How important is rank when applying to schools?

[Rick120020]

I'm planning to apply this upcoming Fall so I've started researching programs and schools to see what kind of research they're doing, they're requirements, and average GRE scores and GPA of accepted applicants. What I've noticed is that there's hardly any difference between "top 10" schools and say a 35th ranked school in regards to average GRE scores, GPAs, and % of applicants accepted. Can anyone shed some light this? 

[Lisa44201]

This isn't law, or an MBA, where rankings trump all. What I consider a Top 10 (I'm in a very specific area of Quant) is going to be a heck of a lot different than a Clinical Psych applicant studying, oh Borderline Personality Disorder, for example; that student's rankings will differ from the person studying bulimia; and so on. This is going to sound overly casual, but it's true: I'm sure there are some great folks over at Harvard that do some really neat things, but their research interests do not match mine, so their ranking by some news agency means absolutely nothing to me.

 

Two words: research fit. Look at some of the term papers you've written for class this past year; make a note of who you cite over and over again; figure out where those folks teach; apply there. That's a good starting place.

[PsychGirl1]

Your career, if you plan to do research, will be on a much better path if you work with someone well-known in your field who supports and advocates for you than if you work at a "top 10 school" without that. Figure out your subfield first, then figure out the people within your subfield who you want to work with. Go from there.

[AcronymAddict]

"Standard" (i.e., US News) rankings mean little to nothing when it comes to doctoral study in psychology, particularly for clinical where (last I checked) the methodology of obtaining the rankings was essentially just to email training directors at various schools and say, "hey, rank the prestige of all these programs, please." 

 

As was mentioned above, what's much more important is that you find a solid research and clinical match with a specific advisor/lab. Also as was mentioned above, there can be some pretty stark differences not just from program to program, but from lab to lab within the same program (i.e., one program may have no one researching/working with PTSD, but might have a superstar substance abuse or neuropsych lab). 

 

Additionally, funded psych programs are going to be competitive to get into regardless of the school (the acceptance rate for funded, traditional clinical psych programs, for example, is often around 5-ish%). Thus, you're going to have strong applicants pretty much everywhere.