<p>I'm looking to apply for an MA in Clinical Psychology program, and I wasn't sure how my resume is for it. What do you guys think?</p>
<ul>
<li>1320 on GRE (580V, 740Q--> Should I raise up my Verbal?)</li>
<li>3.52 overall GPA</li>
<li>4.0 Psychology GPA</li>
<li>I'm a Psi Chi officer</li>
<li>I'm in 3 honor societies: Psi Chi, Golden Key and NSCS</li>
<li>I've been working in a research lab for 2 years</li>
<li>and I've been working as a volunteer at an equine therapy stable since 2006</li>
</ul>
<p>What I'm really worried about is my lack of real experience in the mental health field, and my verbal, which is a bit low.</p>
<p>If anyone has any feedback, it would REALLY be appreciated.</p>
<p>I think your resume looks fine especially for an MA program - I think that you’d have good chances even at a PhD program. Honestly for clinical psychology unless you don’t want the PhD (which I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t in clinical) I think you should try to apply for both PhD and MA programs. If you plan to go on to a PhD in clinical psych most programs will make you start over and won’t recognize much if any of your MA classes towards your standing.</p>
<p>I know my program considers 1200 our minimum score (not clinical, but a general psych PhD with three areas of concentration) but we don’t request a specific breakdown. Your verbal could be higher, but I’m not sure I would retake the GRE - it’s pretty high on it’s own. Also, there’s not much experience to be had in mental health with just a BA. I guess you could work at a rehab clinic or in a doc’s office, but plenty of students get in without that. Honestly, most clinical psych programs are more concerned with research experience than mental health experience.</p>
<p>Seconding everything julliet said about really needing a PhD/PsyD (ONLY go for university-based, funded ones, though) for clinical and research experience way outweighing clinical experience in most case. To that end, do you have any conference presentations? Journal publications? Will you be doing an honors thesis? All of those, especially publications, will really help your app. Also, keep in mind that at most PhD programs you will need to apply to specific faculty who match your (well-defined and well-stated in SOP) research interests, so you will need to investigate potential faculty research matches ahead of time. Your GPA is just a bit on the low side for PhD and solid, funded PsyD programs, but I wouldn’t think that it–or your GRE–would get you automatically screened out anywhere (GRE scores and GPAs are often used simply as “first round” screening tools, after which research experience, fit with faculty, etc., becomes FAR more important).</p>
<p>Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I’m applying to MA clinical psych programs, too. Where have you found that seems to be a good program?</p>