L83Ste
-
Posts
55 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by L83Ste
-
-
I have accepted an offer from Ball State University for the Educational Psychology Ph.D. program!
-
Thank you!! I'm really excited.
-
Thank you. Yes, it really doesn't matter. It's just been a mindset I've had for over a year to be a social psychologist. Honestly, I think I would be happy in several different areas, but it seems like my behaviors are more indicative of educational psychologist. Considering I just learned about this a few months ago and applied and got accepted to a program, I'm just trying to let it all sink it. It's a five year commitment, plus an even longer career commitment. This might be a bad analogy, but it's like I just met the love of my life two months ago and I have to decide to get married soon.
Either way, I think I'm going for it. When I found the program I was so excited for days because it fit so well with me. That SOP was the easiest one I had to write.
-
I graduated with a B. S. in Psychology. After looking around for graduate school programs in social/experimental psychology, I applied to some of those because of my research interests. I knew I was not the clinical/counseling. I also looked into research methods and statistics because I loved those courses. Eventually, I found a program with quite a bit of research methods, statistics, and other courses I was interested in such as learning and motivation. Looking back at my undergrad interests without any influence from instructors and their research, I found that I have always been interested in making education better, learning styles, test/math anxiety, social dynamics of the classroom, and finding out exactly how people learn. No one told me about Educational Psychology, but it seems that is exactly what I was interested in. I did find more interests in aesthetics research and would love to be able to apply this as well. I've come up with some ideas about researching aesthetics education (e.g., art and music programs) and how it affects the learning process.
I looked into educational psychology and found that there is a course at my school that I never knew existed because it is listed as education rather than psychology. After speaking with an educational psychologist on campus he revealed that his job is primarily psychology--he even counsels! However, he claims it is a "turf" issue.
I have had a rough time getting into the social programs I applied to because of interests not fitting and I'm sure other factors, but the educational psychology Ph.D. program to which I applied accepted me with a GA position, tuition waiver, and an extra $3,000 fellowship to boot. This is where I'm leaning at this time even though I haven't heard from a few places because it seems like maybe I should have been going this direction all along, but was not directed this way. My question for all of you is that I heard Ed Psychologists sometimes are not considered "real" psychologists. This whole field is new to me and I'm pretty sure it fits very well with what I want, but it's hard to break away from the plans that I have had for the past two years to go into social/experimental.
Do any of you know much about this field? I'd like to teach at a college level, but also want the flexibility of working outside of a university just in case.
-
I'm ridiculous. It's as bad as checking for final grades at the end of the semester. I'm so bad that I check at times of the night when I know they are not sending emails. Right now, for example, I realize that these committees are not meeting at all hours of the night, but I just checked a few places anyway. I have rationalized my behavior by saying that they could have features like the bank that update at midnight. Even I can't stand me right now. HAHA
-
Honestly, I think they should know the steps and see it done by hand, maybe a few small calculations, but in the grand scheme of things a person will be using a program for all of that and only analyzing the results. It just seems tedious to me to do a ton of calculating when, in real-life situations, they will not be calculating anything by hand. Knowing how the numbers are arrived at by the program is important. Understanding which type of analysis to do is important. Knowing how to interpret results are important, but doing hand calculations don't seem as important to me.
-
What are all your thoughts about making students do calculations by hand?
-
In the intro class I took, only 30% of the grade was exams. The rest were analyses and write ups, SPSS usage tests, that kind of stuff. We also had a semester long project, similar to what you mentioned above, which we turned into a poster to present and mock journal submission. I LOVED the class.
I think this sounds more beneficial than 60% exams. Doing 60% exams which consist of multiple choice and calculation seem to put the focus on grades IMO. We actually could have students present posters at our student research day on campus if we did it that way. SPSS assignments are added to the homework, so they get some experience with it. They have to make up their own data sets and write explanations of the analyses. I would love to hear more about the types of assignments, exams, usage tests, write ups, and the project that was required!
-
First of all- if only 60% of the final grade is determined by tests, then it's a very good start. What is the other 40% determined by?
Seems to me like in order to do well (meaning- more than just passing), a student in your class can't focus solely on the tests. But, to answer your question- I would have the entire grade be based on weekley statistical analysis projects combining whatever was learned in the past class with everything that was alreadt taught. I would phrase the question in a way that wouldn't tell the students which statistical procedure to carry out, but rather give them a question and see if they can understand themselves which procedure is needed and how to carry it out,
The other 40% is determined by homework (30%) and participation (10%).
In the Methods course in my department, a solid chunk of the grade is devoted to a cumulative research project that gets presented at the end of the semester. There are too many students in the course to gather "real" data, but students come up with an idea for a project, make up stats, and then present it in research-poster format. I think it was a great chance to really show you learned something throughout the course. You had to use information from week 1 (what are IVs vs. DVs, operational definitions, etc.) all the way through factorial design and ethics. It was a whole heck of a lot of work, but I knew I was actually being assessed on what I'd learned, not what I'd memorized for an exam.
Now, I didn't design the course, but I wonder if giving the students each a project to start and letting them work on it from the very beginning the entire semester would show how far they had come. They would turn in a portfolio of all of the analyses run on the original data and all of their work leading up to the final submission. This would be a ton of work, but I think it would really benefit students. I would have loved doing that.
-
I'm a TA for stats and looking into Ed. Psych programs. One thing I have noticed after being on the other side of academics is that students are primarily performance-focused rather than learning-focused. Our system has made students this way considering we must get a certain GPA to be rewarded or we must have a certain GRE score and GPA to get into graduate school. We have to have certain grades to pass the courses, so students tend to focus on that rather than learning. They want extra credit to increase their grades, not their knowledge.
I've been reading a book about educational psychology and I'm curious to know what types of ways we can change things to make students more focused on learning rather than grades? Right now, tests in the class I TA for make up 60% of the overall score. 40% are section tests and 20% is the final exam. No wonder students focus on grades on the tests! Anyway, how would you all attempt to change the direction of the focus? What would you do if you designed an intro to stats course (or any course for that matter) to focus on learning rather than grades?
-
At first I was a little upset by my Q score (155, 60th percentile). However, when I compared it to only psych it was much better and I was happy with that. Why don't schools focus more on that? I mean, my competition is not anyone but other people going into psychology, so why am I being compared to them? It doesn't make sense to me at all.
-
That top one is the one I was referring to (Applied Statistics Emphasis).
Had I known that a Master's in Statistics would require a ton of calculus courses, I would have just taken them in undergrad. I love stats and I finally realized that many people do not feel the same way.
I know there is a Master's program through IU Bloomington that fits what I want, but you have to be in a Ph.D. program to get into the Master's as a minor. I don't have experience with SAS and R. I have only used SPSS and I'm comfortable with it. I'm looking up options now for SAS and R. Thanks
-
Thank you.
For that program, it seemed to me that my physical presence was not required.
That's really what I want though, to be a better data analyst. I haven't taken the required sequence. I have taken Elementary Algebra, Finite, Pre-calculus, and Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences. I am decent at math though. I got A+'s in all of those courses, so I'm not afraid of math.
I plan to get a Social Psychology Ph.D., but I'd really like to have an extra strong background in statistics to make myself more competitive. That's basically the goal.
-
I would have to do the online option here because it is in Texas and I can't uproot the family unless I'm going to go for long-term degree. I've looked into Master's in stats closeby, but the issue is that they are all calculus-based programs. This certificate is one of many offered at Texas A&M and it is specifically for non-calculus based stats.
-
At first I considered a Master's in statistics, but all of the programs that I have found are calculus-based. I don't have a background in calculus (only precalc). I found an online certificate program through Texas A&M that is non-calculus based and I am considering it as a possibility if I don't get in anywhere. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? Good or bad idea?
-
Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your responses.
My undergrad institution used to admit quite a few nontraditional students, but it seems to be changing now. I had said something before about considering a career as a psychiatrist and was told by a professor that I would not be accepted into medical school because I was too old. So, that dream went out the window. I was told by someone else that once I got my Ph.D. I would likely not be able to be a graduate school professor that focuses on research because of my age. This person said that usually those people go straight from high school to undergrad and then to graduate school. So, now the dream is to be a professor who teaches and does research at an undergrad institution. Now I'm told by someone that I might be discriminated against in this process because of my age.
I'm going to keep trying. I don't care what they say. I know what I can do!
-
Does anyone know if age of the applicant is a factor in the decision-making process?
I'm almost 34 and worried that the committees are going to look at me and think I'm too old to accept. One faculty member at my undergrad institution mentioned this, so I am curious if anyone has any idea if it really is that important.
-
Well, it seems like this depends on tons of factors -- how competitive your field is (and how competitive it is this particular application season), how many other people applied to work with your POIs, how many schools you applied to, etc etc. IF you get rejected, I'd say it's probably some combination of a particularly competitive year in your field + applying to 3 schools. But I wouldn't give up hope now!! It's barely the end of January!! Anything can happen, results vary widely across fields and institutions
I really wanted to apply to more schools this year. Circumstances are not great at the moment for moving though, so I was limited. I think it will be better next year, but it is a bummer about this year. I'm still hoping, but I always plan for the worst. Thanks for the encouragement! I guess I'll wait a little while. I heard that rejections usually take a long time though, so the fact that I haven't heard from anyone is a little disheartening.
Also, did you apply to masters or doctoral programs? I would assume that masters programs would post later since a lot of them are still open, but I could be wrong.
I applied to PhD programs, but one of them allowed me to check the "if you don't get into the PhD would you like to be considered for Master's" box. I did check that, but I'm not sure when their deadline was for terminal Master's.
-
It just seems that this is where it is going. I haven't received anything official yet, but a few are assumed since others have heard back. Does it seem that most people get rejected their first round of applications?
-
Amazing scores!!! Good for you!! I bet you feel accomplished.
If I don't get into graduate school this time around, I'm retaking this test to get my quant up (currently 60th percentile). My verbal and writing were fine (84th and 93rd, respectively). I'm going to follow this advice if that happens. Thanks!
-
I haven't outright read my letters, but all of them said that they wrote me outstanding letters of recommendation. One of them basically told me everything she put in it. That being said, I'm still so curious to see what people wrote and if they did say anything negative. Ugh!
I think they are instructed to list any flaws, otherwise they wouldn't be as trustworthy, I think. I want to know what was in mine, but I also don't want to ask. I figure that I'll just keep doing my best and if I need letters again, then maybe they will all be willing and have more to write about.
-
I have seen several people put that they have amazing letters of recommendation. How do they know this? I waived my rights to see my letters. All I am going on is the fact that I haven't given them any reason to not give me good letters. They all agreed they could give me strong letters of recommendation, but I haven't actually read them. Are people just assuming their letters are good or do they ask to see them?
-
I love that people are replying to this thread! Hopefully, some cool research ideas can come out of it.
-
Cool thread! My research is essentially a social psychological approach to public health issues. I want to specifically study preventing HIV and cancer, focusing on social influence. Truly, I would be happy studying the prevention of just about any disease that has a behavioral component, but I knew I had to narrow it down for grad school.
That's a very cool and helpful topic to study! I did a few papers relating to cancer before my husband actually had it twice. This is a topic that is very important.
Man, there are so many cool things to study! It's easy to have too many interests!
UNC Greensboro-Social Psychology applicants
in Psychology Forum
Posted
Yes, coggiedoggie, I got my rejection email from them recently.