How to find which program is right for me?

[u/Appropriate-Ant8319]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what those of you who have found your Clinical programs did in your search to find the program that fit best for you. I have a specific research interest and career goal in mind, and I have a list of geographic locations where I would like to go to school. Is the process really as simple as just looking up "Clinical Psychology programs in [X city], going through each school's faculty website and finding professors who run labs that study what I'm interested in?

Please forgive my apparent ignorance. XD

If knowing what my interest is would help, it's neuropsychology - specifically diagnostic and assessment procedures.

[u/cthedoc]

Don’t limit yourself geographically. Not now and not when you’re going through internship match. You want best fit with the lab you’re applying to and yes, that’s going to involve digging through publications and research lab websites and finding out who you want to be as your mentor. You are applying to work in a lab essentially not a school not a location.

[u/Appropriate-Ant8319 → u/cthedoc]

Thanks for your reply. You're right, I shouldn't be picky about the geography. Glad I seem to be on the right track about how to find mentors. And I like what you said about applying to work in a lab, not a school. I appreciate your feedback!

[u/maxthexplorer → u/Appropriate-Ant8319]

I’m going to guess you already know this but just in case I want to mention that you should look at the program’a data like attrition, match rates (and sites), EPPP pass rates etc. and accreditation should be the bare minimum not the gold standard.

But yea totally for high quality applicants, geographical restriction is a huge reason people don’t get acceptances

[u/spring1999]

I looked through every single APA accredited program using this site: https://apps.apa.org/accredsearch/. I also used google scholar to find people publishing in my area of interest. But I ended up finding my advisor the first way since they hadn't started publishing in their current area yet, and I probably would've missed them if I hadn't looked at every site!

[u/dahlias_for_days]

Yup, that really is the process.

I found the school I am currently at by looking at a (library) copy of the insiders guide, looking at the index for programs with the focus I am interested in (health psychology) and going through the alphabet. Then I took the list and worked one school at a time going down the of faculty list. I found it helpful to simultaneously make a list of schools/faculty that were a no, maybe, yes, and heck yes.

In your case you could use the APA accreditation list to identify all programs in your target location. Lots of ways to narrow it down, and they depend on your parameters.

Looking at research studies and working backward with authors was less helpful for me because I ended up with way more dead ends than leads. However once I had identified some patterns in professors being cited on each others work it did help me target some other programs.

Best of luck on your journey!

[u/vulcanfeminist]

I downloaded the entire list of all APA accredited programs in the US, then I deleted the results from every state it's not safe for my family to live in, and then I just want through every single program one at a time, taking notes, etc. I made lists of the ones I Definitely Want, the ones I Kinda Like, and the ones I Definitely do Not Want. It's worth doing the work

[u/gimli6151]

What I did was go through the list of top 100 ranked programs and looked for faculty who interested me. Then asked my advisor. And looked who was publishing in my area.

Which was helpful. But after all that I went to the program that I just applied to only bc my gf applied there. Which was wonderful program I just had no idea bc it wasn’t in my main research area.

I disagree a bit with the advice not to limit geographic search. You just have to accept the consequences of that. Competition for clinical is brutal. You might not get in or you might end up at school with fewer resources or less productive lab. Or you have to take a year off and apply again. So it’s all about what is best strategy for you. Hopefully your advisor knows your record and can give you direct guidance.