WAMC: What Are My Chances

Excellent research experience--congrats on the publication! Decent clinical experience (but unless you've been a licensed professional, no one really applies with "excellent" clinical experience. GPA's a little low, but not so low as to get you screened out, I wouldn't think. On the DCT thread, you said you were applying to PhD programs? Are you planning on applying to both PhD and PsyD programs? What type of each?

-- After reading on here about the difference in money, and the fact that PhD programs seem to be "better" (I don't know if thats the right word), I think I am going to apply to mainly PhD programs and maybe a few PsyD programs as backup. As for PhD. I am applying to places around the midwest (Madison, Milwaukee, Minn., some Chicago schools, Illinois, Etc.)

Someone else said your GPA is low, I disagree with this because of the premed classes. Before taking premed classes I was well above 3.5, then I took premed classes and upper level bio classes, and am now at 3.27 overall. As long as you maintain high psych GPA AND you get the GRE scores to back it up, the overall wont hurt you because of quality of classes, in fact I think your GPA is quite good considering.

People say RA'ing is good research experience and a pub is nice, but what author were you? That makes a big diff in my opinion (i.e., 5th author on a 10 author paper, or 1st author etc). I actually have no clue what the difference between research assistant and research coordinator is, do you mean you actully design and perform independent experiments? Or you are still doing someone else's bidding? Have you thought about trying to do an independent project (maybe like a thesis) under the guidance of a faculty member?

I agree about the clinical experience thing, what IS nice is when you can combine the two, i.e., research in a clinical population, that has helped me.

Remember its not just about the quantity of what you have, its the quality. So lets say that presentation you have, is it at a national conference like the APA? Or was it local like a school-organized presentation? Is the publication in a journal with a high impact factor or a very low impact factor? Having a lot of different research positions isnt quite as nice as one or two really productive positions that result in letters from advisors speaking really highly about you.

Just some things to think about.

-- I was a 2nd author on the paper out of 4. And as far as research coordinator, I work directly with the professor and I am actually "co-designing" the new experiment we are working on. I was considering doing a thesis, but haven't actually talked about it with the professor. And although the presentation isn't at a national conference, it isn't just at my school either. All of my research has been done under two Professors, and I will be continuing the research until I graduate. Therefore these professors know me almost better than my parents do, and should be able to write strong LOR.

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WAMC: What Are My Chances