BenThereDoneThat

I agree that Columbia does have a good reputation through the average populace, but was concerned how it's viewed in the I/O or S/O communities. The few things that scare me about the program is the fact that it's $50k for the MA program and , it's taught through the education department, and Since I want to pursue an I/O PhD, and won't be able to do research at Columbia, I may not apply there after all. In response to Caffeinated, I only said I thought it was more applied because this is exactly what Columbia stated their program as being, and I haven't really found any more S/O programs besides Claremont which is absurdly overpriced at about $18K a semester.

Also, in terms of research, what would be the easiest way to do research in an academic setting if you're not enrolled at that school? I'm moving from Chattanooga to Austin, TX at the end of this month, and would like to do research at UT, but doubt I'll be able to if I'm not a student there. Any suggestions?

I'm currently applying to schools for I/O, but am stuck on what to include in my statement of purpose as I don't exactly know what admissions committees are looking for. I bought "Graduate Admissions Essays" (http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Admissions-Essays-School-Choice/dp/1580088724/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323123587&sr=8-1) which has been a great resource and has lots of example essays, but nothing pertaining to I/O and not much in the way of Psych in general. Does anyone care to share their Statement of Purpose so I can get an idea of what to include/how to frame it? Thanks in advance.

I came across that as well when looking. From my understanding, S/O is pretty much directly applied and little research is done, whereas I/O could be more research based depending on the program. This is subjective, but when I came across this exact question on other forums, people were saying that I/O would at first glance appear to be more prestigious just because S/O is even more rare to see, and as such, companies might not know exactly what they do. Personally, I would like to get an MA in S/O, and then a PhD in I/O, but not quite sure yet what I will do either. Pulled straight from Columbia's site http://www.tc.columbia.edu/o%26l/OrgPsych/index.asp?Id=General+Information&Info=What+is+Social-Organizational+Psychology%3F

Although it's actually only been 4 months since the OP, I would also like to know your experiences with applying or any other information you've gained regarding this process.

I have been doing a LOT of research on I/O programs lately and am trying to figure out what I should do. I eventually want to get a PhD in I/O but know for a fact that I wouldn't get into a PhD program right now, so am just on the verge of applying to some MA/MS programs and retaking the GRE (took it last year but only got a 950). I was planning on applying to NYU, Columbia, George Mason, CSU- Long Beach, SFSU, and maybe San Jose State. I like the applied side of I/O more, but I do enjoy doing research but don't necessarily want to work in academia. I'm graduating in a week with a B.S. in Psych, my overall GPA is a 3.0 (did bad my first year of school before transferring), Psychology GPA is a 3.6, and last 60 hours of school is a 3.5. I don't have much in the way of presentations or published papers, with the exception of my Research Methods class study and subsequent presentation of that paper. My only practicum experience is I worked in the HR dept of a non-profit company with 800 employees from May-August of this year, and am constructing a survey right now to help them with an accreditation process. When I was there, I helped with the interview and hiring process, created a couple of online training modules for the staff, and worked with several other dept's too. Should I try to get into a Masters program for Fall 2012, or try to get good research experience and go immediately into a PhD? Since the cheapest school I'm trying to get into is ~$16,000/year (and NYU/Columbia are $24k), I'm trying to make sure I choose the right path. I have an extremely strong LOR from the Executive Director of the company from which I've been an intern at, and the head of the I/O dept at my current school (UTC) is also willing to write me one.