Applying to REUs in Psychology...

Career Opportunities & Internships
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<p>I am a Psychology student (4th year in a 5yr BA/MA program) and I plan to apply to Clinical Psychology programs for the Fall of 2012. I completed an REU program in the past year. As I have have one more summer, I am planning to apply to REUs at the schools to which I want to apply for graduate school because, luckily, a lot of the schools I want to go to have such programs (University of Washington, Berkeley, U Wisconsin-- Madison, etc). I know that this particular path (applying to the school in which one completed an REU) has worked for a few people I know.</p>

<p>So, I have a two-part question: (a) do you know if the NSF does not like awarding REU grants to those who have won them in the past, or on the contrary (b) does having already won a grant put me in a better position for winning another one?</p>

<p>I came here because I really didn't know who to ask.</p>

<p>I am going to apply regardless, but I'm still curious.</p>

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<p>My understanding is that the people at the university select the REU students to receive offers. So you would have to be attractive to the program coordinators and to the research professors looking for students. I would guess that professors would prefer students with research experience as there would be less to explain so that these students would be more productive. I have seen other criteria such as favoring women and URMs and transfers from community colleges added to the priority mix.</p>

<p>My son finished his second REU today. One of my nieces is doing her third summer internship right now at Harvard. She has also done research in her freshman year during the regular school semesters. I can only think that her research experience helped her get her current internship. She’s also published.</p>