Looking for advice on my grad school prospects
Hi everyone. Right now I’m currently a senior in undergrad. I’m getting my BA in Psychology with minors in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) and the Korean language. I have a pretty solid GPA at 3.7, and I’ll be working with a prof doing an independent research study in the fall.
Now, I’m trying to set myself up for grad school. I want to get a combined MA and PhD in clinical psych or school psych with licensure. But I’m a bit worried that my application won’t be strong enough since I’m lacking a bit in the research experience. I don’t know how much my extracurriculars will matter or if they matter at all; Women’s Leadership Institute, Tri-alpha first gen honor society, Psi-chi honor society, past positions as secretary and internal vp of a student org)
I’m still going to apply for this upcoming cycle but I had a few questions. I’ve been looking into being a paralegal while in grad school, getting an associate degree in business. My credits for the pre-reqs will transfer over so it won’t take me the full 2 years. I want to find a firm specializing in child/family law or related to children in someway because I want my PhD concentration to be in child clinical psych. I think having a small background in law can help me later in my career working in a hospital or private practice.
If I don’t get in this cycle, I want use my experience as a paralegal on my application/resume to stand out. It seems all my peers are doing ABA/RBT positions, or research experience. That’s great and I love that for them but I don’t want to get lost by doing the same things. I think it makes sense for me but would that be a waste of time and money? Are there other routes I can take? I’m open to any and all advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much!!