Aghhhhh

What does their funding look like? Not familiar with UK schools, but generally the more applicants who are accepted = less likely to be funded

Hi Victor! Here's some advice: 1) Pump up your content. The AWA is graded by the computer first, and as frustrating as it is, the computer more positively grades those essays that follow a 5-6 paragraph structure. I would dissuade you from having only one-sentence paragraphs. 2) Some sentences are hard to comprehend/follow (ex. "Universities Congress cannot decide and influenced in a cheat way in the student choice, due to is a void of liberty and personal decision which every student has the right to."). Make sure that you save some time at the end (~5 mins) to re-check your sentence structure and make sure things make sense. 3) Your entire 3rd paragraph is a run-on sentence. Make sure you are writing complex sentences that still follow a sound grammatical structure. 4) Overall, your wording and sentence structure make it too difficult to follow your ideas and parse out your supporting evidence. If it makes it easier, try not to focus on writing wordy, eloquent sentences and instead, focus on conveying your idea clearly and succinctly. For the essay, you want to follow a structure similar to below: Par. 1: -Re-state questions -Explain your position (agree, disagree, agree/disagree with qualifications) -Acknowledge opposite position, but explain why that is ultimately a misguided position Par 2-4/5: -Support statement (i.e. example from history, art, personal experiences, etc) -Supporting evidence for statement -Acknowledge opposing evidence and explain why it doesn't work -Evidence how these points relate to question & main position Par 5/6: -Tie all stated evidence together -Re-state position and why it is the "best" position.

That's hard to say, as a lot of programs are different in how much consideration they give to GRE scores. I have heard of people getting in with poor scores, but they made up for it with having exceptional experience, GPA, pubs/posters, etc. Personally, I do think it's worth it for you to take it again, as your scores may get you screened out at a lot of schools--I think you should aim at least for a 310 combined score to get through that screening process. Can I ask how you're preparing for it? One thing that really helped me was actually emulating the test conditions during my practice tests (i.e. going to the library and using a desktop, completing it w/ the time constraints), so that when it came time for test day, I wasn't as nervous as I would've been.

I agree with mostly everyone here. Applying to grad school can be super expensive, and even more expensive if you need to fly out to interview sites. It is definitely worth it to take some time off to make some money, preferably while working in a research lab and gaining even more experience. If you know that your application will be even better and make you stand out as a competitive applicant, I'd say to wait another year!

Hmm..that's tough. I'd say don't include it unless you didn't graduate with a degree in psychology and you absolutely must show that you have adequate knowledge of psych. It's really not that bad of a score though, as most students admitted have an average around 700.

On one hand, I think having that much community service experience is terrific and definitely should be added; but on the other hand, like you said, unfortunately some people have a superficial perception of pageantry and may view it negatively. Also, I'm not sure it's worth risking it as clinical programs really only care about research experience and psychology-related work experience. If you do decide to include it, I would definitely exclude the titles and focus solely on the community service. But, perhaps you can touch more on it in your personal statement? I do understand your dilemma though. I worked part-time as a sales associate and then as a supervisor at my uni's technology store for 3 years, giving presentations, training people & managing projects, receiving awards--but I decided to not even include it on my CV for the reasons mentioned above.

Hi there everyone, new poster here! I am applying to clinical psych PhD programs this fall, and have my list of schools (this is my first time applying, so I have a list of 12 schools to better my chances of getting in the first time). My list of schools are: University of Missouri - Saint Louis (UMSL) University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (UCCS) Northern Illinois University University of Kentucky University of Delaware Pennsylvania State University - University Park Temple University Vanderbilt University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Emory University University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Minnesota For some background, I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology in 2018 (I also graduated with a B.F.A in fine art). My cumulative GPA is a 3.9, and my Psych GPA is a 4.0. GRE scores are 162 V/160 Q/5 W, and I just took the GRE psych subject test (I anticipate it will be around 730-750, since my practice tests were around those scores). I took 2 years after graduating to gain some research experience in addition to working as an undergrad RA for 2 years--currently a research coordinator at a hospital, working on a validation study for a PTSD/Dep screener, and I am also a research coordinator at a behavioral genetics institute, working on a study analyzing PTSD, Alcohol abuse, and fear acquisition. I'm also 3rd author on a publication that has been submitted to a journal, I have 3 poster presentations (1st author on only one) , and 3 oral presentations (1st author on all). No real "clinical" experience although I do conduct clinical interviews with patients at the hospital, so not sure if I could spin that. I'm hoping I could get some insight about a couple things: 1) obviously, I have a ton of research experience with trauma and PTSD and therefore, I'm applying to 8 schools that have faculty specifically working with PTSD; however, I am really interested in Schizophrenia-Spectrum DO & psychosis, and would love to study trauma risk factors. 4 of my schools have faculty working specifically with psychosis, but they are all top schools and I'm wondering what my chances would be to get into them? How can I word my personal statement to make me a competitive applicant without having any experience working with psychosis or schizophrenia? 2) I know for a fact all of my potential PI's are accepting students, so should I still email them? Is it too late to email them now? Sorry for long post, and thank you in advance! ?