Tips for Applying to Clinical Psychology PhD Programs

Clinical psychology is the most popular and competitive area of study in psychology, and arguably the most competitive of graduate programs in all social and hard sciences. Counseling psychology is a close second. If you hope to study either of these fields you must be on your game. Even the best applicants dont get into all of their top choices and some dont get into any. How do you improve your odds of gaining admission to a graduate program in clinical or counseling psychology? Obtain Excellent GRE Scores This one is a no-brainer. Your scores on the Graduate Record Exam will make or break your doctoral application in competitive fields like clinical and counseling psychology. High GRE scores are important because many clinical and counseling doctoral programs receive hundreds of applications. When a graduate program receives more than 500 applications, the admissions committee looks for ways to weed out applicants. GRE scores are a common way of narrowing the applicant pool. Excellent GRE scores not only gain you admittance to graduate school, but they may also get you funding. For example, applicants with high GRE quantitative scores might be offered teaching assistantships in statistics or a research assistantship with a faculty member. Get Research Experience Applicants to graduate school in clinical and counseling psychology need research experience. Many students believe that applied experience working with people will help their application. They look for internships, practica, and volunteer experiences. Unfortunately applied experience is useful only in small doses. Instead doctoral programs, specifically Ph.D. programs, look for research experience and research experience trumps all other extracurricular activities. Research experience is out of class experience conducting research under the supervision of a faculty member. It usually begins with working on a professors research. Volunteer to help in any way needed. This might include administering surveys, entering data, and looking up research articles. It often also includes tasks like copying and collating papers. Competitive applicants design and carry out independent studies under the supervision of a faculty member. Ideally, some of your research will be presented at undergraduate and regional conferences, and perhaps even published in an undergraduate journal. Understand the Value of Research Experience Research experience shows that you can think like a scientist, problem solve, and understand how to ask and answer scientific questions. Faculty look for students who show a good fit to their research interests, can contribute to their lab, and is competent. Research experience suggests a baseline skill level and is an indicator of your ability to succeed in the program and complete a dissertation. Some applicants gain research experience by earning a masters degree in a research-oriented field such as experimental psychology. This option often appeals to students with little preparation or low-grade point averages as supervised experience with a faculty member highlights your potential to become a researcher. Know the Field Not all clinical and counseling doctoral programs are the same. There are three classes of clinical and counseling doctoral programs: ScientistScientist-practitionerPractitioner-scholar They differ in the relative weight given to training in research and practice. Students in scientist programs earn PhDs and are trained exclusively as scientists; no training is offered in practice. Scientist-practitioner programs train students in both science and practice. Most students earn PhDs and are trained as scientists as well as practitioners and learn to apply scientific approaches and techniques to practice. Practitioner-scholar programs train students to be practitioners rather than researchers. Students earn a PsyD and receive extensive training in therapeutic techniques. Match the Program Know the difference between a Ph.D. and PsyD. Choose the type of program that youd like to attend, whether it emphasizes research, practice, or both. Do your homework. Know each graduate programs training emphases. Admissions committees look for applicants whose interests match their training emphases. Apply to a scientist program and explain that your professional goals lie in private practice and youll receive a rejection letter instantly. Ultimately you cannot control the admission committees decision, but you can choose a program that fits you well, and you present yourself in the best light possible.

Taking a look at the Movie Precious - 652 Words

The movie Precious is revolves heavily on the severe outcomes of life and how the sever sufferings that some suffer can really effect one’s mental status. The main character of the movie is Claireece Precious Jones, referred to as Precious, a 16-year-old girl who has lived through a life of abuses with her abusive mother Monique and step father Rodney; suffering at a very young age from both her parents. In the movie, Precious lives in a ghetto in Harlem New York surviving on welfare from an unemployed mother and her first child. Precious among other problems from an abusive lifestyle, has critical eating disorders and finds comfort in constant eating. The movie is based on the novel Push by Sapphire (Albers, 2009). Precious faces ceaseless abuses from her mom. According to Albers, Precious’s mother, did not protect her from her fathers abuse, who constantly molested her and her mother forced her to have sex with her step father which resulted in her getting pregnant twice. Mom rather aided the abuse in so many ways. One through food. She intimidates Precious into preparing greasy, fatty foods for her. She brutally makes Precious eat even when she doesn’t feel like. Making her daughter fat helps her secure herself causing other to reject her. Also, her fatness causes her to hate her daughter more, who she is resentful of her for many reasons. Avoiding Precious from controlling her own hunger is another way of abusing Precious body and disrespect her personalShow MoreRelatedThroughout The Movie Precious, There Are Several Times836 Words   |  4 PagesThroughout the movie Precious, there are several times when the audience witnesses trauma and its effect on Precious’ life . These traumatizing events include sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. When people go through these events, their mind will find ways to cope with their situation. These coping mechanisms are depersonalization, derealization, detachment, and dissociation. 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The abuse and oppression was so traumatic for Precious, she would often dissociate herself from the situation and pretend to be someone else. Losing track of time, her situation and herself was her coping mechanism; throughout the movie it appeared that sheRead MoreAnalysis Of Indian Women In India1155 Words   |  5 PagesMoreover, Indian women just cant escape from getting picked on. Even at home there is lots of pressure, especially when money is involved. There is a big hair business system, taking place in India. It attracts many buyers mostly the Chinese and Eastern Europeans, but the Americans dont fall too far behind. We as well take some part in this. In India, the men force their wives to share of their hair for money, some children are forced into doing it as well. Some as well as forced, are tricked tooRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Pleasantville 1325 Words   |  6 Pageswith the fifties addiction in the movie. He s obsessed with the fifty show â€Å"Pleasantville† that plays reruns. This is set in a simple place where everyone is everyone is a perfect character and perky, hostile is dirty word and life is pleasingly pleasant. David addicted to this perfect ideal world, David deepens himself in Pleasantville as an innocent escape from the tough world in his era, that he must share with pretty, popular twin sister, Jennifer. In the movie, one evening, life just his them

Foreshadowing In Tale Of Two Cities Essay Example For Students

Foreshadowing In Tale Of Two Cities Essay In Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, the author repeatedly foreshadows the impending revolution. In Chapter Five of Book One, Dickens includes the breaking of a wine cask to show a large, impoverished crowd gathered in a united cause. Later, we find find Madame Defarge symbolically knitting, what we come to find out to be, the death warrants of the St. Evremonde family. Also, after Marquis is murdered for killing the small child with his horses, we come to see the theme of revenge that will become all too common. The author uses vivid foreshadowing to paint a picture of civil unrest among the common people that will come to lead to the French Revolution. In Chapter Five of Book One, Dickens includes the breaking of a wine cask to show a large, impoverished crowd gathered in a united cause. At this point in the novel, Lucie Mannette and Mr. Lorry had just arrived in Paris to find Lucies father. The author appears to get off of the subject to describe the breaking of the wine cask. This however, is much more significant than it would first appear. Outside of a wine-shop, a wine cask is broken in the street. Many people rush around the puddle on the ground trying to scoop it up and drink as much as they can. Dickens describes the rush to the spilled wine by saying The people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness to run to the spot and drink the wine some men kneeled down, made scoops with their two hands joined and sipped.(Dickens 27). This goes to show how desperate the people are. The quote also infers that many people are unemployed. As a joke, a man writes the word BLOOD on a wall next to where the cask broke open. This foreshadows the violence of the unruly mobs later in the novel. This scene points out how impoverished the people of Paris are and how rowdy a crowd can become when they are unified under a united cause. Later, we find find Madame Defarge symbolically knitting, what we come to find out to be, the death warrant of the St. Evremonde family. Madame Defarge was a very hateful character. She hated the upper-class and was never able to get past this hatred. Thus, she and her husband become leaders of the Jaquerie, a group that is planning the revolution. Madame Defarge knits constantly. In Chapter Fifteen, we come to find out that what she is actually knitting is a register of those that she thinks must be killed. We then find out that she as decided that Charles Darnay should be included on her register. This foreshadows the unjust imprisonment and death sentence that Darnay is given later in the novel. This not only foreshadows the imprisonment of Darnay, but also how ruthless the revolution will get. People will die because of who they are related to, or who they work for. Madame Defarges knitting proves to be much more than knitting and it foreshadowed the savage violence that would oc cur later in the novel. After the Marquis is murdered for killing the small child with his horses, we come to see the theme of revenge that will become all too common. When we are introduced to Marquis St. Evremonde, we immediately find him to be a selfish, arrogant aristocrat. The Marquis is so different from the common people that he looks at them as though they were as insignificant as cattle. Returning to his home from Paris, the Marquis carriage hits a small child and kills him. The Marquis is not the least bit apologetic and says Its is extraordinary to me that you people cannot take care of yourself and your children. one or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses?(Dickens 107) Soon after this event, the father, Gaspard, avenges his sons death by murdering the Marquis. Gaspard is later hung for his act, but he still is presented as a noble character. This foreshadows the future revolution by showing the lower class starting to rise up and defend them selves against the class injustice which is present throughout France at this time. There were many instances in which the author foreshadowed the coming revolution. He used Gaspards revenge on the Marquis St. Evremonde as a way of showing the friction between the classes and as a way of showing the lower class stand up to the oppressive aristocrats. He also used Madame Defarges knitting, as a way of foreshadowing the way Charles Darnay, and many others, would be imprisoned and sentenced to death at the revolutionaries trials. In addition to that, the author used the instance of the wine cask breaking open in the street to emphasizes how poverty-stricken the common people of France were and how tumultuous a crowd of people united around a common cause can be. Charles Dickens used foreshadowing to great effect in his novel Tale of Two Cities.