Can I get into a Clinical Psych Phd program?

[Endicott2010]

Let me just preface this by saying I don't really know a lot about the GRE or anything so if I have some trivial questions I apologize.

I am currently a first semester senior at a liberal arts school. I am a Biology major with a minor in psychology. I have an overall gpa of 3.6 and a psych gpa of about 3.9. I have experience working in hospitals and also working in psych research centers.

My questions are:

What would be a good score on the psych GRE that would put me in a position to get into a good clinical psych phd program.

Do you see anything I could do to improve my chances.

Do I need to take the general GRE AND the Psych one?

Overall given a decent score on my GRE what do you think my chances are of getting in/what level of schools should I apply to?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[LadyL]

What would be a good score on the psych GRE that would put me in a position to get into a good clinical psych phd program.

Do you see anything I could do to improve my chances.

Do I need to take the general GRE AND the Psych one?

Overall given a decent score on my GRE what do you think my chances are of getting in/what level of schools should I apply to?

I have heard a few sources say that a 1200 on the GREs is a common cutoff (about a 600 in both sections). Sometimes I've heard 1250 or even 1300.

You haven't mentioned your relationship with your recommenders but that's a key part of the process.

Not all schools require both, but the psych GRE can help you if you do well on it, and if you have taken a good cross section of psych courses IMHO it's not that hard a test.

There aren't really "levels" of accredited programs - it's more like 12-15% acceptance rates vs 1-2%, so "levels" are relative. I'd focus more on how good a match you are for the program in terms of your interest and experiences.

[cheesethunder]

ive talked to my supervisor about this alot and hes said you can't gurantee anything he's known people with perfect gpas get rejected from every school theyve applied to, your best bet is to find a prof whose into you and will want to work for you because grades/ gpa can get your foot in the door but its what you can offer a prof in their lab that will do the rest, research experience in the area you want to do would help alot (reserach + counseling ish worikng with people)