Should I risk it?

[Psych Student]

Notes: I am aiming for a Ph.D. in Social, Personality, or Experimental Psychology. My UG GPA is 3.67, psych GPA is closer to 3.85. I presented once at EPA.

After applying to five grad schools, I was only accepted into one - the current school I'm attending as an undergraduate.

The thing is, this is a clinical oriented school. It has a Psy.D. program and trains clinicians, not people aiming for research or academia.

However, I was accepted into the Master's program for general/theoretical psychology. The other schools were Ph.D. programs.

I'm hesitant about accepting this offer because I'm concerned about what it will do to my chances of getting into a Ph.D. program. Where many Ph.D. programs accept 10+ post-bachelors students, they often only accept one or two Master's students. I'm afraid that once I get my Master's, it might be harder to get into a Ph.D. program. Then again, I'm also concerned about never ever getting accepted into another school again.

So what should I do? Should I take this offer I have before me and start with my master's, or wait a year and reapply to Ph.D. schools?

Edited March 23, 2012 by Psych Student

[sociologo]

Do you have funding for the masters program? I think that makes a difference in what you decide to do.

I had the same predicament my senior year - I got rejected from all the PhD programs I applied to and accepted to a few Masters. The program I wound up at had full funding for Masters students but was a really poor fit for me in most other areas. At the time I was deciding to attend, I was less than thrilled. My undergrad advisor told me to just stick it out for the two years and "do my time." It is a graduate program and will challenge you to excel at a higher level academically. You can use this time to present at conferences, maybe work on getting a short article published, etc. If the program isn't exactly your research/professional interests, that can still work to your advantage. Taking some courses in things that don't interest you as much will allow you to be more well-rounded academically, and you'll be able to advertise yourself as having been trained in a wider variety of areas at the graduate level once you apply to PhD programs again. This was the advice given to me from my undergrad, and later my graduate advisor when I was having difficulty choosing classes (sorry, social psych. just isn't my thing - but hey, I'm well-rounded!). Hope that helps..

[Psych Student]

Do you have funding for the masters program? I think that makes a difference in what you decide to do.

I had the same predicament my senior year - I got rejected from all the PhD programs I applied to and accepted to a few Masters. The program I wound up at had full funding for Masters students but was a really poor fit for me in most other areas. At the time I was deciding to attend, I was less than thrilled. My undergrad advisor told me to just stick it out for the two years and "do my time." It is a graduate program and will challenge you to excel at a higher level academically. You can use this time to present at conferences, maybe work on getting a short article published, etc. If the program isn't exactly your research/professional interests, that can still work to your advantage. Taking some courses in things that don't interest you as much will allow you to be more well-rounded academically, and you'll be able to advertise yourself as having been trained in a wider variety of areas at the graduate level once you apply to PhD programs again. This was the advice given to me from my undergrad, and later my graduate advisor when I was having difficulty choosing classes (sorry, social psych. just isn't my thing - but hey, I'm well-rounded!). Hope that helps..

The school doesn't give out a lot of funding for grad students and I don't have any scholarships. I'm on the poor end as far as SES goes. @.@ It's $750 per credit.

[abc123xtc]

I personally do not think you should go into debt for something you are not passionate about -- it might be best to try again next year. Hopefully you'll get into a program you are excited about!

[sociologo]

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's worth it without funding.