Randi S

My mentor suggested I ask 4 people, send the requests out to the 3 best, and then have the fourth as a back up in case for some reason one of the others failed to get it turned it on time. The fourth person knew they were the back up, and was prepared to submit at the last minute in case of disaster. Thankfully, I didn't have to call on them, but I was glad to know I had a plan in place. As far as universities that say you can include more than the 3 required, I've been told by graduate committees and profs that no one will read all 4 or 5 letters (some don't make it past the first one o

I agree with Rerun above... perhaps you need to look outside of psychology for what you want to do. This sounds more like an Education or Communications program to me. Maybe Human Development, but that could be as much of a stretch as psychology. Assuming you've been reading papers to see who's doing the work - that's where you should start. Find out who and where the studies are being done, even if they aren't psychology programs.

Is this a PhD program? Because if it's anything over a Masters, the answer is YES, you need at least two faculty members who can write glowing LORs. A PhD program is all about the research, and has nowhere near as much to do with what you called "blue collar" work. Your work ethic and functional knowledge will help you, but what they really want to know is if you have the aptitude to search literature, critically think about other peoples' works, create your own studies AND have the drive and ability to see it through til the end. It's a completely different skill set than you use on the job.

If you're anything like me (and probably most of us) you probably have a spreadsheet or something that lists all the key details about each program. If not, this would be an excellent time to make one. Use that to help yourself see the differences between each of them, so you can address the unique pieces in your personal statements. You will want to talk about things like accessibility to the populations you want to work with, internship or funding opportunities, ability to work on specific research projects or topics... leave the personal stuff out, obviously. I mean, I love going to grad s

Hmmm... I disagree here. While your GPA isn't great, I assume that is from your undergrad? No one will look at your undergrad GPA if you are coming from a Masters, so make sure you are getting the best possible grades in your current program to eliminate that issue. I didn't see your GRE score listed, but again, you are already in a Masters program so most schools won't really worry about that as much. Some grad schools will use GRE as a weed-out, but if the rest of your application is strong that is a lot less of a possibility. Your biggest weaknesses by far are the lack of research pre

What are your research interests? These are all great programs, but the research focus is quite varied, and when it comes down to decision time, similar research interests are what's going to push you to the top of the list - or the bottom if there's no good match.

Right off the cuff, I would say she should not apply to PhD programs this cycle. However, a Masters program would likely take her on. Or, if she doesn't want the potential expense of a Masters, she should absolutely apply for a post-bacc research position in a lab doing work that is at least similar to her long term goals. A one or two year post-bacc would position her nicely for applying to PhD programs in the next cycle.

Just hopping back in here to ask, why aren't you considering an MSW and DSW? If you're interests lie at all in education and advocacy as well as clinical work, a DSW would get you there just as effectively. Contrary to your personal experiences, the absolute BEST experience our family had with trauma-based therapy for abuse was with an MSW who focused her practice and research on it. The clinical psychologists were merely interested in assessment and then shoving us on to someone else (typically an MSW). Counseling psychology might also fit this bill, but Social Work as a field already tackles

Sorry, but this made me laugh out loud. NOTHING ever allows you to assume admission to a doctoral program. There's a reason you will see threads on the forum here with folks commiserating about being on their second, third, fourth cycle of admissions, still trying to get in. As mentioned by several others, you need to be able to articulate why you suddenly want to do psychology. And exactly what about the law has been ruined, that you think isn't similarly happening within Psychology? Nothing in our culture exists in a vacuum, and whatever you are seeing in the law is almost certainly ha

Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, does quite a bit of work on memory and aging, though I'm not sure if it falls under Clinical or a different subfield. May want to check them out.

Something else to consider when looking at schools - are you looking to become a practicioner after it's all said and done? Or is your heart more into research? This sounds more like the research end, to me, which is why I ask. If you are set on becoming a practicioner, make sure you weed out programs that are research-focused, and instead look for those who have a scientist-practicioner model of grad school. And vice versa if you really want to focus on things like quantifying symptoms and understanding the neuro end of mental illnesses. The distinction of what you want to do with your degr

Hey there. If you have your MA, that means you did a Masters thesis, right? Was that a topic that you were super interersted in? What other research experiences have you had, and how might those shape your future research? It's all interesting, but at some point we have to figure out what we are really passionate about, that made us want to do the particular branch of psychology to begin with. Why do you want to do a Clinical PhD? Is there a particular population you want to work with, or a certain diagnosis you want to specialize in?

Yes, try to contact the grad coordinator for the programs you are interested in and ask. Many Pysch programs require a set of undergrad psychology classes, including a methods class, prior to admission. You may be able to take those through a local community college between now and next year to fulfill those requirements.

This. If you want to do therapy with kids or adults, getting an MSW is the shorter, less expensive, less research-intense way to go. A LCSW is fully qualified to diagnose and treat therapeutically. You don't really need a doctoral level degree unless assessments are your long term goal. There are a multitude of MSW programs out there, and they may be much easier to apply and matriculate to than a PsyD or PhD.

Ha! Stalking is a good word for it, isn't it? For me, I emailed my PI after reading through her more recent papers and asked her questions about her results and methods - full disclosure, I was also completing my honors thesis, and her papers were among my sources for my lit review, so I was pretty deep into the topic For other PIs that I did not end up going with, I read up, and had a handful of intelligent questions about their work, future directions, etc. All but one of the PIs I reached out to was very quick to respond, and more than willing to discuss their work. After I had establ