Graduate school admission chances (psych)

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and I'm majoring in philosophy and minoring in psychology and history.</p>

<p>I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea of how good my chances for getting into a program for clinical psychology (or at least another branch of psych) at the following schools would be:</p>

<ul>
<li>Rutgers (I'm often told Rutgers graduate school does not like to admit those who went here for undergrad)</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>New York University</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Princeton (no clinical program offered, in this case social psych.)</li>
<li>Temple University</li>
<li>University of Delaware</li>
<li>SUNY</li>
<li>Fordham University</li>
</ul>

<p>if I decide to go away far from NJ:
- Boston University
- University of Chicago
- Stanford
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Los Angeles</p>

<p>Currently my GPA is a 3.9, I'm in two honor societies, I interned at a mental health facility, assisted in research on three different psychology projects, some volunteer work, some extracurricular group involvement, and two good letters of recommendation so far. I've yet to take the GRE's though.</p>

<p>Also, if anyone knows of other schools in my general area that offer good psychology grad programs that I haven't mentioned here, let me know :)</p>

2

<p>Everything else looks good, but not knowing what GRE score you’re going to get, it’s impossible to say.</p>

3

<p>Its all in the GRE and recommendations of faculty. I presume you will do well. Fordham’'s program is particularly strong and well respected. </p>

<p>Look online and see how many programs are “fully funded and have stipends for students.” Aim for those. Otherwise you might be paying a lot of money. </p>

<p>Are you looking for a terminal M.A.? Or a PhD program?</p>

4

<p>If you’re doing a PhD in psychology, you don’t want to go anywhere that doesn’t offer you full funding (that’s tuition + stipend + more). But that’s not going to be an issue, because you’re applying to all respectable schools. If a school can’t fund you, they just won’t accept you. </p>

<p>Anyways, there’s a big big difference between clinical psych and social psych. Those differences are smaller if you’re planning on staying in academia, but if you want to practice, a clinical psych degree is going to be way different. I understand if your interests are varied, but you should definitely put some thought into whether you want to do clinical (internships, getting licensed, possibly practicing outside of academia) or if you would rather be in social or another branch of psych (basic or applied research, but much less access to patients; no interning or licensure necessary).</p>

<p>You look fairly competitive for either, although you’ll need good GRE scores and great letters. Just know that clinical and social psych are probably the two most competitive psychology fields, and some of the most competitive fields in general as far as admissions.</p>

5

<p>Do you have any posters/presentations or publications? Research experience is THE key factor at most programs!</p>

<p>Also, you need to have a good idea of what you want to research and apply to professors how research that (“research match”). This is incredibly important.</p>

6

<p>Thank you all for your recommendations.</p>

<p>My top choice is clinical, but I am aware that is the toughest to get into. So being that I’m interested in psychology overall, I wouldn’t mind settling for a different branch of it. I want to do clinical because I want to help people.</p>

<p>I’ve yet to begin my research assistance, but that will be done these next two semesters. I don’t know if I’ll be published or not. I anticipate getting good letters of rec from the professors though, they’re both very well known and are full time faculty here.</p>

<p>I didn’t know Fordham’s program was held in such high esteem.</p>

7

<p>Having only a year of research at application time will probably hurt you a good amount in the application pool. And DON’T say that you “want to help people” in your application essay even if it’s true. Also, make sure you have a solid research interest and only apply to places with faculty who match that interest and are taking students. Finally, being a psych minor instead of a major may hurt you but only a bit. Your GPA and clinical experience look solid, though. Good luck!</p>

8

<p>The fact that I’ll only have a year of research is due to the fact that I only transferred to Rutgers recently. Prior to that I attended community college where there were no research projects available in which to assist in. I only recently found out the importance of research for graduate school and am now trying to play catch-up. I may take a semester or possibly a year off and in that time I plan to continue aiding in research at Rutgers.</p>

<p>I’m aware that I should avoid stating the cliche that I wish to help people in my essay, I can’t really understand why that would be a bad thing - one would assume besides advancing our knowledge, that philanthropy should be a primary motivation - but I’m certainly not going to take any chances by putting it in there.</p>

<p>I also have heard that majoring in something other than psych undergrad may not be a bad thing, for some programs look for a diversity of backgrounds in their applicants. It’s a misconception that you have to do undergrad what you intend to do in grad school.</p>

<p>Thanks for the tips everyone, you’ve all been MORE than helpful!</p>

9

<p>Yes, having a diverse background can be helpful (I’m a double major+minor myself), but it’s important you dempnstrate a strong background in psych, too, and do well on the subject GRE. Also, you CAN put that you want to help people in your SOP–but you have to be specific (as in, “Through developing and testing interventions for people with paranoid schizophrenia, I aim to decrease reactive distress and increase functional ability in this population.”). Good luck–you sound like your have a strong application–just develop solid research interests (you’re not too late–mine didn’t solidify until the middle of my junior year).</p>

10

<p>by far the most important factor in admissions is research match with faculty. if you’re not that into research and primarily want to practice, you should consider a PsyD or an MSW.</p>

11

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</p>

<p>This. That’s why it’s so important that you develop strong research interests.</p>

<p>Also, many of the programs (Temple, UPenn, Cal, UCLA) on your list are EXTREMELY research-oriented in nature and pretty much exclusively admit people who wish to become professional researchers/academics.</p>

12

<p>osiris, I echo what psych and huskem said about the importance of research match with faculty. My daughter is currently applying to Ph.D. programs for the fall so it’s been an eye opener for me.</p>

<p>I would focus most right now on getting as much research experience as you can to narrow down your research interests. This is really important because at some programs, you’re basically applying to a specific professor. That means you really can’t refine your school list until you know what profs at what schools are doing research you’re interested in. I’ve also read that some of the Ph.D. programs in the NYC area do not fully fund so that’s something to look into.</p>

<p>Since you’re only a junior, I would also suggest you check the applications for some of the programs you’ve listed to see if they have psych course requirements that they require for admission. A diverse background is fine but most programs have certain psych courses they expect you to have. As a junior, you still have time to pick courses up. </p>

<p>Good luck to you!</p>

13

<p>Masters or Doctorate? Very few doctoral programs admit students w/o a masters. It is much more do-able to get admitted to a masters program, and then progress to the Doctoral program in that (or another) school.</p>

<p>PhD or PsyD? PhD= Research oriented, PsyD= more clinically oriented.</p>

<p>Consider Loyola Maryland.</p>

14

<p>barbara - That’s not at all true in psychology. You are not at all expected to have a masters. The reason to do a masters first is if you don’t have a background in psychology or don’t have enough research experience. In that situation, a masters might be appropriate. But “very few doctoral programs admit students w/o a masters” is simply wrong.</p>

15

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<p>Yes. A Masters can also be helpful if you have a low UG GPA.</p>

16

<p>Also, while it’s universally true that PsyD programs are more clinically oriented, there are PhD programs on both sides of the spectrum. You just have to be able to seek out the appropriate programs for your methods.</p>

<p>And with master’s programs a lot of doctoral programs will not accept many or any of your classes, so it will be like starting all over.</p>

<p>OP, what are your goals with clinical programs? Do you want to primarily be a clinician who sees clients, or do you primarily want to perform research and become an academic? Because many of the programs that you listed are very strong clinical science programs (UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford for sure, I think Chicago and Temple as well) and cater towards students who want to be researchers and academics. While you will be licensed to practice, you may be unhappy at those places if your goal is to be a practitioner because the focus there is on turning out researchers and scholars.</p>

<p>Also, there are vast differences between social and clinical psychology. I’m in a social psychology program myself, and I don’t know anything about clinical work. It is wise to select what subfield you plan to enter first, and then apply widely to programs within your range. It’s not uncommon for students to apply to programs in different subfields, but that’s usually because they find professors that are able to advise them and interesting research topics in a different subfield.</p>

<p>Which brings me to my next point. How did you choose these programs? It seems very much that you selected them based on where they were located. With very few exceptions (e.g. you have a family and cannot move them), you do not select graduate programs based on proximity; you select them based on what professors are at those programs that can advise you during your course of study and which departments are the best fits for you academically and professionally (as well as socially). Especially if you are a junior in college, you need to be willing to look farther and wider to find a niche in which you can thrive particularly if you want to be an academic.</p>

<p>I’m aware that I should avoid stating the cliche that I wish to help people in my essay, I can’t really understand why that would be a bad thing - one would assume besides advancing our knowledge, that philanthropy should be a primary motivation</p>

<p>Not really. When you are a clinician perhaps, but for research, our research rarely directly helps people at the point that we handle it. Often it goes through three or four other channels before it is turned into something that directly benefits people. Besides, wanting to help people is not something that will set you apart from other applicants - stating a strong interest in a particular field of study is.</p>

<p>I also have heard that majoring in something other than psych undergrad may not be a bad thing, for some programs look for a diversity of backgrounds in their applicants. It’s a misconception that you have to do undergrad what you intend to do in grad school.</p>

<p>Yes and no. A “diversity of backgrounds” in undergraduate study is more valued for professional programs. In graduate school, the emphasis is on whether you can perform the work required of you to get through the program. If a program accepts 10 people and all 10 of those students were psychology majors…they don’t care, as long as they were the 10 strongest people in the pool. A grad program is not going to accept a philosophy major just because it’s “diverse,” they will accept you if you can prove that you have a strong background in psychology AND your philosophy study brings something interesting to the table, a new way of approaching problems, perhaps. One of the fifth-years in my lab was a philosophy major in undergrad, so it is done, but is far more common for students to be psychology majors (or neuroscience majors - we have a couple of those in our neuroscience area).</p>

<p>As a final note, I should advise you that Columbia’s GSAS doesn’t have a clinical psychology program. We have a general psychology program and you can specialize in social or cognitive psychology or neuroscience, or a combination of any two (or three, really, we have some social cognitive neuroscience people here too) of those areas. The clinical program is housed in Teachers College, and I’ve heard that the program doesn’t give good funding.</p>

17

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<p>Actually, neither Stanford nor UChicago HAVE clinical programs, and Temple is indeed incredibly research-oriented. As are Rutgers (PhD, and even Rutgers PsyD is pretty research-y for PsyD), UC-B, UCLA, UPenn, BU, and some of the SUNY schools (there are several). </p>

<p>Otherwise, I agree with everything in the above post, especially the not picking grad schools by location comment.</p>

18

<p>These are all important things to consider, I know.</p>

<p>Perhaps a PsyD or MSW wouldn’t be bad options for I am more interested in clinical practice than research when it comes down to it, but I also wouldn’t mind doing at least some research. So as long as I can still be in practice.</p>

<p>I would certainly consider a Master’s first, but I had difficulty finding a Master’s program at a lot of the institutions I looked at, including Rutgers. Many respectable schools only seem to have doctoral programs in psychology.</p>

19

<p>Also, I’m aware it’s not such a good idea to limit my search to institutions in a certain area, but for my particular situation it may be necessary to not venture off too far from home (I have family and financial considerations to take into account).</p>

<p>I would love to go to California ideally, but going there may prove impractical. It would be one thing if all the good programs only existed over there, but the fact is that there are plenty of great programs right within three hours of home, so I have plenty to choose from right here.</p>