<p>I am applying for a master's level research-oriented psychology program at a CSU. </p>
<p>I just took the GRE and received a fairly low score: 148q, 149v, and my AWA is unknown yet but I would be lucky if I receive a 4. </p>
<p>As for my GPA, I have been an undergrad student for six years as I took a yearlong break after my third year and transferred. I started out with poor academic discipline. I was even on academic probation and had abysmal egregious grades for the first 3 years of my undergrad. However, I transferred to a different school and did excellent. My major GPA is a 3.8, cumulative GPA at my the college I graduated move is a 3.65, and my psychology minor GPA is a 3.9... BUT my overall GPA is a 3.02. In addition to this, I am lacking a few psychology classes typical psychology undergraduates have completed. As for my research, I have a semester's worth of research experience in two different labs. My major is also a clinically-focused field, so I have 3 years of experiences doing clinical work w/ patients in health care facilities.</p>
<p>I have solid letters of rec and am currently still working on my personal statement. I am most concerned about my GRE's potential in weakening my application. Should I wait and retake the GRE or apply this month as originally intended?</p>
<p>Are you only applying to one MA program? An MA in psychology at a CSU is likely to be fair-to-middlin’, and if the application fee isn’t a significant hardship I would go ahead and apply. Typically these MA programs serve as preparation for a PhD and they may accept students that they know aren’t quite competitive for PhD programs yet (for a variety of reasons).</p>
<p>Your GRE scores are quite low, but my primary concern is that you are lacking some psychology classes. Which classes are these? If they are electives in subfields in which you are not interested (cognitive, developmental, etc.) that’s okay. If they are core psychology classes (statistics, research methods) OR they are electives in your field (for a clinically focused person - abnormal) then that could potentially be an issue. But again, MA in psychology is usually designed to prepare weak to mediocre candidates for a PhD program, so they may be more lenient.</p>
<p>Julliet, thank you for your response!</p>
<p>Yes I am only applying to MA in Psych Research at CSULB as well as the MS Clinical Psych at CSUFullerton. The psych classes I am lacking are: neuropsychology, learning, and social psych. I will be enrolled in advanced stats and neuropsych at CSULB during the time my application is being reviewed by the grad committee. I have taken core classes, such as stats, research, physiological psych, etc, in addition to health psych, child psych, abnormal psych, and more. </p>
<p>I think I may just apply…</p>