Clinical Psychology PhD Application (Thoughts?)

[Epoh]

Hey I would appreciate people's thoughts on my application, it's been a long road getting here and to hear some opinions from others with experience would go a long way in helping me assess myself honestly and possibly course correct. I plan on applying for programs this fall in both Canada and the US.

Research Experience:

Undergrad: 2 years in a developmental neuroscience laboratory (2nd author pub), learned how to process ERP's, E-Prime, etc.)

1st Post-Bacc: 2 years in a research in lab in NYC (Canadian originally), doing treatment focused research but also incorporating biomeasures (2 pubs forsure possibly 3 and 1 poster presentation). Trained in SCID interviewing, HRV, ERP, Peer-Reviewed manuscripts, built an online intervention service, collected fMRI data, and grew immensely in SPSS.

2nd Post-Bacc: Just started a new job at the VA using brain-based approaches to look at trauma in veterans.

Education/Testing:

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Philosophy Minor (GPA Psych: 3.5; Overall: 2.5; Last 60 credits: 3.7)

- So my father became extremely sick early on in my degree and I essentially failed my entire first year, and could not get the grades dropped unfortunately. Proceeded to take 3 courses per semester as I cared for him part-time until I graduated but for the last 2.5 years of my undergrad had almost entirely straight A's. Does anybody care about the situation I was in with caring for my father in the admissions process?

General GRE: Going to write soon (Magoosh tells me I'm scoring around 154-157 for both verbal and quant)

Subject GRE: 78th percentile

What are people's thoughts here? How does my application look? 

Edited August 16, 2017 by Epoh

[Psychologyandpizza]

In terms of your GRE, I would say don't even consider it until you write the exam because you don't always perform the same as you are projected. Otherwise, I think your research experiences sound great ! Though I am a bit confused by which outcomes you already have and which you think you might have by application time. I would really highlight the different tasks you've been trained in, specifically different methodologies. Also, you could briefly mention your personal situation during undergraduate, but don't focus on it too much, and if you do, then focus on how you found a solution and worked through that time and came out ahead. However, most programs have GOA requirements, so you may get screened out based on your gpa unfortunately. Highlight your last 60 credit GPA.