Speaker 1: Welcome to Almost Dr. Armas. If you're already a subscriber, thanks for being back here, and if you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out. In this channel, I talk about my life as a graduate student in clinical psychology and bring you information about the mental health field. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing five things that you need to know before applying to a PhD program in clinical psychology. If you're considering applying for a PhD program, you probably have the basics down. You're probably a good student, you're probably interested in the mental health field, and you may have an interest in either therapy or research. But the first thing that you need to know before actually starting to apply to PhD programs in clinical psychology is that it is very expensive to apply to grad school. I can only speak for PhD programs and in psychology specifically, but each application can run you between $50 to $150. When I was first considering applying, I was told by a lot of my professors to apply to at least 10 to 20 schools because it's really competitive. So that's a lot of money. You also have to pay to get copies of your transcripts and any other documents, and you have to pay to take the GRE, which is the graduate record exam. I know a few people who only apply to a handful of schools, and that's awesome, but depending on what you're looking to do, it can run you a few thousand dollars with everything that you need to get done, including traveling for interviews or mailing things out, etc. So definitely be prepared to have some money saved for your applications. If you're still an undergrad, you may be eligible for fee waivers for the GRE and for some applications. I'm not sure what the requirements are, but if you think you might be eligible for any type of fee waiver, definitely look into whether the schools that you're applying to offer a waiver. It will save you a lot of money. If you're in any type of honors program or scholarship program at your undergrad institution, you may also be eligible for additional funds to apply. For example, I was in the honors program at my undergrad institution, and I was eligible to apply for additional funds. So basically what happened was I had to come out of pocket for all of my graduate school applications, but once I submitted all the receipts, I was able to get reimbursed for some of what I spent. If you have any type of affiliation to a program that does something like that, you should definitely check that out. And as a side note, you should also know that going to graduate school can be really expensive. These days people are accruing a lot of debt just for undergrad. If you're considering a graduate degree, some programs are fully funded, some programs do offer a stipend, but there are also some programs that you need to definitely take loans for. And depending on what kind of program you're looking for or what your goals are, you should be prepared to spend some money to either relocate, pay for tuition, pay for housing or other living expenses. It can cost a lot of money to keep going to school, so definitely keep in mind that not only do the applications cost money, but grad school costs money. In most cases, PhD programs are full-time, so you either can't work or you can only work very few hours while you're enrolled in school, and you may not even have time to work even if your program allows you to. So just be prepared for it. Now I'm not trying to scare you away from applying to graduate school. If you're considering applying to a PhD program, especially in clinical psychology, I think that you're awesome and that you should go for it, but I want you to know that it does take a lot of work to apply, especially if you're applying to a lot of schools. One of the mentors I had in undergrad told me to treat graduate apps like its own class. So if you're taking five classes in a typical semester in undergrad, you might want to take four and spend the rest of the time applying to programs. If you work a nine-to-five or any other type of job, just keep in mind that you're gonna need to set aside a lot of time to work on your essays, your CV, gathering all the materials, filling out each application, figuring out which programs you even want to apply to, and so on. So don't be too afraid and definitely don't give up on applying, but just know going into it that it's gonna take some time. The other thing that you need to know about applying to PhD programs in clinical psychology is what you're looking for. So in the future I'll probably do another video about picking the schools that you're gonna apply to and finally deciding on a school once you've been accepted, but in general you should know what you're looking for in a program. If you are super interested in research, you'll look for programs to apply to that are very research-heavy. If you're super into clinical work, then you may look for a PhD program that focuses on clinical training or a PsyD. In the future again I can do a video explaining the difference between PsyD and PhD, but for now definitely get a sense for yourself of what you want out of graduate school. Acceptances to grad school are all about fit or match. You want to make sure that not only can you see yourself at this program, the program will see how well you fit in to what they have going on. And that leads me to the next thing you need to know about applying to graduate school in clinical psychology. You need to have a sense of where you're willing to go. So you can apply pretty much anywhere in the world for a PhD in psychology, so you should definitely consider what kinds of climate you're willing to live in or how far away from your family you're willing to go. In undergrad I was interested in research on dance therapy and one of my mentors told me that the best dance therapy programs are in Canada. I wasn't really willing to go to Canada for grad school, so that makes a difference. Another one of my mentors told me to only apply to programs in places that I would be willing to live. So definitely consider like practical things. If you are a city person you may not want to go to school in the Midwest where it's really really suburban or rural. So I think as much as you want to pick a program that is prestigious or has the kinds of training that you're looking for, you should also consider what it would be like to live in the place that you're applying. And the last thing that I want you to know before you apply to a PhD in clinical psychology is that it's extremely competitive and some people, I was told when I was applying that some people have to apply several times in order to just get into one school. There are a lot of people applying to programs and most programs can only take a handful of students each year. There are tons and tons of very intelligent, very capable people who just don't get accepted. And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do this, it just means that you may have to try again. It's super important for you to know that how you perform on an exam, an application process, or any other task is not a reflection of your worth or your ability. More and more programs are thinking about doing away with the GRE, at least that's what I've heard, because it's not a good indicator of how well a student will perform in a program. I know people personally who had to apply several years in a row before getting in, it doesn't make them any less intelligent. You'll notice when you apply that some applications offer a different fee for returning applicants and that just goes to show how common it is for people to have to apply more than once. I think that the best thing to do is do your absolute best on your applications and interviews and just have a backup plan and just know that you can always apply again the following year. I'd like to continue making more videos about the graduate school application process so if this is helpful for you I'd really love to hear from you. And the last thing I want to say is if you are considering applying to a PhD program in clinical psychology I wish you the best of luck and I hope that we'll be colleagues someday. If you watched this I really appreciate it and if this was helpful for you I would love it if you would like, comment, subscribe, or all the above and share this with someone who you know who's applying. That would mean the world to me. Again I'm almost Dr. R. Maas and my goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully to entertain you. So thanks again for watching and check back in next time.