PhD Psychology... do I have a chance?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm currently a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Middle East, teaching English. Being here has made me pique my interest in graduate school. I haven't yet narrowed down my interests but I'm thinking about something in the field of social psych, cultural psych or educational psych. I'm very interested in cross-cultural issues in psychology and would like contribute to this research field.</p>

<p>I graduated 4 years ago, my undergrad GPA was 3.72 and I majored in psychology and political science. I haven't taken the GRE yet but my practice scores are around 1300 combined for verbal and quantitative and I'm continuing to study for it here. My transcript and extra-curricular activities can reflect an interest in social or ed psych as well as cross-cultural activities.</p>

<p>What I'm worried about is my weak background in math and research. I have a year of statistics and the intro course to research methods but that's about it. I worked as a 'research' assistant for a psychiatrist with his research projects but it was mostly just data entry and conducting clinical interviews. As sort of a bonus, he gave me course credit for research in the bio dept for one quarter although i worked him for a year. But I don't have anything like an undergrad thesis or even upper div statistics or advanced research methods. During undergrad I had planned into going into clinical psych rather than research psychology so I never made research a focus in my studies.</p>

<p>I have a lot of 'real-world' multi-cultural experience from studying abroad, working with delinquent youth through AmeriCorps and now being in the Peace Corps but is any of that valuable in the research world?</p>

<p>I finish my service summer 2010 and will probably start applying for grad school after that when I narrow down my interests (and get a better perspective on what the economy is like), but do you have any advice? Am I out of my league for a PhD program in psych? Should I consider pursuing a MA first? Any RPCVs out there that feel that their Peace Corps experience might be slightly useless in some graduate studies?</p>

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<p>You sound strong EXCEPT for the research component. Unfortunately, without research experience, it is extremely difficult to have developed and focused research interests and without those, you likely will not stand a chance in any psychology doctoral program (clinical or experimental).
Your clinical experience with delinquent youth will be of minimal value in PhD Psych applications (esp. in non-clinical areas). Even in clinical areas, clinical experience is seen as low to medium in importance, while research is generally of high importance, as are current and strong letters of rec (specifically from psychology faculty and preferably speaking about your research potential and experience) and a strong, research-oriented statement of purpose.
I applied to balanced Clinical Psychology PhD programs (meaning half research, half clinical) so, if anything, I am may actually be underplaying the importance of research slightly, but overall it’s important. If you were applying to clinical programs, the clinical background would be of some value but in experimental (e.g., social, community, neuropsych, etc.), clinical experience is almost worthless.</p>

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<p>I’ve to come a similar conclusion after many hours of googling. I have a strong background, unfortunately, I really don’t know what for… haha! Thanks for your insight though</p>