Tyler McFayden, M.S., (she/her/hers) is a current 5th year at Virginia Tech. Tyler is pursuing a joint PhD in Developmental and Clinical Psychology focusing on language development in atypical populations, specifically Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Tyler works in a typically-developing infant lab, studying the brain-behavior relationships of early language acquisition, while simultaneously working in an ASD lab investigating atypical linguistic phenotypes. Tyler graduated from Davidson College with a degree in Psychology and Education. Tyler applied for graduate school during her senior year and was not accepted. Upon rejection from 11 programs, she sought out post-bac employment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the department of Otolaryngology. Her work in cochlear implant research took her from Chapel Hill, to Omaha, Nebraska (Boys Town National Research Hospital), and to Ji’Nan, China (Shandong Provincial Hospital) where she worked programming cochlear implants in pediatric genetic disorders. With additional research experience under her belt, she applied to Clinical Psych PhD programs (11), Audiology PhD Programs (4), and PsyD programs (4). She was accepted into all Audiology and PsyD programs and granted 7 PhD interviews before she landed at her top choice at Virginia Tech. Tyler is happy to help you in whatever part of the process you are in, from ideation to interviews. Tyler will be able to provide helpful insight to figure out what disciplinary path may best fit your career goals and interests and how to forge an interdisciplinary path of study at the doctoral level.