"Stand on the shoulders of giants"

[Rachele]

Hello Grad Cafe Members!

Ignore the poor spelling there (shoulders). I am working on my undergraduate degree (right now I am a jr.). Over holiday break I want to do the best I can to get a leg up on next years application process. I was going make a master document with all schools I was planning to look into applying to in Fall 2011. Here are some of the details I was going to look for.

First here is a little about me

-Jr at a state school in Illinois

-3.75 over all

-3.9 in psychology

- as of now 1 year of research experience, but continuing

-extensive volunteer work all relating to community or mental health

- no poster presentations or papers yet

What I am going to apply for

PhD Community psychology (undecided about clinical track)

What I was going to research over break

1. Median GPA, GRE scores

2. Percentage of applicants receiving funding

3. Bios of professors I might want to work with in the future

4. Community affiliations with the school

5. Size of community department relative to the entire psychology department

6. How they package their degree (is it combined with a masters in public health or a clinical degree)

7. Amount of grad student

8. Details about application (how many essays, cost, supporting info needed etc).

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

Edited December 1, 2010 by Rachele

[TheDude]

1) Get the APA grad school book

2) Find some programs

3) Visit the websites

4) Narrow the programs down

5) Let it marinate for a couple months

6) Narrow the list further

7) Come to this forum and back-search the forum for applicants who applied to those programs in previous years...don't forget the results section

8) Take the GRE

9) Get your letter writers hip to your plans by September

10) Email professors in the late summer to see if they are taking students

11) Try to nail some early interviews

12) Visit some schools

13) Apply

14) Be nervous

[ydg23]

The National Research Council has some free info for downloads. Also, http://www.phds.org/ has a lot of the NRC information.

[Rachele]

Thank you both! Sounds like it will be a busy Winter break for me!