YouNeverKnow

The problem is the GRE does not just stop people from getting an interview. Requiring it stops many qualified people from even applying because of everything I described here, and there are biases "for" it. Certain "Diversity" initiatives seem very performative and do not necessarily offset the barriers created to weed out certain people. It also won't give me my 1k back that I hardly even had and that many people don't have. And quite frankly, it is a privledge to be on the listening end (well, hopefully they're listening) instead of on the experiencing end like disabled and BIPOC, which is another reason I find some people may have a hard time admitting they need to do something about it. It just didn't impact them this way, and they think there is always a simple solution around it, that it is based off of individualistic hard work, etc. And then these are sometimes the same people making the decisions about the GRE or "chiming in" on oppressed people's experiences. It is great to see programs use this as a trial year for eliminating the GRE or making it optional. Some programs already committed to this, and I anticipate it increasing as people hopefully listen to us.
Regarding application fee waivers, I am under the impression some schools actually limit the number of fee waivers they provide too-- or so they say. Two of the 8 schools I applied to actually did not even have it as an option. It helps, but it won't always cut it, and there are loopholes. Also, if it helps anyone, most people in my circle emphasized GPA for grad school in a more realistic way. It's not "all that" but there are often program cut offs, it's certainly a compliment, and a low one will not do anyone any favors either. If it appears someone does not understand their psych coursework or does not care, it will not look good. Research experience and fit of course is key and can be used to show strengths and understanding.
I do also want to add that I know some people who have spoken up to say that the GRE actually helped remove a barrier they dealt with, such as a GPA that was pulled a little lower than they wanted because of an off semester or two, or coming from a smaller area (e.g., Caribbean) with less research areas. They said the GRE provided them an opportunity to try to make up for some things. I hear and recognize these people too. The only solution I can think of right now to include all of these scenarios would be to make it optional for some folks for which it is a barrier, as well as to stop maintaining a bias strictly in favor for it, but to rather use it to allow some people to have a more holistic application to "make up" for some things, as some programs are committing to. 

Hi All,
This post is a little blunt, but I hope that it is helpful.
I hope to offer a little bit of a unique perspective to the grad school admissions process. We've had a courageous professor that has stepped up and offered some insight, but I have yet to see any comments from current graduate student from an R1 university. To give you a little bit of a background of where I came from, I came from a disadvantaged background, and almost didn't make it through high school - I flunked out of calculus. Right now is a super anxiety provoking time of your lives during the admissions process even without COVID-19. Throughout this post, I am going to focus on what you may not all be considering and what is out of your control.
The first thing that is not getting enough attention is the virus. This caused a huge increase in the number of applications and a decrease in available funds. This means that a) the already small number of graduate student lines at my university decreased by a lot, and b) there were more competitive applicants than ever before. This application cycle is incredibly unusual and should not be considered to be normative. You all were extraordinarily unlucky applying this year.
Second, although there are structural limitations (e.g., GRE) that can prevent quality minority applicants from receiving interviews at top-tier R1 universities, I come from a university with grad students and faculty that are diverse and that have ongoing diversity initiatives to recruit diverse grad students and faculty. Because we have these initiatives, we recruit top quality diverse candidates. These students come from a different universities including R1 and even R3 universities. Regardless of their sexual orientation, race, or socioeconomic background, these applicants come in with several (sometimes first authored) publications, presented at several peer reviewed conferences, won several research grants, AND are excellent clinically.  Indeed, the most diverse graduate students in my department are often the ones with the best credentials. Further, a PI is not going to work with you unless you have those research "chops" that we like to talk about so much.
Third, if the numbers alone don't convince you, this is a competitive field. Many individuals want to be clinical psychologist, and let me tell you - it really is some of the most gratifying work I've done. This includes the research, grant writing, computer coding, course load, assessments, and therapy hours. But a lot of people want to do the work. This means you have to establish yourself as a competitive applicant, and I will tell you from several conversations that I have had with several who aspire to be clinical psychologist, many are not.
So here is my unsolicited advice for getting into graduate school and becoming what I believe is a competitive applicant in two pretty difficult steps. This first one is the most important: find a competent clinical psychological scientist that takes an interest in you as a person - this needs to happen. If it happens correctly, this person will advocate on your behalf that you are indeed a good person to work with to the potential PI of your dreams. Second, to be a really competitive applicant, you need to have observable skills, if I may be blunt: many faculty don't care about your GPA as much as this forum suggests. This means you need to publish (maybe even a few times), go to a number of conferences (to meet the PI of your dreams), and maybe even learn how to code and conduct some basic statistical analyses (time to start learning R). For some, this may mean getting a masters degree (many in my program have), for others, this will mean getting a post-bac position conducting good research with a quality PI. Many graduate students have to apply multiple cycles to get into graduate school because they do not know these things.
Finally, I do want to mention that there is always room for improvement and change in the system - we want and need more diverse representation in academia. As has already been stated, advocate for more funding to higher education and bug your state legislatures. Right now though, finding a high quality mentor and developing some observable skills as well as respecting some of the things that may be outside of your control may be the best option forward. Nevertheless, I wish you all the best of luck moving forward and hope you get in to the school of your dreams.
 

Applying to these graduate programs has been an eye-opening experience. It seems that the training of future psychologists is governed by the narrow needs and interests of a few faculty members, rather than the pressing mental health needs of the communities. So many dedicated people, eager to devote their lives to clinical psychology, are not able to gain access to the profession because entrance is so tightly regulated. If medical school admissions were run this way, there would be almost no physicians. I think the APA should reconsider the academic model for training and licensing of clinical psychologists, for this system fails to serve interests of future practitioners and patients alike.

I think academia needs more people like all of us. I sincerely hope each and every one of us reach our goals. I think those of us that stick with academia are going to have to help pick up the pieces.  

Hi all, just wanted to throw out some advice that my neuropsychologist coworkers gave me. My one coworker is a very well renown neuropsychologist and she said that at least half the RA's in her lab don't get admitted to clinic psych programs the first round (after working with her for a few years and having pubs). Another neuropsych I work with said that she had to apply twice herself and then she got into Fordham her second round. Depending on your CV, you should be applying to 15+ schools  to hedge your bets. She sometimes even recommends 20 or more depending on qualifications. She told me to apply to about 13 and I have a undergrad in neuroscience/psychology with a GPA of 3.7, I have a master's in neuroscience and psychology (joint), I have four publications, two conference presentations and now five years of clinical and academic experience (me actually performing neuropsych evaluations daily). I applied to 11 schools and have gotten two invites. They continually tell me that not getting an invite or getting in, has less to do with me as an applicant, but likely many other scenarios that are unknown. Please don't give up and believe in yourselves! If you don't get in this round, find ways to bulk up your CV and show that you are taking steps to improve areas for the next round. So many people have to apply multiple times. You all are wonderful and kind and keep in mind that we are applying in a pandemic as well! Sending lots of love to everyone during this insanely stressful time!

I think next week will be a major week to hear back from schools. Praying that all of us get good news, especially for those of us who have been suffering through the radio silence ???

So a though on the topic of stress and rejections.
I believe that a major contributing factor to the reason why some of us are having such a hard time is because this - researching, applying, and waiting for programs - has become our identity.
This is years in the making for us. Breathing psychology and grad school aspirations since we declared our majors, all culminating in the do-or-die moment of acceptance...or rejection. If the last several years of your life have been defined by meeting these goals, then getting into a program won't just be about acceptances (or lack thereof). It will become a reckoning, an affirmation or denial of who you are. Self-perceptions are bound to warp in the process.
Clinical psychology has developed such a competitive, crucifying paradigm, one that is on a whole other plane than literally any other type of program. Choosing this path isn't just selecting Challenge Mode for yourself, it's choosing to thread yourself through the eye of a needle.
It's half luck, half wits, but after a certain point it's anyone's game, and a gambling one at that. Of course the pursuit of this becomes so easily all-consuming - after all, it's our future that we're betting. At least it feels that way.

I was soooo happy that they waived the GRE, then life happened and I decided to take another year off and wait to apply. Now I’m scared! Also that last part is definitely true.... UNC had 980 applications for less than 9 spots! I think I’m a pretty competitive applicant and I have days of thinking “oh I’ll definitely get in somewhere, no question” but then other days of “why should I even bother trying, I don’t stand a chance”. It’s messing with me, lol

Did anyone else start off applications super stoked because they waived the GRE, also secretly hoping no one will apply this year because of COVID (yes, not a smart thought) only to find out that a record number of people are applying and so it's even more competitive this year and the GRE will be back next year, which means you will probably not apply to all schools you wanted to, and now has a borderline mental breakdown. ?
Also did anyone else start off feeling very confident in themselves just to feel like they will get 0 interview invites. I consider myself a somewhat competitive applicant (Masters, 3 years of research experience, 3 years clinical experience, one publication and a bunch in prep) only to feel like it won't mean shit because there's basically about 900 people applying for 9 spots.. (making this last part up but it's probably true).  
Oh the joy.

I agree the GRE is useless... I think it needs to really be brought to light.

I was almost down 1k just trying to take the GRE, travel for it, get materials, and get an assessment from various doctors to get the disability accommodations. My current documentation through disability services wasn't enough. On top of that, they do not let disabled students register until after the forms are approved for accommodations, which can take even more months. So the whole process for me took almost 8 months, and by that point the registration slots were almost all filled. There was only 1 slot left to take the GRE in time for program deadlines-- I had to travel 2 hours away for the only availability at 7 in the morning. It was the only slot open for the next few months. There's another catch: the forms have to be from within a 12 month period, so by the time the process was done and the test could be scheduled, the 12 month period was almost up. So I'd have to redo the assessments again.
I pulled an all nighter because I had to leave me house by like 4 AM, hardly functioned, and didn't receive my full disability accommodations. ETS skimps on accommodations and calls certain accommodations "standard" to accelerate the review process. Of course it's their pre-determined standard and not my standard from what my doctor determines. I would have missed the program deadlines otherwise because anything more than their "standard" will take longer to review, which is what I qualified for. If anything more than their "standard" is rejected, then you have to redo the process all over again. I was forced to not take the risk and opt for half of the accommodations I've been getting in school for 5+ years because everything took so long, despite me starting the process in the early spring. I most likely would have been accepted for the full if the process wasn't so long. It gets worse and worse the more I describe what happened. And... I was sick during it. I had to stop in the middle to take an antibiotic. ? I had a 3 year long infection that wouldn't go away, so I was very sick. To think I could go into even more examples of how the GRE is nothing but a useless created barrier.

Mind you, I have a 4.0 GPA, 3+ years research, 9 scholarships, a research grant, 3 years teaching college level, and a ton of other things I don't want to go into. My GRE verbal and quant was dreadful. All of this and you look at one day? 
I just think about all the people who have these dreams and worked so hard and long only to face unfair barriers that could get them automatically thrown in a pile where they aren't even considered, and it breaks my heart. It has clear social class, gender, disability, and ethnicity biases. Many programs are indeed discussing this year as a "trial" to see if it will remain optional. We will see how seriously they take their "diversity" claims. They claim they support diversity then weed out more disabled and BIPOC students this way than they seem to care. People may try to claim I am an "outlier" because I am such a strong applicant and did so bad. First, does that mean it's okay to keep doing this knowing it impacts certain oppressed or underrepresented groups because "oh it's just a few people!"?? Second, it is less of an "outlier" problem and more that it literally has processes built in that weeds out certain types of people based on money, disability, accommodations, the set up, etc. regardless of qualifications. It's not "just a few" at all.
The fact that they are suddenly doing something about it during a pandemic and that it took this long is also frustrating. It's like they suddenly cared the moment everyone else had difficulty taking it but didn't when certain groups have always faced barriers like this. If anyone from a program is reading this who can take a stand for underrepresented and oppressed groups, do it. 

Hi all, I too am on the boat of applying to 15 programs and hearing radio silence from all of them. I know anxiety levels are skyrocketing these past few days, so join me in saying these words of affirmation for yourself out loud! We are all qualified and deserving of reaching our goals! ?
 
1. If I do my best throughout this process, I will end up at exactly the school and program where I belong.
2. Setbacks and mistakes are a natural part of this process. I’m taking a big risk by being honest with myself about my dreams and goals—and being willing to go after them!
3. At all moments—right this moment—I am being drawn toward the people, places, and opportunities for my highest good and my highest service to the world.
4. There is enough time, money, energy, and opportunities in life for me to make a difference. There is room at the top for me!
5. I am dedicated to enjoying this journey. Not every part will be fun or easy, but I will not let my life whiz by me in a race to “the next best thing.” I live and enjoy my life today.
6. I’m either winning or learning. Even if things don’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, I will gain valuable lessons that will be invaluable to me and to others in the future.
7. I give myself permission to go after the opportunities that excite me, to reach out to the people I want to meet, and to apply to the schools that I’d love to attend.
8. I am willing, ready, and going to take one step today toward reaching my goals of getting into my dream school. I know that even just one small action is better than doing nothing.
9. I give myself permission to rest, relax, and take a break from thinking about “grad school stuff” all the time. I know that I don’t have to push myself to exhaustion in order to reach my goals, because my goals want to reach me as much I want to reach them.
10. I surround myself with uplifting people and abundant thoughts that affirm my journey toward the graduate program of my choosing.
 

Just wanted to put it out there that this whole thing really sucks. Good to know that everyone else also feels like crap.