Chances of getting into a clinical psychology Ph.D.

Graduate School
1

Hi all,
I am currently applying to clinical psychology Ph.D. programs (focused on clinical neuropsychology) and am nervous about my chances of getting in. I have a large amount of research experience and my gpa is pretty good but I’m worried about my GRE scores. Would love someone’s feedback.

Undergrad Major: Psychology
Undergrad Minor: Neuroscience
Cumulative GPA: 3.69 (cum laude)
Major GPA: 3.73
Minor GPA: 3.74

Currently finishing a 4+1 MS in experimental psychology at the same institution. I am completing this program mainly to increase my stats experience.
Graduate GPA: 3.89

GRE Scores
Verbal: 156 (72nd percentile)
Quant: 147 (26th percentile, this is why I’m concerned)
Writing: 4.0 (59th percentile)

Research experience
1st lab: have been working here for 4 years and is still ongoing. Tasks: leading lab meeting, calling and scheduling participants, peer-reviewing articles for journal publication with my PI, designing and running my own clinical trial (masters thesis), publishing papers and posters, have given numerous Neuropsych assessments to participants.

2nd lab: I worked there for three years. I was heavily involved with the neuroimaging portion of a longitudinal study, in charge of training other undergrads how to give an IQ test(since I’m neuropsych focused).

Co-author publications: 3
1st author publication: 1 under review
Co-author conference posters: 11
1st author conference posters: 8

Potential funding
I have applied for an NSF

Extra Curriculars
I was president of my school’s chapter of Psi Chi and our psych major’s society. During that time I got funding to form research scholarships for in-need students and formed a mentorship/“buddy” program for younger students and grad students. I also was a tutor for the cognitive psychology class for 2 years.

List of programs

  1. University of Pittsburgh
  2. Ohio State University
  3. Drexel University
  4. Washington State University
  5. Louisiana State University
  6. University of South Alabama
  7. Boston University
  8. University of Massachusetts Amherst
  9. Suffolk University
  10. University of Florida
  11. University of Nebraska Lincoln
  12. Feinberg Medical School
  13. University of Houston
  14. Fordham University
  15. Lousiana State University
2

You’re a pretty competitive applicant for clinical psychology. Of course, clinical is pretty competitive in and of itself. But you’ve also got a good range of programs and aren’t really applying to too many tippy-top programs, so I think you have a good chance of admission at at least some of (if not most of) the schools on your list.

The only thing I would say that you don’t have is the clinical hours lots of programs like to see, but it seems like you got some of that through your labs (administering neuropsych tests). And you’ve got paper coauthorships, which is more than most students do.

Your GRE scores are a bit low, so if you think you could potentially raise your scores I would retake.

3

Thanks so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. Additionay, I have some experience giving semi-structured interviews to rule out psychotic and manic experiences over the phone to potential participants to make sure they are eligiable for studies, but I wasn’t sure if that actually counted as “clinical experience”. Do you think I should highlight that in personal statements?

4

Screening people for studies isn’t really clinical experience - that more falls under the umbrella of being able to conduct research with clinical populations. That’s important, and does give you a leg up over someone who didn’t have experience doing research with clinical populations. By “clinical experience” I was more referring to students who do things like shadow psychiatrists or psychologists and volunteer at hospitals and mental health clinics. Some programs emphasize this more than others, so I think it depends on where you’re applying and what your goals are.