How did you all cope with the period between being in a post-university job and waiting for some time to apply for PhD programs?

[Skibz]

It has not been easy at the moment.

[bubble_psych]

While I definitely understand the anticipatory anxiety that can come with applying, looking back, those gap years when I was working were great. Only having to work 40 hours a week back then meant that I had a lot of time to catch up with all my friends. I began saving month by month for a trip to travel around Europe, and I found my current LTR SO during that time (we've been together for more than 5 years at this point!). My advice is to live life to the fullest during those years, since the PhD at times can take up all of your free time and in essence, sometimes you have to place your life on hold.

For dealing with the anxiety of applying though, best advice is to start early to get the info you need. I highly recommend Mitch's advice for getting into grad school if you are interested in clinical psychology. Also SDN tends to have good tidbits of information as well as the advice you encounter on this site.