I'm an incoming clinical PhD student, so all my advice pertains to clinical programs. I don't know how it works for experimental psych programs. *There is no terminal MA. You apply to PhD programs and get your MA along the way. *If you want to be a professor *and* have a practice at some point in your life, you need to apply to a Boulder-model program. *Get an RAship. More than one, if you can. If you want to get into a PhD program right out of undergrad, you'll need to have several years of solid research experience, preferably directly related to what you want to do in grad school. Doing a thesis is great and can help you for sure, but it's not enough. If you already have done some RAships, great! Keep it up :-) *Don't slack on your grades. A 3.76 is respectable, but clinical programs are super competitive, and mean GPAs of accepted students are often quite high. *Keep in mind that clinical PhD programs are ridiculously competitive, and often take more than one try to get into. I'm a top student and I took three years post-bac (and three application attempts) to gain the research experience I needed to make it in. Time off in between is common and can really help your application. *Buy or check out this book. Seriously. The whole first section is about choosing the right kind of program for you, and determining if the clinical route is the way to go. It also offers advice for every step of the application process. The second section lists useful information about every accredited clinical program in the US and Canada. It's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it!
*There is no terminal MA. You apply to PhD programs and get your MA along the way.
*If you want to be a professor *and* have a practice at some point in your life, you need to apply to a Boulder-model program.
*Get an RAship. More than one, if you can. If you want to get into a PhD program right out of undergrad, you'll need to have several years of solid research experience, preferably directly related to what you want to do in grad school. Doing a thesis is great and can help you for sure, but it's not enough. If you already have done some RAships, great! Keep it up :-)
*Don't slack on your grades. A 3.76 is respectable, but clinical programs are super competitive, and mean GPAs of accepted students are often quite high.
*Keep in mind that clinical PhD programs are ridiculously competitive, and often take more than one try to get into. I'm a top student and I took three years post-bac (and three application attempts) to gain the research experience I needed to make it in. Time off in between is common and can really help your application.
*Buy or check out this book. Seriously. The whole first section is about choosing the right kind of program for you, and determining if the clinical route is the way to go. It also offers advice for every step of the application process. The second section lists useful information about every accredited clinical program in the US and Canada. It's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it!
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