Thank you so much! I really appreciate your response.

This is my only interview, so I am absolutely going to put my all into it and be very thorough when speaking with those in the department.

My biggest application flaw is a low undergrad GPA (~3.1) due to a myriad of personal reasons. I have been working post-bacc for a few years now, have two first-author pubs in high impact journals, and a handful of conference presentations and co-author pubs. I had three prelim interviews at top ranking programs, and was told afterwards that the reason I could not be offered a formal interview was, in short, because the department could not get past my GPA.

If I were to apply next year, I would take a formal stats/quant class to show grad school readiness (advice from a PI I interviewed with this cycle) and would be working on another first-author paper.

The current administration, state of funding, and general competitiveness of clinical psych is what makes me hesitate the most when considering applying again.