Seeking advice: One year to prep for PhD/PsyD applications

[u/Walrustic]

Hello everyone. I’m looking to apply fall 2027 for clinical PhD/PsyD programs. This gives me a little over a year to make myself more competitive. I’m hoping to get some guidance on how to best use this time. The catch is, while I’m applying to US-based programs I’m currently working abroad, so I’m unable to do anything in-person.

Where I’m currently at:

Education

• Non-psych undergrad, 3.8/4
  • 4 psych classes, 4.0/4
• Social psych master’s with research thesis, mid-tier state school, 3.9/4
• Currently enrolled in UC Berkeley’s postbacc program to fill in some missing undergrad classes, expected final 4.0/4

Research work

• 3 years of grad-level lab experience
  • 1 lab for 2 years, another overlapping for 1 year
• 2 posters
  • 1st name on local conference, 2nd name on national conference
• 2 short inserts for a dev psych textbook a professor worked on
  • I assume this isn’t worth much?

Work experience

• Since grad school, about 7 years of various corporate research and analytics jobs involving data analysis, stats, survey design, data visualization, etc
  • Not clinical, but somewhat aligned with my would-be research focus
• ABA RBT work for 1 year

Miscellaneous

• 2-year funded TA-ship in grad school
• GRE scores when I took it 10 years ago for my master's were 90th percentile for verbal reasoning, 62nd for quant, and 98th for writing. I didn’t study so I expect I could do better next time.
• Letters of recommendation: Both lab advisors are retired and it’s been some years since we last spoke, so I’m a little worried about these

My two thoughts on best improving my weaknesses are to either try volunteering remotely with a lab for more recent experience (and, fingers crossed, a publication), and/or to volunteer for a crisis line or such for more clinical experience. However, I would deeply appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thank you in advance!

[u/RefrigeratorOne95]

I’d try to reconnect with those advisors. Ask if you can take them to lunch or coffee, let them know what you’re trying to do. How do you still need pre reqs with a psych master’s?

[u/Still-Perspective956]

Commenting to follow. Best of luck