gabriel13

I made the mistake of only applying to one school this year and not contacting the faculty I wanted to work with beforehand. Now that I've learned that lesson, I'm looking to strengthen my application (for 2013 sigh). Bottom line, I have plenty of experience writing lit reviews/critiques from my master's forensic psychology program, but I'm concerned that's just not translating into a research program in evolutionary psychology. So two questions, am I right/wrong in my assumption here? If I'm right, is there really any way for me to get the research experience needed while not in academia? I'm starting to think the only way would be to quit my current job and just apply for research assistant positions, but that seems a bit drastic. I'm really open to any advice here.

I applied to the DEVO program at UCSB and considered myself a pretty strong candidate, but I'm thinking my lack of lab research might be what kept me from getting in. I recently got my M.A. with a 4.0, but research was limited to lit reviews/critiques. I did have lab experience, but that was over a decade ago. I'm probably going to reach out to the department and ask what I could do to make my application stronger in the future, but I'm thinkning the research experience is probably what really got me. So my question is this, as an adult with a full time job that I can't afford to just up and leave, how can I get the research experience needed? I'm toying with the idea of just applying to some undergrad biology classes with labs, but I'm not really sure that will make the difference. I'm also thinking about looking for part time research assistant positions, but again I'm just not sure.

So glad to find this thread and the survey of response dates. Thanks to whomever had the good sense to develop that! Good luck folks!