Fall 2019 Psychology PhD Applicants!

[DevSci]

8 hours ago, light1996 said:

Hi! Just curious is the dev psychology program under The School of Social Ecology at UCI?

Yes, it is!

[olddognewtricks]

8 hours ago, light1996 said:

Did you hear of anyone else getting UCI interviews because I haven't seen anyone else so far?

Several on the results page...

[TrustedTheProcess]

16 hours ago, clinicalpsych243050 said:

Hi everyone,

So i’m a little bit scared about my applications and getting into a clinical program. I think my research experience and GPA are good but I did absolutely horrible on the GRE..like below average horrible. I took it four times and only improved my score the second time and did worse the last two times. i’m just a horrible standardized test taker, I always have been but now I think it’s really going to limit me. I took a kaplan course and magoosh but neither really helped me. Does anyone know someone who experienced this and has actually gotten into a clinical phd program? Or have any advice for what I should do? This is my first time applying btw and honestly don’t know what i’ll do if I don’t get in, I may just not apply again lol

The P.I. I work for is pretty strict about certain cutoffs for the GRE, but once you're past that I don't think it matters as much. Research experiences definitely trump GRE scores though, as long as you get past the initial cutoff. I do know that our lab has come down to two equally qualified candidates for admission and ultimately the GRE score was the only deciding factor. That's probably not very common though, but I think with competitive programs like PhDs you just have to try and make your application as well-rounded as possible.

[ResilientDreams]

15 minutes ago, TrustingTheProcess said:

The P.I. I work for is pretty strict about certain cutoffs for the GRE, but once you're past that I don't think it matters as much. Research experiences definitely trump GRE scores though, as long as you get past the initial cutoff. I do know that our lab has come down to two equally qualified candidates for admission and ultimately the GRE score was the only deciding factor. That's probably not very common though, but I think with competitive programs like PhDs you just have to try and make your application as well-rounded as possible.

What are these cutoffs, if you don't mind sharing?

[humanisticPOV]

15 minutes ago, ResilientDreams said:

What are these cutoffs, if you don't mind sharing?

Many schools require a combined score of at least 300 (new scoring procedure) to be considered but there are also schools that specifically say there is no required cutoff. Check with the specific program!

[gottogetthatphd]

On 12/11/2018 at 4:13 PM, stinger said:

Apparently someone has received an interview invite for the clinical psych program today. Not sure if I should start being bummed out or not already...

Did you ever receive any other notifications? I saw that people had either received interview invites or notifications that you have not received interviews? I feel like i am a bit of a sitting duck and am not sure if i should be reaching out to the admissions office 

[stinger]

17 minutes ago, gottogetthatphd said:

Did you ever receive any other notifications? I saw that people had either received interview invites or notifications that you have not received interviews? I feel like i am a bit of a sitting duck and am not sure if i should be reaching out to the admissions office 

Yeah, for UGA they sent an email the next day after they sent out interview invites letting applicants know that they would not be receiving an interview and to expect a formal rejection in the coming months or so. I do not think it will be like that for most schools, however.

[TrustedTheProcess]

26 minutes ago, mwood126 said:

Many schools require a combined score of at least 300 (new scoring procedure) to be considered but there are also schools that specifically say there is no required cutoff. Check with the specific program!

Agreed! I think it depends on the specific program. A combined score of 300 is around the 50th percentile, so I would say that's pretty competitive. I have heard my P.I. comment that people "should not bother applying" if they are in the 20th percentile or below in either category ?

[Clinapp2017]

7 minutes ago, TrustingTheProcess said:

Agreed! I think it depends on the specific program. A combined score of 300 is around the 50th percentile, so I would say that's pretty competitive. I have heard my P.I. comment that people "should not bother applying" if they are in the 20th percentile or below in either category ?

The 50th percentile isn't competitive; it's like the minimum cutoff. If you look at good clinical PhD programs and their admissions stats, you will usually see mean percentiles for the admitted class of students hovering in the 75-85th percentile. Of course, like all mean scores, there is some range, but I would not say a 300 is a competitive stat from the point of view of someone on the other side of this process. 

[gottogetthatphd]

12 minutes ago, stinger said:

Yeah, for UGA they sent an email the next day after they sent out interview invites letting applicants know that they would not be receiving an interview and to expect a formal rejection in the coming months or so. I do not think it will be like that for most schools, however.

Sorry to hear that... thanks for the heads up! Would you feel ok letting me know the initials of the person you applied it? Good luck!!

Edited December 13, 2018 by gottogetthatphd

[humanisticPOV]

6 minutes ago, Clinapp2017 said:

The 50th percentile isn't competitive; it's like the minimum cutoff. If you look at good clinical PhD programs and their admissions stats, you will usually see mean percentiles for the admitted class of students hovering in the 75-85th percentile. Of course, like all mean scores, there is some range, but I would not say a 300 is a competitive stat from the point of view of someone on the other side of this process. 

Agreed! 300 combined would be a minimum to even be considered for some schools but definitely not a competitive score. Some of the reach schools have admitted student GRE averages in the 90th percentile. Does anyone know what is considered a competitive score for the Psych GRE? I saw that SDSU's average Psych GRE for admitted students was in the 90th percentile, but that seems really high to me considering the average Psych GRE score for licensed clinical psychologists is in the 60th percentile....

[loffire]

26 minutes ago, Clinapp2017 said:

The 50th percentile isn't competitive; it's like the minimum cutoff. If you look at good clinical PhD programs and their admissions stats, you will usually see mean percentiles for the admitted class of students hovering in the 75-85th percentile. Of course, like all mean scores, there is some range, but I would not say a 300 is a competitive stat from the point of view of someone on the other side of this process. 

I agree unfortunately. Feels like 300 is the polite official cutoff the schools mention, but the competitive programs tend to cut closer around the 60-70th percentile. I imagine with the more competitive programs it might even be 75-80th percentile.

[stinger]

32 minutes ago, gottogetthatphd said:

Sorry to hear that... thanks for the heads up! Would you feel ok letting me know the initials of the person you applied it? Good luck!!

Of course! It's definitely the name of the game, it just was especially disappointing for me because it was my top choice and the first school I heard back from. And yes, I applied to work with JL. Best of luck to you too!

[shockwave457]

Almost two weeks and still ain't heard nothing ugh this waiting is gonna kill me y'all

[philopsych]

19 minutes ago, davidfreire20 said:

Almost two weeks and still ain't heard nothing ugh this waiting is gonna kill me y'all

Solidarity! I even had two November applications and nothing! I don't expect to hear good news for myself, but I thought someone from my schools would have heard something.

[humanisticPOV]

47 minutes ago, davidfreire20 said:

Almost two weeks and still ain't heard nothing ugh this waiting is gonna kill me y'all

The majority of schools do not start reviewing applications until after the end of the semester or after Christmas. I'm not expecting to hear back from any of my schools until the last week of December at the earliest! Patience is key  

[justacigar]

Every day I wake up and think "Today's the day. I won't check gradcafe. I'm gonna chill" and then somehow I end up here...whoops! Muscle memory ?

[huskypsych]

Had a meeting with my current PI today and she was checking in on how I was doing emotionally during this waiting game and she goes "I see you checking that stupid website" ?

[TrustedTheProcess]

3 hours ago, Clinapp2017 said:

The 50th percentile isn't competitive; it's like the minimum cutoff. If you look at good clinical PhD programs and their admissions stats, you will usually see mean percentiles for the admitted class of students hovering in the 75-85th percentile. Of course, like all mean scores, there is some range, but I would not say a 300 is a competitive stat from the point of view of someone on the other side of this process. 

Yeah I would change my previous wording choice on that one lol. I meant competitive as in you have any skin in the game at all, rather than a high likelihood of winning, if you catch my drift. Sorry for the confusion!

[humanisticPOV]

Just got a "Happy Holidays" generic email form U Alabama with absolutely nothing but a snowy picture that says "happy holidays from U of Alabama Graduate school".... nearly gave me a heart attack. Is it just me or is it cruel to send something like that right now when we're all waiting for interview notifications?!? ?

[light1996]

Thanks! Just trying to get an idea of which programs have sent emails!

[xChrisx]

Every other psych department seems to be reviewing their applications except Clinical psych...... oh why oh why...oh whyyyyyyyyyy ????

 

Also I/O.....?

[xChrisx]

1 hour ago, mwood126 said:

The majority of schools do not start reviewing applications until after the end of the semester or after Christmas. I'm not expecting to hear back from any of my schools until the last week of December at the earliest! Patience is key  

Who has time for patience? We want emails and we want them nowwwwwwwwwww (Just not Christmas emails. Tx.) 

Jk jk jk....Most of mines don't start sending invites till like week 2 of January. Going to just keep myself preoccupied with ?

[kalman_gain]

To everyone who is worried about GRE scores and whether or not some schools would even consider you as an applicant if you don't have a score above threshold X, please treat yourselves better throughout this time and pay little mind to those who would have you believe that it's either a great GRE score or failure.

[xxxxxxxxxx]

7 minutes ago, kalman_gain said:

To everyone who is worried about GRE scores and whether or not some schools would even consider you as an applicant if you don't have a score above threshold X, please treat yourselves better throughout this time and pay little mind to those who would have you believe that it's either a great GRE score or failure.

THIS. Thank you! A colleague of mine got into a very competitive university with an awful quant score, it was about 20-25% percentile. She is now a second year student, fully funded, and extremely happy!