Miiit

Good morning everyone, I applied to Rutgers Newark MPA program. I met with the Program Coordinator and she said that I was a very strong candidate. I am waiting on a decision still. However, I don't see any posts here about Rutgers SPAA at all. Did any of you go to Rutgers or apply to this program? What do you think about it? Any input will be highly appreciated.

@Hk328 @JoePianist Thank you for your prompt and insightful responses. I've taken Social Science Research Methodology, Statistics in Social Science, Consumer Psychology, Persuasive Communication and Consumer Behavior for my MA. Those are all Social Psychology related, not Clinical, and I'm totally lack of clinical experience. I've never worked in a psychology lab before. I can see that I definitely need to take more psychology courses also. My husband makes enough so I don't have to worry about income for now. According to your information I think it's the best for me to work on an MA first, try to get more research experience along the way then apply for PhD program later. Thank you again for your helpful advice.

Hello everyone, I'm an immigrant career shift who is planning to go back to school for a degree in Counseling/Clinical Psychology. I've been reading thegradcafe and learned a lot about the application process. However, I can't decide if I should apply for PhD or MA first then PhD since my case is a little unique. Any advice is greatly appreciated. My BA was in Korean Studies back in Vietnam (gpa 3.1). After graduation I've been working as a Junior Journalist and Copywriter as well as a freelance translator for 2 years before I started my MA in Public Relations and Advertising in South Korea (fully funded). At communication school, I started to learn more about psychology and pretty much fell in love with the field. I finished coursework for the MA program (93.3/100 or 3.7 gpa) and passed the comprehensive exam in 2016 but haven't finished my thesis because I was pregnant and moved to America with my husband. My study interests are multicultural/cultural psychology and social identity. It's also almost impossible for me to relocate because I have a 16 month old and my husband is a public school teacher in New Jersey so my top choice schools are Rutgers, NYU, Columbia Teacher College, Fordham and 2 other local schools. My strengths: communication skills, being trilingual (Vietnamese-Korean-English), supervised research experience, teaching experience for US government (Department of State) and Korean government (Department of International Affairs) , RA for an Anthropologist on studies about cross-cultural issues, 1 year experience of teaching multicultural kids, great recommendation letters from supervisor professor My weaknesses: lack of experience in the field, weak undergraduate GPA, my GRE score will not be so impressive, no publications. On one hand, if I get an MA in Psychology I will have more time adjust to school system here, network, get publication and gain more knowledge in the field which will make me a stronger candidate. On the other hand, another MA may be confusing and unnecessary when I already know what I want to study. I'm sorry for the novel and thank you for your time. Any thoughts on this are highly appreciated.