Fall 2021 Clinical & Counseling PhD/PsyD

[Neuropsych2021]

Hello  ?? I’m wondering if there’s some kind of site to coordinate letters of recommendation... or any way to avoid letter writers having to upload letters to each individual school? I’m applying to 17 clinical psych PhD programs and I feel bad that it’s such a pain for them to upload it 17 times on different sites ?

[La Cosmopolitan]

Not sure whether to submit my GRE scores when it is considered "optional". On the one hand, I am 97th percentile for verbal, but on the other hand, I am 48th percentile for quant. Any thoughts?

[Dazen]

3 minutes ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

Not sure whether to submit my GRE scores when it is considered "optional". On the one hand, I am 97th percentile for verbal, but on the other hand, I am 48th percentile for quant. Any thoughts?

Honestly, if the rest of your application is strong, I wouldn't. I'd be more worried about the quant score hurting you than the verbal score helping you.

[justacigar]

1 hour ago, Neuropsych2021 said:

Hello  ?? I’m wondering if there’s some kind of site to coordinate letters of recommendation... or any way to avoid letter writers having to upload letters to each individual school? I’m applying to 17 clinical psych PhD programs and I feel bad that it’s such a pain for them to upload it 17 times on different sites ?

Unfortunately, no. The best solution is to ask them when they want the links emailed, and email all the links in one batch. That way, they are at the top of their inbox together. They are your recommender, they want you to succeed! It's part of being a mentor. 

[justanotherbutterfly]

Hi everyone!

I decided a while ago that I wouldn't submit my GRE scores since all of my programs went optional and I my math score wasn't the most impressive (I talked with two of my PIs that I work under and they agreed it would be best to not send them), and it would allow me to save some money which is much needed in this pandemic. But recently a PI I have been in contact with reached out to me and said that that they "highly recommend taking the GRE/ submitting scores" if I have them. My math score was just slightly below the average for this school (and since this PI seemed very adamant that they wanted the scores) so I went ahead and sent them, but now I'm rethinking what "optional" means and whether or not I should send my scores to all my schools now? Any thoughts?

[La Cosmopolitan]

21 hours ago, justanotherbutterfly said:

Hi everyone!

I decided a while ago that I wouldn't submit my GRE scores since all of my programs went optional and I my math score wasn't the most impressive (I talked with two of my PIs that I work under and they agreed it would be best to not send them), and it would allow me to save some money which is much needed in this pandemic. But recently a PI I have been in contact with reached out to me and said that that they "highly recommend taking the GRE/ submitting scores" if I have them. My math score was just slightly below the average for this school (and since this PI seemed very adamant that they wanted the scores) so I went ahead and sent them, but now I'm rethinking what "optional" means and whether or not I should send my scores to all my schools now? Any thoughts?

I have the same question. Some schools say explicitly that it's optional and will not be held against you if you don't submit them, whereas others say "strongly preferred" or "recommended". I'm in the same boat as you (lower than average quant) and so I sent mine to the ones that said "strongly preferred" but not to ones where it is completely optional.

[justanotherbutterfly]

4 hours ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

I have the same question. Some schools say explicitly that it's optional and will not be held against you if you don't submit them, whereas others say "strongly preferred" or "recommended". I'm in the same boat as you (lower than average quant) and so I sent mine to the ones that said "strongly preferred" but not to ones where it is completely optional.

It seems like a lot of it comes down to PI preference (which is not helpful...). My programs have either said "don't send" or "optional" but I they haven't specified the strongly recommend (I only found out because the PI decided to give me a heads up). I wish they would just be clear and state what they want instead of try to mislead people.

[justacigar]

PSA to double check the requirements for all programs! I had a few on my list that initially listed the GRE as required, so I was planning to send a score report this week. However, I looked again before sending and they had all shifted to either optional or not accepting. 

I also had a question about when GRE scores are optional: are you sending official score reports? Or uploading unofficial reports/including elsewhere in your application? I think I would report my scores to some programs, but really don't want to give ETS anymore of my money ?

[justanotherbutterfly]

On 11/4/2020 at 10:34 AM, justacigar said:

PSA to double check the requirements for all programs! I had a few on my list that initially listed the GRE as required, so I was planning to send a score report this week. However, I looked again before sending and they had all shifted to either optional or not accepting. 

I also had a question about when GRE scores are optional: are you sending official score reports? Or uploading unofficial reports/including elsewhere in your application? I think I would report my scores to some programs, but really don't want to give ETS anymore of my money ?

My programs are all optional/not required however most of them specify on their website whether or not you can just upload the unofficial report. Surprisingly a lot of my optional schools say that if you do send your scores it has to be the official reports. Also sometimes the application itself is where you can find these details if their website doesn't have it!

[SigmeundFraud]

So, I've kinda had the opposite experience that some other people have mentioned with their GRE scores.. I scored pretty well in quant and just so so in verbal. My scores were 157V 163Q 5.0AW; anyone have any suggestions on whether or not I should submit in my applications where the GRE scores are optional? 

[PsyDuck90]

16 minutes ago, plantgirl96 said:

So, I've kinda had the opposite experience that some other people have mentioned with their GRE scores.. I scored pretty well in quant and just so so in verbal. My scores were 157V 163Q 5.0AW; anyone have any suggestions on whether or not I should submit in my applications where the GRE scores are optional? 

Look at the average scores for the incoming students in the last few years (APA accredited programs are required to provide student outcomes data). If your scores meet or exceed these averages, it wouldn't hurt. 

[SigmeundFraud]

Just now, PsyDuck90 said:

Look at the average scores for the incoming students in the last few years (APA accredited programs are required to provide student outcomes data). If your scores meet or exceed these averages, it wouldn't hurt. 

I'm confused on what to do, because my AW and quant scores are always higher than avg scores of incoming students but my verbal scores is usually lower than the average? 

[PsyDuck90]

21 minutes ago, plantgirl96 said:

I'm confused on what to do, because my AW and quant scores are always higher than avg scores of incoming students but my verbal scores is usually lower than the average? 

A combined 315 (V and Q, no one really cares about AW) is a general benchmark that's considered good. Yours is 320, so I would submit. I'm assuming the 157 is still probably within the range of Q scores. 

[justacigar]

I have yet another GRE related question. One of the programs I'm applying to hasn't accepted a clinical psych cohort yet, so there are no averages to use for comparison. I can assume the averages will be quite high as the university has a stellar reputation (UC Irvine). Not sure what to do in this case.

[SendMeAnEmailPlz]

42 minutes ago, justacigar said:

I have yet another GRE related question. One of the programs I'm applying to hasn't accepted a clinical psych cohort yet, so there are no averages to use for comparison. I can assume the averages will be quite high as the university has a stellar reputation (UC Irvine). Not sure what to do in this case.

They will receive fewer applications than other schools because they are not accredited (yet). A good comparison is CUNY's new clinical program:

Variable	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Number of applicants	36	23	31	18	41	44	45	104

 

I'm sure you can guess when they got accredited based on these numbers. UCI isn't accredited so you can safely guess that they will be less competitive. If you have pretty good GREs, send them.

 

[La Cosmopolitan]

3 hours ago, plantgirl96 said:

I'm confused on what to do, because my AW and quant scores are always higher than avg scores of incoming students but my verbal scores is usually lower than the average? 

This is exactly my predicament. My AW and verbal exceed the averages but my quant is below by about 4 points.

On one of my programs' websites, it says, "strong academic records, as evidenced by GRE scores (scores of at least 160 verbal, 152 quantitative and an analytical writing score of at least 4.5) " My scores all exceed those benchmarks, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to just submit them? I'm so torn.

[PsyDuck90]

6 hours ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

This is exactly my predicament. My AW and verbal exceed the averages but my quant is below by about 4 points.

On one of my programs' websites, it says, "strong academic records, as evidenced by GRE scores (scores of at least 160 verbal, 152 quantitative and an analytical writing score of at least 4.5) " My scores all exceed those benchmarks, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to just submit them? I'm so torn.

If they say that the GREs are optional or encouraged, I would submit them. They've expressed a specific benchmark, which is uncommon, so they probably value the GREs, and since you exceeded these minimum numbers it will either increase your chances or not impact them at all. They aren't going to hurt you. 

[justacigar]

11 hours ago, SendMeAnEmailPlz said:

They will receive fewer applications than other schools because they are not accredited (yet). A good comparison is CUNY's new clinical program:

Variable	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Number of applicants	36	23	31	18	41	44	45	104

 

I'm sure you can guess when they got accredited based on these numbers. UCI isn't accredited so you can safely guess that they will be less competitive. If you have pretty good GREs, send them.

 

That's what I was initially thinking, but they had over 300 interested folks at their virtual open house. Of course, not all of those were students, and not all students that attended are ready to apply this year. But I have to imagine their numbers will be significantly higher than this program. Not sure though, will be interesting to see the stats from their first year! 

My scores are decent. Not noteworthy, not concerning. I wish they were more definitively good. 

[SheMadeItEventually]

Seeing all these posts about GRE scores makes me wonder if I am the only one who decided not to send my scores...? Mine isn't terrible but I could have definitely done better. And someone also told me not to send them unless the score is above the average for that specific program. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing a great job with your applications! 

[EileanDonan]

41 minutes ago, SheMadeItEventually said:

Seeing all these posts about GRE scores makes me wonder if I am the only one who decided not to send my scores...? Mine isn't terrible but I could have definitely done better. And someone also told me not to send them unless the score is above the average for that specific program. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing a great job with your applications! 

For what it's worth, I didn't send mine where they were not required. Mine were also "okay". I'd rather my experiences and GPA speak for themselves!

[SigmeundFraud]

Any tips on what to write for the personal statement (NOT the SOP)??? I wanna write abt how I'm intersectional but don't want it to be a sob story...

[SheMadeItEventually]

Just want to ask your guys opinion: How personal can I get with statement of purpose/personal statement if the school does not require a diversity statement? Is talking about my experiences of being the only minority in my town + the nature of my mom working in the aligned field too personal? Then I added how living in different countries helped me with seeing thing differently and how i grew interested in my population of interest. All of this is in the first short paragraph. I was going to live the minority part out but one professor told me to make it more personal to show the connection. I really hope it doesn't sound like a sob story but I wouldn't know because I wrote it. 

[alts98]

5 hours ago, SheMadeItEventually said:

Just want to ask your guys opinion: How personal can I get with statement of purpose/personal statement if the school does not require a diversity statement? Is talking about my experiences of being the only minority in my town + the nature of my mom working in the aligned field too personal? Then I added how living in different countries helped me with seeing thing differently and how i grew interested in my population of interest. All of this is in the first short paragraph. I was going to live the minority part out but one professor told me to make it more personal to show the connection. I really hope it doesn't sound like a sob story but I wouldn't know because I wrote it. 

If your area of interest is multicultural or working with a specific minority group, I say go for it! On the other hand, if you aren't, I wouldn't make it the primary focus of your statement. You have to show how being the only minority relates to your interest in the program, your research, your desire for grad school, etc. 

I would recommend watching this 

 

[EileanDonan]

Is anyone including experience that isn't directly psych related on their CV? I've done some generic analyst type work, but nothing that's made a particular difference to my career.

[SigmeundFraud]

Is it a bad idea to write in your SOP about how a certain experience taught you that you DIDN'T want to work with a specific population?