sackofcrap

I believe I used the Kaplan books or the Princeton Review books to study for it. The verbal section is very specific about the words that they want you to know. It's not about having a large vocabulary, it is about knowing the specific words on the test. I treated it kind of like a typical vocabulary test from elementary school. Every few days study and learn a couple of the words on the vocabulary list. Eventually you will know most of them. I suggest taking the ETS practice test as well. I wouldn't worry about improving the Q score too much. However, make sure to just review some of those as well so that you don't forget what you already know. It's always good to keep your mind fresh.

I don't think the exam will be that difficult because it has a very high first time pass rate (at my school 100% of people generally pass it every year), so I think that if you go through your program and learn as you should, you would probably be able to pass it pretty easily.

I desperately want to change my state residency to match where I go to school (so that I can get in state tuition), but unfortunately, the state where I go to school (Texas) makes this as hard as they possibly can. Just living here for a year and going to school isn't enough. Apparently, on campus jobs (such as being a graduate assistant) don't count for residency purposes. It's so annoying. To make matters worse, not all graduate assistant positions in this state qualify for automatic tuition remission, so I may just be screwed for next year. I am thankful that I didn't have to worry about car insurance and all of that when I first moved because I didn't have a car at the time.

Yeah, it sucks that it will most likely be unpaid. That is one of the reasons why I still waver on whether or not I will definitely do my internship in Boston or not. Taking an unpaid internship and having to deal with the cost of housing, might be too much, but I might be able to pull it together somehow. If I start saving now, it should work out. Plan B would be to just stay here where my program is for my internship year and then go to Massachusetts the year after that when I am actually looking for a job. Plan C would be to find an internship somewhere near Boston, maybe another city in Massachusetts and then move back to Boston later. We will see what actually ends up happening. I may end up in Alaska or something for all I know.

Okay. Just good to know there are other internship sites except just one. I was getting kind of paranoid. It's so weird to me how some places pay you pretty much an average salary and some places pay you nothing at all. So much variability.

Currently, I'm a school psych student (MA / Specialist Level) in another state, but I used to live in Boston before I started this program and would like to move back to Massachusetts after I am done with the program. I would ideally like to do my internship in Massachusetts. Anyway, looking around, the only internship site that I am seeing come up in my searches is Newton Public Schools. Am I missing something? Is this the main site for school psychology internships in the state? Every time I search, the only place I can find any information about is Newton Public Schools? Anybody that went to school for school psych (MA / Specialist Level) in Massachusetts, where did you do your internship? Also, does anybody know if the school psychology internships at Newton Public Schools are paid? I don't know if school psych internships are generally paid in Massachusetts or not. The state that I am in now, generally has their interns being paid about $20,000-$30,000 for the year.

This may or may not be helpful to you. I am not attending the graduate program at BU, but I went to BU as an undergraduate in psychology. During my senior year, I happened to take the class called "Children at Risk" which you have to take in the school counseling track of the program (http://www.bu.edu/academics/sed/programs/counseling/edm/). I took the class because I was planning to go into school psychology. The class was a mix of graduate students from the counseling program and upper level undergraduates. I thought that it was very well taught. I found the material interesting and all around, I thought it was a good class. If that class was a reflection on the program, then I would give it 2 thumbs up. As far as job outlook goes, I would think it would be just as good as the job outlook is for school counseling in general. Looking at the Occupational Outlook, it seems to be about average (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/school-and-career-counselors.htm). If you're looking to work outside of the schools as well, that employment outlook might be a little different.

We only have about 1 more month left and then we are done with our first year of graduate school.

There is no benefit that I know of to having both an MA in school psychology and an EdS in school psychology. The EdS is a higher degree than the MA. It is a specialist level degree. The order of degrees in school psychology from lowest to highest would go something like: (1) Masters (MA) (2) Specialist Level (EdS, SSP, CAGS) (Usually more than 60 hours) (3) Doctoral (PhD, PsyD) (Usually more than 90 hours) Looking at the LMU website, I am assuming that you will earn the MA on the way to earning the EdS. It has no bearing. It's like when you are in a PhD program and you may earn an MA degree along the way to getting the PhD. It's nice to have an extra degree but it doesn't really do anything for you in a practical sense. Looking at the list of courses you will take for the program at LMU, it looks just like the courses that I am taking in my specialist level program and I am not earning an MA degree along the way. The only advantage that I can possibly think of is that you might be able to work as a school psychologist during the last year of school if you go to a program that lets you earn the MA in year 2, because you can work as a school psychologist with an MA degree in most states. But even that is irrelevant because you will be doing a paid Internship during year 3 of the EdS program anyway. So, no, there is no benefit that I know of to going to a program that gives you an MA and an EdS, as opposed to going to a program that just gives you an EdS. You should 100% go to Long Beach. It will leave you with less debt and your job prospects will be exactly the same coming out of either program.

EdS programs are funded mostly with assistantships, not fellowships. With assistantships, you have to work (usually 10 or 20 hours a week). A lot of them offer you some kind of discount on tuition (it varies by school, sometimes they pay for most of tuition, sometimes only 25%). The jobs generally pay enough for regular living expenses. They are limited though and you do have to apply for them generally.

Those things will vary depending on the university. I believe most schools offer on campus housing for undergraduates and graduates. The graduate housing is generally separate, in my experience. Depending on what city you are in, it will vary whether or not you 'need a roommate' or not. Some cities are more expensive than others. In a place like Boston or New York, for example, it would be very difficult for a student to afford an apartment without the help of a roommate. In other places, the housing is less expensive, so you can afford an apartment without a roommate. As for how much money you should take, that will vary by city. If you tell us what city the school is in that you are going to, that would help a great deal.

I would love to start gardening, but I live in an apartment and don't have anything in the way of a yard or anything. I might try finding some indoor plants that I can grow at Walmart or something.

Let me start by saying, the program I am in now is a specialist level (EdS) program (above a master's / below a phd). (1 & 2) Going into graduate school, I didn't have much debt, because I went to undergraduate with a full tuition scholarship, so I only had to pay for room and board and books, etc. Coming out of graduate school, I will have a ton of debt because most of my financial aid is now through loans. And I jumped directly from undergraduate to graduate school, so I have only been working part time, which doesn't make much money. I work in assistantship, but that pretty much only covers my rent and food, etc for the month, so basically, all of my tuition is coming from loans. It's essentially the exact opposite of my undergraduate. (3) I don't have any savings yet really. I have about $3000 in credit card debt. (4) Average salary for school psychologists according to NASP is between $64,000 and $71,000. It depends on how many days they work per year. If they are a school psychologist working at a university, then the average salary is $77,000. Currently, I am in Texas for school, but I most likely will not end up working here. Salaries here seem to start somewhere around $50,000 or so and work their way up over time (i.e. if I stayed and worked in Texas for 5 years, I would probably be making close to $60,000 by the end of it.)

What are the schools? Which is your first choice. Lots of factors go into the decision. Money. Location. Faculty.

There is no way, I would live with 5 random strangers in a house. One or 2, I could tolerate, but 5 is just too many for my taste. If I were you and wanted to save some money, I would try to look for situations with 1 or 2 roommates. I definitely would not live with 5.

I can understand why they would be concerned. It is a very very frustrating situation for you though, especially if you didn't know he worked there!

You don't HAVE to accumulate 40K debt. Apply for some scholarships. Work as a graduate assistant while you are at school and go to an in state school. That should cut back on the debt quite a bit. Or you could get the Bachelor's degree, work for a few years and save up some money, then go back to school and that would also cut back on the debt significantly. The point is, it's not an either or decision. You don't have to accumulate all of that debt to get the pay increase that comes with a MSW. My suggestion might be to wait and try to work with just the Bachelor's degree first. See where that gets you. If you end up in a spot that you like with pay that you think is good, then go for it. If not, then consider going for the master's.

If you know you won't be happy there and you think so lowly of the school, don't go there and take that spot from someone who actually wants to be there.

I just want to point out that the PsyD sounds like it might be perfect for you. Those programs typically have less of a research emphasis. You have a ton of experience in the field and it would suit you there, unless your ultimate plan is to be a researcher / professor at a university or something like that.

You have just blown my mind because I didn't even know that post bacc programs in psychology even existed!!!

I thought they were talking about per year. I could be wrong though.

There is something called a graduate plus loan. It is available to cover everything up to your total cost of attendance. If you need to take out a loan for graduate school, it is there. It does have a certain credit requirement, but I believe it is easy to qualify for. A lot of students take out graduate plus loans. Another thing to consider is working as a graduate assistant. Usually those jobs will have you work 20 hours per week on campus and pay enough to cover rent and living expenses. Also, this is outrageous! I went to a 4 year, private college in the northeast for undergraduate and my tuition still wasn't that high. To be paying that much for just a technical school is absolutely crazy. If I were you, I would re investigate what school I am going to. You are getting royally ripped off.

One B in grad school is not going to hurt you all that much. You just need to make sure that it doesn't become a pattern. That is the key. Do not stress yourself out over one B.

We started back last week. So far things have been much easier than last semester and let's hope they continue that way. Everyone ahead of me in my program says that the first semester of this program is the hardest and it gets easier from there. Let's hope they are right. I'm really excited to finally get started working with kids who have autism. Should be exciting.