What to do after no acceptances?

[atamu]

I was rejected from all of the schools I applied to and right now I have no idea what to do. I am looking for non-degree opportunities at the moment but have had no luck so far. The only option I can think of is doing independent research until graduate applications come up again.

How could I keep busy in the meanwhile? Other than increasing GRE scores (even though they were decent), which is a given.

[FacelessMage]

I'm in a similar boat to you, applied to 8 schools and was rejected across the board. I'm trying to gain leverage into a program because I just found out that I won a 100K doctoral scholarship from the government, so that may change. In the meantime, I'm studying for the GRE (my scores expire) and trying to push through more publications before next year. 

[ihatechoosingusernames]

Last time around I was rejected from all schools, too. It's an awful feeling, but it's not a poor reflection on you personally. Don't beat yourself up. Give yourself time to be sad, and decided whether or not you really want to go to grad school. 

If you do, fantastic! Here's what I did:

• I retook my GRE's and spent a lot of time studying. 
• Volunteered in a lab (even though I had graduated).
• Took an online graduate certificate course from a mildly well known university.
• Attended two local conferences (undergrad/university level) for a poster presentation.
• Started a major project in the lab, and hopefully we'll have some publishable results.
• Wrote an article that was published in a student journal. 
• Attended some online webinars that were related to my research interests. 
• Rewrote my CV & Personal Statements.
• Applied for an outside grant.
• Got a paid job with the title of Research Assistant, even though it's not remotely related to what I want to study.
• Made sure that I had an excellent research fit with the programs I wanted to apply to this time around.

Now, I can't say for sure if any of that helped or pushed me over the edge. Application cycles definitely vary from year to year and school to school. I also recognize that I've been privileged to have some extra money floating around so I could spend it on GRE stuff, online courses (which are terribly expensive), or spend time volunteering in a lab. There are other opportunities out there you could take advantage of if you're pressed for time and money, but don't stress out if you can't add all these things in to the mix. I also waited an additional application cycle so I could spend more time building up my CV and making sure I knew what I wanted to study. It's time consuming, to be sure, but I like to think that something in that list made it worth the while  

 

[JoePianist]

Wow, I really admire @ihatechoosingusernames's productivity 

Last year, I was also rejected on my first application cycle for doctoral Clinical Psychology programs. And yes, I felt heartbroken, lost, depressed, and hopeless for a long time. I was a recent college graduate with a B.S. in Psychology that was worthless in the job market, to be honest...the only job I could get post-graduation was a part-time retail position (and this was after 4 months of constantly applying for jobs too). 

I stayed in contact with one of my former psychology professors from college, and she notified me about a paid RA opening at my alma mater. The PI for the study is a very well-known health psychologist. And to be honest, compared to the poster above, all I did to prepare for my second round of applications was work at this job. I was burned out from everything to push myself any further. Didn't retake the GRE, or take any post-bac classes, or write articles, or attend conferences - I felt I deserved a bit of a break.

And it all worked out  This year, I got accepted into my top-choice Ph.D Clinical Psychology program, fully funded for 5 years plus stipends. 

My point is that you don't need to over-exert yourself in order to become a more enticing candidate. As long as your GRE is within the average score of admitted applicants for your schools of choice, you really don't need to take it again. Focus more on networking with professors in your field - they tend to know each other if they study the same topics (i.e. chronic pain; behavioral sleep). Paid Research Assistant positions will also do wonders for your application - although, from my personal experience, these paid RA positions are very difficult to obtain without the right connections. 

If you interviewed at any programs this year, consider contacting your POI's to ask for critiques about your applications so you can work on them. This was very difficult for me to do myself, but it helped me focus on my weaknesses much better.  

Edited April 28, 2016 by JoePianist

[atamu]

12 hours ago, ihatechoosingusernames said:

Last time around I was rejected from all schools, too. It's an awful feeling, but it's not a poor reflection on you personally. Don't beat yourself up. Give yourself time to be sad, and decided whether or not you really want to go to grad school. 

If you do, fantastic! Here's what I did:

• I retook my GRE's and spent a lot of time studying. 
• Volunteered in a lab (even though I had graduated).
• Took an online graduate certificate course from a mildly well known university.
• Attended two local conferences (undergrad/university level) for a poster presentation.
• Started a major project in the lab, and hopefully we'll have some publishable results.
• Wrote an article that was published in a student journal. 
• Attended some online webinars that were related to my research interests. 
• Rewrote my CV & Personal Statements.
• Applied for an outside grant.
• Got a paid job with the title of Research Assistant, even though it's not remotely related to what I want to study.
• Made sure that I had an excellent research fit with the programs I wanted to apply to this time around.

Now, I can't say for sure if any of that helped or pushed me over the edge. Application cycles definitely vary from year to year and school to school. I also recognize that I've been privileged to have some extra money floating around so I could spend it on GRE stuff, online courses (which are terribly expensive), or spend time volunteering in a lab. There are other opportunities out there you could take advantage of if you're pressed for time and money, but don't stress out if you can't add all these things in to the mix. I also waited an additional application cycle so I could spend more time building up my CV and making sure I knew what I wanted to study. It's time consuming, to be sure, but I like to think that something in that list made it worth the while  

 

Thanks for all of the advice! I'm somewhat of a workaholic so any time off is a no-go. I do have an observership in neuropsychiatry in a couple weeks, but I'm not sure how much that will help with research credibility.

A couple questions:

1. What was the grant money used for?

2. What school was your graduate certificate course through? All I can find are courses through coursera, etc. and I'm not sure if those are even relevant in applying to graduate schools.

3 hours ago, JoePianist said:

My point is that you don't need to over-exert yourself in order to become a more enticing candidate. As long as your GRE is within the average score of admitted applicants for your schools of choice, you really don't need to take it again.

Unfortunately, I have a 3.0 GPA (mostly from my time as a business major) so I'm really looking to score ~90th percentile next time around to help balance things out.

[ihatechoosingusernames]

3 hours ago, atamu said:

 I do have an observership in neuropsychiatry in a couple weeks, but I'm not sure how much that will help with research credibility.

A couple questions:

1. What was the grant money used for?

2. What school was your graduate certificate course through? All I can find are courses through coursera, etc. and I'm not sure if those are even relevant in applying to graduate schools.

Unfortunately, I have a 3.0 GPA (mostly from my time as a business major) so I'm really looking to score ~90th percentile next time around to help balance things out.

The observership may not help with research credibility, but it is a great experience to have on a CV and to list in your personal statement. Hopefully it'll be a good way to network as well. I had a 3.3 GPA out of undergrad, and I found it helpful to aim for at least a 320 overall GRE score. For the most part your GRE is what's going to get your foot in the door; it's what keeps your name on the list during the first cut. I don't think it's critical that all three areas are 90th percentile, but it's a good goal to have.

I didn't actually even win the grant! One of the things my mentor mentioned (and she's pretty early on in her career) is that some schools/programs just want to see that you know about these opportunities are are willing to put in the work. It shows you can take initiative and you're aware the funds are limited. So I applied for the NSF GRFP and didn't get a single cent. However, it was brought up during almost all of my interviews. Obviously, it's great if you can win the funds, but not totally necessary in this case. 

I went through the University of Massachusetts. I took four online courses. You could also google your field of psychology + graduate certificate, and some sites should pop up. I don't think there's any need to spend a bunch of money on a fancy name brand school's program, but make sure it's not University of Phoenix or some other for-profit diploma mill. Like I said, though, the entire 12 credit course was terribly spendy. It was nice to have a 4.0 graduate GPA on my application to make up for my low undergrad score, though. I also learned quite a bit, which is always a good thing  

[MarineBluePsy]

In addition to all of the great suggestions stated I would add taking a hard look at where you applied.  There's no such thing as a safety school, but do apply to a mix of top and mid tier programs and make sure you're interests fit with at least 3 of the faculty.  Consider how competitive Clinical Psych is and aim for 12-15 applications and be very open to locations that may not seem amazing.  When I was crying to my advisors for the millionth time about not getting in anywhere they asked me "Do you want to go somewhere or do you want to keep applying?"  That pushed me into looking at programs in places I felt lukewarm about and saving the funds to apply to more programs.  My thought was I could always spend more time doing research and the time will fly lol.

[juilletmercredi]

The other thing to remember is sometimes, getting no acceptances is unfortunate luck of the draw. It doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong with your application, that you're not competitive, that you can't get in anywhere - it could simply mean that circumstances aligned so that you simply didn't work out anywhere you applied. That doesn't mean that you can't improve your application in the mean time; it simply means that you shouldn't feel disheartened or feel like you don't have a chance. This is especially true in clinical psychology, which is just super competitive anyway.

I would definitely recommend trying to get a position as a paid research assistant or a lab manager. You can do this at a university lab, but you can also do this at a government agency or think tank or nonprofit that does research. This is the time of year to look for these jobs, as the incumbents often just got into graduate school themselves and are leaving and their PIs are looking for their replacements.

[PS7654]

On April 28, 2016 at 10:44 AM, atamu said:

Unfortunately, I have a 3.0 GPA (mostly from my time as a business major) so I'm really looking to score ~90th percentile next time around to help balance things out.

Are you looking at clinical programs? If so, I have to think that your GPA is holding you back. Did you get any interviews this last round? The advice I have heard for people with lower UG GPAs is that a masters program can help offset that. A paid research position is good for people with high UG GPAs but I think you'd have trouble getting accepted into a clinical program with a 3.0 GPA, even with high GRE scores, unless you have amazing research productivity or solid peformance in a masters program.