Chances for Psychology Ph.D. Programs

psych_2
Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:01:40 +0000

(Background: I’m a first year in a School Psychology PhD program with a child clinical focus)

Your new GRE scores should get you past the first round of screening, which is generally what GRE scores and GPA are most used for in clinical programs.

Strongly disagree with NeuroGrad–publications are VERY helpful in the process, and you should definitely try to get authorship, even if it isn’t directly related to your goals! Relatedly, have you considered revising and submitting your unpublished research for publication? That might help a lot, too, but keep in mind, that there’s pretty much no chance of it actually be published before you apply (the publication process can be really drawn out–peer review alone takes at least two months, often more, and manuscripts are rarely accepted without revisions). Even if the paper(s) under review will help your app, though.

The number of credits you’ve earned (APA and otherwise) probably won’t matter. Both the online schooling (clinical psych is generally not that supportive of only training) and your age will probably both hurt you at clinical programs, maybe less so at social psych ones. As someone else said, your age may present a liability when seeing clients. I might try contacting individual schools about this.

Is your MS program online or back and motor? If the latter, you might consider finishing out the program, allowing you to turn 18 and get a lot of additional research and maybe some clinical experience. Research experience (including and especially presentations and publications) is key when applying to psychology PhD programs, especially some of the very research heavy programs, like Arizona, UMBC, and UCSD/SDSU (referring to clinical specifically–which clinical programs are yopu considering and which social programs are you considering?). If you still at 18 when you finish your masters or you don’t get in the first time around, consider working for a year or two as a paid research assistant. It’s a common route.

Good luck! What you’ve accomplished at your age is quite impressive!