What amount of research experience is needed to be considered for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology?

I will be getting my Master's in August 2008, and am now looking around at doctoral programs. I'm kind of worried because I don't have much research experience. Aside from a small research project in my undergrad years (hardly anything even worth mentioning) and the thesis that I just started, I won't really be bringing much to the table in terms of experience. My advisor simply said "get some research experience." With a full load and a thesis in the works, I'm not really sure how to do that before graduation! Will a completed thesis be enough to be considered (and hopefully accepted) into a PhD (or possible PsyD) program? I appreciate your help!

What amount of research experience is needed to be considered for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology?
it depends on the program. i don't think you need a lot of research experience but it would certainly help. i have several friends who, when we were done with our master's, went on to get their ph.d.s. (well, they're in their fourth year now). anyway, our master's program was totally research intensive -- meaning our subjects focused on the research perspective rather than clinical (so we took a lot of methodology and stats) - and they say it helped them in grad school b/c they fly over the stuff in class. they cover so much and a lot of the other students were struggling to keep up. that doesn't mean they couldn't -- prob just that they spent more time studying over it.





if your gpa and gre scores are high enough, and you have good references you have a good chance. they DO like to see that you've been doing research though, or are otherwise working within the field. maybe see if you can work with a professor on one of their projects in your free time (if you have any). that's usually the easiest way to do it is to just work with them on their stuff. you might even get to publish with them, if you're lucky. you could also maybe try to get a parttime job or internship at a local facility, depending on what you're interested in, like a psych ward or halfway house or something. good luck





*btw, one of our professors said a good way to try to get in was to establish contact with one of the professors at the schools you want to go to the most. try to talk to them about their research interests and express your own. the hope is you can get them to agree to take you on and they'll just tell admissions that you're coming and they'll admit you. he swore by it. several of my friends did this -- i can't say how much it helped but they seemed to think that it did, at least to some extent... esp if your interests are similiar to their own, cause they like to keep publishing and you end up doing a lot of work with them
Reply:The above poster gave a pretty thorough response. A few other things:


I worked for a few years before getting my doctorate, and during that time, I looked up the psychology professors at the local college in my area and wrote them a letter asking if I could volunteer on one of their research studies because I needed the experience for grad school. It worked, and I got some additional experience.


The other thing is that PsyD programs are much less research oriented, and they won't expect you to have the kind of research background that research-oriented PhD programs will.


Also, figure out what area of psychology you are interested in, and look for someone who writes a lot of articles on that subject. When you apply to a PhD program, keep in mind that you will want to work closely with a specific professor on their research projects. So try to become knowledgeable about that area of research and even write to the professor and ask about their research, and what you can be doing as a MA student.