Top-ranked graduate programs in psychology are extremely competitive to get into (think 10% acceptance rates or less). Many ambitious students will focus on getting great grades in class and being hard-working undergraduate research assistants. While those are excellent first steps, for the most elite programs, they often simply aren't enough on their own.
Below, I discuss some of the best techniques to take your applicant profile to the next level. These are high effort but also high payoff tasks. An easy way to outshine the competition is to do what other applicants won't do.
When you consider doing any of these (or any other options you are considering), remember that in everything you do while you are preparing for grad school, you are primarily trying to demonstrate:
- High initiative, and
- Strong interest in and commitment to research.
If something you are working on doesn't clearly demonstrate both to an admissions committee, move on to another strategy. Half of the battle in being a competitive applicant is directing your time and energy to the highest-value activities that admissions committees care about most.
Conduct Independent Research
Ask in an existing lab you work in if there is any project you can do independently. Sometimes the professor might have a small piece of a current project to break off for you, or you can ask if they have old data they never used to do a correlational analysis.
Your research is likely not something that is ever going to get published anywhere, but it will give you great experience with the process, plus hopefully a little feedback and constructive criticism from the professor.
However, there's a decent chance you'll receive a "no". Don't be discouraged – it won't be because your professor doesn't like you, but because they're really busy people, and taking responsibility for supervising another project is one more task they don't have the time to do. No one is going to be mad or annoyed that you asked.
Complete a Senior/Honors Thesis
Many schools have some form of senior year or upper-year project or paper (it is usually optional or part of being in a specific department or in an honors program). Senior theses are excellent ways to synthesize all your experiences and prove you are ready for grad school work. Look up how the process works at your school, and do whatever you need to in order to qualify to complete a thesis.
Senior theses have the added benefit of necessitating that you work closely with at least one professor, which should strengthen your letters of recommendation if you use that professor. You should also mention the specific research you did for your thesis in your SOP and in interviews.
Apply to NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)
If you are a freshman, sophomore, or junior in college (in other words, if you don't have a bachelor's degree yet and have at least one more summer before you graduate), you should seriously consider applying to at least one REU for the upcoming summer.
REUs are structured research opportunities tailored to undergraduates in a specific scientific area. Departments at universities receive funding from the NSF (National Science Foundation) to support a program of research. Students in the program will receive a stipend and usually housing or housing assistance.
Each university's program manages their own application process and may have specific qualifications of applicants. Most REUs are summer programs, and application deadlines are often early that year (January through March).
The list for psychology research opportunities is under the "Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences" category here.
REUs are prestigious, look great on applications, and offer excellent research experience. They may also net you a strong letter of recommendation.
Apply to a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
If you are a US citizen and a college senior, apply for a Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) through NSF. These awards are both extremely prestigious and extremely competitive (and they also provide significant funding for graduate study). Deadlines are usually in early November.
Your application package will involve both a personal statement and a proposed plan of research. Writing the proposal may feel uncomfortable because you have probably never been in a position to propose your own study before. That's okay. You'll be competing against other non-graduate students who probably also have limited experience.
Applying to the NSF fellowship is time-consuming and can be very nerve wracking, but the rewards are so great that it is probably worth sacrificing a little class or work time if you need to in order to finish this application.
Take an Advanced Statistics Class
Demonstrating strong statistical and quantitative methodology skills can be a powerful way to set your application apart. A frequent complaint by and of doctoral-level programs in research psychology is that many students are great on the theoretical side but weak on the quant side. More evidence of a strong quantitative background is generally always better.
Take a Graduate-Level Seminar
You may be able to get a graduate-level class to count as part of your degree plan in your major. Taking a graduate-level class (and getting an A in it) provides evidence to admissions committees that you are ready for advanced coursework. A seminar-style class is best because it will be more similar to most classes you will take in grad school, and it also provides you the opportunity to get to know the professor, who may be a source of a recommendation letter.
Learn SPSS or R
If you haven't had to use SPSS and R yet, you will soon. These are both statistical programming tools you will use often as a graduate student. You don't need to take an official class — being self-taught is fine for grad school application purposes. All that matters is how effectively you can use these programs.
What's Next?
None of these are easy tasks. If they were, more graduate applicants would do them. And not every applicant will need to go this far – if you are applying to a master's program or less competitive programs, this may be unnecessary. But if you are applying to top PhD programs, especially in clinical, counseling, or social psychology, you need every advantage you can get. Even completing a couple of these items can strengthen your doctoral application profoundly.
Related reading: How to Write a Top Tier Psychology Personal Statement | Should You Get a Master's or a PhD in Psychology? | How to Raise Your Quantitative GRE Score
