A year off between my MA and PhD. Thoughts??

[CoffeeErryday]

Hi y'all!

Love all the advice in this forum. I'm currently finishing up my MA in Psychology in Spring 2020. I have decided to take a year off between my MA and starting my Clinical Psychology PhD. So I'll be applying for and starting my PhD in Fall 2021. Is this a good idea? Any thought/advice/tips on what should I do in the year to amp up my PhD application?

Background: BS in Biomedical Engineering

Current: MA in Psychology, RA in 3 labs on campus, 1 poster presented on campus, no publications yet...

Thanks!

[PsyDuck90]

Publish. Publish. Publish. With an MA, faculty are going to expect far more research products than a single poster, especially when not from a national conference. Try to pump out as many posters and pubs as you possibly can. 

[CozyD]

Definitely try to present and publish more!

Try to do something job-wise with the year break that is relevant and interesting.

Be able to explain how the year out of school makes you better prepared for the PhD than if you'd gone straight into it.

If you can use the time to get a couple presentations/publications on your CV, it's definitely a good idea to wait a year. (That means going after that stuff ASAP so you can get it done in the next year, so it's on your CV when you apply next fall.)

Edited September 7, 2019 by CozyD

[CoffeeErryday]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:12 PM, PsyDGrad90 said:

Publish. Publish. Publish. With an MA, faculty are going to expect far more research products than a single poster, especially when not from a national conference. Try to pump out as many posters and pubs as you possibly can. 

Thank you! Yes, I'll definitely make that my goal/

[CoffeeErryday]

18 hours ago, CozyD said:

Definitely try to present and publish more!

Try to do something job-wise with the year break that is relevant and interesting.

Be able to explain how the year out of school makes you better prepared for the PhD than if you'd gone straight into it.

If you can use the time to get a couple presentations/publications on your CV, it's definitely a good idea to wait a year. (That means going after that stuff ASAP so you can get it done in the next year, so it's on your CV when you apply next fall.)

That makes a lot of sense. Oh yeah, that year off will definitely help then since I don't have any publications yet (although I'm collecting data for a potential paper now but def need more). How many publications/presentations would be good enough for a MA grad applying to PhD? 

Also, I was wondering since I would have my MA when applying, would that shave off like 2 years from a PhD program? Since I heard that the first 2 years actually are en route to getting an MA within the program.

[PsyDuck90]

14 hours ago, CoffeeErryday said:

Also, I was wondering since I would have my MA when applying, would that shave off like 2 years from a PhD program? Since I heard that the first 2 years actually are en route to getting an MA within the program.

It depends on the program. Some will allow transfer credits. Others won't. 

[CozyD]

I didn't have an MA, so I don't know how that affect things.

Some folks get into Ph.D. programs with little or no presentations/publications. Often they have some other strong things going for them.

The MA itself is something nice you have. Though someone else in this thread mentioned that they may expect more of other stuff since you have that. I don't really know.

Having even just a couple presentations/publications could help a lot, as it shows you're capable of a certain kind of work!

It's possible that a program  will let you transfer some credits to cover some requirements, but my general sense is that this isn't very common and you should assume the Ph.D. is going to take just as long going in with an MA than going in without one.