About the Book

This is a psychology grad school game plan to have the most competitive application in the pile, written by one successful grad student to future successful grad students.

If you want to be a competitive applicant to top psychology grad programs, this is the only guide you need.

Why Do You Need a Guide?

You probably already know that psychology is an extremely competitive field, and graduate admissions gets more competitive every year.

And in case you weren’t worried enough: your graduate university and specifically its prestige – or lack thereof – will impact you for the rest of your academic career.

It will impact the funding you receive, the grants that will approve you, the researchers who will want to work with you, and how prestigious your future research job offers will be.

Is that fair? Probably not. Is it true? Indisputably. (Ask any psychology professor you know if you want confirmation.)

If you aren’t scared off, and if you are willing to work hard to become an excellent applicant and get into the top psychology doctoral programs in your field, I think I can help.

Who Is the Book Written For?

This guide is was written for applicants to research-based psychology doctoral programs. However, most of it will also be useful for those applying to practice-oriented clinical programs and for master’s students in any psychology disciplines.

It’s meant for students at any stage of their college or post-college careers, from college freshman who want to build a solid four-year plan to grad school to career changers to students who didn’t get any offers in past years.

It’s meant for all the research sub-specialties:

• Clinical and Counseling Psychology
• School and Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive and Neuropsychology
• Quantitative Psychology
• Industrial/Organizational Psychology
• Social and Personality Psychology

What This Guide Will Teach You

Many books about grad school provide pure information. In other words, those other books contain no actionable advice, no insight from someone who has actually successfully applied to top programs, and no inside perspective on the whole process.

This book goes much further. Here are some of the most critical topics it covers:

What psychology admissions departments weigh most heavily. Sure, a lot of things matter. But smart applicants don’t have years and years to become perfect at everything. Where you focus your efforts will determine how competitive your application is.

What can you do to improve your applicant profile (no matter where you are in your academic life). Well-intended advice like “get research experience” is vague and unhelpful. Knowing the specifics of what opportunities you should be looking for, how to ask for them, and what looks most prestigious will give you clear direction for improving your profile.

How to craft the strongest application possible. Your application tells a story. Many excellent students are overlooked because different aspects of their application send conflicting messages. Admissions committees want a clear perception of their top applicants, and a solid image will beat out applications with inconsistent messages every time.

Guidance through All Three Stages of the Application Process

This guide will walk you through all the stages of the grad school application process, from finding your programs of interest to evaluating your final decision.

• Planning: How to position yourself as a strong applicant, how to get research experience, establish strong relationships with professors, and where to focus your efforts to become the strongest applicant possible.
• Applying: How to select which psychology programs to apply to, how to write a compelling Statement of Purpose, how to ask for and receive glowing letters of recommendation, and how to make every part of your application package perfect.
• Deciding: Which questions to ask programs, professors, and current students, how to weigh your priorities, what to know about recruitment and interview weekends, and how to make the best final grad school decision possible.

About the Author

If you’re considering going to graduate school in psychology, I’ve been exactly where you are.

From the complete overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do next to become a better applicant, to feeling like I was doing everything in my applications wrong, to not knowing anyone who had the level of ambition I had to apply to top programs and whose assurances that I would “get in somewhere” didn’t help me sleep any better at night.

What did help was meticulously planning out every stage of my long-term plan to apply to grad school, consulting every slightly-relevant graduate admissions and psychology career advice book, asking every psychology professor I met for advice, and just some plain trial and error.

It worked.

I was accepted to 10 out of the 12 PhD programs I applied to. Most were top ten programs, including an acceptance to the #1 program in my field.

And this book will teach you how to make it work for you, too.