviewed at 5 and waitlisted at 1 pre interview. So far I’ve heard from 3 post interview: accepted at 2, rejected at 1. My 2 acceptances are for a clinical program and a school psychology program each. My LORs are from professors from 2 different institutions across both clinical and school psych. They’re amazing people but not necessarily well known nor with connections at any of the institutions I applied to.

Hi everyone! I have been accepted to ISU and would like to get additional information before making a decision. My husband and I would be moving from a very big and diverse city and I wanted to know about diversity and acceptance in Pocatello given that we’re Latinos. We’re conservative, outdoorsy people. Any thoughts?

Hi everyone! I have been accepted to UU and would like to get additional information before making a decision. My husband and I would be moving from a very big and diverse city and I wanted to know about diversity and acceptance in SLC given that we’re Latinos. The program I got accepted to is one of my top ones and we’re outdoor people. Any thoughts?

For the sake of providing some follow up to this message; I got accepted to this school!

School: Idaho State University Concentration: Clinical Psychology Type: PhD Date of acceptance: 02/27/19 Notified by: Email from DCT and email prompting me to check portal for status change Had a mentor question my ability to get into a clinical program. This is validating to the core!

I am also a POC and was rejected after my very first interview; which I was surprised by because I thought it went really well and was a good fit. This really brought me down and made me question and doubt myself so much going into the other interviews. It especially made me question whether they only brought me in to interview because of my race/ethnicity, given that they currently have any student of my same background. But then I received an acceptance from the second school I interviewed for! And it’s a top choice! All of this to say, not all schools are in it for “diversity appearance”. Plus, if appearance is really their goal, would you really want to go to a school that won’t appreciate you for you in gr first place?

Hi! Just to give you an idea of where my opinion comes from, I should say that I applied to both school and clinical psychology programs, as well as both PhD and PsyD programs. One thing that is EXTREMELY important to me is ‘fit’. Some questions you can ask in regards to fit are: Will the curriculum content and clinical experiences satisfy what I hope to accomplish before finishing my degree? Will I have the opportunity to engage in activities that match my interests but still expand my current knowledge base? In line with this, who are the faculty I will train under and is their expertise something that calls to me? Are the emphasis and mission of the program something I’d like to be a part of? In other words, would you be happy and thriving for 4-6 years in this program and with these faculty and students? I recently went to an interview for a school that was one of my top ones. I say was because after attending, I realized that the theoretical emphasis the program endorsed and the viewpoints of 5/6 of the faculty members did not align with my interests at all. Only one of the core professors of the program had interests very similar to mine but he didn’t even teach any of the courses. Although I would learn new content and ideas I’ve never been exposed to, in the end, I think I would be unhappy going to a program where I can’t be “myself” professionally and theoretically. This program has 100% licensure rates, full funding and a generous stipend (which it’s quite rare given it’s a PsyD program). That wasn’t enough for me to want to compromise my professional needs and potentially even my future goals though. I think ultimately decisions and rationales look different for everyone. But I think you should definitely always think of your fit with the program since you’ll be there for quite some time. Hope this helps! Good luck!