3rdgenpsych

I would get an RA job for a year or two after you graduate and then apply. It makes you a lot more competitive, gives you lots of research and sometimes clinical experience as well which is what programs want to see. If you are able to get enough experience and even get a publication or two from the RA position, it will help your application a lot. Also make sure your GRE scores are competitive. This will show programs that even if your GPA is low, you can handle graduate school work. Best of luck!

I'm starting a clinical psychology PhD program this fall and looking to upgrade to a new laptop. I currently have a macbook air that I used throughout college and loved (it's now about 6 years old and slowly dying). I'm thinking about getting a macbook pro now. Is this a good laptop for psych grad school? Any comments/feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I fully agree. In a field that is as competitive as clinical psychology, I think personal happiness is often overlooked as a factor when deciding on graduate schools. Thank you for your feedback, you will make a great psychologist one day

Thank you for your encouraging response. I think this is what I needed to hear!

You are right, I am biased with positive information for the first school and left out information for the second. The second school has weaker match rates (fluctuating between 60s-70s in the past few years, and 90s the past 2 years). This school is less clinically focused, and more research focused. I am interested in a more clinically focused program. The reputation for research is strong, but again, I am more interested in clinical. The weird vibes for the POI are that the entire interview was awkward, he didn't ask a single question about me or my research background, was super casual, and had some negative and condescending things to say about my undergrad GPA (which was not great, but I more than made up for it with research and publications). He didn't seem like someone who would support me and vouch for me when needed. These were just my feelings after the interview. I talked to his current students and they all said how he is laid back, sometimes goes weeks without answering emails, and you really need to stay on top of him. Why is a funded offer almost always a better choice than partial or unfunded offers? Other than the obvious reason of one costs money and one doesn't, what other factors make it a better option?

Hello GradCafe psych applicants, I have a difficult decision I'm hoping I can get your opinions on. I am deciding between 2 clinical psychology PhD programs; below are my pros/cons of each school: 1. School #1: the research match here is perfect (my POI is doing the exact research I want to be doing in the future) and the students during the interview seemed really happy in the lab and supportive of each other. The building/campus is beautiful and in a really great location and I would be able to live in an area that I've always wanted to live in. The program has a really great reputation for the field I want to go into, has a 100% internship match rate in the last few years, and good relationships with externship sites. I've never heard anything negative about the reputation of this program. The only downside is that the program is not fully funded (I did receive a small scholarship). 2. School #2: the research match is somewhat what I want to be doing, but not exactly. I got some weird vibes from the POI - he seems to be laid back and the type that I have to reach out to him rather than him being on top of me for meeting deadlines, milestones, etc. The school is in a somewhat ok location, but not as desirable, and the students seemed pretty competitive and intense on interview day. The building is run down and didn't really have a student lounge or area where students could work together. This school, however, is fully funded. Some notes: I would not need to take out any loans for school #1, although it seems silly to pay for tuition when I was offered a fully funded opportunity somewhere else. But I really do think school #1 is a better match for me. Would really appreciate any feedback to help make this decision. Thank you in advance!