BA and MA in Education for getting into Developmental Psych PhD program

[Reut]

Hi everyone,

I have a BA in Education & Linguistics (double major) and will soon be finishing my MA in Learning Disabilities (Special Education) in Tel Aviv University in Israel. 

While the focus of my degrees is education, I realized during my master's that my true passion lies in developmental psychology. Therefore, I wrote my master's thesis under the supervision of a developmental psychologist and have worked in 3 developmental labs (one at NYU). I have 2 conference presentations (one at SRCD as first author) and 3 papers as first author which are currently under review/in preparation. GPA=4.0 in both undergrad and grad studies, and GRE- 161V, 158Q, 5AW (might retake). 

Do you think that the fact that my degrees are in education, rather than psychology, would hinder my chances of being accepted into a good PhD program? I actually applied recently to two master's programs: Villanova- MS in general psych, Cornell- MA in developmental psych. I thought that having a degree in psych would improve my chances of being admitted into a PhD program, while also helping me adjust to the American academia (which is very different from the Israeli one), and allowing some networking with leading American researchers. However, I know that a master's degree is not as prestigious in the US as it is in Israel, and so I worry that having two master's degrees might actually look weird.

What do you think my current chances are for getting admitted into a top 20 developmental psych PhD program? Would you study towards a second master's to have a psych degree in this case?

Thanks!!!

Edited April 17, 2018 by Reut