Chances of getting into Clinical Psychology PhD with my background.

Graduate School
1

I am applying to Clinical Psychology PhD programs. I am desperate for some perspective. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Bachelors: Psychology
Masters of Science: Human Cognitive Neuropsychology

Undergrad overall GPA (I had one horrible semester): 3.465
Undergrad Psychology GPA: 3.8

I am not a good test taker. I plan to take it again:
-GRE Verbal: 149; 43%
-GRE Quant: 146; 24%
-GRE Writing: 4; 60%

Research experience: 3 years (Research technician in EEG , fMRI and clinical lab); 3 years (Project coordinator at upper limb prosthesis research lab)

Clinical experience: 3 years (Clinical lab working with patients with ASD, dyslexia and schizophrenia and assist with writing neuropsych reports); 1 year (clinical lab learning how to administer cognitive measures and shadowing Clinical Psychologist).

Teaching experience: Taught two one-hour courses to research interns on EEG data analysis and protocol for conducting research with at risk populations. Supervised training of summer interns at Neuroimaging lab.

Abstract submission and Poster presentation: 5 (3 secondary author @ VA medical center; 2 first authors @ Dubrovnik Conference on Cognitive Science VI; and @ University of Edinburgh, respectively).

Publications: 7 (3 second co-author, 3 third co-authorships, 1 co-authorship).

Potential publication by time I submit PHD applications: 9 (two manuscripts currently under review)

Race: Black
Gender: Male

Languages speak and understand: English (fluent), French (can semi comprehend and speak), creole (can semi-comprehend a little difficulty speaking)

Schools applying to, in order of preference:

  1.  Yale University

  2.  Harvard University

  3.  University of Pennsylvania

  4.  University of Michigan

  5.  University of Iowa

  6.  Temple University

  7.  DUKE University

  8.  University of Oregon

  9.  Indiana University Bloomington
  10. Washington State University
  11. Boston University
  12. The university of Vermont
  13. The University of Maine
  14. University of Missouri, Kansas City
  15. George Mason University
  16. Eastern Michigan University
  17. University of Wisconsin-Madison
  18. University of Wyoming
2

You’re a pretty competitive applicant. Your GPA and GRE scores are a bit lower than general recommended minimums for competitive psychology programs (basically every place above about #12 on your list). Your quant score, especially, is quite low if you intend to continue doing fMRI or EEG analysis.

However, the real crown here is your research experience - it sounds like you have 6 years of research experience and 4 years of clinical experience, which is WAY more than the average applicant to a clinical psych PhD program. And you also have seven publications, which is, again WAY more than the average applicant to a clinical psych program. In fact, that’s more publications than many people leave their PhD programs with (it’s more than I finished with!). And the relatively high position of your authorship indicates that you contributed actual work.

I have the feeling/sense that this will come down, a lot, to your research interests and fit with the department. If your research interests are a strong fit with the department and the professors value your background, you’ll be a strong candidate. If they’re not, you’ll be more borderline.

Applying to a lot of programs across a range is a good strategy as well.

3

Thank you Juillet!

This feedback was very helpful with making me feel that I am in the safe zone with at maximum 7 schools. That feedback was surprising because my current GRE scores are below the 50 percentile mark, which is way below every mean/median score for students admitted to all of the universities on the list, over time (based on each university’s, respective admission stats).

I am taking an in-person GRE prep class and fully intend to retake the GREs to boost my score in September and then October, if needed. I want to increase my chances of being considered for Universities higher up on the list.

Thankfully, I have been in contact (email, phone) with my faculty of interest at every University, to have them confirm beforehand that my research and clinical training interests align with their own. Consequently, I am only applying to schools (#1-18) where a faculty has explicitly encouraged me to apply for the program and their group (as well as confirm funding availability). Prior to reviewing my application, most of the faculty will already know / remember my plans for the program and after the program, as well as my background because I shared my CV with them. The only thing I can’t control is the proportion of other students who have a better fit with a faculty I want to work with, as well as higher GPA and GRE scores to match (which is important for the University’s image and getting supplementary funding).

I agree with you, I don’t think I will be competing with other applicants when it comes to publications, unless there is an outlier who has 9 publications and she/he is first author on all of them. Or there could be someone with less publications than myself but they are first author on all of them.

I really do hope my research and clinical experience as well as publications outshine my GPA and GRE score, especially in the initial phase of application reviews. I at least want for my application to make it to the admissions committee (the faculty) for review, which doesn’t happen when there is a GRE cut off at 90 / 80 percentile.

I have been thinking about boosting my quant for the reasons you mentioned. EEG will always be part of my work and although I can do and have done the analysis and write up, a review committee will have justification to question my preparedness for that type of work if my Quant scores are not at least in the 70 percentile

I agree, with the approach of applying to a lot of programs to increase likelihood of acceptance. 18 universities is my maximum because of financial constraints as well as time management and availability.

4

Juillet I don’t mean to take too much of your time. However, I have one important question about fellowships.

Although most of the universities on the list cover full funding / a large portion of funding, many look more fondly towards incoming students who acquire outside source of funding.

All of the fellowships available for PhD programs are for students who have already received an acceptance letter. Does this mean that I can only apply for external funding after I receive acceptance notifications.

In undergrad I was able to apply for scholarships prior to knowing what university I was going to. I only needed to list the potential schools I might attend. Is their an equivalent process for confirming PhD funding / can I relax about looking for funding until I get firm acceptances from a program?

FYI- I know a list of funding sources to apply to once I get into a program.

5

Don’t underestimate the essay/statement. Do well on that and you can make up some ground from your GRE/GPA.

6

I will definitely give everything I’ve got to statement of purpose and personal statements.

7

GRE scores are the least important part of your application. I mean yes, you should try to raise yours if you can, but don’t give them outsized importance. My wager is that MOST professors would be willing to overlook the lower scores when they see 6 years of research and 7 publications. The important thing is that you already show promise as a young scholar, and you have already proven that you can do what they will be expecting from you in grad school. That is way more indicative of future work than the GRE.

Medians are medians for a reason - 50% of people score below them!

This doesn’t really happen - or at least, not as often as applicants think it does. I’m not going to say that there’s no program out there that doesn’t do a cut for GRE scores. But I think it’s relatively few, and the few that do don’t cut it at the 90th or 80th percentile. There’s just too great a risk of missing a great applicant.

Nope.

Most fellowships can only be awarded to students who are attending a degree-granting graduate program (often a PhD), but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be selected for a fellowship with the understanding that in order to use it you have to be admitted to and attend a PhD program. For example, you can apply for an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship as a senior in college (or the year before you attend graduate school regardless of whether or not you are in college).

It’s unclear to me whether or not you’d be eligible for it. On the one hand, the NSF deems ineligible anyone in an area of graduate study focused on clinical practice. However, it also says people in public health are ineligible and I got an NSF when I was in graduate school (although to be fair, I justified my grey area pretty well). I’d take a look at past awardees to see if anyone in clinical psych PhD programs has been awarded it before, then consider applying to that. The application is due in late October, so you have to start soon.

That said, for most of these large fellowships you won’t know the results until after you’d hear back from doctoral programs anyway.

8

Thank you Juillet for the thorough response. All of this feedback and suggestion has been all very helpful and has relieved me of a lot of concerns and giving me some great ideas for how to move forward productively, during this final phase of things.