I'm an undergraduate student - am I good enough to go straight to PhD Clinical Psych??

[myanlee]

Hello all,

I was wondering if going straight from undergraduate status (I'm a senior) to PhD was going to be disadvantageous. I've been advised in another forum to get tons of research experience, and I was wondering if it was possible - especially seeing how so many people on this forum have so much research experience! Applications look very daunting to me indeed.

I'm currently an international (Singapore) student taking psychology at University of Buffalo, but doing it in my country (they offer an entire syllabus and sends their faculty down to teach us)! I've a GPA of 3.966 so far, psych GPA is 4.0. I'm taking GREs soon (fingers crossed). In addition, I've been conducting research testing (WISC, WIAT...) to research participants in the local schools for around 6 months and concurrently doing an internship at the local hospital consisting of roleplaying of mental patients, discussions and practice in psychological assessment which will last 6 months. Lastly, i've taken courses in the local mental health institute where we were assigned mental patients, and we had discussions on them.

Thing is, I'm gonna be going on a scholarship to Buffalo, NY for one semester to University at Buffalo itself, and I'm wondering what I could do there, for I do realize that Clinical Psychology programs can be really competitive. I'm thinking of going to a college that's more balanced between practice and research, for I'm very much interested in both.

Where do I stand right now, and what do I need to do to improve my qualifications? I'm a little worried about my relative lack of research experience. Would like to know where I can do more research on universities and their orientations. Ideally, would like to get into a top 10 program that would offer me the best fit for my dual interests above -- but not sure how I should go about doing it. :/

Thanks in advance!

Good luck to those people receiving applications soon!

Edited January 17, 2011 by myanlee

[HyacinthMacaw]

Hello all,

I was wondering if going straight from undergraduate status (I'm a senior) to PhD was going to be disadvantageous. I've been advised in another forum to get tons of research experience, and I was wondering if it was possible - especially seeing how so many people on this forum have so much research experience! Applications look very daunting to me indeed.

I'm currently an international (Singapore) student taking psychology at University of Buffalo, but doing it in my country (they offer an entire syllabus and sends their faculty down to teach us)! I've a GPA of 3.966 so far, psych GPA is 4.0. I'm taking GREs soon (fingers crossed). In addition, I've been conducting research testing (WISC, WIAT...) to research participants in the local schools for around 6 months and concurrently doing an internship at the local hospital consisting of roleplaying of mental patients, discussions and practice in psychological assessment which will last 6 months. Lastly, i've taken courses in the local mental health institute where we were assigned mental patients, and we had discussions on them.

Thing is, I'm gonna be going on a scholarship to Buffalo, NY for one semester to University at Buffalo itself, and I'm wondering what I could do there, for I do realize that Clinical Psychology programs can be really competitive. I'm thinking of going to a college that's more balanced between practice and research, for I'm very much interested in both.

Where do I stand right now, and what do I need to do to improve my qualifications? I'm a little worried about my relative lack of research experience. Would like to know where I can do more research on universities and their orientations. Ideally, would like to get into a top 10 program that would offer me the best fit for my dual interests above -- but not sure how I should go about doing it. :/

Thanks in advance!

Good luck to those people receiving applications soon!

Hello myanlee,

I think you can definitely feel proud of having a stellar GPA accompanied by a good deal of clinical experience and some research experience. My background is social psych, but I think most people would agree (as you suspect) that research-oriented clinical science Ph.D. programs emphasize research experience, especially the kind that in turn shapes your clinical interests, and especially the kind of experience in which you play an active role in experimental design. That can be tough in clinical psych when most projects are spearheaded by professors or grad students who rely on undergrads for relatively menial data collection and administrative tasks (I worked in a clinical psych lab for several years).

You've probably heard that publishing a paper will impress admissions committees, and no doubt it will, but often a poster presentation at a major conference is sufficient to demonstrate engagement with research. Indeed, many successful people in social psych have no publications and just have an unpublished thesis.

One question you might want to ask yourself is where you see yourself after obtaining your graduate degree. If you would like to go into academia and publish clinical psych research, then the clinical science route is probably for you (link to a list of these programs is here ). But there are a lot of other routes as well, PsyD and MSW among them if you see yourself as primarily doing clinical work in your future. Even among PsyD programs, there are those that incorporate significant doses of research.

You might also wish to explore how your research interests converge with those of potential faculty advisors; no doubt you have heard that fit with faculty is an important if not most important determinant of admission, probably to any Ph.D. program. Maybe you enjoy working on psychological assessment and want to work with faculty who are also doing research in that area. Or maybe you like working with a certain population of clients.

I could go on, but I'm probably not qualified to since I'm not even applying to clinical psych programs, though I seriously considered a clinical psych career at one point. As with any psych program, it's important to know exactly what you want to get out of your graduate degree, and this requires some introspection. Feel free to take my comments with a grain of salt, and I apologize if I have not been as helpful as you would have liked.

[chak]

I think you're fine. Judging by your description regarding your achievement, you definetely have a shot in getting acceptance to a PhD program in Clinical Psychology. However, you should also consider the following factors that are equally important in your application: letters of rec, Subject GRE (Psychology) -I'm just assuming you haven't thought about it because you haven't specified it in your post-, personal statement.

I know it sounds obvious mentioning a personal statement as a requirement, but when applying to a PhD program you should have POIs (Professors of interests). In effect, you are applying to a professor in the program (instead of hte program itself) that will vouch for you when you apply to a specific school. So a good plan is to research professors and find out what their particular interests in the field of clinical psychology are (e.g. sleep disorder, eating disroder, etc etc) and see if their areas matches your interests you the most and plan accordingly.

[myanlee]

Dear HyacinthMacaw,

Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, the GPA was hard work indeed, and the research/clinical experience were really valuable and interesting! The tips that you gave are indeed useful - I'll definitely work on them and see how things go. I'm just a little worried about a couple of things, namely: (1) I've only got 7 months left before I head for scholarship in Buffalo, and (2) I have a feeling that professors aren't going to want to give research experience to a student that's only going to be there for one semester. :/

I've read quite a bit - but not researched extensively - that PhDs focus on research, but do have a substantial clinical component as well, while PsyDs usually focus on being consumers of research - that is, practicing. I'd like to have exposure to both, for I'd really want to be involved in research to shape the field, but also not forget about what I'm doing all this for - i.e. it's all about the patients in the end!

Thanks again, Hyacinth. Your advice really helped!

Myanlee

Hello myanlee,

I think you can definitely feel proud of having a stellar GPA accompanied by a good deal of clinical experience and some research experience. My background is social psych, but I think most people would agree (as you suspect) that research-oriented clinical science Ph.D. programs emphasize research experience, especially the kind that in turn shapes your clinical interests, and especially the kind of experience in which you play an active role in experimental design. That can be tough in clinical psych when most projects are spearheaded by professors or grad students who rely on undergrads for relatively menial data collection and administrative tasks (I worked in a clinical psych lab for several years).

You've probably heard that publishing a paper will impress admissions committees, and no doubt it will, but often a poster presentation at a major conference is sufficient to demonstrate engagement with research. Indeed, many successful people in social psych have no publications and just have an unpublished thesis.

One question you might want to ask yourself is where you see yourself after obtaining your graduate degree. If you would like to go into academia and publish clinical psych research, then the clinical science route is probably for you (link to a list of these programs is here ). But there are a lot of other routes as well, PsyD and MSW among them if you see yourself as primarily doing clinical work in your future. Even among PsyD programs, there are those that incorporate significant doses of research.

You might also wish to explore how your research interests converge with those of potential faculty advisors; no doubt you have heard that fit with faculty is an important if not most important determinant of admission, probably to any Ph.D. program. Maybe you enjoy working on psychological assessment and want to work with faculty who are also doing research in that area. Or maybe you like working with a certain population of clients.

I could go on, but I'm probably not qualified to since I'm not even applying to clinical psych programs, though I seriously considered a clinical psych career at one point. As with any psych program, it's important to know exactly what you want to get out of your graduate degree, and this requires some introspection. Feel free to take my comments with a grain of salt, and I apologize if I have not been as helpful as you would have liked.