chak

@ scalia You could always try connect these two (social/clinical) in your next personal statement.

I agree with everybody else's responses. I'll just add my few cents. They will be brief so let me know if you need reclarifications. Research: - Considering PhD programs - especially psychology PhD programs - require research, this will make your application more well rounded when reapplying again. In addition find out if you could get authorship in any research that you've participated in, it will be a plus for PhD programs. Volunteering: - On top of everybody else's suggestions, also try to find possible volunteer internships at mental health clinics or private practices. This will create a doorway for you to get first-hand exposure to a "clinical experience". In combining research/volunteering: For me, I was fortunate enough to get a volunteer position as an undergraduate intern at a mental health clinic for a day out of the week. Moreover, I am creating an annotated bibliography (I suppose this would be clinical research) which further complements my experience at the mental health clinic because they both overlap each other. My suggestion for you is to try asking psychology professors at your school, preferably clinical or counseling psychologists first, if they know a practice that is looking for volunteer help. Hope this helps!

Check out the PhD I/O program @ the cuny graduate center. Hope this helps

Its similar to the SATs because of the same following rules: 1-correct answer yields a certain point 2-incorrect answer would lose you 1/4 of what the question worth is going to be 3- skipped won't have points deducted Once all the points are added up to a RAW score, it will then be converted to the final weighted score which is based off of how your peers did on the same test. To answer your question, you could hypothetically just answer 130 questions out of 215 and skip the rest. But if you get all 130 of them right, then that will look more impressive than attempting to answer all the questions and only getting 140 correct but have 75 incorrect (due to the point deduction). The two scenarios that I mentioned would add up to different raw scores which leads to different weighted scores. This is what I've read and heard. The best concrete advice is to practice.

Also try to remember that the most important thing is to not tell the faculty reading your personal statement why you should be chosen, but SHOW it. Pardon me for skimming but another advice that I can add is to contact the programs that you want to get into and try to establish a relationship with a professor in the institution that you're applying for. Considering you're going to have a specific professor guiding your way through your degree, you might as well seek them out right now. Another set of helpful advice is to time manage and know your limits. I know it sounds obvious, but take my last semester for example. I was taking 18 credits (roughly 6 classes) on top of participating in 3 research labs as a research assistant. I was getting a 3.8 for the semester until the finals where the pressure was just too much. Now if I decided to "chill out" then I would of probably gotten that 3.8 =/. Instead it was a 3.5. What a bummer. Also figure out what area of psychology that you want to get into. For example, if its either clinical or counseling, try to get involved as an undergraduate intern in a clinic. This way you'll get a letter of recc and another job experience that you can include in your resume/cv. Killing two birds with one stone is awesome

A personal statement is one the few ways of letting the faculty know who you really are. Everything else is just numbers/achievements/data according to them. It also shows how much extra effort that you're willing to put into your packet when they take a look at it. But if you're looking for a format/structure, try using this link. I found it while going through another thread on this forum. http://ls.berkeley.e...tatement-1.html

Try to give any of the professors in the program a call and try to get a feel of how the professors (and program) are. That should help you narrow down your choices in an inexpensive way.

My guess its because its a MA in general psych so its easier to get into than something that is specifically applied. On another note, I hear from alot of PhDs in different areas of psychology stating that schools prefer candidates that are older than fresh undergrad graduates so thats going for you. Another tip is to continue practicing for the GRE, both general and subject.

I agree with university99 about the level of specificity of the questions, some of the questions are extremely broad while others are a hit and a miss if you don't know what a specific psychologist is famous for. What several professors suggested that I should be doing while I was studying for the subject GRE was to basically read the general psychology book from your undergrad general psych class. Another thing that I did to further expose myself is by getting a barron's book and just keep practicing.

I've attempted to do that for the past (last) week actually haha. But I've only been able to contact 3 of the 5 and its only secretaries because professors are still on vacation. I've thought about going to info sessions for the upcoming fall semesters before I start my personal statements. Thanks for the reminder though!

I totally agree with what you are saying. Its been pretty tough since I'm still in the process of establishing a strong work/study habit, but my gpa for each semester has been steadily increasing in comparision to the previous semester so its pretty exciting and intense at the same time! Thanks for your input.

I'm currently an undergrad at my college with rougly about 6 courses(18 credits) left before completing my B.A. I've spoken to a bunch of people and a doctorate student at my school threw out this website as a source of information. I am basically applying for grad school early decision in approximately a month so I can start grad school once I graduate from undergrad. The program that I am looking into specifically is Mental Health Counseling or the master's equivalent of a Clinical/Counseling Psych PhD. program. I've decided to stay in NYC and the programs that I am interested in applying for reside( not in any order) in Columbia, NYU,Baruch,CIty College, Queens College. Here is my situation: My CV/resume consists of interning at a clinic in the city, lab research assistant in 3 separate psych labs in my school, internship for a summer in a daycare center for the elderly, 2nd authorship in a potential poster publication. My cumulative gpa is only a 2.8 at the moment but my gpa for the most recent 45 credit has been close to a 3.5gpa. Psych gpa (which I declared when I wasn't as focused in school) is only a 3.3, Political Science major gpa (which I declared when I began paying more attention towards my grades) is a 3.8. What I plan to do for the fall/spring is: -Take 18 credits for the both the upcoming fall and spring semester to a)finish my requirement and take extra courses to futher boost my cumulative gpa. -Continue work as an intern at the clinic to further build up my experience as an undergrad -Continue work as a research assistant in 1 or 2 of the research labs at school -Attempt to sign up for an independent study course under a psych professor Let me know your opinions!