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Wow. I sent my official GRE reports out almost a month ago and never bothered to QC the scores received (I only took the GRE once; figured there was no room for error). It turns out that my schools received a reported quant percentile 2 points lower than when I log into the ETS website. Why on earth would this happen? How annoying! Obviously it won’t matter (2 point difference), but what if they had made a bigger mistake? Everyone go QC your score reports!

Yeah I’m waiting for 3rd recommender. Without him all my apps will be incomplete. There was someone I could’ve asked to be my 4th but now I feel like it’s way too short notice- definitely sweating a little bit. But as someone said on this thread there’s really no incentive for them to do them early so hopefully it all works out.

I submitted everything in early October thinking it would be reassuring to get everything out of the way, but it's only given me a whole month to panic about how I have absolutely no more control over the situation now that my apps are out in the world...I think many of us are in the same boat as "Type A" future PhD students

Yes, SUNY Stony Brook. I have it in my program tracker with “transcript needed: yes?” I went ahead and sent Rutgers my official transcript; what’s another $20 for my piece of mind?

Does anyone know if Rutgers and Stony Brook require official transcripts for Clinical PhD admissions? edit for clarity

I know...as if this process wasn’t stressful and difficult to organize already! Best of luck to you

I'm in the same position and am trying not to freak out. On Friday, I sent my third reference an email essentially saying friendly reminder that my first apps are due in 2 weeks, I'm sure you have many other priorities, but let me know if you want me to resend portal upload links when you are ready to submit. I'm SO paranoid he's going to drop the ball and I'm going to need to scramble to get my 4th reference to upload everything. Nerve-wracking! I'm thinking if I don't hear from him this week I'm going to assume worst case scenario and ask my 4th reference.

Of course not! I don't have a shorter version and am reticent to edit it because I wrote it 2 years ago. My ideal situation would be to upload the whole thing, and have PIs skim it and see my nice figures and my analysis section. I don't want to offend by insinuating I expect a PI to read 60 pages in reviewing my application, though. Should I just...not bother?

Some programs allow you to upload a writing sample; is this advised? Would it be more harmful than helpful to upload my 70 page thesis?

John Jay doesn't list a word count or character limit in it's Clinical Psych PhD application. What would you do?

Really appreciate all the advice here! Currently, I have about 1.5 pages (double spaced) about my experiences and how they have led me to develop research interests. I am planning to add a long paragraph (or 2 short ones) about specific faculty members and programs at the end of my statement. Is this advisable? Would you suggest leading with faculty fit?

A couple questions; 1. Are there any drawbacks to submitting applications (for Clinical Psych PhD programs) this early? Do some faculty members review applications on a rolling basis? I'm in a lull in my day research job and would like to use the extra time to submit applications in the next 2-3 weeks. 2. In last year's thread, it seemed like some people got interviews as early as mid-December. I recall seeing someone who got cold-called by their potential PI on roughly December 20th. Is this something I realistically need to prepare for? How would you approach being 100% unavailable for a week in mid December? I've thought about emailing program coordinators in advance and will set an automatic email reply, is this advisable or will it appear unprofessional?

Thanks both. Is it the convention to mention 1 specific faculty member by name?

Does anyone have any insight into how specific your SoP needs to be for each program? I've spent a lot of time agonizing over the rhetorical 'flow' of my personal statement. I don't want to re-write it for each application, although I (of course) will if I need to. Is it necessary to mention the school you're applying to by name? What about the mentor you're applying to? I reached out via email to most of my prospective mentors, and was met with either 1) a surprisingly enthusiastic and nice response or 2) no response at all (which is understood; I expect they get hundreds of identical emails). However, armed with this knowledge, should I mention the mentors who responded to me by name, given that it seems like they're already interested in me? Edit: This is regarding Clinical Psych PhD programs.

Right; but I noticed that teachers college required a GRE within 4 years so I’m paranoid. It seems like I’ll mostly be OK....

I took the GRE in summer 2015 and don’t want to retake it. On an individual basis I’ve been confirming that programs will still accept such an old score, but some don’t have information available on their website. Could it be viewed as a drawback to have such an old GRE score? Has anyone heard of a program which requires a more recent GRE score?

This is such a scary and exciting journey to be starting on! I have a few questions as I get going in my clinical/counseling PhD application process. - When do people typically ask for letters of recommendation? Should I just ask now? - Is it appropriate to reach out to department coordinators at this time to ask if they know anything about POIs looking for students? If so, does it look bad to ask about multiple POIs? Should I reach out to POIs directly instead?

I’m flabbergasted by some of these replies! Is it really that common/necessary to get high 90th percentile? To me, this test was infuriating. I’m someone who has always tested well (SAT, GRE, AP, undergrad courses, I always found it straightforward to study hard and do well). I devoted 2 months of my life to only studying for this test, took all practice tests I could find, made thousands of flash cards, and feel incredibly fortunate with the percentile I got. I feel like this test is unlike any other in terms of my studying having no effect. Very discouraging Is this test even *that* important? Do any programs do a hard cut below a certain percentile?

Hi everyone! It's April, so it's dawned on me that I should start more-seriously prepping my application for the next cycle for Clinical/Counseling PhD programs. I'm going to reach out to ask for letters of recommendations. I am in the fortunate situation of having too many good choices, and would like input on how to optimize them. 1. One of my letters will definitely be from a lab I worked with for most of undergrad which pertains directly to my chosen area of study. I already asked when I left. The other two are up in the air. 2. - PI from the lab I did my undergrad thesis in. I really, really like them on a personal level, and they've always been very supportive and complimentary of my work. AND/OR - Professor who taught the class associated with my undergrad thesis program (a tenured PhD faculty member at my university). They've soft-offered to write a LOR, and it seems like they have a great track record of getting people into programs. Is it better, however, to ask for a LOR from the PI I directly worked under? Will it look bad to ask a professor, even though the class they taught was an intimate research seminar/basically just teaching me how to design and write up my thesis project? 3. - Since undergrad I've been volunteering for a suicide hotline. They will write LOR's, but I'm sure it's just a form letter. By the time I apply I'll have been working with them for 1.5 years, so I like being able to reflect somewhat long-term work, particularly since my resume after undergrad has been kind of spotty. However, this is probably last choice. OR - I've been doing a little bit of volunteer work with a professor at a nearby institution to the city I live in now. The issue is, by the time I apply I will have been working with them for only about 8 months. I also have no sense of how our relationship will develop overtime. When would I even ask this person for a LOR? So basically, TLDR; how do I best represent my thesis? How do I best represent my time after undergrad? Should I just ask both faculty members associated with my thesis, even though that won't reflect anything I've done post-bacc?