Interview Questions
Alternative Career Choices
Jobs You can Get with a BA
- Why do you want this position?
- Why have you chosen this career path?
- What strengths do you have that set you apart from the other applicants?
- What are your areas of weakness?
- Where do you see yourself in ten years?
- Research Assistant
- Therapist with Birth-to-Three
- Para-professional aide in school
- Job coach
- Residential facility staff member
- Private tutor/companion/nanny
- Camp counselor/recreation coordinator
- Psych Tech
- Counseling Psychologists (PhD)
- School Psychologists (MA, PhD)
- Psychiatrists (MD)
- Social Work (MSW)
- Psychiatric Nursing (RN)
- Genetic Counselor (MA)
- Behavior Analyst (BCBA)
- Marriage and Family Therapists (MFT)
- Speech Pathologists
- Occupational/Physical Therapists
- Other Counselors
- Other Psychologists
Ratings/judgments
- Body language
- Tone of voice
- Eye contact
- Verbal Expression
- Degree of insight and introspection
Interviews
- Dress professionally
- Be polite to EVERYONE!
- Show your enthusiasm and excitement about the program.
- Prepare by considering your answers to several possible questions.
- Write thank you notes to everyone with whom you interviewed
- Stay overnight with a student if that is offered
- Ask thoughtful questions that show your understanding of the nature of graduate study
- What publication, presentation, and editorial opportunities have your students had?
- What kinds of clinical and research populations are available?
- How many clinical hours on average do your students have when applying for internships?
- Do dissertations and theses generally get published?
- How specifically are your students be involved in your research over the course of a typical week?
Application Components
Letters of Recommendation:
- Professors who know you personally and who agree to write you strong letters
- Waive your right to see the letters
- Write a cover letter, attach your resume, a copy of your transcript, a list of all programs and their due dates, any program-specific forms or instructions, and addressed stamped envelopes for each program
- Give these packets months in advance; follow up two weeks before any deadlines to confirm letters were sent
- Send a thank you note after letters are sent, and also in the spring to let professors know which programs made offers and what your plans are
Waiting
Transcripts:
- Request official transcripts from every institution at which you have taken college courses
- May be a fee
- Will need at least one per application
Test Scores:
- Take Graduate Record Examination no later than November of the year you are applying; much earlier if you may want to retake it
- Many people retake it
- Usually a fee for sending scores to each program
Personal Statement:
- Opportunity to demonstrate not only written communication skills, but also that you understand the field of clinical psychology, the purpose and nature of graduate training, your well-developed and theoretically sound research interests, your fit with preferred faculty mentors, your professionalism and fit with the field and the program
- Proofread! Enlist others to proofread as well.
- Do not submit the same statement to each program; it will be clear and present an unfavorable impression of you interest in them
- Emphasize match and fit! You want them to know why their program could have been designed for you, and why you are their ideal student.
- Choose your words carefully (but avoid jargon).
Resume:
- Should be only a few pages, clearly organized
- Especially important if you have gained experience since graduating from college
- Be sure to highlight relevant experiences
- If you don’t have much relevant experience, focus on the specific skills that would apply to psychology, such as if you assisted in collecting and analyzing customer service satisfaction surveys
- Possible headings: career objectives; education & honors; publications & professional presentations; research, teaching, & clinical experience
- Do not call to find out your status unless you have a really good reason
- Example: You have received an offer of admission from another program, but would prefer Program X. You may contact Program X to ask when you might expect to hear whether you will receive an offer.
- Know ahead of time how you rank the programs. Never hold more than two offers open at once.
- Verbal offers and acceptances are binding!
- You must decide by April 15th.
- Write thank you notes to everyone who helped you
Choosing Programs
Resources
Faculty:
- Areas of specialty
- Research productivity
- Ability to attract funding (grants awarded)
- Quality of teaching
- Accessibility to students
- Theoretical orientations
- Interpersonal style
Program:
- Training model, advising model
- Funding opportunities
- Clinical training sites & populations available
- Supervision (individual and group)
- Resources (lab space, equipment, computing)
- Courses or special certifications offered
- Degree requirements
- Location
- Acceptance rates, entrance requirements
Career Paths in Psychology: Where your degree can take you: Sternberg
Insider’s Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology:Norcross
Getting In: A Step-by-Step Plan for Gaining Admission to Graduate School in Psychology:APA
Students:
- Entrance qualifications
- Publication and presentation opportunities and achievements
- Internship match success
- Length of time to completion
- Post-doctoral job placements and professional achievements (e.g., grant funding, tenure-track positions)
- Overall morale and satisfaction
Applying to Graduate School
- Investment of considerable time, effort, and money
- Average of 6 and 15 applications:
- 10% acceptance rate
- 4 times more likely to get into PsyD program but 6 times less likely to be funded
- If you want to contact a professor, follow a few guidelines:
- Write a professional, polite email.
- Be direct, relevant and brief.
- DO NOT ask for information that is included on the website or in other information, or would be more appropriately directed elsewhere (e.g., financial aid).
- DO NOT email more than once (though you may send brief thanks if you receive a reply).
- DO NOT be frivolous, casual, or too personal
Undergraduate Career
Clinical Internship
Certification/Licensure
General psychology
Statistics
Research Methods
Biopsychology
Personality
Abnormal Psychology
Developmental Psychology
- Take required and relevant courses
- Maintain a high GPA
- At least a 3.0 but typically much higher
- Participate in research with professors
- Complete an independent research project (such as a senior honors thesis)
- Get involved in relevant organizations (Psi Chi, APA)
- Volunteer your services in related areas: mentoring, hotline staffing, child study center, research
- One-year full-time clinical position
- Accredited hospital (private, university, VA), community mental health clinic
- Different tracks
- Focus is on clinical work, also chances to get involved with research
- Often leads to post-doctoral placement
- Who can call themselves a psychologist to the public is determined by the state.
- National written examination: Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP)
- Some states also require oral examination
- Can also receive Board Certification from American board of Professional Psychology (ABPP)
Employment Settings
Graduate Training
Post-Doctoral Fellowship
So, you think you want to be a clinical psychologist?
Post-Undergraduate
- 3-5 years of coursework, practicums and clerkships, oral/written comprehensive evaluation, masters thesis and doctoral dissertation
- Much more focused, both in content and in your social interactions
- Much less time and priority given to academic work, especially as you advance, and the courses will require you to master, integrate, apply, and analyze rather than simply attain knowledge
- Evaluation not only on academic work, but also personal characteristics, clinical skills, response to supervision, progress on research milestones (master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation), teaching, professionalism
- 1-2 year position AFTER earning PhD
- Most states require this for licensure
- Most are not accredited
- Check with state licensing requirements as to nature of work (can be purely academic or purely clinical or anything in between)
After completing your undergraduate degree, it is at minimum, five years before you will be a fully autonomous and licensed psychologist, and in most cases, it can take up to a decade.
- Do you have, or can you attain, the skills necessary to succeed in graduate school?
- What are your reasons for pursuing this field?
- Do you have the personal characteristics to get you through?
- Verbal abilities
- Interpersonal skills
- Reliability and dependability
- Productivity
- Motivation
- Research assistant on grant funded study for 1-2 years
- Teaching assistant/classroom aide/paraprofessional
- Department of Children and Families case worker
- Behavioral specialist
- First responder
- Employee in mental health setting (inpatient hospital, group home, psychiatric school, nursing home)
How do you get from where you sit now to there?
- Statistics and Research Methods
- Assessment
- Multiculturalism
- Psychopathology
- Field Placements
- Ethics
- Biological, Social, and Cognitive Bases of Behavior
- Specialized courses:Health psychology, Neuropsychology, Developmental Psychology, Human sexuality
Are there alternatives to this path?
- Private or Group Practices
- Colleges and Universities
- Hospitals
- Medical Schools
- Outpatient Clinics
- Business and Industry
- Military
- Other Locations