Advice on what I can do to prep for next year?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I'm a rising college senior, applying to School Psychology programs next year, primarily PhD/PsyD (and some EdS programs as well).</p>

<p>Majors: Psychology, Social Work
Minor: Biology
GPA: ~3.8 (~3.95 in psych [1 B])
GRE: Taking it the 7th of June, hoping for a 1300ish based on PowerPrep</p>

<p>Research experience (represents totals at application time, not counting the last semester of undergrad):
-6 semesters biomedical (psychopharm development) research
-2 semesters in a multicultural psych lab, 2 more semesters working on an honors thesis in multicultural/education psych [hoping to have it defended by the time apps are due, prospectus defended in Feburary but recruitment may take a while]
-3 semesters (hopefully) in a neuropsych lab, running participants
-Honors thesis in Substance Abuse tx (will defend early this fall, have all my data collected, entered, and partially analyzed), presented a poster on my preliminary data that won our Undergraduate Research Conference
-2 semesters in parenting/child psych research, possible independent study in this
-2 semesters in DV research, probable poster out of this
-More than one year (starting December 2008) as a paid RA in a disability/violence lab, hopefully publication(s?)s and maybe posters out of this
-Honors thesis in disability/school psych, hopefully done this coming semester [will be defending prospectus this summer, planning to start data collection in Fall]
-PI/lead author on a major project in disability/education psych , aiming for major conference submission in November and manuscript submission in January</p>

<p>Teaching experience:
-3 semesters as a TA/student mentor for Intro to Honors (classroom management, guest lecturing, designing and grading assignments, etc.)
-one semester as a TA for intro to psych (running lab sections, grading quizzes)
-two years as a paid instructor for a seminar for psych internship students
-one semester teaching a social science freshman experience seminar (paid but not much ;) )</p>

<p>Clinical/child experience:
-two years doing substance misuse group psychoed/therapy(ish) groups for college students
-one year (at application time) of volunteering at a children's science center (will also be doing this for part of my summer)
-partial summer of volunteering at a preschool for children with behavioral issues and (hopefully) volunteering with children at science daycamps
-year-long practicum at student disability services next year
-intermittent volunteering with a transitional home for children since freshman year as part of a service club (can't decide whether to put this on my CV or not)</p>

<p>I want to research the social/social-cognitive aspects of disability, promarily physical disability, particularly resilience, social and academic adaptation/accommodation, and intervention within this population. I also apply a sort of multicultural lense to disability work, which is par for course in my lab, and goes well with my background in multicultural psych.</p>

<p>My biggest concern right now is that I don't have any publications or national presentations, though I'm hoping that some may come to fruitation this next semester.
(I'm officially an author on a lit review we're doing this summer, but of course, it has to be written/accepted/etc.).</p>

<p>Any thoughts? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Um, wow. </p>

<p>You’ve totally got it going on! Good for you. You have a very impressive CV, and appear to have been working hard for a very long time to prepare for applying to a Ph.D. program.</p>

<p>Which types of schools are you thinking of applying for? Based on your stats, I’m assuming top 10 or 20ish…? Ivy…</p>

<p>Just make sure you’ve got some great people who love you to write you letters of rec,(using the term “love” loosely …those who think you hung the moon, so to speak, and will write you glowing letters of praise), and start contacting schools and making connections with professors you would like to work with in a Ph.D. program. </p>

<p>Hmm…really you are on a fantastic path. If you could get your name on some sort of publication, that would be the only thing i could think of that would enhance your position. </p>

<p>Do great on the GRE…Get those letter-writers ready…start making connections at other schools…maintain your GPA. </p>

<p>You are already ahead of the game. :)</p>

3

<p>Are you posting your CV because you are proud of it? Your CV doesn’t necessarily have to have publications before graduate school, it’s great if it does, but it doesn’t need to.</p>

4

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Well, in school psych, there’s only one Ivy with a program (Columbia Teacher’s College), and I’m not planning to apply there (they require a prereq that my school doesn’t offer, plus I don’t really want to live in NYC). I have a list of programs that could be good research matches, and I plan to see which professors are accepting applicants next year and widdle at down from there. I plan to apply broadly within research matches, and I’m open to pretty much anywhere other than CA and possibly NYC, due to cost-of-living issues, and be a bit more geographically selective with EdS programs, unless they offer something like spectacular funding (Trinity, Winthrop) or a particularly awesome emphasis (Gallaudet).</p>

<p>Actually, I worry about my profile a bit–that my relatively minimal child experience will hurt me at some programs (e.g, UNC-CH, Kent State) and my lack of publications/presentations–though I’m hoping I’ll get my name on some stuff before application time–will hurt me at more research-focused schools (e.g.,South Florida, UT-Austin). Worried about being caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place, I guess.</p>

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<p>Any other thoughts?</p>

6

<p>Tactful bump!</p>