Safety Schools in New York Area.

[solitude87]

Anyone know some safety schools for a flat 3.0 GPA? (Coming from SUNY Stony Brook) Though I haven't taken GRE yet. I see some schools list no minimum or just 3.0 minimum.

I would like to go for Masters in General Psych or School Psych. I know my gpa is bad, but I do have a year of Research Assistant and Independent Research in Psychology to compensate a little.

Would you recommend taking some course as a non-matriculate before I apply? I plan to take a year off to do some entry level work and prepare for GRE / Gre Psych before I apply. But I would like to know some safety schools. I was looking into CUNY Hunter or New School for Social Research. I'm not quite knowledgeable about schools in New York or America in general.

[astorian]

Hi! I received my MA in general psych from Hunter. When I got out of my undergraduate program, I did not at all feel prepared to apply for my Ph.D., and didn't have any research experience yet. So I enrolled in the MA program at Hunter, and completed that while working full-time in research.

I enjoyed the program, it definitely helped me to feel prepared to apply to Ph.D. programs, which I've now done (rather successfully- 3 acceptances/ interviews out of 4 applications so far, and one program I haven't heard back from yet).

I was matriculated, but there were several people in my program who either started as non-matriculating and later matriculated, and some who just took some classes.

It's tricky deciding whether to jump right into a Ph.D. or to do your Master's first- the MA was the right decision for me. I am better prepared to enter a Ph.D. program, and CUNY is very inexpensive, so it will not cost me too much more in the end (perhaps it will even end up saving me money, if I end up with good financial aid from my Ph.D. program, and will likely be able to transfer some of my credits).

If you plan to take some time off anyway before you apply for your Ph.D., I definitely think it might be a good idea to take some graduate level classes. My work actually paid some of my tuition, since my classes were related to my job.

So in the end, I spent a little money and time, in exchange for strengthening my application for my Ph.D. Weigh your options, for me this was the right course, but everyone's situation is different.

Keep in mind that New School is rather costly! But I have no experience with that program, only Hunter. Let me know if you have any questions about Hunter, I'd be happy to help

[moby]

Hi,

I have a question for Astorian. Does Hunter offer any graduate-level psychology courses during summer session? I'm in the exact same situation as Solitude87 (actually I'm coming from SUNY SB, too!) and I'm thinking of going Hunter as non-matriculated. I searched their website but there was no information about course offerings yet. I'd appreciate your reply!

[solitude87]

Hey, I think i can answer your question on that.

They actually don't offer any graduate courses for psych over the summer. I emailed them before and they said I could apply for Fall/Spring, and it's best to go in person to their psych department to see an advisor who will tell me what courses I could take.

Did you get your recommendations yet? Mine are still pending.. argh...I better get them all by December latest. -__- I emailed the professors but they dont even respond back!

http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/psych/0 ... chor-48213