schoolpsycher

Haha thanks iphi! I've heard the same thing now from a few of my friends who just took it. Hard to believe it's been so long since we were on here applying to schools!

Hey guys, I'm getting ready to take the school psychologist Praxis exam in a couple months - just wondering if any of you have taken it and how long/much you studied and what resources you used! Thanks

Hey! I'm currently at a school psych program in Boston, and I'm actually going to be interning in Brookline next year. The application process was a little unorganized because each district does things a little differently, but as the person above said, I mostly emailed everything (resume, sample psychoeds, cover letter, etc.) to the special education director or school psychologist. My program gave us the names of some contact people in the districts, but for a lot of them, I just searched the district's website for a few people who seemed appropriate and it eventually got to the right place. And yep, unfortunately most internships in MA are unpaid. Struggling at the thought of next year already haha. I think popular big city areas tend to be like that, and there's a lot of school psych programs in MA. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions!

There was about a million times this semester I thought I would fail, but I somehow ended up with all A's! Guess that's grad school for ya haha. Happy holidays everyone

Feeling a lot more capable after my TA wrote on my paper, "I nearly cried while reading this" and said, "You have a gift for explaining difficult concepts and making them accessible." Definitely going to re-read that comment whenever grad school is getting me down.

Feeling MUCH better since my last post! Despite my freaking out, I somehow passed my first practical exam (with an A, even ) and got some good feedback from another class I was worried about. The work isn't slowing down at all, but I'm definitely relieved and feeling more capable after finally getting some grades back. Hope everyone else is settling in more too!

So I basically had my first grad school breakdown tonight. I have my first major paper and practical exam this week, and I suddenly got super overwhelmed and felt like I couldn't breathe for a second haha. It probably doesn't help that I've been in school for 4 weeks already, but our teachers have not been able to give us ONE piece of feedback for any of our assignments (despite their incessant apologies), so I have no idea if I'm doing anything right and many of our assignments build off previous ones. Maybe if I get some good feedback soon I'll feel better, but right now I'm just doubting myself and wondering how I can possibly get everything done in time. Being out of school for 2 years also makes this a little harder.. Ugh, someone please tell me it gets better

2nd week for me! I took 2 years off after undergrad and even though I've always been very academically focused, it's been VERY hard for me to get back into reading/studying. I've heard there's a lot of reading in grad school, but wooaaaah. I honestly already feel like every week of grad school is going to feel like finals week of undergrad haha. But otherwise things are great! There's a big age difference in my cohort, but I really like everyone and the professors seem very knowledgeable and helpful. Good luck to everyone else!

Thanks! I guess I'm mostly wondering what's appropriate to wear to orientation.

Hey guys, can't believe I start orientation tomorrow morning! Do people dress differently/more formally for grad school classes than in undergrad?

I'm about to start my grad program in a couple weeks, and I'm trying to decide how many loans to accept for this year and am having a slight nervous breakdown/reconsidering my decision to even go to grad school. I already have about $22,000 in loans from undergrad that my family has been helping me start paying off for the past 2 years. My grad school program costs $14,000 a year with in-state tuition, and I'll also need money for cost of living in a relatively expensive major city. I was offered about $20,000 in loans for this year, and I REALLY do not want to take that much. I will be working part-time for the first year as most of my classes are offered at night, but I'll still be a full-time student. My family recently determined they can't help me as much as we originally thought, and I have a younger brother starting college in a year. I'm going to school to be a school psychologist (which probably won't ever make a TON of money), so I'm unsure how many loans is reasonable to have. I can apply for the loan forgiveness program where my loans will be forgiven after 10 years working in a public service job (which would include being a school psychologist, in addition to 2 years I already have as a preschool teacher). How many loans do you think is too much to take out considering my career path and how many loans I have from undergrad? Any other suggestions to pay for school without much/any family help? My program unfortunately barely offers assistantships this year, and I haven't been able to find one. It's hard to get excited for school while being so worried about paying it and being stuck in so much debt.

I'm 24 and going to start my grad program in about a month (eek!), but I recently found out the majority of my 12-person cohort is older than me. It looks like there's a couple people around my age, but everyone else is in their 30s/40s. The director of the program also told us that 7 out of 12 of us already have a masters degree, which along with the age difference, is already intimidating me! I was one of the youngest at my job the past 2 years and got along great with my co-workers, but I feel like it will be different in a classroom setting. I know I can learn a lot from people that are already so experienced in the field, but I'm really starting to worry that I'll feel left out and won't feel like I can contribute as much. I'm also worried social-wise, but I do already live in the city of my program so I'll have friends outside of it as well. Anyone been in a similar situation? Getting nervous about whether I made the right decision.

Have you talked to the program/current students and asked if you should be worried about not hearing back from assistantships yet? I was applying to assistantships at one program I was accepted to (though it was an EdS program), and I was getting worried but they told me many students didn't get assistantships until the summer. They said sometimes assistantships don't how much funding they have yet/how many people they can hire, etc. Not sure if that's the case there, but thought I'd share! That's also great you can switch into the PhD if you decide to and need more funding.

Good luck to the people starting to apply! For the people that just made their decisions, did you send your recommenders a follow-up about where you were accepted/decided to attend? I thanked my recommenders via email after the app deadlines in January, but I want to either send a thank you card or another email letting them know how things turned out. I'm two years out of college, so I can't drop by or anything. Did you guys send them cards in the mail?

If you're looking at schools in MA, funding is pretty terrible at most of them. But I'll be attending UMass Boston in the fall, and their tuition is SO cheap if you can get in-state tuition, and you can apply for assistantships as well.

YEP to all of that haha. I just started declining my other offers and got SUCH a nice reply from one of them about how she knows I'll love it where I chose and that she's good friends with a professor in that program/knows she will train me right. It was hard enough to decline, but getting a reply like that just made me sad and second-guess even more haha. Oh well, I know I made someone on the wait list very happy!

If you're applying to EdS programs, Columbia doesn't give anything From my experience, the specialist programs that offer the most funding are University of Delaware, Lehigh, and William and Mary. Good luck starting this process!

Think I just decided! It's so scary but also super relieving that this process is finally over haha. Thanks everyone for going through this with me too and for all the advice Yay school psych!

It's for UMass-Boston, but I found out I got off the wait-list on Monday and it's for the EdS program, so I don't think it was your spot.. but I'm sure you made someone happy! I've wavered back and forth a lot, but right now I think I'm leaning toward UMass/School #1. Although part of me wants to get away, I've "gotten away" for undergrad, internships, etc. and for once feel like I'm happy where I am. At School #2, the students seemed to love the program, but I got the impression that they were drowning in work and didn't have much of a life outside the program (they even said that they had class during general grad student activities at night and that none of them were involved in the grad student association, etc.).. so while I COULD meet people outside the program, it seems like it's probably hard to do. From meeting people at interviews, I also know for sure that 3 out of the 8 people who accepted the program are engaged/married.. I feel kinda silly for caring about that, but I'm just not in that stage of my life at all, so I won't have that support system already and still want an opportunity to meet people. While I maybe got a slightly better feeling about this program, I think I'd happier in my life in general attending the first school.. location-wise, friends-wise, and I would still have the opportunity to dance (which is a huge stress reliever for me/something I want to continue during grad school). Thanks so much for your advice everyone!! It's so tough weighing in so many different factors.

Can't believe I'm still making my final decision, but I need some help now that I got off the wait list at one of my schools. I've narrowed it down to 2 schools for Ed.S. School Psychology programs. School #1: It's in the city where I went to undergrad and have lived for the 2 years since (far from my family, but I have many friends here). Originally I was sure I wanted to stay here, and this school is VERY cheap because it's a public school- $7,000 for the year. No assistantship offer or funding though, and cost of living in this city is extremely high, so I would find a part-time job somewhere. The school's undergrad reputation is not good, but from everything I've heard, my program has a really great reputation in the field (which I guess is all that matters). I didn't feel like I got a good view of the program at my interview because it was short/we didn't get to meet a lot of faculty, but I have talked to a couple current students that seem to really like it. School #2: This program has a really great reputation in the field, and I haven't gotten a specific funding offer yet, but everyone has gotten an assistantship in past years. I have an interview for an assistantship this week that gives a 50% tuition waiver and a $16,000 stipend.. which basically means I'd just have to pay for cost of living, which is much lower here. I loved this program at my interview, especially the faculty. But the school is kind of in the middle of nowhere and there are only 8 people in the cohort. At the interview, it seemed like most students are from the area/have a significant other/are married, so with only that few of people in the cohort, it makes me nervous. I usually like moving to new places though. I would also have to get my license and buy a car to go to school here, and I don't like driving/am a city girl, so this is another factor. Especially for people with a small cohort in your program, what are your thoughts about moving away for grad school where you don't know anyone? I've heard from many people that it's great to have a support system of family/friends in grad school.. but I've also heard that going away with a small cohort can be great because you become really close. Thoughts/advice?

Thanks so much for the info!! My decision is not getting any easier though as I suddenly got funding offers in the last couple days! Siiiigh haha

Anyone know anything about UMass Boston's program? Just got off the wait list there and it's perfect for me location-wise and money (by FAR my cheapest school), but I'm not sure how its program compares to others. At the interview, one of the professors was out sick so we only got to meet 1 part-time faculty member and the director of the program. Thinking about seeing if I can stop by again before decision time and talk to more of the faculty.

I thought I read somewhere that this was getting voted on on April 5th.. does anyone know what happened with this? Trying to decide if it's too risky to plan on using the PSLF program.