carlyhylton

Would you recommend calling them or emailing them?

This sounds pretty broad and unrefined... maybe your statement of purpose/intents/reasons for pursuing your PsyD are not being expressed in a refined, convincing manner to Nova. Consider this as well as the above postings.

Looks like you are shaping up well. I think you probably need to get some research experience. But I'm only a second year undergrad so I'm no authority. Regarding the psych club and professional organizations.... I have gotten the feeling from grad students, profs, prof who have supervised my RAship and research projects that listing or putting forth that you were the pres of your psych student association (I was) would not necessarily be bad depending what the position involved. In my position we held seminars, and did more psychy and less social types of activities. If your psych club was the same, then I really don't think that would be a disadvantage. If you go into academia doing this sort of thing among faculty is necessary for tenure and if you want to become a chair. Obviously don't dwell on it at all, though. Organization membership can be mentioned somehow if you attend/present at an organizations conference...

Don't take my word for it, but I have heard from fellow undergrads, masters students, PhDs, profs that listing IRRELEVANT experience (i.e. resident adviser, campus tour guide, GEARS, CHOICES, maybe internship with health educ office?) can actually be detrimental to your app Maybe if someone else could confirm or disconfirm this this would be good I think everything else looks pretty good! Best of luck in your upcoming app season, psycOneonta89. Have you finished your bachelors? If so are you going to be doing research over 2011/2012? That would also help, I think. Research, presenting/publishing... you know the drill.

Good luck! I would be interested to know how your app process goes, you should blog about it

Thats a great way to put it Lisa, thanks!

Thank you for the encouragement ! Wish me luck...

There are responses about this on this thread... and here's a list of come Master's programs... I'm just a psych undergrad but I'm guessing this might be a good idea for you... What area of psych are you interested in? It might be especially useful if you could get into a Master's program in that area of psych specifically. Good luck!

Oh god, I'm scared but you both are right, I should be honest! Thanks for the prompt replies!

Ok here's the situation: I have been working as an undergrad RA in a perception lab for about a year now During interview and over the course of the year I have not been entirely honest about my research interests my supervisor and other lab members have always seemed to assume that I have this budding passion for perception research... and it's not that I'm not interested, it's just that it's not what I want to pursue in grad school. My interests are in Clinical. I therefore want to do some volunteer work at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In the app I would write about my passion for mental health, clinical psych etc. I also need references. So... I asked my supervisor if I could list him as a reference and he gave me this weird look and asked me 'why I wanted to volunteer?' Should I just not apply? Will they ask him about my passion for mental health clinical psych etc? Am I being extremely dishonest? On all of my 2.0 networking platforms (twitter, linkedin, about.me etc) I say that I want to be a clinician! He has me on linkedin! The info is out there!

Thanks!

JW, is mentioning POIs in SOI the standard practice?

Sorry for bumming off of your thread here but I was wondering if all/or which of the above would be useful for a ) finding undergrad research assistantships in psych labs in general b ) Clinical neuropsych/Clinical psychology (my interest is in neuro research on schizophrenia) Thanks!

Thanks, again, Neuropsych!

1. I gave a 'poster presentation' at my campus a couple months back at an annual 'conference' held at my campus for students to present their intermediate experimental psych research projects Should I list this on my cv? Would someone look at it and think 'awe, cute' she's trying? Thats what I would be going for... 2. The prof who I work for acknowledged me in one of his recent pubs. This obviously isn't cv worthy, but since I am probably far away from authorship, is there anyway I could mention this in an interview, statement of interest, cover letter etc? FYI, the next thing I will be using my cv etc for is as an attachment to emails to profs in France (I'm doing my third year in France, as part of my program) to see if I can get an RA gig over the year. Thanks!

Thanks neuropsych! I'll keep spamming then : )

Ok sooooo I currently have a paid RA at my institution (York University in Toronto), and I have been offered to stay for the summer however, I have been accepted to do an exchange in France next year (lots of research opportunities, a chance to do an undergrad clinical internship and honors thesis before coming back and doing my honors thesis here, so not to worried about that) Because I am going to be away for 12 months though, I kind of wanted to go back home to Calgary for the summer, work, not have to pay for rent, save up some money for France, visit with the fam. I assumed that getting a part time volunteer RA gig at the university of calgary wouldn't be a problem. It's turning out to be harder than I thought. Does anyone have any experience with applying to RA positions at institutions other than your own institution? Does the process mostly tend to be internal? How important would having an RA over the summer be? I just finished second year and have only had the one RA position, for eight months. I also have had some clinical experience doing respite work with a girl with bipolar disorder, was president of the undergrad psych students association at my campus, was a student rep for the canadian psychological association (I dont know how much of the latter even matter, however).

Curious, what do you mean by 'refreshing' your gpa?

I'm assuming that the Master's is in a field that would best fit with your end research goals... I don't have any experience with this at all, and I'm not even sure if this is something one would want to consider, but does the PhD program offer a Master's en passant in case you chose not to pursue your PhD? Might be something to consider. Also, if you were to do your Master's and find that it wasn't transferable to a PhD program in the states doing your PhD in Canada might save you sometime (although I assume the distance would be further than 'moving states'). In Canada a Master's degree is a prereq to a PhD, which takes 3+ years after your Masters (i.e. it is transferable). Why not contact schools/profs at schools you might want to pursue your PhD at after your Master's and ask them how your Master's program would transfer? I assume this is something that would vary (perhaps considerably) so it might be worth contacting schools. The replies you get here will be anecdotal. Ultimately go with your gut feeling, what will be the best 'fit' for you, I think. Good luck with your decision (especially with regards to the distance/your significant other, I assume that'll be tough and something you have to decide for yourself!) and congrats on your acceptances!

I was thinking about this a lot last night I want to go into Clinical (won't be applying for another 2-3 years as I am in second year) but it's obviously so competitive (and I have personally had some academic struggles) that I think it would be prudent to have some plan b(s) Here's what I came up with (in no particular order): -A grad degree in CBT (there are programs in the UK) -Applying to grad school in another area of psych -Doing a premed certificate and applying to med school (with the intention of going into psychiatry) -Mental health activism -Mental health lobbying

Saw this post on another forum (the student doctor, which I hate, compared to this forum, by the by) Opinions? Opinions on doing a Master's in experimental and then a Ph.D in Clinical in Canada (it's a bit different up here, in Canada we have Masters/Doctoral programs that are the equivalent of Ph.D programs in the states, which is to say that there is no direct entry from your undergrad to a Ph.D program and you necessarily have to do a Master's program en passent)? Would it be easier to get accepted to an experimental Master's program than a Clinical Master's program (I assume there are more experimental Master's programs, atleast)? Quote: Originally Posted by BubuB Hey, Does anyone know of a link listing Master's programs in psych? Also, does anyone have thoughts about getting a masters in cognitive or experimental psych as a way of differentiating myself when reapplying to clinical programs? I posted this in another thread: Per one of my mentors, a MS/MA in EXPERIMENTAL Psych might help get into a Clinical PhD program- yes, a MS/MA in ClinPsych would be fine, but given that Experimental tends to focus more on research than clinical stuff (hence the name), it might dispel any misconception on the part of admittance committees that you are one of those warm fuzzy people/sheep who go into Clinical Psych because you "just want to help people". I'm looking at MS programs now, myself.

Chak- there are evidently fundamental differences between Clinical and Counseling psych, so wouldn't you just stick to what you want to do, to what your end goal is? I'm sure one of the programs would probably fit better with what you want to do eventually, and not both. Or, at least, one, and not both, would match better with your research interests. Does anyone know about admission stats to TC's programs or where they can be found? I'm specifically interested in the Clinical program. I'm Canadian and generally know very little about american unis, hehe.. but I understand that this is a top uni, worldwide. Wikipedia says that Columbia admits less than ten percent of it's applicants which would probably mean that average gpas of admitted students are close to 4.0s. Does anyone know? Thanks!!!