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How can I gain the necessary research experience to qualify for acceptance to a psychology PhD program right out of undergrad?

I am a senior getting ready to graduate with a bachelor’s in social sciences this December. I plan to pursue clinical psychology and would like to apply to PhD programs straight out of undergrad. I am desperately seeking a research internship, as I know they are necessary for acceptance, yet so many programs have halted due to Covid-19. How can I gain the necessary research experience? Are there any alternatives which would make me attractive as a candidate? Any advice would be so greatly appreciated!

#research # psychology #Clinicalpsych-PhD #July

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Jasmine’s Answer

Hi Allison,
I would recommend reaching out to the programs that you are interested in attending. More than likely they will have some great recommendations as to what you can due to satisfy the research requirement. Some programs are also waiving requirements that require in person fulfillment, so reviewing their COVID-19 policies and reaching out to someone in the department could be helpful. Your current undergrad may also be a great resource if they conduct research labs, they may have some alternative research options. Hope this helps and congratulations!


Jasmine
Thank you comment icon Wow! This was so unbelievably helpful. Thank you so much. I actually never thought to reach out to the programs I am interested in and see what they have to say regarding research. I would figure they would have a lot of really helpful information. I am just crossing my fingers they are waiving research requirements, as all of the internships I have contacted are halted right now. Unfortunately; my school does not offer research experience which is one of the major drawbacks for me. Thanks for the very insightful information and for having taken the time to write this! Allison
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Vince’s Answer

Hi Allison,

Congratulations on graduating! I found this compiled list of resources in my Twitter feed and thought I would pass it along. It has great, although a bit lengthy, information on how to build a strong application, as well as other info about how to gain work experience.

Yale Psychology Bootcamp 2020 Resources
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gafJs-eZb484AgD4lmKe_idgmULlcpfM

Best of luck,

Vincent
Thank you comment icon Hi Vince. Thank you so much. This was incredibly insightful. I reviewed all the information and plan on taking the boot camp course when I have some time to discern where I can gather some research experience. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question, this was really helpful! Allison
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Jason’s Answer

Depending on the type of work you want to do in the future, there are a lot of companies bidding on COVID-19 related mental health and related studies. As a graduate, you could probably work as a data collector or something related. Depending on your state, you may want to try to become a contact tracer for COVID-19. It will teach you about coding, data integrity, etc.

Best of luck to you

PS_ if you don't want to do one on one therapy you can go into a different realm of psychology, there are literally over 100 areas to specialize in.
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