Do I Have a Chance?

[spring2000]

Hello everyone! I'm hoping for some feedback on my chances for admission to a clinical psychology program in Fall 2021. I am a senior at a public university majoring in Psychology and Human Development and Family Science with a Spanish minor. Broadly, my research interests are risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology for ethnic minority children exposed to trauma and adversity, as well as the role of emotion dysregulation in child psychopathology. (Also, if anyone knows of any faculty with similar interests, please let me know! :)) My goal is a research career, so I am interested in programs that emphasize research training (although I know these programs are also more competitive).

GPA: 3.9, psych GPA: 4.0

GRE: haven't taken it yet but my practice test scores have been V ~ 160-165, Q - 154 - 159. I could probably raise my quant score if I studied seriously over the next month or two

Volunteer Experience

- 1 year volunteering for a local sexual assault hotline, connecting callers with info/resources, referring them to staff and law enforcement, brief crisis counseling

- 3 years tutoring elementary school kids as a work study job

Research Experience

- 1 year (2 by the time I graduate) as an RA in a lab that studies ethnic minority families and emotion regulation. My responsibilities include recruiting participants, conducting participant interviews in Spanish and English, coding behavioral observations, entering data, and cleaning data. I also had the opportunity to help review articles for a meta-analysis, and could potentially be third author on it, although I'm not sure how close to publication it is.

- 1 year of independent research on discrimination, parenting, and child mental health as a McNair scholar. i am writing an honors thesis on this but it will only be halfway finished by the time I apply

- 1 year of independent research on pretend play and child development. i have written a lit review, designed an independent study (did my own data collection and basic analysis) and presented a poster at my school's undergraduate research conference, and written a paper that I am planning to submit for publication soon

- just started a research internship in a Human Development lab that studies couple relationships and parenting. i will probably be doing basic RA stuff with some potential to help with data analysis and lit review

- just started volunteering in another Human Development lab that looks at the effects of adversity on adolescents' neurobiological development. I will mostly be doing data entry but will hopefully get some exposure to fMRI/brain research, which also interests me

- I've received two assistantships from my school for my independent research ($1000 each)

I am aware of how insanely competitive clinical psych is, so I would really appreciate if anyone could tell me how I realistically stack up. I'm fully prepared to not get in anywhere and have to look for an RA job, but I figured it was worth applying this cycle. Is there anything I can do this semester to improve my chances? Are my research experiences too unrelated to my research interests? And with the GRE, would it negatively affect my application if I just decided not to take it since so many programs are waiving it? Thank you for any advice you can give me!!!

 

[spring2000]

19 hours ago, desertwoman said:

While this isn't my field, overall, your application looks pretty strong. The only issue that I see (again, from the perspective of someone pursuing a different field), is that your GRE quantitative score may be a bit low for your field. Some programs have cutoff scores, so no matter how good your application is, if your GRE scores don't meet that min. required score, they automatically discard your application. This may, however, depend on the program. Also, given the competitiveness of the field, you have to consider that there may be other candidates with just as good grades and research experience who also have a high quantitative GRE score. 

However, I wouldn't go as far as saying that you don't have  a chance. In fact, I think you'll have a pretty good chance if you can either raise your quantitative score by a few points or find a program that doesn't have a strict cutoff and/or doesn't emphasize test scores as much as other factors. Good luck!

I agree that my quant score is a weak point. I just haven't had much time to study for it. I will definitely devote more time to it though. Thank you so much for the advice! It's great to hear that I might still have a chance.