Human Development and Family Studies?

[Pumpkin27]

(Apologies for posting here, when I did a history search it seemed that HDFS had snuck into this subcategory in the past! Please move or delete as needed.)

 

Hi! I was wondering if anyone else was applying to PHD programs in Human Development and Family Studies (and all the slight name variations!) I currently have thirteen programs on my list and am trying to make professor contacts and work on my SOP. I feel like this is a reach for me but I'm excited to try.

 

I have a B.S in Public Health, overall GPA 3.3 (I started out in Biology...), Major GPA 3.7. I took two MSW level classes with a 4.0, and am almost done with an Infant Mental Health Graduate certificate, in which I have a 4.0. I am most interested in Child Development, specifically infant and toddlers. I have done one research related task for a professor at the local university but otherwise have little to no research experience. I have very good recommendation letters from my current boss, my undergraduate advisor, and two professors in my IMH program, and I could definitely dig up an undergraduate professor as well, and I've been in the Early Childhood/Family Services field as a paraprofessional for three years.

 

I'm also looking at some clinical master's programs as I feel like I'm a stronger applicant, but my desire is definitely to go research focused and I feel like doing a master's in a clinical program may not be the best idea as they're more terminal degrees- I'm talking like Clinical Mental Health Counseling, etc.