This study is based on the assumptions that graduate schools (a) are aware of the characteristics of students who excel in their programs and (b) use the information they gain from letters of recommendation to identify applicants who possess these characteristics. Recommendation forms from the application packages of 143 graduate programs in clinical, experimental, and industrial/organizational psychology were studied. The applicant characteristics that recommenders were requested to rank in grid formats or include in written descriptions were identified, categorized, and arranged in order of relative frequency. The resulting list--consisting of all characteristics requested on at least 10 recommendation forms--describes the characteristics that psychology graduate programs value in their applicants, ranked in descending order of frequency as indicated by the numbers in parentheses.

      It is interesting to note that of the 802 total instances of characteristics included in this list, 332 refer to personal characteristics (preceded by P), 264 refer to acquired skills (preceded by S), and 206 refer to intellectual abilities or knowledge (preceded by I). It appears that graduate programs are most interested in learning about the personal characteristics of their potential applicant from recommenders, that they place secondary emphasis on learning about their applicants' acquired skills, and are less interested in learning about their applicants' intellectual abilities or knowledge from recommenders. This appears to be a reasonable conclusion because graduate programs have access to measures of applicants' intellectual abilities (e.g., verbal and mathematical GRE scores and transcripts), knowledge (e.g., psychology GRE scores), and skills (e.g., applicants' application forms and personal statements), but must rely almost exclusively on the personal experience that recommenders have had with applicants to measure their personal characteristics.
      The important lesson to be learned from the results of this study is that students who wish to pursue a graduate degree in psychology should make a concerted effort to behave in ways that will allow them to (a) develop an accurate and broad knowledge base, (b) acquire relevant skills, and (c) be perceived by at least three of their professors as motivated and hardworking, emotionally stable and mature, capable of working well with others, and possessing intellectual independence, integrity, leadership ability, and good mental and physical health.

Julie Keenan and Beth Mauer were inducted into Psi Chi by the Marian College Chapter in March 1988. As undergraduates, Ms. Keenan and Ms. Mauer were co-recipients of the Joseph N. Hingtgen Distinguished Senior in Psychology Award. Ms. Keenan received her master's degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Purdue University and is currently completing her doctorate in the same program. Ms. Mauer received her MS in clinical psychology from Purdue University and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Purdue at the IUPUI campus.

To read about Drew Appleby, click here (go to the end of the article).

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Spring 1999 issue of Eye on Psi Chi (Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 39), published by Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 1999, Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.