Fall 2019 Clinical Psych Interview Invites

[Clinical_PhD]

16 hours ago, SoldierOn said:

Were you the one who posted on the results page with mentor QM a couple weeks ago? I’d sent my POI a thank you email a few days after interviews and only received a response a couple of days ago; the response didn’t imply that she had selected anyone yet. 

I’m the one with mentor QM—Still awaiting a formal acceptance!

[Clinical_PhD]

17 hours ago, hannahbanana321 said:

Has anyone received a formal acceptance from University of Cincinnati for clinical psych? I received an informal phone call from my POI last week but haven't gotten anything official yet. 

I’d reached out to my POI this past weekend and he estimated that we’d get a formal letter “this week”—it’s Friday, so I’m hoping it’ll come today! ☺️

[SoldierOn]

50 minutes ago, Clinical_PhD said:

I’d reached out to my POI this past weekend and he estimated that we’d get a formal letter “this week”—it’s Friday, so I’m hoping it’ll come today! ☺️

Got’cha. Congrats! Any idea if the formal acceptance letters might signal that all POIs have done informal calls? I’d received a reply to a thank you email from mine a few days ago and it didn’t seem to imply that she had chosen who she was accepting yet...but at this point I honestly can’t tell anymore ?

[hannahbanana321]

1 hour ago, Clinical_PhD said:

I’d reached out to my POI this past weekend and he estimated that we’d get a formal letter “this week”—it’s Friday, so I’m hoping it’ll come today! ☺️

Okay that makes me feel better....It doesn't feel official until that email comes through. And @SoldierOn I was not the QM poster. 

[Clinical_PhD]

22 minutes ago, SoldierOn said:

Got’cha. Congrats! Any idea if the formal acceptance letters might signal that all POIs have done informal calls? I’d received a reply to a thank you email from mine a few days ago and it didn’t seem to imply that she had chosen who she was accepting yet...but at this point I honestly can’t tell anymore ?

I honestly am not sure!  it’s so hard to tell!! I wondered if they would wait until the first round of calls had gone out to send the official acceptance letters but I’m honestly not sure. I can PM you if I get the official letter and let you know if there’s more information!  

[Clinical_PhD]

5 minutes ago, hannahbanana321 said:

Okay that makes me feel better....It doesn't feel official until that email comes through. And @SoldierOn I was not the QM poster. 

I totally agree. I was the QM poster and got the call a few days after interviewing so it’s been a long wait to get the official confirmation! Wondering if they’re waiting to send out all initial calls before they send out the email admission letter. 

[1|]010ls10o]

5 hours ago, ninjasub2 said:

This is a genereal question for anyone that was accepted into a program this year:

what were your GRE scores?

how many years and what kind of research experience did you have?

any publications or independent projects?

trying to plan so I definitely make it in next cycle ?

You're going to have a bad time if you think that it's about metrics. They'll help, but not as much as you think unless you had basically nothing. Given that you had 6 interviews, it's not your metrics.

I have excellent metrics and experience, but...yeah. It's my personality. Or my writing. Or maybe I'm ugly, hahaha. It's good to work on it, but don't think that'll be the formula to get you into a program.

[AllyWantsAPsyD]

2 hours ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

You're going to have a bad time if you think that it's about metrics. They'll help, but not as much as you think unless you had basically nothing. Given that you had 6 interviews, it's not your metrics.

I have excellent metrics and experience, but...yeah. It's my personality. Or my writing. Or maybe I'm ugly, hahaha. It's good to work on it, but don't think that'll be the formula to get you into a program.

Yeah. This is absolutely true. Honestly, I think my grades and experience are good enough but aren’t as strong as many people I know. But I’m good with words and good at interviewing. So I think my essays and my interviews are what got me in. 

 

Grad school apps are a total crapshoot. It’s a hit or miss. There’s so many factors that are so hard to control. 

My advice would be to brush up on interviewing skills. Clearly something stands out with 6 interview offers. Somethings getting lost once you get there. It takes a lot of practice and interviews are stressful af so it’s understandable. But you’ll get there.

[ninjasub2]

6 hours ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

You're going to have a bad time if you think that it's about metrics. They'll help, but not as much as you think unless you had basically nothing. Given that you had 6 interviews, it's not your metrics.

I have excellent metrics and experience, but...yeah. It's my personality. Or my writing. Or maybe I'm ugly, hahaha. It's good to work on it, but don't think that'll be the formula to get you into a program.

No no, I had one interview offer and 6 separate interviews during that ONE interview weekend. I know my interview skills are on point lol so I’m not concerned about that, which is why I’m asking abt metrics 

[LondonBoy]

On 2/27/2019 at 9:49 AM, ninjasub2 said:

Considering how well all 6 of my interviews went... I’m thinking I wasn’t ever really being considered since the beginning.

Wait a minute. Am I right in understanding this to mean that you've had 6 interviews, and not one program extended an offer? I hope this is not what you are saying...

[ninjasub2]

4 hours ago, LondonBoy said:

Wait a minute. Am I right in understanding this to mean that you've had 6 interviews, and not one program extended an offer? I hope this is not what you are saying...

No, I had one interview offer. Even if I had 6 interviews offers and didn’t end up getting an acceptance, why would you try and belittle that person into thinking there must be something wrong with them if they weren’t accepted? Like I said, I just want PURE numbers here. If you’re not going to help out with that situation, don’t waste your time replying. 

[psychology_student_]

On 3/1/2019 at 6:19 AM, ninjasub2 said:

This is a genereal question for anyone that was accepted into a program this year:

what were your GRE scores?

how many years and what kind of research experience did you have?

any publications or independent projects?

trying to plan so I definitely make it in next cycle ?

Interviewed with 9 programs, wait-listed at 5, accepted at 1 (all counseling psych). First time applying.

GRE- around 155 Q and 154 V or something like that and a 4 on writing.

2.5 years of full-time research assistant work (2 different uni's) post undergraduate. These jobs were flexible so that I could take late afternoon coursework to earn an MS in psych during these 2.5 years (was non-psych undergrad).

A couple national conference poster presentations.

POIs and programs I thought I'd be perfect for I got rejected at and the one acceptance I received was to a top program that was by far my biggest reach. Keep on making that plan! I extensively planned and only made it into one program with a straight acceptance, I can't imagine my results had I put any less effort into all this...

[1|]010ls10o]

4 hours ago, personallycentered said:

Interviewed with 9 programs, wait-listed at 5, accepted at 1 (all counseling psych). First time applying.

GRE- around 155 Q and 154 V or something like that and a 4 on writing.

2.5 years of full-time research assistant work (2 different uni's) post undergraduate. These jobs were flexible so that I could take late afternoon coursework to earn an MS in psych during these 2.5 years (was non-psych undergrad).

A couple national conference poster presentations.

POIs and programs I thought I'd be perfect for I got rejected at and the one acceptance I received was to a top program that was by far my biggest reach. Keep on making that plan! I extensively planned and only made it into one program with a straight acceptance, I can't imagine my results had I put any less effort into all this...

Do you mind listing your institutions (2 degrees, research experience) and also the schools you applied to? Or minimally, the prestige/reputation of the PIs you worked with or of the programs? How much networking you did beforehand?

I’m shocked you had 9 interviews with those scores. Many schools would’ve cut you round 1. If you managed to be invited so many times, there hypothetically should be something excellent with your application, so what made you stand out?

Edited March 3, 2019 by 1|]010ls10o

[JoePianist]

1 hour ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

Do you mind listing your institutions (2 degrees, research experience) and also the schools you applied to? Or minimally, the prestige/reputation of the PIs you worked with or of the programs? How much networking you did beforehand?

I’m shocked you had 9 interviews with those scores. Many schools would’ve cut you round 1. If you managed to be invited so many times, there hypothetically should be something excellent with your application, so what made you stand out?

They had a mentor with good connections.

[hopefulgrad2019]

1 hour ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

Do you mind listing your institutions (2 degrees, research experience) and also the schools you applied to? Or minimally, the prestige/reputation of the PIs you worked with or of the programs? How much networking you did beforehand?

I’m shocked you had 9 interviews with those scores. Many schools would’ve cut you round 1. If you managed to be invited so many times, there hypothetically should be something excellent with your application, so what made you stand out?

My quant score was even lower than this persons (159 V, 5.5 writing) and a 3.2 undergrad GPA. I’ve been accepted to a R1 school for clinical psych PhD. Acting like it’s a number games is very wrong. “Stats” get you through the door but it’s your interviewing skills and general likability that actually gets you offers. 

[Lenina Crow]

2 minutes ago, hopefulgrad2019 said:

My quant score was even lower than this persons (159 V, 5.5 writing) and a 3.2 undergrad GPA. I’ve been accepted to a R1 school for clinical psych PhD. Acting like it’s a number games is very wrong. “Stats” get you through the door but it’s your interviewing skills and general likability that actually gets you offers. 

Absolutely this. During my last application round, I had 2 years less research experience and my GRE scores were not nearly as competitive. However, I still managed to land a few interviews, 1 of which at a prestigious university, thanks to my research fit and my SOP (definitely didn't have any connections to any of the programs). Ended up being first alternate at that program, which I think was largely due to my very luke-warm interview. It wasnt terrible, but I definitely didnt have the interview skills I do now and I think that is what hindered me the most. 

Stats absolutely help get you in the door, but excellent stats will not compensate for a poorly written SOP or a presumptuous personality. 

[1|]010ls10o]

1 hour ago, hopefulgrad2019 said:

My quant score was even lower than this persons (159 V, 5.5 writing) and a 3.2 undergrad GPA. I’ve been accepted to a R1 school for clinical psych PhD. Acting like it’s a number games is very wrong. “Stats” get you through the door but it’s your interviewing skills and general likability that actually gets you offers. 

"Acting like it’s a number games is very wrong. “Stats” get you through the door but it’s your interviewing skills and general likability that actually gets you offers. "

Lol, I've said basically this in my previous post a day ago. I'm aware it's not just stats. This person's # of interviews makes that very obvious.

56 minutes ago, McMurphy said:

Absolutely this. During my last application round, I had 2 years less research experience and my GRE scores were not nearly as competitive. However, I still managed to land a few interviews, 1 of which at a prestigious university, thanks to my research fit and my SOP (definitely didn't have any connections to any of the programs). Ended up being first alternate at that program, which I think was largely due to my very luke-warm interview. It wasnt terrible, but I definitely didnt have the interview skills I do now and I think that is what hindered me the most. 

Stats absolutely help get you in the door, but excellent stats will not compensate for a poorly written SOP or a presumptuous personality. 

Must've been an amazing SOP.  I'm aware it isn't all stats, hence my question of what made the person stand out during the materials/invite process.

1 hour ago, JoePianist said:

They had a mentor with good connections.

This sounds most likely, and is a good guess to why the person was invited to the interviews (i.e., aspects before interviewing skills and general likability play a role)

Edited March 3, 2019 by 1|]010ls10o

[psychology_student_]

4 hours ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

Do you mind listing your institutions (2 degrees, research experience) and also the schools you applied to? Or minimally, the prestige/reputation of the PIs you worked with or of the programs? How much networking you did beforehand? 

I’m shocked you had 9 interviews with those scores. Many schools would’ve cut you round 1. If you managed to be invited so many times, there hypothetically should be something excellent with your application, so what made you stand out?

For sure I'm comfortable listing some things. I applied to 15 schools and clinical psychologists (my work research experience was with psychiatry departments) told me to apply to 16 programs if I could. So having that large of a number of schools applied to obviously helped with the number of interviews I received.

I was straight rejected from six schools (mostly all R1), and then wait-listed at four R1 schools (one R2 school), and the one acceptance was at an R1.

And, ya, as you said and others above, it was all about applying to places where I knew I'd have a solid research fit. And yes, having a good SOP probably helped. I worked on it for a few months and my partner (who's in graduate research at a big R1 uni) read it a couple times making sure it was comprehensible and not presumptuous or pretentious (and if my partner wasn't in my life, I'd have for sure just found some other academic-type of person to review my SOP).  LORs were huge too, and I of course waived my right to review them, but one of my interviews commented on how fire my LORs compliments were of me.

From my work experience/talking with supervisors and colleagues, I think there are too many extenuating circumstances unique to each school and program to ask why one place will accept a student versus another rejects the same student (POI being assistant versus full, R1 versus R2, the university's sponsoring state trying to decrease or eliminate grad programs to save money, etc, etc). I applied to as many programs that fit with my research goals (and would also waive my tuition/provide stipends) to compensate for this unknown of what's going on within similar (on the surface-level, i.e. R1) psych programs.

Also, not even much of a hot take, if any academic discipline is going to be woke to the well known fact that the GRE after year one of graduate school can not be used as metric of student success, it's going to be psychology. I've heard this from, like, a bijjilion psychology professors (there are your metrics lol). Go get good research experience and good LORs!

[1|]010ls10o]

14 minutes ago, personallycentered said:

For sure I'm comfortable listing some things. I applied to 15 schools and clinical psychologists (my work research experience was with psychiatry departments) told me to apply to 16 programs if I could. So having that large of a number of schools applied to obviously helped with the number of interviews I received.

I was straight rejected from six schools (mostly all R1), and then wait-listed at four R1 schools (one R2 school), and the one acceptance was at an R1.

And, ya, as you said and others above, it was all about applying to places where I knew I'd have a solid research fit. And yes, having a good SOP probably helped. I worked on it for a few months and my partner (who's in graduate research at a big R1 uni) read it a couple times making sure it was comprehensible and not presumptuous or pretentious (and if my partner wasn't in my life, I'd have for sure just found some other academic-type of person to review my SOP).  LORs were huge too, and I of course waived my right to review them, but one of my interviews commented on how fire my LORs compliments were of me.

From my work experience/talking with supervisors and colleagues, I think there are too many extenuating circumstances unique to each school and program to ask why one place will accept a student versus another rejects the same student (POI being assistant versus full, R1 versus R2, the university's sponsoring state trying to decrease or eliminate grad programs to save money, etc, etc). I applied to as many programs that fit with my research goals (and would also waive my tuition/provide stipends) to compensate for this unknown of what's going on within similar (on the surface-level, i.e. R1) psych programs.

Also, not even much of a hot take, if any academic discipline is going to be woke to the well known fact that the GRE after year one of graduate school can not be used as metric of student success, it's going to be psychology. I've heard this from, like, a bijjilion psychology professors (there are your metrics lol). Go get good research experience and good LORs!

Yeah. Numbers aren’t great predictors. I was just stunned by the number of acceptances 9/15 with universally average scores.

Before psych faculty even look at your app, the school removes people from the pile. If someone complimented your fire LORs, that probably helped at step 2 (step 1 is trimming the pool of applicants by the numbers entered into the application form). 

Faculty members have told me that they sometimes look at applications they otherwise would not have looked at (ones cut by step 1) if they knew one of the recommenders, or knew you worked for a well known researcher, or if you reached out to them prior to the cycle. 

So, yes, “good SOP, good LORs, and research fit” are important. But did you have any connections or did you network with the POIs? This is a critically understated aspect of the *application* process that is in line with what all of us agree with — including my post on this page from Friday — that numbers aren’t everything. 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by 1|]010ls10o

[ASDadvocate]

My GRE scores were 152 V, 154 Q, and 4 A with a 3.69 undergrad GPA and a 3.97 grad GPA. 

I have 5+ years of clinical experience with my population of interest, 5 summers working for research programs (2 summers for a nationally acclaimed one) and 3 years of full-time research coordinator experience. I also have 3 poster presentations and no publication.

I had POIs during interviews mention that my extensive experience and LORs were impressive. I think these were what got me in since my “stats” are not great. That and my SOP. I’ve mentioned this multiple times but I’m an older candidate and I have very well established goals which I think came  through in my SOP. 

I applied to 9 programs (80% with excellent research fit) and got interviewed at 5 and waitlisted at 1 pre interview. So far I’ve heard from 3 post interview: accepted at 2, rejected at 1. My 2 acceptances are for a clinical program and a school psychology program each. 

My LORs are from professors from 2 different institutions across both clinical and school psych. They’re amazing people but not necessarily well known nor with connections at any of the institutions I applied to. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by ASDadvocate

[psychology_student_]

5 minutes ago, 1|]010ls10o said:

Yeah. Numbers aren’t great predictors. I was just stunned by the number of acceptances 9/15 with universally average scores.

Before psych faculty even look at your app, the school removes people from the pile. If someone complimented your fire LORs, that probably helped at step 2 (step 1 is trimming the pool of applicants by the numbers entered into the application form). 

Faculty members have told me that they sometimes look at applications they otherwise would not have looked at (ones cut by step 1) if they knew one of the recommenders, or knew you worked for a well known researcher, or if you reached out to them prior to the cycle. 

So, yes, “good SOP, good LORs, and research fit” are important. But did you have any connections or did you network with the POIs? This is a critically understated aspect of the *application* process that is in line with what all of us agree with — including my post on this page from Friday — that numbers aren’t everything. 

 

No I personally hadn't any connections or networking with the POIs. That could be useful (to personally be connected/networked to a POI) and I think it would be potentially advantageous if your advisor/supervisor/LOR had those connections to your POIs. I say potentially because in my situation this wasn't the case, my LORs didn't personally know my POIs.

Personal connection/network with POIs may or may not be a critically understated aspect of the application process, I cant state that as fact like you did. However, I do know that my personal connections with my LORs was huge, and that's what I say having excellent LORs and research experience are most important.

[Lenina Crow]

One of the best pieces of advice I got from a previous advisor and current letter writer was to ask for strong letters of recommendation when applying--dont just ask for a letter. 

[psychology_student_]

fwiw, who my LORs were was very intentional. First was my graduate school/thesis advisor (could speak to my organization/commitment to graduate school), second was a professor who I collaborated with as a co-researcher for a journal submission (could speak to my research experience), and third was a graduate professor who had taught one of my classes (could speak to my classwork performance). All three came from my master's program.

Edited March 3, 2019 by personallycentered

[Psyche007]

On 3/1/2019 at 6:06 PM, AllyWantsAPsyD said:

Yeah. This is absolutely true. Honestly, I think my grades and experience are good enough but aren’t as strong as many people I know. But I’m good with words and good at interviewing. So I think my essays and my interviews are what got me in. 

 

Grad school apps are a total crapshoot. It’s a hit or miss. There’s so many factors that are so hard to control. 

My advice would be to brush up on interviewing skills. Clearly something stands out with 6 interview offers. Somethings getting lost once you get there. It takes a lot of practice and interviews are stressful af so it’s understandable. But you’ll get there.

My scores were certainly competitive, but I’m also 42 with about 8 years of professional experience in mental health/substance abuse. I have 2 BS and no Master’s. I had never applied to a PhD programme before and I applied to a single programme this cycle.

In my opinion, the single most important element of the interview day was how I spent my unstructured time. My individual interview was given to a faculty member I had not expressed interest in working with, who  identified this immediately and sent me to the academic affairs director. She introduced me to the primary faculty member I expressed interest in working with. I spent my entire lunch break speaking with him and was invited to speak with him again after the day had ended. This ended with him stating he was interested in having me join his team and would review my file. A week or so later, I got the informal offer.

—

TL;DR: Establishing a connection with potential faculty advisors seems to be paramount, fostered via real passion, direction, and general domain knowledge. These people need to feel confident there is real benefit to mentoring you, academically and personally.

Edited March 4, 2019 by GDW

[Pearl95]

Program: Psy. D.

Interview: William James College

Sorry if this post is off topic, but I had my interview at William James, I thought it went well but I'm personally still iffy on the program in regards to the large cohort size (100 students per year) and honestly the location (so. much. traffic.). I'm just looking to talk about it with anyone else who interviewed there, feel free to reply or DM.