<p>I go to H/Y/P (for identification reasons won't say which) and (was) pre-med; class of 2013</p>
<p>For the past five semesters...I was not lazy, but did have poor study skills and time management skills (took on huge extracurricular commitments) and I messed up in literally every single science class I have taken so far. As a 2nd-sem junior, so far I've taken 11 science classes and have an average of 2.8 on them; my cumulative GPA is a 3.0 right now. I KNOW, I know. med school is not in my future unless I do a post-bac</p>
<p>I really love my psych classes and doing research for my senior thesis, so rather than a post-bac then med school, I kind of want to go into academia for social psych instead. But my worry is whether I can get into a decent PhD program with my abysmal GPA.</p>
<p>I have taken 5 psych classes so far, with a 3.5 in those. These grades are not as high as they could have been because those were always my ignored classes as I struggled in sciences</p>
<p>If I switch my focus and stop taking hard science classes, over the next 3 semesters I'm confident I can pull my Psych GPA up to a 3.6/3.7 and my overall to a 3.2/3.3 (I know that a 3.3 would be ideal but mathematically that might prove difficult at this point) </p>
<p>My senior thesis advisor is extremely famous in social psychology so if I could get a strong recommendation that would really helpful.</p>
<p>So what do you all think, can a psych PhD happen? Again, I am interested in academia and not clinical psychology</p>
<p>Given the nature of Social Psychology PhD admissions right now, without a publication, you’re probably out for most respectable (i.e., R1 schools) programs.</p>
<p>You could always give it a try if you have the financial means to do so. If it doesn’t work out, there are some research-oriented masters programs in social psychology or experimental psychology where you could build up your research experience and publications, get a great GPA and try again for PhD programs. The research-oriented masters programs usually have better funding than more applied programs, so that might be something to look into as a back up plan.</p>
<p>Also, what area of social psychology? Some programs specify a sub topic, such as all the social psych profs study implicit attitudes, others might study prosocial behavior, yet others might have their focus on political behaviors, etc., so when you’re talking about top schools, you need to consider top social psych programs within your specific area of interest.</p>
<p>If you work to pull your GPA up, and get a masters first (with a high GPA 3.7+) I think you’ll be ok. Don’t expect to get accepted directly to any top PhD programs, but if you go get an MA and do well, I think most adcomms even at top programs would look past your BA gpa.</p>
<p>Given the nature of Social Psychology PhD admissions right now, without a publication, you’re probably out for most respectable (i.e., R1 schools) programs.</p>
<p>Not true. This is my field. The vast majority of admits do not have a publication from undergrad, although many of them have presented research at conferences.</p>
<p>I got into a top 20 PhD program with a 3.4 cumulative GPA and a 3.7 psychology GPA. It can be done - your psychology GPA will be more important, and if you can explain that you did poorly because you were in the wrong field but once you’d discovered your passion for psychology, you found your stride and improved - you’ll have a better shot. The strong advisor recommendation will also give you a tremendous advantage, especially if those in the field know and respect his work. (Hopefully, you have been doing research with him besides just the senior thesis, though. If the senior thesis is the only psychology research you have done so far, you have very slim chances of getting admitted.)</p>
<p>If you don’t get in, you can work for 2-3 years as a lab manager/research coordinator in a psychology/psychiatry/mental health lab to improve your credentials. Many people do this. In my cohort, only about half of us came in straight from undergrad. The other half had done some work and many had prior master’s degrees in psychology or related fields. The field is VERY competitive nowadays, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get admitted.</p>
<p>“R1” is the old Carnegie classification for schools. It means Research I, which means a school with a very high research productivity and strong doctoral programs. This designation has been replaced with RU/VH, which means “Research University/Very High.” The Very High refers to research/publication output across fields. Most top psychology programs are at RU/VH schools.</p>
<p>But aren’t you a 4th year at the school in the UWS NYC? I take classes with a good number of people in the Social Psychology program and the first years all have stacked CVs. The older students even mention that the competition has gotten a lot crazier the last few application seasons. </p>
<p>If you look over at thegradcafe Psych forums, you’ll see some people with strong numbers, a publication + presentations, etc. who got shut out of all the schools they applied to, even when they cast a fairly wide net. </p>