Strategies for Successful Admission into Clinical Master and Doctoral Programs

Uncover the key determinants for the best chances to securing admission into clinical programs.  In this episode Dr Paul talks about the strategies that you might consider in preparing for admission into master and doctoral programs.

It's not all about your grades!

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Music "Into the Step" by Hidden
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Transcript

Welcome to the Psychology Podcast with Dr. Paul. Edgy by name and by nature. The Psychology Podcast will provide you with a competitive edge from education through to registration. Dr. Paul supports your transformation into becoming a psychologist, counsellor or allied mental health practitioner. Now here's Dr. Paul. 

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, we're everywhere on the world today. Welcome to the Psychology Podcast. My name is Dr. Paul. And this episode is all about applying for clinical placement programs in a higher education institution. So if you are now getting to the end of your program, whatever discipline that is, counseling, psychology, social work, occupational therapy, etc. and you're thinking about getting the prepared application for submission to get entry into a higher level program, then this episode is for you. Let's begin with the basics. The very first thing that you're likely going to want to do when it comes to understanding how to apply to a university or other institution that might provide higher education, master's level programs, doctorate level programs is to understand what the admission criteria is. So please go and have a look at the specific course and have a look at what they're asking you to do in order for you to be able to provide an application for admission. 

One of the significant things that will be a part of many applications will be especially if it's in the scientist practitioner realm social work or psychology, etc. is this concept of having a thesis. And a thesis at a fourth year or honors year level or equivalent fourth year level is typically between sort of nine and fifteen thousand words and students undertake those and you might be doing one of those right now and you're getting ready to submit at the end of this particular year or this particular teaching period because they might take a a mid-year intake or an end of year intake or both. And you need to understand, well, what does this really mean? 

Well, the way you can determine your best opportunity and where to focus on your application is to understand what the admissions team will use as a criterion to be able to rank your application compared to everyone else that's gonna apply. And that's generally found in some governance documents which might sit on the institution's main website. So if you can do a search and you have a look around and you can see documentation that supports an understanding of how they rank order students to be able to prime people in the top, whatever percentile they're looking at to admission into their programs, you will have a much better chance to shape your application and also know which universities to apply to because there might be more waiting put on your weighted average mark or your grade point average from some universities for say your three year degree and say your fourth year degree compared to say the final thesis and the perspective that they put on and the ranking that they put on the final thesis grade for example. So understanding where you sit in the ranking order likely based on the results already have in front of you is a really really good start to understanding how to apply for a role. Beyond the thesis and your grade, your grade point average or your weighted average mark is the all important references. There's two types of references that many institutions will ask you for. The first one is an academic reference. So if you've done an equivalent fourth year program or you've done a master's program and you've got significant body of research which evidences your capacity to do independent research in this scientist practitioner type model that is common across many allied health and registered health programs, then you will likely need to get a reference from that supervisor that spent so much time with you. 

So people not having good relationships with the supervisor and potentially creating conflict actually might have an adverse affect when it comes time for someone to give you a reference who knows you intimately and the references are actually blind. You will never see the references, especially if you're going through a referencing system that is associated with a university and it is you invite the academic reference, the academic reference fills out the calibration, puts in some comments about your candidacy and they will probably likely be honest. So make sure that you have an important respectful relationship with every person that you are involved with in an institution because you never know what the outcome might be at the very, very end. And you need every person to be on your team to make sure you get enough points in that rank ordering to get your application successful at a master's level, for example. The second reference that you will need is an industry reference. This would be someone that's worked with you in industry where you've worked in a job and they can attest to your capabilities and skills at a professional level. Why is this important? Well, because once you go through the psychology program, the counseling program, the social work program, the OT program, and you have that academic journey, the next thing they're going to prepare you for is to be in industry. 

So knowing that you have someone in your corner who's giving you a reference that has this great industry experience who can attest to your industry experience even if it's volunteering is another vital piece in the puzzle when it comes to these applications. So make sure that if you aren't volunteering and you're planning ahead to get into a program and you want to give yourself the best shot, please go and seek out some volunteer work or go and do some work that you might be able to support in administration or something that's around an allied health service that will support your application because that's how you become competitive. Now the big one is once you've got your thesis grade through, you've got your weighted average or grade point average marks, you've got your two references and now you're going to try and get an interview for one of these programs. The interviews are vitally important. They are one of the things that will absolutely decide whether you get in or you do not get into these programs. They are a number of people on a panel. They will ask you some very specific questions. The questions will be very carefully crafted and they will be very carefully crafted to try and elicit a response. And the response you give is going to be all telling as to whether you make it into these courses or not. Some of the things to consider are, are you able to reflect? Reflexive Practice is something that's significant in all university courses nowadays. So people who are highly attuned to getting strong grades by pushing a forceful approach forward often have difficulty in trying to actually meet the reflexive element of a program in an interview and getting admission into a course because they haven't developed that reflexive skill. Take it from me, it it is tough to get in. It's even tougher now than it was back in July last year when they canceled the four plus two pathway and now you have effectively master's level being the minimum qualification for people that are going into the psychology profession and take it from me, that will become doctorate at some point because that's what's happened in the US and we are just lagged behind the US unless by a miracle something significant changes, but I guarantee there will be a continuance of trying to progress the profession, say for psychology. Master's work is also, for social work, is also at a master's level. Counseling is also at a master's level. The only place to go next beyond master's level is doctorate, is a PhD, is a combined program, where there's a significant proportion of research that's attached and coursework that supports a professional perspective on the way that you actually approach your studies. 

So we've got our application ready. We've got our references ready. We're prepared ourselves with self-reflexive practice. We've got our grades ready, our grade point average or weighted average mark. Now where do I apply? You apply wherever you can. The competitive nature of the rounds means that each application needs to be appropriate for the university that you're actually applying for. So take your time and plan them out, create a spreadsheet, organize the way you're going to approach the application for that specific university, and apply to as many as you possibly can that you are practically going to be able to accept the place, and you are practically able to attend an interview, and those institutions should be the things on your hit list. Now, if that's a very small, narrow window, then please make sure that you do everything you possibly can to get into those programs because they are a narrow window. The big question I always get asked is, Paul, I didn't get in. I went for everything, I didn't make it. Do I try again? Yes, you can try again. 

If there's an off season, a mid-year enrollment, try again then. Try again at the end of the end of year enrollments because the cohort, the people that apply at different times will have different types of characteristics. So I always say to people, if your dream is to get through, you'll do whatever it takes to get to that point within reason. That is not losing the core qualities of what graduates need, including self-reflexivity, but you'll do everything that you possibly can within your power to make your candidacy the most attractive for these university programs. So the admission teams give you those interviews and then you perform at the interview and you get in. If you don't get into the program that you want and you are still really, really keen on getting Medicare health benefits because that's the most important thing to you, there are many other options, occupational therapy, social work, counseling. 

Now, whilst all of these do not have Medicare benefits, they are in the helping profession. They are out there supporting people. If your passion is to support people, don't just think that the one profession that you've chosen is the only profession that helps, because that's not true. Make sure you take a reflexive approach, again it's come back in, and think about the way that you're approaching how you wanna work in the profession, and sometimes taking two steps back To go one step forward is a really important task. For example, I know people who have gone out into the workforce and worked as counselors or worked in allied health practitioner settings, got the necessary skills, done the self-work, and then come back in and applied for the roles and got through the interviews. 

Sometimes it's the interviews that are the gatekeepers to the programs. If you fail the interview, there's a lot of self-work you can do. Be very, very pragmatic and be very focused on what you think that you can do when you're applying for these programs. So that's it folks. That is my tips on how you might approach getting into master's level and beyond programs in allied health professions and thinking about a strategic way in which you can overcome the entry requirements and meet the calibration of the admissions team to be able to get a place. - Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. This is Dr. Paul, signing off. (upbeat music)