Apply to Masters, Do Research, Or Apply Right to PhD

[statspsychmaster]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on here and I am hoping to get some advice from you all. 

I am trying to decide if I should do a psych masters starting this fall, get some sort of research position/experience, or just wait until fall to apply to PhD programs for 2021. 

A little about me:
Education:
Graduated this month with a MS in statistics (GPA 3.5).
I graduated in 2017 with a BS in statistics and a BS in Psychology. Overall GPA for undergrad was a 3.2, but my psych GPA was a 4.0.

Research:
Cognitive neuroscience lab undergrad RA for a year.
Summer undergrad RA for three months in a different psych lab.
Summer engineering research program in electrical engineering lab.
Graduate RA in cognitive psych lab for a year.
Honors thesis in statistics focused on chlorine in water.
Honors thesis in psychology focused on students attitudes/perceptions.
Master thesis in statistics focused on students attitudes/perceptions.

Teaching Experiences:
Tutored students in math/stats
Taught high school math
Teaching assistant in undergrad and grad school
Taught college math/stats
Taught college students about responding to situations of sexual assault through psych lab

Tests:
okay GRE score

I am wanting to apply to clinical psychology PhD programs, but I worry that my background doesn't show that I am interested in clinical psych. Any suggestions on if i should pusure a masters, get more research experience, or just polish my app and apply right to PhD this fall.

Thank you all!
 

[Mickey26]

It appears you have extensive research experience (RA, etc), but I'm curious if you have any research OUTPUT activities? Think: publications, poster presentations at conferences, etc. ClinPsych programs tend to prioritize research output/experience over say, teaching activities (which are still very impressive in its own right!)

If you haven't already, it might be worth submitting your honours/masters thesis to a journal. Even "manuscript submitted" looks better than nothing at all.

(Also congrats on graduating this month! Not a small feat right now!)  

[statspsychmaster]

Thanks for your reply. That is probably where I am lacking right now. My two honors theses were published by the school since that was part of it (not in an actually journal though). I presented my research often and got some student scholarships for it, but they were all for my statistics stuff in undergrad. I haven't done as much output with my psych stuff or even in grad school. Definitely something I should try to work on before I apply.