siduri

Thank you all so much for your advice! There's high demand for the course in summer time, and I hope I can negotiate myself into it somehow, hmm...

Hi guys, I'm in need of some advice over experimental psych course over research lab experience. I'm a junior majoring in biochemistry. I do not have really much previous experience in psych,(though I'm working hard to get that experience now), but thinking of switching fields in the future. I'm now on exchange at UWMadison and I'm planning to extend my stay till end of August. I already joined an affective/cognitive neuroscience lab here in the semester and if I stay I would be able to continue helping out there. Then there are other things to do...I can either take a two-month summer course in experimental psychology (with independent project to write up), or I can look for more summer research experience in relevant labs. The experimental psych course is not something offered in my home university, so this may be the last chance for me to take such a course in methodology. I have talked to grad students and professors who noted that my lack of methodology/stat courses in psych may be a weakness should I want to apply to grad programs, and suggested that I try to make up some way. I'm not sure whether reading up stuff myself would look convincing to other people, and if it is more desirable to take a course. However, since it's a summer course with compressed workload, it will be quite time-demanding and intensive, i.e. taking out full chunks of time in afternoons from Monday till Thursday, counting up to about 10 hours each week. I'm not sure if this is the case but it does look like cotaking such a course will prevent my concentrating on decent research; at least it makes my schedule a lot less flexible. So here's the question, shall I take the course, or not take the course and do more research (like full-time, or in different labs) instead? Or can I actually do both? Does more research experience make up for lack of psych methodology course, and does this lack really matter much? I'll be very grateful for your opinions! Thanks!

Thanks a million~~

Thanks a lot for your information~! At least that's quite some reassurance for me~ I'm still a bit concerned with lack of some core courses such as experimental psychology; would it be a great disadvantage or can I make it up later? Or is it just up to department requirements of different schools as some have a lot of course requirements while others don't. Besides, my research experience is a bit disjointed, either because the projects are short term or because I wanted to switch environments...would that matter much? And finally, I heard that it's very hard and competitive for international students to land a PhD. At least a senior student I know who is a psychology PhD in Toronto U told me it was a very tough process for her, and she thought she depended largely on contact with professors in the application process, and reference letters (though she said hers were not very impressive). I wonder whether you know much of this? Sorry if I have so many questions but thanks a lot again for your help!

Thanks a lot for the opinion! I'd read up more on the subject and talk to ppl in the field I suppose...and good luck with your app~

Hello guys~ I'm an undergraduate junior year student from a top university in Hong Kong with a major in Biochemistry. However I'm more interested in psychology and I'm considering switching fields after my undergraduate degree, e.g. cognitive psychology. However, the problem is there is no undergraduate psychology major in my university. There is only a graduate psychology program with only 3 professors who are focused on social and personality psychology. There are only general education courses in psychology offered for undergraduates, with limited topics. Thus my university is not much recognized in the psychology academia. Besides I have not much research opportunity in psychology (more on that later) which is admittedly a big disadvantage. Plus I'm an international student and this hurts the chances more. And I'm quite worried about it all. Stats: GPA (Biochemistry): we use a different grade system but should be 3.9/4.0 sth TOEFL: 118 GRE not taken yet Course: I have only taken 2 psychology courses(too few, I know...), in first year, 1 intro course and 1 on fundamentals of social psychology (with top grades in both). Later semesters my major courses clashed the timetable badly and couldn't find timeslots to fit in psychology courses. But I'm on exchange to UW-Madison this spring and I'm taking a cognitive psychology course and a course on psychology of reading there. I have a minor in Liberal Studies (Humanities+Social Science) and I'm studying to get another minor in computer science. Research: I did a summer project in my first year in social psychology, mainly data coding and some analysis. I also helped at the university psychology lab for 2 years, basically help administering some experiments and data collection sessions, and entering and coding data (all very basic jobs). The rest of my experience is in biological science: a 9-month synthetic biology team project for an international competition, a summer project studying a synaptic protein, a half-year at a lab on cell cycle and another half-year in another neuroscience lab helping in a graduate student's project (which I'd continue in final year after I come back from exchange). The methods and techniques I mastered are all in molecular biology. So it seems my experiences are not very convincing if I want to apply for PhD in cognitive psychology. I wonder what you guys think of this, what my odds are and what I may consider doing to improve? And what I might be able to do while on exchange to the US. Thanks in advance~~!