TrishaK1997

Hi,So I'm a psychology undergraduate who unfortunately has pretty limited research experience for a rising senior. I began working an Autism Research Lab this January, now I'm completing a directed project with the lab for the summer, and I'll be writing a thesis with this lab for my senior year. I am also working in a psycho physiology lab this summer. A couple weeks ago, an Autism researcher from Dalhousie University visited my lab, and spoke to a few of the interns. She was interested in my project and asked if I was planning on applying to graduate school. I said yes but that I would probably be taking a gap year; however, I mentioned that I would apply this year if I had identified a really good fit. She emailed me this week and asked if I would like to Skype her. The reason I only recently became involved in research is because I was planning to go to OT school. I didn't believe in my ability to pursue a PhD until recently. So, if the Skype call goes well, I would be applying to Dalhousie's Clinical Psychology program this Fall. If the research fit is great, will that help compensate for my sort of limited research experience? Or should I still take a gap year? Thanks for the advice.

I am currently an undergraduate student; major Behavior and Health. I'll be entering my senior year this fall. For the first two years of undergrad I was preparing to go into occupational therapy, so most of my extracurriculars and work experience were related in some capacity to community outreach and rehabilitation. Here's a list of pretty much all my experiences since beginning college. I worked a recreational therapist for a year at a rehabilitation center/assisted living facility. I worked with individuals with Parkinson's, Dementia, and Alzheimer's. I worked as a summer teacher (had to design lesson plans in science, mathematics, and reading and writing) for inner-city children aged 5-7. I volunteered with my university's prison book club, I was the materials coordinator. I interned at an outpatient mental health facility for individuals with Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Unspecified Personality Disorders. Now for research experience... I volunteered in my school's Motor Development Lab for a semester. I was helping the lab manager to write a meta-analysis regarding the risk of falling in elderly patients who underwent bariatric surgery. Unfortunately, this was a pretty shitty, disorganized experience. She let way too many people help out and just didn't have enough work for everyone. There were no regular hours and my role just didn't feel significant. This experience sort of made me dislike research and I actually didn't even reach out to any labs for my entire sophomore year. I know, big mistake. However, research experience also wasn't that important for OT school, which was my goal. I studied abroad the first semester of my junior year, and that's when I decided to switch from OT to clinical psych. When I came back (from study abroad) I immediately got involved with research at one of my school's psych labs. It has been going very well (studying emergent social language in children with Autism), and I secured funding to also conduct research during the summer. I'll present my summer research at my school's undergrad research symposium. I'll also be writing an Honor's Thesis with the same lab. Obviously, I will not be ready to apply this fall. I am planning to take a year off to work in a research lab, hopefully one focused on developmental psych. Will I then be ready to apply for programs in Fall 2019? My GPA will likely and hopefully be between 3.7 and 3.75. Also, I'm sort of curious if my non-research experiences will at all help me in the application process.

I saw someone from my high school is going to pursue an MA in Mental Health Counseling next fall. Given that the average salary for a mental health counselor is $40k, this career seems like a huge, unnecessary scam to me. What are mental health counselors even trained to do? At least counseling psychology seems to lead to an actual useful and important career. He claims that he's ultimately going to pursue a doctoral degree in psychology, so why not just work in a research lab or get an MA in psych? The school he's going to doesn't even have any active research, so I don't think he'll be able to get involved with a lab and get decent research experience. Seriously, why does this career even exist?

Hi, So this summer I secured funding to conduct research in my current lab, an autism research lab. However, it's only 20 hours per week. I'm a bit tempted to try to get more research experience by volunteering for 10 hours per week in another lab. I am a rising senior and right now I only have one semester worth of research experience. I am going to write an honor's thesis and continue to work with my current lab through next year, but I am trying to get as much experience under my belt as possible. Is this a bad or good idea? Thank you.

Hi, my friend applied to a bunch of PhD programs recently and Harvard was his top choice. Just wondering if anyone has heard back yet, or if you guys are aware of when acceptances are usually released for these programs.

I see. So just to clarify, I first need to be published in a peer-reviewed journal before I can pursue something like this?

Hi,I'm currently a junior in undergrad and working in autism research, specifically on play skills and imitation in young children aged 2-5. I am really enjoying this work and decided last semester (when I was studying abroad) that I would pursue a PhD in clinical psych or developmental psych. Unfortunately, this is my first semester doing research. I will stick with this lab for the summer, do an honors thesis, and hopefully present at my university's undergrad symposium; however, I want to really show my passion and get my name out there. I'm sort of new to the world of research and wondering if I can prepare my own posters and attend conferences on my own/apply to speak at them. I obviously would need my PI's/Lab Manager's permission but do I really need to wait for them to invite me to a conference or to speak somewhere? Just looking for advice. Thanks.

Not really interested in I/O psychology. Honestly I'm working in Autism research right now and would be content doing that for a while if not forever.

Okay, so in like 11th grade I was exploring careers and found out about occupational therapy. It seemed like a good job to me, get to work with kids, make good money, only a master's degree required (versus Phd). My passion was in psychology but my mom told me that the world didn't need any more psychologists and the idea of getting a PhD was so terrifying to me. I'm from a small town and all my friends just wanted to be moms and I knew if I got my PhD I wouldn't be able to start a family until I was almost 30 or later. So for college I only applied to accelerated OT programs or schools that at least had a masters program in OT. I ended up going to BU because their grad program is number one for OT. However, I'm a junior now and am very confident that I don't want to be an OT. The work involved just doesn't appeal to me and all the OTs I've met seem exhausted and sort of miserable. I shadowed an OT and didn't like it. However, I work in a psychology research lab (ASD research specifically) and have really become really well acquainted with the psych faculty at BU. I really enjoy research and have been told I have great potential. I want to continue to work in research and to eventually get my PhD in developmental psychology or clinical psychology. When I think about that prospect, I feel genuinely excited about my future. With OT I don't. Plus PhDs are funded, so I won't be paying off loans for the next 20 years of my life. I'm home for spring break and my parents are asking me what OT schools I'm thinking of applying to and I just keep walking away or saying I don't want to talk about it. Regardless of what my parents say, I'm definitely not going to OT school, but I just feel so so nervous to tell them. How should I go about this? What sort of responses should I expect back? Please, any advice to help soothe my anxiety...It's not like all my life my parents wanted me to be an OT, I mean I technically set this expectation, but it's become an expectation nonetheless.

I'm so anxious about this internship! My GPA could have used a bit of work (3.7), but my essay and LoR were very good I think! Any idea when I might hear back? Mid March? Early March?

So I work in an autism research lab and I'm currently researching the development of social language in typically developing kids vs abnormally developing kids through play. I really enjoy this work and would like to continue to explore it for my honors thesis. I want to ask my lab manager to be my mentor because she is extremely well known in the world of autism research. She's very busy though and often traveling. Should I try to find a time to pop in her office, or would it be better to just send her a formal email? Also, should I come prepared with new ideas for my thesis? I don't really know if you can come up with an entirely new experimental design for a thesis, it would probably take more than a year to complete that sort of project. Which is why I'm just trying to build off of what I'm already researching.