What should I do next? What schools should I be looking at?

[VentureIntoNothingness]

Hey everyone, 

so I am in my junior year. I just want to see if you guys would have any advice of what I should do next in terms of getting prepared for grad school. I plan to apply to graduate programs for 2016 fall, so I will start my application in my senior year. Also, I wonder if you guys have any advice on choosing grad schools. I am interested in clinical psych and quantitative psych. Mostly interested in PhD programs, but open to funded master programs. 

 

background:

 

Overall GPA: 3.33 (goal is to reach 3.5 before application); Math major GPA: 3.4 (confident in increasing it to 3.6); Phil major GPA: 3.4 (confident in increasing it to 3.7); Psych Major GPA: 3.6 (confident in increasing it to 3.8)

Currently in process of BS in psychology, and provisionally enrolled in psych honor program; also in process of BA in math and phil, also enrolled in phil honor program.

 

Research Experience:

RA in a clinic/lab for two years; another lab/hospital as Lead RA for a year; psych-related interdisciplinary independent studies*2; psych independent studies*2; psych honor project*1; summer psychiatrist assisstantship*1

 

Publication/conference:

School-ish undergraduate conference*2, National conference*1, and several philosophy conferences/publications...

 

GRE:

Verbal: 158 Quant: 170 Analytic: 3.5

 

[PsychandPhilo]

A fellow psych and philo!

 

I'll comment on your background and then give you general advice. Note this is just my opinion on what I have seen/heard/experienced. I don't have any data.

 

GPA: If you can meet your expected goals by application time, then great. As of now, they might be slighlty below PhD program average. You probably need a 3.5, or even higher 3.7+ if you're going straight out of undergrad.

 

Multiple Majors: Good experience for workload. Math obviously will help if you choose quant. Philosophy is good at preparing writers and critical thinkers and will be more useful if you choose to stay in clinical research.

 

Research Experience: Research experience is pretty solid for undergrad, I have trouble imagining what more you could do. Depends on the prestige of your institution as to how highly those will get rated though.

 

Publications/Conferences: It will look good that you have experience, but people who are a little older or with MAs might have more experience under their belt presenting at major conferences. You stated you have several philosophy publications. I'm not sure where you got these published, as its very rare for undergrads to get published in respectable philosophy journals especially since we don't really have 2nd or 3rd author type deals very often. Not trying to be rude, I'm just curious. That being said, the writing experience will show that you're not a stranger to upper level academic work, and grad school research doesn't seem to be something that you just recently decided to do.

 

GRE Scores: You'll hear opinions all over the board on this site. 170 Quant is obviously great. 158 is solid, if you can bump it up higher, then good, but I don't know if it's worth a retake. 3.5 is the only one I would want to bump up, but it's probably the least looked at of the 3 scores.

 

Now for general advice. You're application seems pretty strong. GPA would be my biggest concern, but if you meet your goals then I wouldn't worry. The main thing I can suggest is find a perfect research fit, based on what you have done so far. It sounds obvious, but a lot of people apply to programs that aren't perfect fits. Even looking at my programs, I feel as if some were research programs I "wanted" to fit into and would be happy in, but weren't necesarily reflective of my undergrad work. Also try and make sure those professors will have funding available, that has bit me hard for a few schools.

 

I am in the social and decision making fields, so I can't give you specific advice on programs. I do know clinical is a lot more competitive than quant though in terms of applicant numbers. Quant usually doesn't get as much interest despite probably being the most practical field within psych for job hunting. Potentially think about looking for programs that might reflect your work in philosophy as well, since you seem to have done a lot of work there. Finding programs is somewhat difficult. You can always look for contemporary authors in the fields you work in/papers you've read and enjoyed and try to apply to their schools. Apply to as many school as you can safely afford. Be sure to start your personal statements very early and see if you can get an advisor to look over them with you.

 

Good luck with the search!

Edited February 27, 2015 by PsychandPhilo

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

Honestly, if you can at least maintain your current GPA, then I'd say you're as strong an applicant as someone who only majored in psychology with a 3.7-4.0 gpa range. Programs will understand the difficulty of your work load. I believe the average math major gpa out of undergrad is around 3.2-3.3? Adding on to this, you have what I'd say is sufficient research experience. I've also been told by professors that they quite appreciate well rounded applicants, as opposed to say, someone whose transcript is 80%(not sure if this is even possible but just an example) psychology.   

The only thing that may hurt you is *fit*.  Make sure to apply to programs that really interest you, listing down potential advisors whose work would fall inline with something you want to do. 

Edited February 27, 2015 by TenaciousBushLeaper

[VentureIntoNothingness]

Re PsychandPhilo:

About publication in philosophy, rework course essay again and again and have a nice faculty member. According to my professor, undergrads with publication in well-respected philosophy journals are actually of a big number, especially for those who apply to philosophy graduate program.

About other philosophy stuffs, I do plan to apply to several philosophy program with emphasis on continental philosophy. 

About advice, thanks so much! I am really worried about my GPA…… I guess I will have to work on it more. How's your application status? Are you applying for Fall 2016?

Re TenaciousBushLeaper:

Do you have any recommendation in terms of quantitative psych programs? I am a bit puzzled on the ground that I really can't estimate my "fit" with a quantitative psych program. For clinical programs, I can somehow see if the faculty's research interest matches mine. But for quantitative psych programs, I can barely grasp a sense of what they are researching on. My limited quant-psych related research experience has been on using specific measures for monitoring/profiling patient progress; and DAG and causal inference. I cannot quite see how my research experience may help me target one specific program. 

 

Again, thanks for detailed response! They are all very helpful! 

[PsychandPhilo]

Re PsychandPhilo:

About publication in philosophy, rework course essay again and again and have a nice faculty member. According to my professor, undergrads with publication in well-respected philosophy journals are actually of a big number, especially for those who apply to philosophy graduate program.

About other philosophy stuffs, I do plan to apply to several philosophy program with emphasis on continental philosophy. 

About advice, thanks so much! I am really worried about my GPA…… I guess I will have to work on it more. How's your application status? Are you applying for Fall 2016?

Re TenaciousBushLeaper:

Do you have any recommendation in terms of quantitative psych programs? I am a bit puzzled on the ground that I really can't estimate my "fit" with a quantitative psych program. For clinical programs, I can somehow see if the faculty's research interest matches mine. But for quantitative psych programs, I can barely grasp a sense of what they are researching on. My limited quant-psych related research experience has been on using specific measures for monitoring/profiling patient progress; and DAG and causal inference. I cannot quite see how my research experience may help me target one specific program. 

 

Again, thanks for detailed response! They are all very helpful! 

 

Ah, that makes sense. The philosophy professor I work most closely with has pretty much stopped publishing at this point and the rest don't have similar research interests to mine. I was encouraged to rework an honor's thesis to potentially submit but I decided to devote more time to my psychology research and build up that part of my CV. I'm jealous of your continental focus, unfortunately there's a bit of a bias at my undergrad so there's hardly any way to do substantial work on continental philosophy here.

 

My focus has been on concepts of morality, free will, moral responsibility, conceptions of fate, etc. in both psych and philo. I decided to go the psych route on paper but with the professors I applied to work with I will pretty much be doing experimental philosophy, which to me is the best of both worlds. I am applying for Fall 2016 and I have high hopes to receive an offer from a PhD program for which I interviewed, but if that falls flat than I will be pursuing a MA to build up my lab experience and add to my CV. My lack of formal lab experience, I have plenty of research experience, and the lesser name recognition of my undergrad is what is giving me the most trouble. I also didn't check with professors beforehand regarding funding, which has unfortunately also been a major factor working against me as some professors simply don't have the funding this year for a new student.

 

Don't overly worry about your GPA, it's not as if it's horrible. I was simply pointing out things that would make you the strongest in all categories. Research fit and funding will be the biggest determining factors, your credentials seem strong enough where you will be able to hold your own in the applicant pool.

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

Re TenaciousBushLeaper:

Do you have any recommendation in terms of quantitative psych programs? I am a bit puzzled on the ground that I really can't estimate my "fit" with a quantitative psych program. For clinical programs, I can somehow see if the faculty's research interest matches mine. But for quantitative psych programs, I can barely grasp a sense of what they are researching on. My limited quant-psych related research experience has been on using specific measures for monitoring/profiling patient progress; and DAG and causal inference. I cannot quite see how my research experience may help me target one specific program. 

Try checking out different schools listed at http://www.apa.org/research/tools/quantitative/

To give you a specific example, maybe you can look at your interest outside of mathematics and think of a way to integrate mathematics/statistics with this interest. For example, I like cognitive neuroscience, which entails the use of fMRI. I also happen to really enjoy doing mathematics and "thinking mathematically". It just so happens this intersection is an area being studied in quantitative psychology. People use statistical and mathematical methods to develop tools for neuroimaging data. As such, this is someone who I'd really like to work with http://gateslab.web.unc.edu/ 

 

[PsychandPhilo]

Edit: I meant Fall 2015, not 2016.