PsyDuck90

Forgive me for being blunt, but if you are interested in taking the course, just make sure you do well. Don't phone it in, as you can actually have the opportunity to impress her with your work and develop a rapport, which can be beneficial.

I think balancing a full-time job and a PhD program would be very difficult. Things can definitely vary from discipline to discipline, so you may be better off talking to someone in your specific field. However, PhD programs are competitive, so you may not get accepted to the one at a university nearby. Also, from my own experience, I just quit my full time job for my program because all of the responsibilities I wil have (coursework, research, and teaching) would make it impossible to work full time. From what I've seen talking to other people in my program, they sometimes have a part time job, but even that can be difficult to manage. You also have to keep in mind the amount of work that goes into a PhD that you do at home. When I did my MA, I was able to take a PhD level course and the amount of reading required for that course was significantly more than I had in my MA courses (which weren't necessarily light on reading either). If you are really considering this, see if you can email a current student in a PhD program you are interested in and ask them about the workload and time commitments. They would probably be the best at estimating how many hours a week you typically need to dedicate to doctoral studies.

It depends on the program. Depending on the discipline, the answer can vary as well. The best thing for you to do is look at the admissions requirements for the programs you are considering. They will tell you if you need the general GRE, and if they would like a subject test.

A. Not having an MA doesn't mean you are behind or belong any less than the other people in your cohort. You got accepted, meaning you belong. Also, if everyone else came in with previous grad school experience and you didn't, I think that shows your innate abilities even more so because you were still clearly able to impress the admissions committee. B. You've been in school for a week. Give yourself some more time to make friends. As you said, you're trying to figure things out and adjust to your new surroundings. I would imagine the rest of your cohort is probably in the same boat. Get used to your neighborhood, your classes, your daily workload, etc. Friendships should hopefully develop over time. C. Chances are, people don't think you stick out as much as you think. Social anxiety often leads a person to believe that everyone is staring at them when they aren't. As a general rule, you also don't really want to talk about your research in class unless it is directly related to the discussion at hand and moves along the conversation. So if your research is different, you may be able to provide a different incite into the topic at hand. Just remember, PhD cohorts are small. If you got in, that's because you are intelligent and bring somerhing unique and special to the program. Also, given that you're in LA (I'm assuming you mean Los Angeles) there was probably pretty stiff competition for your spot. It's scary uprooting your life and starting over. Just try to go with the flow and enjoy your new experiences as they come. Get to know the people in your department, as well as grad students in other departments. Making friends in grad school isn't really the same as when you're 18 and a college freshman. Sometimes it takes more time to develop a bond. Good luck!

I wouldn't put it on my academic CV since it isn't academically related. You can talk about how your past as an athlete informed your current research in your SOP.

This may be a silly question, but how far away is your parents home from your new apartment? If it is not exceptionally far, you can make sure to just move the essentials (furniture, clothes, specific books) and then sift through the rest of the things when on break or something. It appears that you will be living with them while commuting for the 1st few weeks, correct?

It seems they are open to students reaching out, but I would do so in October or November, as the text stipulates. In the month and a half that you have, I would think it would be a good idea to read up on their research and formulate a good question to ask because that will also increase the likelihood of a response. Overall, reaching out to faculty may be discipline specific. In my field (Psychology), it's expected that you reach out to faculty prior to submitting applications.

Some of the doctoral programs I applied to wanted it or "strongly suggested it." I just bought the Kaplan Psych GRE prep book and read through it. I did well, and that was with being out of school for 3 years. I did major in psych for a joint BA/MA though. You can't possibly know everything they can test on, but if you know the basics, you're good. I would definitely put more emphasis on the regular GRE.

I would suggest having another conversation about the expectations each of you have for each other. The fact that it "sounds like" he allowed you to volunteer and for him to supervise would worry me. It's completely OK to talk about how involved you are expected to be in the lab. You can ask things like how many hours a week he would like you to spend, and regarding your thesis, you can try to schedule a meeting to sit down and discuss topics. I would get a more concrete understanding of the situation and worry about my LinkedIn later.

You want to look for programs that are university based and have high APA accredited internship match rates. If their students are having trouble in the match, that probably means their training is subpar. Ideally, you would want to look at programs that have smaller cohort sizes, as well as faculty who do research of interest to you. Even in a PsyD program, you still have to do research, so you want to make sure you have some people that are in your field of interest. Baylor and Rutgers are often cited as the gold standard of PsyD programs. The Argosy/Alliant schools are usually frowned upon. There are a few other programs in California that have pretty bad reputations too, like JFK.

Age varies a lot, I believe. There are plenty of people who go in right after undergrad, which would make them around 21-22, and there are plenty of folks who wait awhile. I believe the specific programs would have more information. Also, the majority of your questions could have varying answers depending on the discipline. Typically, they take around 2 years, but that is also degree specific. The GPA is typically on a 4.0 scale, with 4.0 being the highest. Getting a 1.0 GPA would be very, very bad. Number of courses per semester is dependent on a variety of factors. Are you full time or part time? How many classes do you need for the degree? Again, employment is discipline specific, and I assume immigration-status specific. If you come to the US on a student visa, you may not be able to work. Lastly, socialization is really dependent on the culture of your particular program, the dynamics of the current students, and your personality. There is really no way to answer quality of life on here without knowing your specific discipline. It also would be dependent on your specific program and a better question for current students in the programs you're eyeing.

I would suggest creating outlines first. If you have a specific outline and clear notes on your source papers, it can be a lot easier to cut down the amount of prep time you have. When I was writing my MA thesis, I had all the articles grouped by topics and annotated so that I knew where I wanted to use them. Taking the time to do a detailed outline of each section, including possible sources, can make a huge difference. Also, sometimes it's best to just start writing. Things can be edited later on. If you at least get some ideas down, that can make huge headway.

As long as you wrote it, I don't see why not. They want an example of your writing and ability to create a competent narrative, hopefully within your field.

I'm not sure, but I imagine if students are already registered, it may cause some bad blood between you and the university. Legally, they probably can't do anything because you haven't signed a contract, but you might sour an opportunity for adjuncting there in the future.

You will probably get way more responses in the Psychology forum. However, as a general guideline, you want to stick with programs affiliated with universities rather than professional schools. A lot of professional schools have large class sizes and poorer training reputations. I would also suggest you look at balanced PhD programs in clinical psychology as well. There is actually very little difference between a reputable PsyD and a balanced PhD program, even in terms of how much research experience is required. For instance, Rutgers and Baylor are often regarded as top PsyD programs and they require a dissertation and lab work. Also, when searching for programs, make sure they are APA accredited. If they are not, you will not be eligible to go through the match system and complete an APA accredited internship. This will create a lot of difficulty in getting licensed in most states. APA accreditation is a minimum training standard, so a program that is not accredited may cause some red flags. There are PCSAS accredited programs, but they are primarily research focused and at this point probably have dual accreditation. In terms of making yourself a strong applicant: high GPA, high GRE, strong letters of recommendation, strong SOP, and research fit are all the factors that admission committees look for. I am about to start a PsyD program this fall, so I just went through the application process. If you have questions, feel free to PM me.

What kind of job are you looking to get? Sometimes it's easier to pick what you want to do and then work backwards. With an experimental psych MA, there really isn't a whole lot you can do. A lot of full time researchers have PhDs rather than MAs.

I would caution that if you have an interest in graduate study, you may have a very hard time getting into a good program if you go the online route for your BA. You will most likely not be able to develop close relationships with faculty who will then write your letters of recommendation, and you can't participate in a research lab, which is an important skill if you would like to get into a PhD or PsyD program.

1. Yes, you want to contact all potential PIs at all schools. The emails should be about your research interests meshing with theirs and asking questions about their current research. You want to make sure that you are not asking questions that are answered on the website or their lab web page. Also, ideally, try to send emails to all faculty at 1 school within the same day or so. That way it doesn't seem like you're just going for your 2nd choice or anything. 2. You may still have a chance if you don't email faculty, but the purpose of reaching out to PIs is to hopefully establish a rapport so that they remember you when looking at your application. 3. If a PI doesn't respond, you should still apply to the school. Some PIs just won't respond to prospective student emails. 4. Do not contact faculty after the deadline. If you make it to the interview round, they will invite you to the interview. If you know the interview date has passed and you did not hear anything, you can reach out to faculty for feedback on how to improve your application for the next cycle.

I would also add to ask what kinds of jobs graduates get upon leaving the program and see if these align with your goals. Also, if your program requires some sort of licensure, how many graduates from the program achieve licensure soon after? You are going to a PhD to achieve a career goal, so you want to ensure that this program prepares students for that goal and many graduates end up in the type of positions you're interested in.

Neuro psych is a subset of clinical psychology. You typically start with generalist training and then specialize as you get further into your training. I don't know anything specific about either of these programs, but I would say try speaking with current students in the program to get an understanding of how much potential there is for research and products (posters, publications, etc.) during your time as a student. These will be critical for your PhD applications, as programs are competitive and research skills are a crucial thing they look for.

Hello all, I did a search and couldn't find anything. I am about to start a doctoral program and because I have an MA already, they are having me adjunct instead of TA. I will be teaching an undergrad class all by my lonesome. I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences and has any advice for a 1st time professor!

I would maybe do something like "I'm very interested in researching X, and I see that you and Professor A are currently working on Project Y, which sounds very intriguing. I'm aware Professor A is not taking a new student next year, but I was hoping to see if you will have funding for your lab. I would love to hear more about E, F, and G projects..." You really want the main focus of the conversation to be the research topics and ideas, especially because the department website will probably post who is and is not taking a new student next year in about a month of two.

A big component to applications is research fit, even with PsyDs because you still need to do some research and complete a dissertation. All APA accredited programs are required to report admissions data, so you can look at programs with potential research fit and see what the average GPAs and GRE scores were for incoming students in the last years. You also want to look at these statistics in terms of the internship match rate (the higher, the better) and number of students admitted (the lower the better). In regards to the PhD/PsyD research and clinical dichotomy, a lot of research has shown that clinical PhD students actually have more clinical hours documented at the time of applying for internship than PsyDs, so there should not be that drastic a difference there. PhDs do end up doing more research work, but that's usually how they get funded rather than paying tuition and having to scrounge up jobs on the side.

If your ultimate goal is a PhD, I would caution against an online MA. If you go for an MA, you want a research component. Online programs have a reputation for not providing the best training (even SNHU) so many doctoral programs will not take an applicant with online credentials that seriously because they have their pick of candidates. Also, it will be much harder to forge close relationships with faculty in an online program vs a traditional program.

Faculty know you are reaching out to multiple professors. The applications request that you list all the faculty you are interested in, and the more successful candidates typically have at least 2 that are good research fits. I would just say that you are interested in x field and excited about y project and you already spoke to Professor A. If they regularly collaborate then they are probably friends and talk anyway. It may seem like you're weirdly hiding something if you don't mention reaching out to the other professor.