ed_psy

Single spaced. I use the Header to put my name, school and program applying to (although I think they have it embedded when they print out the completed application, but just on the safe side)

Thank you very much for your reply. Applications are around the corner. Need to revise SOP

Hi everyone, I finally read through all 20 pages of the thread. Congratulations to everyone accepted to their top choice school. I am a prospective applicant, going to apply for School Psychology program for Fall 2015. So far I have three schools in mind Brooklyn College, Fordham University, and Columbia University (Maybe I will include St. Johns and Queens College). Right now I am studying for GRE hoping to bring up the score because I didn't do well the first time around. I am looking at the Ed.S program. I already have a MA in Educational Psychology, but I took the time this summer to rethink what I really want to do with my career and felt School Psychology is a good fit. I have a few questions for those accepted/attending already, 1) When do you usually begin writing your SOP? (Should I start now?) 2) Although I do not have experience working in a public school, but I do have about 8 years of experience at a non-profit organization coaching students ranging from K-8 grade. Would that look good on my application. Thank you very much. All feedbacks/comments are appreciated.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm definitely taking the GRE again. I can't decide if I want to work in a school setting as a licensed school psychologist or continue doing research.

Hi everyone, I have been reading this forum for a while. I am thinking of switching careers. I have a MA in Educational Psychology and it doesn't seem to me help much in terms of finding a decent job. I was wondering if I should go for a MS.Ed in School Psychology or Ph.D? I am torn between both. I thought it would be better to be licensed as a school psychologist and settle on a job in a public school than looking for research jobs. I am looking to apply to schools in NYC like Fordham, CUNY Queens, CUNY Brooklyn, Pace, or St. John's for Fall 2015 (or even Fall 2014 for St. John, anyone have experience with St. John? Is it a good program? They have rolling admissions for some reasons). On the other hand I am afraid my application would not look good in terms of the gpa and gre scores. Negatives: V.137, Q.146, W.3.5 (I'm thinking of taking it again, I took this 3 years ago) I spent a year in a graduate school, but did not do well and transferred to another and started my MA all over again. I'm afraid it will look bad. I had a B- in a course during my MA, but repeated it and got A- but both grades are shown on the transcript, I don't know how the ad coms are going to look at it or will they recalculate my gpa. With the repeated course, I graduated with a 3.42 in my MA, if I don't count the B- I would have gotten a 3.67 Positives: I have done many conference presentations including national conferences (10+). Lead author in a few. Co-authored in two papers Five years of research experience focusing on school age children's academics I also had 8 years experience (from my high school years up until college) as an after school program / summer day camp teacher for K-8th grade in a small non-profit organization. Any thoughts/feedback would be appreciated. Thank You

Don't know his office hours. I'll try to email him again and then go up there if he don't respond again.....

I'm going through a similar situation except I emailed the professor and he never responded. He said I can go to his office and meet with him. But I figured I would email him first before I head up there and now that I emailed him he haven't responded. Should I send out another email?

I think they will give you a chance to pull up your gpa in the Spring Semester. Do they have "Probation" in your school? or some sort of warning first.

I don't really go to see the advisor unless I have other questions about the program. I usually just follow the course requirement (should be listed online for the program) and register what is needed (Like core course). Unless it's a course that have a block due to pre-requisite, then I'd go to her office hours to see if she can override it, otherwised I don't see the how it's necessary. Have you been to orientation yet? Maybe you can ask other classmates or students who are already in the program to guide you.

Thanks for your reply. The thing is, my program does not have anyone doing a thesis and the faculty members are also discouraging me to write one. But I do have 3 years on going research experience with another institution, maybe I should have some papers published from this place to boost it? I don't know. I thought all schools have a thesis option, mine says they have one too but given that I asked around and the classmates I spoke too also said they are not going for the thesis. The worst thing is the department also discourage me to write a thesis, then something's going on. I spoke to a few faculty members and they said the best thing to do is the literature review, "Very few students actually complete the thesis.....I had came across students who quit midway."

So I heard a lot about doing an MA thesis is a must in order to get into a Ph.D program in the future. Is it really true? Because my school offers either a MA Thesis or doing a Literature Review paper. What if I choose to do a literature review paper instead of a thesis, would that mean I have a lower chance of getting into a PhD program later on? Anyone ever did a Comp test or Lit Review and still got into ph.d program? Thanks

Follow your heart. If you think it isn't for you, then I would leave. You don't want to be unhappy about what you chose. Treat graduate school like a job as they always say. Would you want to be unhappy about the job? This is what my professor told me. Good Luck. I don't think they will "leave a big black mark" on your record. They have this withdrawal form for you to fill out. I'm sure "Transfer" is one of the choices. =) You can mention why you left the program (for future admissions in other programs), but some programs might not even ask about it.

I just finished my second week of class. All is going well so far. Sounds like a lot of work to do, but I'm sure it will be manageable. On top of that I'm worried if I can keep up with the part time job that I have. The busiest time of the year at work begins around late october to december. I'm liking the program and meeting new people. Waiting for the proseminar to learn more about the program's club for students.

I try to buy international editions because it's almost $100 cheaper than the US edition. And I read everything, it's legal to buy international edition in the US. It's crazy how corporations sell the same textbook much cheaper abroad. On the side, I mostly use Half.com, textbooksrus, and if possible, I try Interlibrary Loan from my school's library. I use www.dealoz.com to compare book prices first.

Math Review for Standardized Test is a good one. I used that on top of the Barron's Math

I got accepted to Hunter. Will be going to orientation next week. Good Luck everyone else! I heard they're still making decisions.

Ok I just came back from the interview. It actually lasted only about half an hour. It's like a group interview. I don't know if I stood out. One of the question kinda got me eh.....blanked out for a bit...... (It was something about how I think of the education department right now and how I think there need to be an educational psychologist to help....I think it was something like this).....I think I didn't do so well cuz I was kind of straight to the point meanwhile other people are so detailed and kept on elaborating more. =l I don't know if it'll be frowned upon. But the professor did say that there's more interviews next week to be done before they make a final decision and earliest time they can give a decision through the website will probably be by middle of June......but unless I can't wait, I can always email the coordinator to ask her about it.

Email them first and tell them who you are, what class(es) you took with them. Then go to their office hours start talking to them. Tell them you'll be applying for graduate school and ask if they're comfortable writing a LOR for you. (Ask the professors that you took upper division classes with not 100 level ones). Professors have written a lot of LORs before, unless they have other projects at hand or taking a leave soon, they probably won't reject you. Give them all the information they want or you have so they can get the "big picture" about you. Resume/CV,, current research project you're working on, what you'd like to do in the future, if you did a paper in their class, give a copy of that to them as well, if you have the Statement of Purpose written already give them that too (or you can briefly write one to give them an idea of what you're pursuing in grad school). You might even want to discuss with them some of the schools you're looking into or ask them questions about how they got to their position now, some of them would love to tell you about themselves like this. Good Luck and don't be shy to ask =D Source: based on experience.

OMG Everyone I got an email about admission interview from Hunter today!! Emailed was 8am EST!!! So excited. Now I just gotta do well in the interview to get a spot.........>_<......I'm gonna go in for an interview tomorrow............

Your program should say under admission requirement. If it doesn't say then you don't need one.

I feel like my hope is getting grim. It's been 1.5 months and I never got emails/calls about on-site interview for the program.

that's some good news. thanks for the information. I'm a bit relieved for now....

I'm also waiting on Hunter College. Sigh...Mine need an interview.....and I feel like hope are grim since they haven't contact me at all about the interview >_< By the end of the week it will be 1 month since application deadline.

I'm waiting on Hunter too. I'm going cranky checking the application status every day.... I thought deadline was 4/1 but they extended it for some programs until 4/15 or 4/30 >_<

I was told by a professor before, not to use the word "passion" in the SoP.