Frequently Asked Questions About Admissions

What is your application review process like?

We use a committee selection process made up of members of the core faculty and a student representative. This group reviews paper files and make recommendations for interviews to the full faculty. These recommendations are based on the applicant’s background experience, personal statement, letters of recommendation, and consideration of how their interests may align with an individual faculty member in the Clinical Child Psychology Program. From this point we invite between 15-20 students to participate in zoom interviews. Following the interviews, the full faculty and the student representative meet to determine a hierarchical ordering of applicants. This helps us know what order to make offers and how fellowships will be assigned when available.

Do you consider any individual components of an application more important than others in evaluating students?

The CCPP uses a wholistic process for identifying qualified applicants to our program. However, given that we are a research-intensive program, our admissions process prioritizes research experience, desire for training as a researcher, and articulation of fit with a potential mentor’s program of research. Think of it like this: Faculty pour themselves into their research programs and training students to engage with research successfully. So, when a student “WOWs” us it is most likely because they truly understand what we are trying to do in our research program, are energized to participate, and have the skills to “hit the ground running”. That said, people come to the CCPP with all kinds of different research experiences. Some have done a thesis, some have experience as post bacs, and some presented a lot of posters from their home labs in undergraduate training.

How much does GPA matter?

GPAs do matter, but we also aim to understand the context in which those GPAs developed. We have admitted students with GPAs ranging from around 3.0-4.0. There are all kids of reasons why people earn Bs, Cs, or even lower grades in undergraduate courses. A lot of those reasons do not have much to do with whether the applicant is capable of succeeding in graduate school, so we encourage applicants to describe any circumstances that may have impacted their undergraduate performance, and we aim to consider all factors that may predict whether an applicant is likely to succeed in our program.

Should I email CCPP faculty members before I apply?

Individual faculty members vary on whether they want to engage with students before applications are submitted, and what kind of questions or conversations may be helpful. In short, faculty often receive a large number of emails from potential applicants, and our goal is to be equitable in planning email or phone conversations. As such, it may be that faculty are not able to coordinate an extended email or phone conversation, but this does not mean that they are not interested in seeing your application. Check the individual faculty member’s webpage on the CCPP site to see if you should reach out. All of the website information is updated, so you would not need to reach out to inquire if faculty mentors are accepting students. If you have questions about the program in general, you can always reach out to the Director of Clinical Training, Dr. Cushing.

What tips can you give me about my application?

The most important piece of advice we can give is to describe how, specifically, your skills have prepared you for success in a specific area of research interest and how this may align with current programs of research led by our faculty. While it is assumed that you are interested in ongoing work at CCPP based on you reaching out, it is most important for us to hear more about what questions you hope to answer while you are training in our Program and working with a specific faculty mentor. You do not need to propose a study, but what kinds of things do you want to work on and why would it make sense for that mentor to supervise those projects?

Do you require the GRE?

No we do not.

Can you waive my application fee?

We are not able to do this at this time.

Can I visit campus?

Yes! If you are extended an offer of admission, we will invite you to visit us on campus. Our goal here is to let you see the place you will be working, meet us in person, and (hopefully) hunt for housing/your favorite coffee shop. Our goal is that this visit will happen only after the interview process and only for those who are being offered admission because we want to constrain the amount of money it costs applicants to consider the CCPP for graduate school.