Aequitas2787

Thanks Behavior. Looks like I have some research to do. I had no idea Psych and Marketing worked so well together and did none sales research together. In my experience the social sciences and business schools don't play nice together but I guess that isn't universal. I'll certainly look into it more now.

Thanks for the input Behavioral. I do actually love research. Research is my goal. Not sure about a marketing program. I am not really into the that side of behavioral activity. I am more interested in the law and policy side of behavior. That is what can we learn from behavior to adapt our policy and laws to be more effective. On the other hand organizational psychology is also very interesting. It strikes me as very related to Microeconomics. As for advanced econ being "all math" there are different schools of thought on that. There is and has really always been a split in the economics community between the mathematicians who couldn't cut it in other fields and the more social science economists. Many who study economics discount "macroeconomics and econometrics" as not within the true field of economics. Math has its place but in reality the heavily mathematical economics has made the field far less practical and has brought it a lot of disrepute due to continuous failings. But I digress. My favorite thing to do is research and write. That's why I've decided I want to do a PhD program and go into academia. I would love to find a professorship at a law school eventually but anyplace that lets me research and write would be fine. I am far more interested in theory than quant side. I understand that mathematical and statistical analysis is important in any empirical field but I am not looking for a heavy emphasis on math. That said I have enjoyed a little study of game theory and things like that so I'm not totally anti-math I just do not want it to be the focus of my education or career. Thanks for the input Neuropsych76, I know top programs are very competitive, I am curious as where to start. I am about to have a law degree and lots of student debt. It would be a little crazy for me to walk away from a 100k job to do menial work as a lab assistant for a few years or to go back to undergrad. As for getting some Psych background academically, could I just pick up some courses at a local school's undergrad part time? Should I consider a part time masters program or what would you suggest? As for experience, would it be possible to find like a part time research assistant type job so that I could do that with a day job? Maybe co-author a law and psychology piece? Does it matter if the people I work with have names or can they be nobodies? I could probably find some undergrad profs to work with on stuff without giving up my day job... which is really a lot more practical. I noticed a duel PhD in managerial and organizational behavior and psychology. Would a program like that be easier or harder for me to get into? I feel like the inter-discipline arena is where I want to be not a pure field. It seems like a lot of schools are starting to really reach-out with inter-discipline programs but its hard to tell what they expect from applicants. I know I cannot compete head to head with Psych people who have spent years on that. I don't really want to. I want to do inter-discipline research not straight psych. Are there any respectable programs that look for that?

So, I am currently in Law school. My background before law school is Economics and Political Science. I am interested in decision making research in academia. I would really like to find a school to teach at after a PhD doing law/economics and Psychology interdisciplinary work. I have no formal psychology training. I would like to go to a respectable school with funding. I am curious what programs would appreciate my background and academic pursuits. I really love the idea of working with the Center for Decision Research at Chicago for example. I have no idea what is required to be competitive at these programs or which social psychology programs would be good for the study of group decision making with a side focus on economics and policy. This is sort of a new interest for me. I wrote a paper heavily influenced by behavioral economics which started me thinking that maybe I should consider Psychology... Any guidance on programs or faculty members that I should research would be awesome. I graduated undergrad in 2009 with a 3.95/4.00 GPA in Political Science and a Minor in Economics but all my electives where in Economics with a few math and statistics courses for good measure. I am in a top 50 law program now. I am in the top 10% of my class and Editor-in-Chief of an Academic Journal which focuses on publishing work in Law, Economics & Policy. I am extremely interested in Public Choice Economics and similar studies but I feel like Psychology is a better route for understanding decision making and how that informs policy. For those who aren't familiar... Law Journals are about the only academic journals fully edited by students so my position is heavily involved in editing professional academic scholarship. I have also done very well in Moot Court Competitions which score based on research and defense of your position in front of a panel of judges. Its about half research and half being to think on your feet when challenged by judges. I have not taken the GRE yet. I am spending my free time reading through some prep books. I scored fairly well on the LSAT (161/180 = top 15% nationally) but I feel like they test fairly different skills so I'm not sure how that will translate. Does anyone have some thoughts on programs that would be good given my goals to enter academia and my research interests? Also, what sort of GRE scores would I need given the rest of my background to be competitive at each of them? How much will top 10% in my law school class and top 1% in my undergraduate class help me as a candidate? How much will no Psychology classes in my record hurt me? Do courses in Public Choice and Microeconomics (which is focused on firm and individual decision making) help me? I know this is a little vague. I use to think I wanted to do an Economics PhD program but I think Psychology would be better for me. I am already pretty comfortable with advanced economic theory - I don't particularly want to deal with the advanced math side in grad school. I would like to learn the Psychology behind decision making and spend my time on purer statistical analysis as opposed to econometrics...