Psychology Masters - NYU

[smals]

Hi all, I recently got accepted into NYU's general psychology master's program, and initially I was really excited at the prospect of it. However, upon doing more research, I found that most people seem to have negative things to say about it. To be honest, knowing NYU's reputation and caliber of professor's/ quality of classes, I was surprised to see this. I'm wondering if anyone has any more insight (either someone having attended or knowing someone who has attended) that could clear this up? I'm still leaning towards attending, especially as I have very limited experience in psychology and I thought this would be a great way to build some. Thanks for reading all of this and I would really appreciate any insight at all!! 

[Pugislife]

it's a subpar program for professional development I'd say.

 

[smals]

@Pugislife Thanks for replying! I'm interested why you feel that way - any specific reasons? 

Edited April 27, 2018 by smals

[nycgrad14]

 

16 hours ago, smals said:

Hi all, I recently got accepted into NYU's general psychology master's program, and initially I was really excited at the prospect of it. However, upon doing more research, I found that most people seem to have negative things to say about it. To be honest, knowing NYU's reputation and caliber of professor's/ quality of classes, I was surprised to see this. I'm wondering if anyone has any more insight (either someone having attended or knowing someone who has attended) that could clear this up? I'm still leaning towards attending, especially as I have very limited experience in psychology and I thought this would be a great way to build some. Thanks for reading all of this and I would really appreciate any insight at all!! 

@smals hey there - most of the masters programs in the city are pretty crappy to be honest. In the highest sense, they are more like your 3rd/4th year classes of higher psych courses in undergrad, just retaught to you. When going to this Masters program you shouldnt think "oh this is a great school" because its, well, a masters in general psych and they take anywhere from 100 - 150 students a cohort. You should think more, will I use NYC to my advantage. Thats what I did when I did a masters at St. John's. Granted St. Johns, in my opinion, is a much stronger masters program because you are only 1 of maybe 15 students vs TC and NYU when you are 1 of hundreds. But I used the city to my advantage. I beacame a graduate student RA in 2 major research labs in the city and was going to school full time. It opened a lot of doors for me post graduation in getting a FT job and then eventually using all that experience to apply to clinical psych programs. TBH you're not going to come out of NYU being a much better psych major - you definitely will have more familiarity of the concepts, and definitely much more knowledge around stats... but Masters programs are meant to help you get more experience if you work for it on your own. I think maybe some of the negative feedback you're getting is because people thought they were going into a masters program thinking that this was the for sure thing they needed to get into a doctoral program and they quickly realized its just relearning a lot of the same things they learned in undergrad.

Hope this helps - one thing for sure, is NYC has a lot of research available, and they all love free labor. So if you're willing to pay for the cost of their Masters program (which is extremely expensive) and also the cost of living in NYC (which is also extremely expensive) to possibly get some more research experience, do it (I did and it worked out for me). But dont come to NYU thinking that this program is a great program because its "NYU" because again, you're going to a 2 year terminal masters program - which funds their PhD programs.

[Kodel]

How easy is it to get an RA/TA before you join the NYU Masters? and if you end up becoming one do you get a full tuition waiver directly? Thank you

[lewin]

8 hours ago, Kodel said:

How easy is it to get an RA/TA before you join the NYU Masters? and if you end up becoming one do you get a full tuition waiver directly? Thank you

My offer, way back in the day, was very clear that the NYU MA came with zero tuition waiver or funding (and, from what I hear around here, virtually zero guaranteed access to research faculty). So expect to be on the hook for about $25k/year. I would bet almost anything that any RA positions do not come with a funding waiver. (Which is a bit of a misnomer, because waiver means that tuition is paid from some other pool of money such as a research grant--nothing is actually free.)

Edited April 29, 2018 by lewin

[Kodel]

9 hours ago, lewin said:

My offer, way back in the day, was very clear that the NYU MA came with zero tuition waiver or funding (and, from what I hear around here, virtually zero guaranteed access to research faculty). So expect to be on the hook for about $25k/year. I would bet almost anything that any RA positions do not come with a funding waiver. (Which is a bit of a misnomer, because waiver means that tuition is paid from some other pool of money such as a research grant--nothing is actually free.)

Hmmm thanks for the information. Wow this is expensive. Plus adding on cost of living in NY it's probably too much.

The problem that I am having is that I have a low GPA as pointed out by a prof at one of the places I was rejected from.

I am about to join as a lab manager. But I have a feeling I do need to complete and ace some grad coursework before people tell me I am okay to attend grad school. So I am confused if I need to do a master's before I apply for a PhD? 

[PsyDuck90]

If your GPA is very low and your GREs don't offset it, then an MA may be a good idea. If you are set on being in the NYC area, I would look at the CUNY schools as they are significantly cheaper. Otherwise, I've seen posts that Wake Forest and William and Mary provide funding for MAs.