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While it is theoretically possible to teach college psychology with an MA, in practice it's difficult. Because the job market is so competitive, even at regional public universities psychology professors usually have the PhD. There's a possibility you might be able to get a full-time permanent position at some two-year colleges with an MA, but your best chances (if you want to be a professor) are with a PhD. Also, ignore the credit hours when it comes to research credit. You really have to work however many hours your research supervisor wants you to work. A lot of times students are registered for 3 research credit hours in a semester but that usually represents at least 20 hours per week of research work. Even 9 hours is a bit low to really get done the kind of research you need to do to be competitive for academic jobs later on. That said, your decision seems to lean on teasing out your feelings. Is it that your individual department has made you lose interest because your adviser left and you have no one to work with - but you're still excited about human factors, and if you transferred to another engineering psychology department, you would be energized again? Or is it that you've lost interest in engineering psych/HF altogether and you want to do something different in psychology, but you still want to be a researcher and academic? It doesn't sound like you have completely lost interest in academia altogehter, so I suspect it's one of the first two. Or it could be plain old imposter syndrome. Every grad student feels a little out of place in the first year and often beyond.

Nope! Build your language skills and get some experience in the host country (Korea, in this instance). You might get an MA in East Asian studies, or human rights, or public policy (to do policy analysis), or a language program, or perhaps in international affairs or something related to that. But a PhD is not necesary and will just take years away from time that you could be getting work experience and building language skills. If you do go to get a grad degree (PhD or MA) check out the Boren Fellowships. You do several months of formal language study and potentially research in exchange for a commitment to work with the federal government using those language skills. https://www.borenawards.org/boren_fellowship

Plenty of academics - grad school, postdoc, and professors - do two-city or even bicoastal arrangements, often with children. Visit the Chronicle of Higher Education forums and just lurk in the "Balancing Work and Life" forums and you'll see all sorts of living arrangements emerge in families. And this isn't just limited to academics, either - lots of people in high-powered careers that necessitate moves or are only located in a few cities - or overseas - have a variety of non-traditional living arrangements and their children are just fine. OP, you and your spouse and child have to work out what works the best for you - but not everyone gets lucky and can live in the same city with their spouse and/or family. I lived apart from my long-term SO for the first 4 years of graduate school. We'd already been together for around 7 years before I started grad school. He was in the military, so for the first 6 months he was several states away and I saw him once, and then he was stationed about 80 miles away from my city - easily reachable by train. We saw each other 1-2 times a month, and during breaks I either stayed with him or he took off and he stayed with me, or we went home together. We took turns traveling on the train the 2-3 hours it took to see each other. I tried to arrange my class schedule so that I could take a long weekend out to see him, and he would come whenever his 2 consecutive off days were (they weren't always weekends). It's tough and there are definitely sacrifices to be made, but being the short-distance apart made a bit easier than living a plane ride away. We had two separate apartments and paid for them with our separate salaries (the military gave him a housing allowance), but we helped each other out where possible and necessary. He separated from the military in 2012 and joined me in NYC. Starting in August I will be beginning a postdoc about 250 miles (~4-5 hour drive or ~5-6 hour bus ride) away from our current city, and he's begun an academic program at my university, so ironically I'll be leaving him again to go do the postdoc for 2 years. For the doctoral program, my SO and I made the decision that I would look nationwide and not worry about where he might be stationed. Our reasoning is that the program was only 5-6 years and that going to a better program might offer us more flexibility when it came to settling down (since a degree from a better-known program might net me better postdocs and eventual positions). We did end up getting lucky with husband getting stationed 80 miles away from me. For the postdoc, I talked to him about it once I was offered it. There weren't really any suitable postdocs in NYC for my area of research, and the one I was offered was literally perfect for me and they were offering me a higher postdoc salary than all of the other ones I was considering. Again, we reasoned it was just 2 years, and that after this great postdoc at this great university - more flexibility. Personally, though, neither one of us is willing to live apart for a permanent position. So I wouldn't take a position in Postdoc Town because there's just no jobs for my husband there. I'll only apply to jobs in areas where I think husband can get jobs, and where we're willing to live long-term. That means potentially not going into academia, but academia was never my plan from the beginning so *shrug* But like I said, there are thousands (potentially millions) of people out there who do this every year. I have LOTS of friends in grad programs and postdocs who live long-distance from their long-term SOs and spouses. Yes, it is fairly common. A discussion with your spouse is key to deciding whether it's something you want to do - and personally, I don't think you should feel bad regardless of what you decide, as this is a personal thing and it's difficult to judge the best course of action fron the outside.

Most schools do not open their applications for the following year until September.

It's about $36,000 - $9,000 from undergrad and ~$27,000 from grad school. I had a full merit scholarship in undergrad and full funding in graduate school, so even looking back I'm a bit confused about how I managed to get so much. In undergrad I borrowed for books and to survive over the summers (I couldn't go home and my summer gigs rarely paid enough to fully cover housing). I didn't anticipate borrowing any money for grad school because I have funding, but I borrowed some money to pay my moving expenses when I first got here (security deposits, furniture, flights, etc.) and then borrowed some money to pay my exit expenses this year to prepare for leaving, and it ended up being more than I originally anticipated. Also, my funding this year was much lower than previous years, so I borrowed a little to help me get buy especially in closing the gap between two funding sources, which happened a lot in Augusts. I'm still a bit baffled, but it's really fine - my postdoc salary is enough to pay off the loans with some IBR.

How much time you need to move depends on how much stuff you have to move, but generally, I would say moving doesn't take more than a weekend. It also depends on how much you have to unpack and whether you have to buy new furniture, and whether you want to get it all done before you begin or are willing to spread it out. When I first moved to NYC I had two suitcases, that was it. I bought furniture after I got there (about a month after, because my program paid me late). I did nothing the summer before grad school started. I was coming straight from undergrad, too, so I saved up some money during the school year and lived in my parents' house for the first time since I moved out. I read a lot of books, slept a lot, saw some friends, etc.

Yeah, you definitely care about weight and thickness. I wasn't too concerned about that either when I first bought my computer, but I take my baby with me literally everywhere. Meetings with my adviser, to class for notes, to the coffeeshop to get out of my apartment, on trips to conferences, home for the holidays, on vacations, etc. As a social scientist 100% of my work is also done on the computer; I have Stata and SPSS on here so I can do all of my analyses at home (and not have to hit the computer lab at 2 am, whee!) I had a Toshiba and it was a work horse. My husband had a Toshiba for 5 years before it died. My Toshiba lasted me a good 3 years and was still running well before I decided to get a MacBook. They're built well and you can get a lot for your money compared to other brands. I've heard good things about Asus and Lenovo, too. I had an IBM Thinkpad before it was bought by Lenovo; my parents bought it for me before I left for college in 2004. I gave it to my aunt when she needed a cheap slow computer in 2007, and it was still running. I visited her in 2010 and it was STILL RUNNING. Just very slowly because it had like Windows XP and maaaaybe 512 MB of RAM, lol. I had a Sony and it was a POS. Way overpriced, not durable and very suspectible to mechanical movement damage. Dells are hit or miss; I like the point someone made above about them supposed to be entry-level cheap computers. If you don't expect too much you'll be satisfied or pleasantly surprised. Personally, I have a 13" MacBook Pro and I won't go back to a PC, lol. I love my MacBook. Next time, though, I will get a MacBook Air - I have a 3 TB external HDD so I don't need the onboard storage, and I really want the 12 hour battery life, as I spend a good amount of time unplugged, as well as the much lighter weight (almost half the weight of the MBP). And MacBooks' battery life is really as advertised. Mine is 2 years old and it can still get 5 hours off the cord at 50% brightness with the wireless on, and 4 hours at 70% brightness and me forgetting to turn off the Bluetooth.

Daaaaaamn. $2500 for 6 months? It's got to be because you are under 25. I am over 25 and currently getting insurance quotes for suburban PA because I'm planning to purchase a car before I move. With decent levels of protection ($25/$50 for bodily injury/liability, required $5,000 of personal injury + $500 deductibles for comprehensive and collision coverage - I assumed a ~2011 Honda Civic or the like), Geico gave me the lowest quote - it was $35/month for 6 months. State Farm's was around $55/month for 6 months. I got much higher quotes ($80-100/month) with Progressive, esurance, Nationwide, and MetLife, and an absolutely ridiculous one (~$250/month) with Allstate. (These are all online quotes; I plan to talk to an agent when I get it.) I also priced USAA (husband's a veteran) but their coverage was pretty expensive; then again, I only priced when I was considering leasing a car and now I'm pretty sure I will buy. I'm debating going with State Farm - even though they are a bit costlier, my parents have been insured by State Farm for over a decade and they like it. I also thought Geico's quotes were suspiciously low and have a feeling that when I actually purchase the insurance it won't be that cheap. Plus I kind of want to be able to randomly shout "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!" (JK, not really a factor.)

Actually, presentations are one of the best ways to avoid getting scooped. Not only will this other student be present, but there will be tons of other people there who can say "Prefers Pencils presented on this, so they're working on that." In fact, it's often recommended that you make presentations at national and regional field conferences in part to stake a claim to your work. If your project has components X, Y and Z and you have a conference presentation in X in April and Y in October, it will be that much harder for the other student to scoop you - you have publicly claimed this research as first author in public academic venues. One of the things I've realized, though, is that research takes a lot of time. If you started this project 6 months ago and continue to make good progress, there's little chance they can scoop you unless they steal your work outright.

I actually agree with mdiv2014 on this one. While I think it's always useful to be in a currently "sexy" field...you're a second-year, and you won't be on the market for another 4 years. What's "sexy" now could be old hat by then. But there are things that are always in-demand, like work with vulnerable populations (especially with racial/ethnic minorities, LGBT populations, and people with disabilities) and anything that is methodologically or statistically sophisticated (hierarchical linear modeling, repeated measures, structural equation modeling...) You definitely want to pick something that could potentially be appealing to a search committee, that you could easily explain to "outsiders" outside of your subfield, and that you could potentially turn into a seminar that you could teach to upper-level undergrads or grad students. I agree that there needs to be passion in the beginning, to keep you motivated. It will eventually go away and frustration and desperation will be what motivates you, lol. (I'm joking...mostly.) In all seriousness, I was never in love with my topic. I liked it, and it interests me. But I selected it because it was quick and easy; it was cutting edge; I knew that I could publish from it and that it would be impressive to search committees and employers, but more importantly I knew I could finish it in a year. To be completely honest, a dissertation is something of a means to an end. Yes, you learn a tremendous amount through the process, and yes, you should enjoy the topic. But the best dissertation is a finished one, and my main concern was getting the heck out of here. I work in a health sciences lab and my adviser already has a large amount of data, so I selected a topic that he already had some data on that I could analyze and get done. The data collection takes the longest amount of time! You don't want to pick something that is going to have you toiling for more than 2 years (not in psychology, anyway). Generally, I think students get 2-3 papers out of a dissertation. So think about projects of a scope that would make up 2-3 publishable papers. I will also add that it gets far easier once you have finished coursework and exams. Your exams are actually supposed to help you think more like an independent scholar in the sense of narrowing down appropriate projects. When I was still in coursework, I was convinced I would never be able to define a research project like a dissertation much less a multi-year grant. Once I finished my exams, I was like "I could totally do this."

My personal opinion: -While you do definitely want to get people who are in your subfield and know your research, you want to get people who fit in slightly different ways and are going to push you on different things. For example, one of my dissertation committee members is a noted methodologist who helped originate the use of the method I am using. He doesn't do ANY work in my content area, just uses the method. He's helping me with my models, my methods and results; once I'm finished with him my method will be airtight and less questionable in defense. I have another committee member who likes challenging my theoretical framework around one aspect of my dissertation (in an encouraging way, not a 'omg i will never graduate' way). Her expertise is in an area that the other four don't really know quite as well as she does. You want to round it out. -Secondly - I'm just going to say this bluntly - but subfield isn't even as important as someone who will read your drafts in a timely fashion, be relatively easy to schedule into a defense, and will help you graduate rather than hinder you. The dean of the college may be awesome in your area, but will he have time to give you feedback (if you're in a field like that - in my department really my two advisers are the only ones looking at drafts)? Is he going to be impossible to schedule a defense with because he's always traveling or whatever? Is anyone you're thinking of a contrary person by nature who likes to pick academic arguments? There's someone in my department who wouldn't have been a first-choice anyway, but who I was absolutely against having on my committee because he's like that.

The difference between top 10 and top 5 to me is so small as to be irrelevant, especially when one has "very very good research fit" and the other has "decent" research fit. They're both prestigious programs. I like TakeruK's advice. I have found that my actual research interests and projects have shifted a bit since I began school, and have also found that I am intrigued by a lot of different kinds of projects. If I were applying over, I wouldn't be so concerned about the exact projects as I would be about 1) the skills I could learn and 2) the people I would be working with. I am also definitely not completely 100% in love with my PhD dissertation work, but I like it well enough to finish it, and I think it's interesting. Honestly, it's like work. I don't know too many people who are completely, 100% in love with their jobs. But they like them well enough to work at them for 50-60 hours a week. That's what you need.

I agree - I would also contact the department and tell them that I cannot commit to attending until I had funding information. That is absurd - how can you commit to going if you don't know how much it will cost? Seriously, who does that? Personally, if they insisted I would decline their offer on principle.

It is clear that you are not being deceitful as the grade was not on your transcripts yet. From what I've heard, once they accept you, they can't take your offer away unless you do something horrible (kill someone, say you went to school X when you went to school Y, forge your letters, cheated on the GRE, etc.). Well, that's not completely true. They can take your offer away for any reason they want, as this is the department's discretion. They could, theoretically, rescind your offer because it's Tuesday and the DGS spilled his coffee and decided to make someone's life miserable. But in practice, they usually don't. So I think it's very unlikely that OP will have their offer rescinded for this - there's no dishonesty involved and it's not like they're a college senior who bombed their last semester.

Hi. I'm a Columbia grad student. I've been here for 6 years. -Campus housing: I will grudingly admit that the campus housing prices are a pretty decent deal for what you get and especially for the neighborhood you're in. They say they range from $840 to $1425. The high end is mostly for law student housing, I think; most of my PhD student friends in the shares are paying around $900-1000 a month and they usually have two roommates, occasionally three. The apartments are average-sized by NYC standards but small by the standards of anyone coming from a place where a box is not the standard. You can fit a full-sized bed, a dresser, and maybe a desk in most of the shares' bedrooms, and they have living rooms and full kitchens. The apartment buildings are like regular NYC apartment buildings. Studios are reserved for couples and one-bedrooms for couples with children. My husband I have a junior one-bedroom/two-room studio thing. We have a bedroom (big enough for a queen-sized bed and our three dressers, with a little room to move around) and then another room that has the kitchen against one wall and is big enough for our kitchen table and my desk, some storage bins and some room to walk. Oh, and a bathroom. We pay $1385 a month for it, which is right in line with what they say their average is. That includes Internet but no utilities. Our electric and gas usually runs $100/month. I'm from Atlanta so I am appalled and I actually wanted to move to Harlem or Wash Heights (where I lived my first 3 years here) but my husband wanted to live close to campus (he goes to Columbia too). Quality is great. We have a doorman in our building which is great for getting packages, and an elevator. I have seen one bug (not a roach) since we moved here in September 2012. We had a brand new tub and toilet, and a brand new fridge, when we moved in. Quick maintenance service, very nice super and staff. There's laundry in the basement ($2/load to wash and dry apiece). I live right behind the building with my lab in it, so it's excellent as far as travel time is concerned. -In the case that you are a CUMC student, you're not eligible for the Morningside Heights UAH housing. CUMC has its own housing in Washington Heights. It is crappy and overpriced compared to what you can get in the same neighborhood, so my advice is to skip it and just go on the open market. If you're looking for your own housing... -Look into upper Manhattan. Harlem is the neighborhood du jour for Columbia students because it's within easy commuting distance and relatively cheap. There are parts of Harlem that are actually getting pretty expensive all things considered, as Columbia builds north. Still, I have some friends who were living in VERY nice renovated apartments in the 130s, 140s and 150s who weren't paying much (I'm talking stainless steel appliances, exposed brick, and decent-sized rooms. Two of my friends even had dishwashers, which is like the holy grail around here). One of my friends lived in a very nice 2-bedroom in a brownstone on 135th and she and her roommate were paying like $2,000 together. Another friend lives in a very spacious and pretty and modern 3-bedroom with 2 other roommates; I'm not sure how much she was paying abut I don't think it was more than $3,000 altogether. I lived in Washington Heights (starts at about 155th-160th St and goes to ~190th-200th St) my first 3 years and I liked it a lot; I was ready to return there when I quit my student affairs job, but my husband insisted on living in campus housing. I lived at 172nd St. and it was a 20 minute commute to the Morningside Heights campus on the 1 train; there is also a somewhat unpredictable shuttle that goes from the CUMC campus on 168th St to the main campus. I hate this shuttle for a variety of reasons, so I never take it, but other students like it. I could also get to midtown Manhattan in about 30-40 minutes, so that was nice for hanging out. The neighborhood itself is cheaper than Morningside Heights, but there are fewer choices of restaurants and pretty much zero lounges and bars - it's more residential - so if you wanted to hang out you had to go at least to Harlem. Inwood is even further up, above the 200s. It's really pretty and leafy and you can get apartments super cheap up there, but of course you're talking perhaps a 20-40 minute commute to the Morningside campus depending on how far up you live. I know some people who lived in Queens and Brooklyn and commuted to campus. I checked out an apartment in Flatbush and it took me an hour and 15 minutes to get back to campus, so I vetoed that. Some closer neighborhoods of Queens like Astoria might be commutable to Columbia in like 40 minutes, but Astoria in particular is getting pretty popular these days and more expensive - not as bad as most of Manhattan but not necessarily that much cheaper than Harlem and Wash Heights to make it worth it. Columbia has an off-campus housing office that has listings from landlords and great recommendations for what's safe, what's good, etc. That's how I found my first apartment here. HUNTING: It is very difficult to find an apartment from afar in NYC. Landlords and companies stretch the truth or even outright lie on Craiglist (the apartment usually exists, but they use coded language to try to make it sound better than it is or do the bait and switch with the price). On the other hand, though, as a grad student I was pretty loath to pay someone else (aka a broker) a fee to do something I felt I could do myself. If I were rich or living here permanently I think I might pay a broker to find my new apartment for me, though, just because the process is stressful. Landlords in NYC need to see a ridiculous amount of personal information before you can move in. You usually need to apply and pay an app fee, around $40. They want proof of income; your award letter will suffice. Most landlords will say that you need to make 40x the rent in order to move in. You will never be able to find an apartment that is your stipend/40 - for me that was an $800/month apartment, which is a epic myth. Therefore, you will probably need a gurantor. I felt silly as a grown person, but I asked my father if he would serve as a guarantor for me. The guarantor usually needs to make 80x the rent. I'm pretty sure my dad did not make 80x the rent but landlords can do what they want, so my dad provided some extra documentation (like the equity in his house) and they made it work. SOMETIMES you can get around the guarantor requirement by paying more rent up front, if you have it, or giving a larger security deposit. There's also a renters insurance company called Insurent that will act as your guarantor for a fee. You also need to have the equivalent of three months' rent up front. You usually need to pay them a security deposit equivalent to 1 month's rent (you will get this back when you move out unless you tras the place); the first month's rent and the last month's rent. For a hope spot...I came to New York on a Monday with zero prospects and by Friday me and my roommate had rented an apartment. The process moves very quickly. What I usually recommend: -When you are budgeting for your apartment rent, remember that your stipend amount is pre-tax and you'll need to pay taxes on it. Total taxes (federal + state) are usually about 20% of your income. That means that if your stipend is $25,000, your after-tax stipend is really $20,000, which is about $1700/month. -Don't try to look more than 2 weeks out, as someone said above. Landlords don't want to deal with you; they'd rather rent to someone else who will rent it right now. If you see a great apartment in June, it will be gone by the time you are ready to lease it in August. -Don't try to live on your own, unless you have a lot of money saved from a previous job, your parents are willing to supplement your income, or you're willing to go into debt just to live by yourself. Seriously. A *cheap* studio apartment is $1200 and more realistically you'll pay around $1500-2000 a month trying to live in a one-bedroom. Even in Harlem. Even in Brooklyn. If you see a studio or one-bedroom advertised for less than $1100, it is probably a scam ("sorry, we rented that one, but we have this beautiful one for $1300") or has major issues with it. Some people really, really can't stand to share their space with anyone else, and that's fine. But even if your stipend is $30,000, that means after-tax it's really $24,000, or $2,000/month. It will be VERY hard to afford a one-bedroom apartment in NYC without outside assistance - either an additional job, savings, parents. -Most Craigslist listings with reasonable rental rates seem to be legit. Always visit an apartment before you sign any papers. A reasonable rate, IMO, is at least $1100 (but really at least $1200) for a one-bedroom or studio and at least $700 for a share. -If you don't have good credit or don't want to deal with a guarantor, use either the Columbia off-campus listing or Craigslist to look to sublet a room in an apartment. There are many normal, friendly students and young professionals who use CL in NYC to rent out their second or third or fourth room because they have a sweet deal they don't want to lose just because their third friend went to London for a year. I found my second roommate using CL, and we're still close friends (she actually was a student at my school, too). I didn't have to put her on the lease. -If you can afford it, I recommend subletting a room in early August and using ~3-4 weeks to look for apartments. Use ~1-2 week to get to know the housing market and get a feel for prices and what you get for the price; then use the following ~1-2 weeks to actually find a place and rent it. I even know people who subletting an apartment for the first semester and then moved over the winter break. You can often get an apartment for cheaper in December because there are fewer people moving, although there are fewer vacancies. If you have residential life experience (like you were an RA) or if you have any student affairs experience from college or life, consider applying to be a graduate hall director at either Columbia or Barnard. It's a 20-hour-a-week live-in position that provides free housing, a small stipend (around $500/month) and some meals in the dining hall (75 meals for the year). In return, you supervise a group of resident assistants (usually between 8 and 13), do some administrative work like manage an area budget and fill out paperwork, and serve on crisis call duty between 5 pm and 9 am about 10 weekdays and 2 weekends a semester. I did it for two years and it was a total blast; I only quit because I got married and needed to focus on my dissertation, plus Columbia didn't have good married housing for GHDs. Barnard's GHD housing is better than Columbia's. Columbia's deadline for GHD applications is March 7; Barnard's application isn't up yet but should be soon (app deadline is usually in March).

I disagree with your uncle. The answer really depends on your PI and your program. Yes, in the first two years of your program you'll be very swamped, but that doesn't mean you won't get time to make a short weekend visit home. And I'm currently dissertating and I could pop home for a week and work from my family's home, if I wanted to, if we were in short driving distance. I miss my family sometimes and it would be really nice to be close to home. I pretty much work something like 6-10 hours per day depending on my mood and how swamped I am, and take 1-2 days off per week, so no, I am not so busy that location doesn't matter. Even in my first two years when I consistently worked 10-12 hour days 6 days a week, I was not so busy that location didn't matter. I feel that this is a very persistent myth. People would never say that to a person considering where to live to be a physician, a lawyer, a management consultant, etc., and those are very busy professions, too. Location absolutely does matter. You don't want to attend anywhere you will be miserable, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to be close to family or the mountains for hiking or a beach because you're an avid surfer. I also personally needed to be nearby an urban area because my research population primarily lives in urban areas. BUUUUT my opinion is that your very first priority should be the reputation and fit of your program. Which program will be the best research fit for you? Which program will get you to your career goals better? My current program is 900 miles away from my family, so I do miss them, but that's what planes are for. Plus, I feel like the less flexibility you allow yourself earlier in your career, the more you have later on. A better-reputed program with a more well-known PI and better placement may give you the opportunity to get a job in Missouri or close by later, which would be better than being there temporarily. FWIW, though, location was very important to me. I refused to go anywhere I couldn't see myself living for 5 years - but I expanded my definition of that considerably and tried to remain open-minded. For example, while a small college town wasn't my ideal, I could see myself living in one for a few years to get a degree without being miserable. I just didn't want to be in a very rural area, for example. Next year I'll be taking a postdoc in a small college town, and I'm looking forward to it even though I've always lived within 30 minutes of a large city.

Hello all. I am a senior undergrad in electrical engineering and I have been accepted into some PhD programs. I would really like to pursue a PhD, but I'm concerned about life after, ie, finding a job in industry. I've read that getting a PhD can hinder you there. I would like to get a R&D position somewhere, but I know that may not be possible, and academia doesn't look promising either. I do want to get a PhD, but not at the expense of a stable career, especially if I have a family by the time I get out. Any insight would be appreciated. I honestly think this has been overblown. The unemployment rate for PhDs (overall) is about 1.2%. It's probably even lower for a person with a PhD in engineering. I have heard a lot of people say that they have heard that getting a PhD hinders your job prospects for industry jobs in engineering, but I have yet to hear an actual job candidate state that they had a hard time finding a job with a PhD. You may want to visit VersatilePhD.com; they have a STEM forum. The website is focused on helping people with PhDs (mostly humanities and social sciences, but also STEM fields) find non-academic jobs and they have plenty of stories of PhD holders in a variety of fields getting industry jobs. For what it's worth, if you know that you want a shot at the academic/researcher lifestyle then you need a PhD. If you accept the possibility that you may not get an academic career, but want to try anyway, then you should definitely go for it. There are certain steps you can take to make yourself marketable after the program - like doing a summer corporate internship or working a part-time job during your grad program. You can also take classes and learn skills that are useful outside of academia, like computer programming or certain types of quantitative analysis. If you do stuff like that, then you will be employable after the program. You just may have to be a little creative with the kinds of positions you look for. I'm not an engineer, so take me with a grain of salt on this next one. But I would imagine that for a research & development position, a PhD would only make you more competitive, not less. Yes, sometimes employers think that you will automatically demand more money because you have a PhD, but having read the abovementioned website and other career resources (AskAManager.org), there are plenty of ways around that - including addressing that in your cover letter.

I came to suggest bioinformatics, too! Also note that many statistics and biostatistics programs have a heavy computational concentration to them - even if the program is technically not a hybrid program, they expect you to learn programming and many other computer techniques like visualization, machine learning, database management. Statisticians with strong computer skills are in high demand, especially in the Big Data field right now. So you may be able to enter a PhD program in statistics or biostatistics and work with a PI who is doing research that blends statistics and CS, or work with two PIs - one in each department - on a project that blends that two fields.

If I absolutely knew I did not want to go to this program (as you said, not seriously considering it), no, I would not take it. It's not a free vacation. The program is spending money on you with the expectation that you are using the visit as a way to decide whether or not to attend the program. You may be taking funds from another person who wanted to visit to actually consider the program, but responded later than you. Or the program could use the extra money towards a visit next year or towards one of their own doctoral students presenting a paper or poster at a conference or something. If you are still considering, or there is a chance that you can change your mind - that's different, you should take advantage (if they cover your flight). But I think it's somewhat unethical to take money for a visit weekend when you know you have zero intention of attending the specific program in question.

I'm not sure that the PsyD has more "academic prestige," first of all. I'm in psychology, though, and I gotta say that the general sentiment in academic psychology is not quite positive towards the PsyD. But on top of that, you don't really need academic prestige in community mental health; you just need licensure to practice. Not to mention that PsyDs are typically not funded or not well-funded, and last 4 years (3 years for the didactic part, year round, and then 1 year of internship which may or may not be paid). They can be very expensive but mental health providers don't usually get paid enough to pay back the large amount of money you have to borrow. I agree that your main decisive factor is what you want to do with it. Do you want to provide mental health services at community-based organizations, and/or work primarily with low-income and vulnerable populations? An MSW works very adequately for that. If you think you may want to rise to administrative leadership later on - many CBOs will take MSWs with many years of experience for that. Even if you need a doctoral degree, though, a PhD in social work or a DSW may be ther better option in a social service organization than a PsyD. I've always been under the impression that a PsyD was for folks who wanted to either do private practice or work at hospitals or clinics.

I totally agree with peachypie, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I'm a bit suspicious of programs that say they don't direct admit anyone to their PhD programs in fields where direct admits are very common or predominant. It feels like they're just trying to take your money or don't want to make a commitment to you, or both. In any case, I think asking to be considered when you might decline is just like applying when you might decline. Asking them to consider you doesn't obligate you to accept their offer - you have to see what they are offering you, what's on the table. If you already KNOW that you'll decline, yeah, don't bother. But if you're not sure and you'd like to see what they'd offer you before making the decision - that's just the nature of the game. There's no delicate way to word your questions, and no need to word it delicately. Just ask them directly. "Is there funding available for MA students? If so, what is it like? And is it possible to transfer into the PhD track - with PhD-level funding - after 2 semesters rather than after the full program?" Although I have to say that the chances of this happening are probably relatively slim. If they don't do direct admits, they probably expect you to finish the full MA first. Also, be sure that the transition from the MA into the PhD is a smooth one, and that you don't have to take any more classes. For example, my department offers two doctoral level degrees. One (the DrPH) requires a master's degree before entry. Sometimes students come here and they earn the MPH, which is the required master's, and then they apply for the DrPH program here as well. But even if they completed their MPH here, they still have to take more classes - 30 credits, to be exact, which is a year's worth. To me it's an unnecessary amount of classes especially if they've already required the master's before entry, especially since the requirements are exactly the same; I have a friend who did this, and she ended up taking like nearly every class offered in our department and a few outside just to make up the arbitrary 30 credits. So make sure that even if they do guarantee you entry from the MA program straight to the PhD, that you don't have to tak any more classes and will progress directly to the exams phase. Otherwise it's not even worth it and it just unnecessarily lengthens your time to degree. Reply to the person who asked you the question, and then ask the graduate advisor your specific questions about the program and funding. In my experience, individual professors don't always know fine details about funding or program requirements.

Agreed with GeoDude - this is all about research fit. I really don't think that the rankings should be a primary concern here - in your field, there's probably not a huge difference between the employment prospects of the top 5 programs and the top 30 programs. You can ask the PIs about their placement rates just to be sure, though.

iphi, doesn't the 1-year internship include the postdoctoral hours you need for licensure? PsyD programs are usually a year shorter than regular clinical/counseling/school psych programs. Personally, I would not pay for a PsyD at all. If it's a private school, I'm assuming that the cost of attendance is probably around $60,000 per year. $60,000 per year x 3 years = $180,000. School psychologists, even in private practice, cannot expect to enough money to pay that back - especially if you have any debt from undergrad. You know that you will at least have to pay for your first year ($60,000). But it sounds like even in your 2nd year the GA positions are quite competitive and there's no guarantee that you'll get one. I wouldn't want to take the risk of having to borrow for 2-3 years of school. Yes, your options will be more limited with an Ed.S. But you will also likely have little to no debt, if the chances of you getting a GA position are very high. Even if they were not, the fact that this is a public school means that your tuition will be lower. Ed.S programs are primarily for school psychologists interested in working in schools; I don't think Ed.S school psychologists can have their own private practice. However, you may be able to do private non-school counseling in the practice/under the supervision of a licensed school psychologist. If that doesn't bother you (and "under the supervision" can mean many things; it depends on your working relationship with the psychologist in question), then you still may be able to do non-school-based work if you want. You probably won't be employable in a hospital, though. Honestly, if you already have a strong idea that you may want to begin your own practice or work in a hospital or service org, then I think you should reapply next year for funded PhD programs in school psych. You could also get the Ed.S and decide later if you want to return for a PhD, after you have a few years of work experience and can judge whether you want to hang your own shingle.

I used to use TurboTax too; I only stopped using it because me and my husband's income together was over the AGI limit for the Free File through TT (which is something like $31,000), so I switched to H&R Block which had a higher limit. I think this year we may be under again, so I can switch back. Yay! I loved Turbo Tax. It made filing taxes so easy - plain-English questions, no complicating adding line 245 to line 8,596 and I feel like it really went over pretty much everything. I paid one year to get my taxes done "professionally" and I regret it: the people at the local Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block are not accountants; they are regular Joes, like you and me, who have gotten special "training" to use programs that are essentially the same as the one you use online. They don't know how to handle complicated situations like fellowships; they had no idea how to handle mine. Basically I gave them $240 for nothing. Even if I didn't qualify for Free File, I would MUCH rather pay the $15 or whatever to do it through TurboTax or H&R Block than do it for free by hand. My time is worth too much, and those tax forms are crazy. It does not. It applies to full-time employees of universities who get tuition benefits as part of their compensation packages. But fear not, because you don't have to pay taxes on any scholarship income that goes towards tuition and required fees. The correct way to handle it, technically, is enter the FULL amount of the fellowship you get in the "scholarships and fellowships" line. This includes the amount of the tuition waiver/payment, required fees (including health insurance), plus the stipend. Then you enter the amount you spent on tuition and fees in a different box, and they automatically deduct that. Since this can lead to awkward situations as noted above, the way I personally have always handled this is simply reporting only the stipend portion of my fellowship under the "scholarships and fellowships" line. Since I know the amount of my tuition + fees + health insurance part is basically moot (it's totally deducted from your taxable income - fellowship support that pays for your tuition and required fees is not taxable), I don't bother. I suppose that's technically incorrect, but it's not as if I get audited the IRS will demand any money from me. Some versions of Turbo Tax and other online tax preparation software will ask you two separate questions - how much you made from fellowships total, and then how much you paid in tuition and fees. When they ask them that way, it usually turns out all right wrt them deducting the tuition + fees from the fellowship. I've found whenever I had to deal with a 1099-T (which my university never sends me, I might add), that's when it gets dicey, so I just don't bother anymore.

1) Placement. What do students do after the PhD program? Do they become academics, do they go into industry, are they stuck in adjunct hell? 2) Definitely retention. How many students leave, and when do they leave? 3) Funding: How long does the funding last? (A question you should ask yourself is whether the amount is adequate for living in that particular city. Use a cost of living wizard; there are many on the Internet). How often do students get outside funding/how successful are students in winning outside funding? If I have to stay longer than the allotted fuding, are there additional sources I can get? What happens to students who take an extra year or two to finish? 4) Work space: Where do doctoral students tend to work? Does everyone get a work space? Is it within your PI's lab, or in a collective space? Do you get your own desk, or do you have to share? If you can visit the school ask to see it. 5) TA: Some of these questions are more appropriate for grad students than PIs. How often do you have to TA? How many hours per week does it take (no, really. At my department the departmental estimate is lowish compared to how long it actually takes for some classes). What are the undergrads at the university like? Are their opportunities for you to design and teach your own classes if you want to? Can you buy yourself out of teaching if you get a fellowship? 6) Supervision: More appropriate if you have a specific PI. What's your work style like? What are your expectations of doctoral students? Do they expect you to be in the lab a certain amount of hours, all the time, or don't care as long as your work's done? (May be better posed to the grad students.) What's your mentorship style? Where have your former PhD students ended up?