Accepting an offer this year vs. applying next year

[PeppermintMocha]

Has anyone been offered spots by funded clinical psychology PhD programs but decided to reapply the following year? What were some factors you considered in your decision making and what are the pros and cons of your decision? I am interested in pursuing academia if this information helps. 

Thank you in advance for your help and advice!

[dirkwww]

Would love some feedback on this. Applied to 8 schools. interviews at all 8. Got one offer. Thinking "well I'm gonna be first author on a publication by the next time i apply as well as have my name on 3 or 4 papers... should i wait and try for better"

[Tahlain]

Do you think you would be happy at the school you were accepted to? And do you think it would it be good for your career and future? 

If so, then accept the offer. 

[FeelTheBern]

On 3/11/2016 at 2:12 PM, PeppermintMocha said:

Has anyone been offered spots by funded clinical psychology PhD programs but decided to reapply the following year? What were some factors you considered in your decision making and what are the pros and cons of your decision? I am interested in pursuing academia if this information helps.

I guess I am a little confused, did you visit the school(s) that you applied to/meet your POI and the grad students and decide that you wouldn't be happy there? Or are you worried that the school will not set you up for your future career as you would like it to? As @Tahlain mentions, your happiness in the program and at the school are both important, but there is also the question of whether the school will benefit you, and, in the end, lead to where you hope to be in 10 years.

The decision-making process is an extremely personal one, so it's hard to say what would be best for you, but my SO looked at the following factors when making his decision (and he is also interested in pursuing academia):

1) Overall rank and reputation of program in question.

2) How often students in the program are publishing papers, in which journals are they publishing, and what do the citation rates look like (look particularly at your POI's current/past students).

3) Where are these students completing their post-docs?

4) Most importantly (at least for my SO), where are your POI's grad students working after they graduate? If they are tenured faculty at a university, how long did it take for them to land that position after they graduated with their PhD?

Looking at these things made the decision relatively easy. However, tbh, I am not sure that my SO would have turned down a funded offer from any of the schools that he applied to because he looked at each school he was applying to and made sure that he would be happy there and that it was a program he wanted to attend before he applied. Due to the competitive nature of clinical programs, I would imagine it rare for people to turn down a funded offer and reapply the next year, unless something happened at the school they were accepted to that made them think they would be miserable and unhappy.

[LevelHeaded]

Glad you raised this question. I am at the crossroad of making that decision myself. Got an offer from one of the 2 schools I applied to (I was already tempting the gods of chance..) and it appears that my POI does not value clinical training as much as I would have liked so I am trying to decide whether or not its worth it. Tough decision really. 

[overdetermination]

I would also be curious to hear the reasoning and outcomes of people who actually contemplated making or have made this decision. I think I've decided what I'm going to do about my offers, but without the benefit of advice from anyone who strongly considered or decided to reapply. My reasons to potentially reject a solid offer are primarily personal/logistical, but also the thought that I'd be more competitive, as @dirkwww says, after publishing and with the benefit of having gone through the process once.

[Central Perk]

I think the danger in re-applying is that the admissions game is such a crap shoot. You can get multiple interview offers one admissions cycle and none the next. While having another publication is always a good thing, it doesn't mitigate the luck/fit factor. If the financials are good, you like your PI, and the program has a history of placing alums in positions that you are interested in, there's probably not much to be gained from turning it down and possibly getting into a more highly ranked program the next year. If you have serious concerns about your offers, such as debt or a feeling that you would be extremely unhappy, then it's understandable to wait another round. I would just be wary of foregoing a solid offer on the chance something better might come along. I would ask yourself if you would regret turning down the offers this year in the event you were to receive none next year.

[FeelTheBern]

1 hour ago, Central Perk said:

I think the danger in re-applying is that the admissions game is such a crap shoot. You can get multiple interview offers one admissions cycle and none the next. While having another publication is always a good thing, it doesn't mitigate the luck/fit factor. If the financials are good, you like your PI, and the program has a history of placing alums in positions that you are interested in, there's probably not much to be gained from turning it down and possibly getting into a more highly ranked program the next year.

Great point @Central Perk! The idea that there are no guarantees of acceptance, even if your application has improved substantially, would make me really, really nervous!! In fact, there have been a couple users on here who have claimed that they were less successful this time around compared to their first application cycle, even though virtually every aspect of their application improved!

[ihatechoosingusernames]

Yeah, the fact that there are no guarantees of acceptance in future years (even if you are more competitive) is a huge deal. If I hadn't just received an offer from the school I wanted to go to, I would have gone to a school I wasn't terribly impressed with. My thought was that I'm a tough person who could make the best of anything for five years with good funding. If I needed more opportunities to publish, I could take that into my own hands. If I needed more travel or conference or whatever funding I could apply for grants. The only thing I felt I couldn't overcome was a total personality clash between myself and my POI. And while the personality of the person I interviewed with didn't fill me with warm fuzzies, I was able to overlook some quirks in order to for sure have a grad school slot.

Especially if you're trying to pass up this opportunity and apply to someone specific next time, just know they may not be accepting students. 

[hahaha1234]

I agree with what has been said. I think reapply next year while you have already had a fully funded package in hand is quite risky. The way I think about is that there might be some applicants who share the same mentality as you have and want to boost their CV in order to aim for better programs. So next year when you apply again, you might well compete with all those folks who have improved their CVs. If you are seriously considering reapplying, I would suggest asking POIs for some advice on how to improve your applications (especially from those who cannot offer you admission this cycle). If they do not mention about publications and/or presentations, maybe having more publications would not necessarily boost your application that much. If they mention something you thnk you can definitely improve within a year and thus become even more competitive, you may want to give it a try. That improvement, along with your upcoming publications, should help I think. 

Meanwhile, I very much agree with what ihatechoosingusernames said. Unless there's something you absolutely cannot withstand in the program(s) that always admitted you, I would reconsider reapplying. After all, it is you PhD and as long as you have self-motivation, you should have great control over your own intellectual inquiry. 

[Greece]

I was in the exact same situation last year. I accepted the offer mainly because I'd have visa problems had I decided to wait for another year (I am international). I do regret my decision a lot and feel stuck. I'd say don't do it unless you absolutely have to. I know many people who did not get to the places they wanted, or did not get anywhere at all, the first time applying (some even the second time), but did eventually get into their top programs. To me, it is well worth the effort.