How to Apply for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate training?

Working in mental health is incredibly rewarding and among the many professions to do this, I am trying to become a Clinical Psychologist. As a first time applicant here are some of the things which helped me prepare my Clinical Psychology doctoral application. 

Get some experience under your belt
While it is good to be aware of how competitive or long the process can be, try not to let this deter you. Relevant experience in a different mental health settings will help you to get a feel for whether this is the career for you. Assistant psychologist or Research assistant posts are ideal- these can be hard to come by but not impossible to find, especially if you can volunteer. 

Focus

Study! A decent academic grounding will show that you can cope with the doctoral demands. This will help your chances of being accepted as the universities often seek out people who secure a high a 2:1 or First class degree. 

How to Apply?

Get your butt to the Clearing House for Postgraduate Courses in Clinical Psychology website: www.leeds.ac.uk/chpccp. The form has quite a fewsections so allow yourself a decent amount of time before the deadline. I started mine in October, which gave me 6+ weeks to complete it. This was more than enough time for me to work on it outside of my fulltime job.

Check the Requirements before Choosing your Course 

Not all UK universities offer this course and the ones that do all have different ethoses, entry requirements and selection procedures. They like you to tailor your application to their course but this can be tough when you can pick 4 universities! Some have extra selection tests so do read them carefully. As I do not have a licence I did not apply to the ones that need car drivers. I also considered if I would enjoy living in that city.

Alternative Handbook

This document is a gem! It has current trainees views of their course from all of the universities. I used this a lot to help better understand what each courses offers, and also what I would like to get from my training. The BPS publish a new one each year. But do bear in mind that not all current trainees complete it the the responses may not be fully representative.

Little and Often

Spend a little bit of time every other day to work on the form. This will help you to make progress without getting fed up of it.

Contacts

See if you can get in touch with current or recent trainees. Use your contacts e.g. psychology supervisor or lecturers and arrange to chat with them about there experiences. If you know anyone who is in the field – ask them to read over your form and share their thoughts (also take them with a pinch of salt, as like this blog post, it is just their opinion). 

Checque you're structre and spilling 

Make your application as clear, succinct and visually easy to read. I found this hard as the character limits count each space and fullstop! There are mixed views on the best ways to structure the form but I would say use of proper paragraphs with a line in between them. 

Double, triple, check your application for typos. Get other people to check it over too. Not doing this runs the risk of you being seen as sloppy and your application going into the NO pile. Polish it up to be the best it can be! 

If you include any publications (including internal reports or things that have been submitted but not published), put them in APA or BPS format.

Be Human

This one is important! Show that you have a work life balance – i.e. you do not spend 24/7 of your life on psychology. Self-care is crucial to this profession and so we need to practice what we preach. There is a specific question on the form basically asking you to show that beyond psychology, you have other interests, socialise and unwind.

Say what makes YOU stand out. 

Be real, be you, as at the end of the day it’s a person they want, not a robot who ticks all the boxes. We all have something unusual or interesting that is worth mentioning. Perhaps experiences from outside of psychology obviously within reason and within the boundaries of appropriateness to the application.

Submit everything within time 

The deadline was late November for the application this year and early December referees to complete their bit. Make sure that you have asked them and that you have also attached/posted your BPS accreditation and academic transcript. Not doing so could mean that your application will not be considered. Eeek!

Do Not Give up

If you are unsuccessful, read through your form and think about why and what you could possibly improve. Ask for feedback on your form from the shortlisters. INot geting onto a course is an opportunity to learn and refine your application, so dust yourself off and go back to it when you’re feeling a little better and have had some space to reflect. 

They may have been too many applicants who were all really reallly good and you lost out on something that you can’t change. In that case, you just have to keep your head up, learn from it, and keep going.

As they say in the Hunger Games, may the odds be ever in your favour….

*disclaimer: sadly, following this advice does not guarantee you a place/post and is my personal opinion based on my own experiences