Should I go to grad school?
There are several questions you should ask yourself before you even spend the time applying to clinical psych graduate programs:
- Am I interested in research? Even though the program is called "clinical" psychology, that doesn't mean they are interested in you doing clinical work. Strange, huh? That's the way it is. The vast majority of clinical psych programs are solely interested in producing researchers - not clinicians. So, if you're not interested in a career in research, don't even bother. If you really do want to be a clinician and must do a clinical program rather than one of the other fine options (PsyD, MSW, counseling psych PhD), you'd better learn to lie and say you love research. But, don't do that. The rest of us will be mad at you, and the admission committee will probably see through it anyway.
- Do I have approximately six years of my life to give? Face it - this is not your average doctoral program. You will almost certainly not get done in three, four, or usually even five years. The average is six years - which means many people even spend 7 or 8 years in their programs. Can you afford this? Remember that you will be making, at most, somewhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a year, unless you are majorly ambitious and can get some big grants.
- Am I prepared to apply more than once? A large proportion of clinical psych applicants do not get accepted each year. In fact, most people I've heard about who eventually got accepted to a clinical psych program applied more than once. Clinical psych is extremely competitive - I've heard that it's actually more competitive than medical school (this is due to the fact that medical students generally fund their own education, and thus there are more spots available for them in schools). Do you want this enough to go through the harrowing application process several times? Decide how many times you are willing to give it the ol' college try, and be sure to have a backup plan each time.
