<p>I am currently a senior psychology major at a state school with minors in education and English. I have a 3.8 GPA, research lab experience, and an internship. I am most worried about my GRE scores. I will be taking the test in a couple weeks and have been studying, but don't do well on the practice tests and exams like this have always been a weakness of mine. (SATs did not go over well either.) I want to apply to Masters/Specialist programs in school psychology. </p>
<p>I am currently interested in:</p>
<p>Northeastern
Tufts
East Carolina
Appalachian State
George Mason
James Madison
Ohio State
UAlbany</p>
<p>I can't find any acceptance rates listed on these websites. I also want to know what kinds of GRE scores these schools are looking for. Does anyone have any information or know how I can go about retrieving said information? If I score really low on my GRE, will I still have a good chance at getting in based on my GPA and experience? Thanks.</p>
<p>1) Most schools don’t list acceptance rates, because they are less than helpful for graduate applicants. Even if a program has a 30% acceptance rate, for example, very strong applicants may have higher than that and very weak candidates won’t have a chance. Plus, they vary from year to year depending on funding and how many people they take in. If they’re not posted on the school’s website, it’s unlikely you’ll find it anywhere else.</p>
<p>2) Ditto on GRE scores - if they don’t post cut-off GRE scores, it’s probably because they don’t have a minimum and evaluate you holistically. </p>
<p>GRE scores are the least important part of your application, so unless you score abysmally (below 40th percentile, I would say) you probably still have a shot. I think most master’s and specialist programs are looking for people around 50th-60th percentile at least, and with a high GPA and research experience, you should be good.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response! I hope you’re right. Do you also happen to know whether it makes a big difference if a program is NASP accredited or not? I figure those are best in terms of finding a job, but I don’t know if I should necessarily rule out programs that aren’t.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m also applying to School Psychology specialist degree programs for Fall 2014, and I’m planning to apply to some of the same schools (Tufts, Northeastern, maybe App State and East Carolina)! Where are you from? I would be applying out-of-state to App State and East Carolina, and they told me people from out-of-state usually don’t attend because they can rarely offer financial aid/scholarships to them besides assistantships… so just a heads up if you’re not from NC and that’s a factor for you as well.</p>
<p>I just emailed faculty/admissions at a lot of the schools I want to apply to, and they’ve given me the average GRE scores of accepted students and acceptance rates. I wouldn’t worry too much about the GRE because it seems like they really look at everything, and most schools’ cut-off is just above 50% from what I’ve seen.</p>
<p>I’m only applying to NASP-accredited schools because graduating from a school that’s accredited makes it a lot easier to become a nationally certified school psychologist (you just have to pass the Praxis II, I believe). Otherwise the process can be more difficult, but I don’t think it means other programs are necessarily bad.</p>
<p>Good luck!! This process is stressing me out so much already, and I haven’t even started most of the apps.</p>
<p>Yes, it does make a big difference if the program is NASP accredited. NASP accreditation is the key to licensure in many states, and many (most?) states will only allow specialist-level SPs to get licensed if they went to a NASP accredited program. And you can only get nationally certified if you went to a NASP program.</p>
<p>My son graduated from a School Psych program in CT…he had very good grades, recs, and average GRE scores if I remember correctly. He wanted NASP accreditation, something not too far and funding. He found it and was lucky. He could have done the PhD but decided the Masters 6th year program was more suited to his needs at the time.</p>