Clinical Psychology

achieve scores exceed the 75th percentile on each
section; however,significant deviationin these scores
is allowed when considering cultural and language
limitations of the GRE. The more competitive the
program (i.e., the smaller the ratio between
accepted applicants/total applications), the higher
the GRE score that is needed to gain admission.

The Psychology GRE

The Psychology GRE used to be relatively unim-
portant to most doctoral programs in psychology.
However, this may be changing as the Psychology
GRE may be used to help fulfill competencies
required within the doctoral training sequence for
clinical, counseling, and school psychology pro-
grams. In addition, a minority of doctoral programs
place very high priority on the Psychology GRE
during the admissions process.
The Psychology GRE is very different from
the General GRE. The Psychology GRE straight-
forwardly assesses your knowledge of the subfields
of psychology. There are fewer strategies and
“tricks” you can learn for this test; you simply
have to learn the material. If you are a psychology
major, you likely will already have learned most of
the relevant material but will need to refamiliarize
yourself with it, and there may be areas of psychol-
ogy to which you have had less exposure. If you
werenota psychology major, you will have to learn
more new material. Also, if you were not a psy-
chology major, your score on this test will be
more important than it is for psychology majors;
for nonpsychology majors, the score demonstrates
to admissions committees whether you have the
appropriate background knowledge that psychol-
ogy majors should have learned during college.

Contacting Potential Mentors

With the advent of e-mail, students more commonly
began to write potential mentors to inquire whether
applicants would be accepted in the lab this year
and/or to generally express an interest in the gradu-
ate program. This is a terrific idea, and many mentors
will be very appreciative of such e-mails.

However, it is important to remember that

some mentors may receive a large number of

e-mails from applicants during high peak months

of the application process. Therefore, it is important

to be patient and forgiving when waiting for a

response from faculty. It also is often a good idea

to carefully review information available on the

program and the faculty member’s Web sites, as

answers to some of your questions may be available

online. Most faculty will be happy to answer your

questions and correspond when possible. Be aware,

however, that such correspondence is certainly not

necessary and often plays little to no role in your

admissions outcome.

If you do e-mail professors, make sure your

e-mails are professional, are not overly wordy, con-

tain no typos, and do not include questions that are

answered on the program’s Web site.

If you e-mail a professor to ask if he or she is

taking students because the info is not on the Web

site and if the professor does not respond, you can

contact the program administrative assistant or you

can go ahead and apply. Some faculty members do

not know if they will accept students until later in

the year; they may be waiting to hear about fund-

ing, or they may want to see the applicant pool

before deciding whether or not they want to inter-

view people.

Keep in mind when you write to and/or talk

on the phone with program administrative assistants

that they often play ahugerole in the application

process. In some programs, it is the administrative

assistant who first reviews all applications and de-

cides which ones will be passed on to faculty. If you

are rude or condescending in your e-mail or phone

contact with an administrative assistant, the director

of the program will probably hear about it.

Letters of Recommendation

Most schools ask for three letters of recommenda-

tion. At least two should be from people with doc-

toral degrees in psychology. The people whom you

ask to write your letters should know you well as a

student. At least one of your letter writers should

be able to comment on your research skills and

A PRIMER FOR APPLYING TO GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY 577