How many programs are you applying to?

[spring2000]

Just curious about how many programs other people are applying to! I'm having trouble narrowing down my list and I thought it might help to have a frame of reference. It would also be great to know what kind of programs you're applying to (clinical, cognitive, etc.). I'm applying to clinical programs and my list has 18 schools atm. 

[ColoradoGirl94]

Hi! I am applying to 15 schools (14 clinical and 1 counseling psych). I am already feeling the financial burdens of sending my transcripts/GRE scores ?

[spring2000]

1 hour ago, ColoradoGirl94 said:

Hi! I am applying to 15 schools (14 clinical and 1 counseling psych). I am already feeling the financial burdens of sending my transcripts/GRE scores ?

I feel like that's such a good number! I'm trying to get my list down to 15 too. And yes 100% I will definitely be broke by December. Can I ask what your process was for choosing schools? 

[justacigar]

I currently have 18 on my list but plan to get it down to 10-12. I just feel like it's unlikely I have a good enough research match with all 18. I also don't have that much money to blow on programs that aren't great fits! 

[ColoradoGirl94]

15 minutes ago, spring2000 said:

I feel like that's such a good number! I'm trying to get my list down to 15 too. And yes 100% I will definitely be broke by December. Can I ask what your process was for choosing schools? 

Definitely seeing if the supervisor was the exact fit that I would like. Some supervisors I thought that I could make it work if I skewed my research interests in some way, but realized that that is not the way to go. Also, the competitiveness of some programs and knowing I probably wouldn't get in! I think I'm applying to a good portion of high middle and low tier schools.

Edited September 9, 2020 by ColoradoGirl94

[spring2000]

5 hours ago, ColoradoGirl94 said:

Definitely seeing if the supervisor was the exact fit that I would like. Some supervisors I thought that I could make it work if I skewed my research interests in some way, but realized that that is not the way to go. Also, the competitiveness of some programs and knowing I probably wouldn't get in! I think I'm applying to a good portion of high middle and low tier schools.

Yeah I think that's my problem. I keep adding schools that are a close enough fit instead of a rlly good one

[Dazen]

I'm currently planning on applying to around 10 school and constantly questioning whether that number is too low.

[spring2000]

1 hour ago, EmpatheticMastermind said:

I'm currently planning on applying to around 10 school and constantly questioning whether that number is too low.

Most of the grad students in my lab applied to around 10 so I think that's a good number especially if your interests are specific. I just thought since I'm not a crazy competitive applicant i should apply for more. Maybe that's the wrong idea tho lol

[ColoradoGirl94]

Just now, spring2000 said:

Most of the grad students in my lab applied to around 10 so I think that's a good number especially if your interests are specific. I just thought since I'm not a crazy competitive applicant i should apply for more. Maybe that's the wrong idea tho lol

I feel the same way! My hope is that at least 1 school out of the 15 will accept my average application ?

[Dazen]

I'm also concerned, which is why I'd like to apply to more. Does anyone have suggestions for finding more possible POIs beyond going through all the APA-accredited programs or looking for frequent co-authors/cited works? The latter is particularly frustrating since my area of interest has a lot of crossover with criminology/sociology/social psychology. 

[La Cosmopolitan]

How are you all determining which programs are higher-tier, mid-tier, etc.?

[spring2000]

11 hours ago, EmpatheticMastermind said:

I'm also concerned, which is why I'd like to apply to more. Does anyone have suggestions for finding more possible POIs beyond going through all the APA-accredited programs or looking for frequent co-authors/cited works? The latter is particularly frustrating since my area of interest has a lot of crossover with criminology/sociology/social psychology. 

I don't know if this is helpful but something I did was look for programs that allow a mentor from a different program or 2 mentors from different programs since some of my interests are developmental related. I also looked at lab websites in different programs besides clinical to see if there were any clinical students in their labs.

[spring2000]

4 hours ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

How are you all determining which programs are higher-tier, mid-tier, etc.?

This is my question too! I know which ones are terrible but that's about it lol 

[bubble_psych]

5 hours ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

How are you all determining which programs are higher-tier, mid-tier, etc.?

At the end of the day there is no high tier, mid tier etc. for doctoral level training. The things you should be looking at for the programs you are applying to are:

1. How good is the research fit

2. Does the program philosophy match up woth my needs? In clinical programs this is:

Clinical science-heavily focused in research, but you will still get basic therapy skills taught

Scientist-practitioner-mix of research and clinical training

3. Look at the outcome data to see how many applicants a program gets each year and gow many people they admit - this will give you an idea of how competitive the process is. Apply to schools with a mix of competitiveness

4. Look into what funding is provided for the program, and if you will be funded for all of the years in the program

Some of what im writing is specific to clinical psych programs so YMMV

[La Cosmopolitan]

3 hours ago, dr. bubbles said:

At the end of the day there is no high tier, mid tier etc. for doctoral level training. The things you should be looking at for the programs you are applying to are:

1. How good is the research fit

2. Does the program philosophy match up woth my needs? In clinical programs this is:

Clinical science-heavily focused in research, but you will still get basic therapy skills taught

Scientist-practitioner-mix of research and clinical training

3. Look at the outcome data to see how many applicants a program gets each year and gow many people they admit - this will give you an idea of how competitive the process is. Apply to schools with a mix of competitiveness

4. Look into what funding is provided for the program, and if you will be funded for all of the years in the program

Some of what im writing is specific to clinical psych programs so YMMV

I guess I meant tiers more in terms of competitiveness. Is acceptance rate the best way to assess how competitive a program is? All the acceptance rates I've looked at are pretty low.

[PsyDuck90]

1 hour ago, La Cosmopolitan said:

I guess I meant tiers more in terms of competitiveness. Is acceptance rate the best way to assess how competitive a program is? All the acceptance rates I've looked at are pretty low.

Yep, basically. That's why many people will apply multiple cycles before getting in.

[justacigar]

On 9/12/2020 at 1:27 PM, La Cosmopolitan said:

I guess I meant tiers more in terms of competitiveness. Is acceptance rate the best way to assess how competitive a program is? All the acceptance rates I've looked at are pretty low.

I think one way to determine competitiveness of your own application package is to look at mean GPA/GRE score, though that doesn't always tell the whole story. However, I can probably bet that if my GRE and GPA aren't at least in the general vicinity of previous cohorts I won't be a great fit for the program. 

Another thing I want to mention is that competitiveness is relative...sometimes people apply to both higher ranked and lower ranked programs and get an offer for the higher ranked program but not the lower. So much boils down to research fit and you can overcompensate for a less than stellar GPA or GRE scores in lots of ways. 

[La Cosmopolitan]

On 9/14/2020 at 11:13 AM, justacigar said:

I think one way to determine competitiveness of your own application package is to look at mean GPA/GRE score, though that doesn't always tell the whole story. However, I can probably bet that if my GRE and GPA aren't at least in the general vicinity of previous cohorts I won't be a great fit for the program. 

Another thing I want to mention is that competitiveness is relative...sometimes people apply to both higher ranked and lower ranked programs and get an offer for the higher ranked program but not the lower. So much boils down to research fit and you can overcompensate for a less than stellar GPA or GRE scores in lots of ways. 

Thanks, that's really helpful! My gpa is about .35 points below the mean at most of the programs I am applying to, but i am hoping the rest of my research experience will help compensate for that. Also who knows how GRE scores (mine are good) will even factor into the equation this year since many programs are not considering them.

[Rerun]

This is my 3rd round. I listed more than 15, go down to 10, 7, sometimes 6 and now 4. My plan is to look for a really good fit in terms of research and value, craft my story and work test and make sure to get a really good letter. I don't have much money too, so that's my plan.