Chances of getting into a clinical psychology PhD program

Graduate School
1

Hello everyone!
This is my first time posting something on here but I’ve been lurking for a while and I could really use some advice. I originally applied to neuroscience PhD programs and got 4 interviews, got into 3 schools and I entered into my current school last year. However, I quickly realized the program was unfortunately not for me for many reasons : I didn’t like the faculty, environment and most importantly I realized I needed to move away from basic science and more toward my interests which were in more clinical neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology. My program did not offer any human research, only animal work which I did not want and did not realize.

Given this, I voluntarily dropped to the masters in neuroscience which I will receive next spring. I am trying to apply to clinical psychology PhD programs for fall of 2017 which I know are crazy competitive. I have high hopes since I’ve already been admitted to PhD programs and have gone through the interview process however this is a totally different field. I need advice particularly from those who have actually gotten in. I want to know what my chances are given my background which is a little different from the typical applicant.

1). What schools did you apply to/get into? Which are considered safety schools?

2). Given my background, what are my chances of getting in? Low, medium, high?

  • I already will have had a masters degree and have gone through the grad school process -My undergraduate GPA was 3.72, I have a bachelor's in biology with a minor in psychology -My GRE scores (weakest part of my application) 151 Q, 157 V, 4.5 Analytical. -I have 1 publication in a scientific journal -Don't have many prestigious presentations except a few semi-unrelated ones in college -Research experience: abundant. I've had a paid internship in a biomedical science lab, I've been in multiple labs throughout grad school, I have some psych experience in undergrad but not much. Most of my experience is in neuroscience & biology with little human experience which is why I'm worried about getting in. However, I am currently shadowing in a rehabilitation clinic that has human research ongoing. As well as I'm getting my masters within in psychology lab. -I am taking the psychology subject GRE to boost my application a bit although I don't know how much it will help.

What do you think my chances are? What can I do to improve my application?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

2

I would say that you have decent to good prospects - you obviously have psychological research experience, will have an MS neuroscience, you have a publication, etc. You don’t need to take the psychology GRE unless your intended programs require it - it doesn’t boost your application if none of your programs care.

Your main challenge area will be lack of coursework in psychology. If you want to get into a PhD program in psychology, you need some psychology background. Do you have intro psych, research methods, statistics, and 2-3 electives in psychology (like developmental, cognitive, biological, social, etc.)? That I think is the bare minimum of what you’d need. Normally I’d say more, but because of your neuroscience background I think you’ll do all right.

Your secondary challenge, at some programs, will be your lack of clinical activities - like volunteering a hospital psych ward, shadowing a clinician, working/volunteering in another rehab or mental health setting, etc. Many clinical science programs (the top clinical psych programs) may not care about that so much, but places that take a science-practitioner approach will. But you are currently shadowing now, so that will mitigate that a lot.

Tertiary challenge will be the GRE scores. You may want to think about retaking the general GRE instead of or in addition to taking the psych GRE.