Chances of Getting into Cornell PhD Program

[carlyhylton]

I don't think that the pay for RAships is necessarily that bad. Maybe my standards are low.

At my institution RAships pay $15-20/hour plus honorariums, part time or full time. I'm personally fine with that.

And I've seen multiple clinical RAship job postings (in Toronto- Rotman Insitute, CAMH etc) for 50-60k a year, which I dont think is bad at all.

[Bgajdor1]

I'm not looking to make a substantial amount of money. Nothing to live off of extravagantly. I want to pay off my undergraduate loans, which amount to around $15,000. And I'd like to have enough money to spend on food, an occasional movie, etc. I'm not talking about an official job that I can make a living off of. Just something to get by in between undergraduate and graduate school.

Basically, I'm looking for something that pays more than minimum wage, and will offer me 30-40 hours a week. How would I go about finding an RA job? I've applied to the Research Labs at my university, but they only require 10-12 hours a week. And they're unfunded for anyone without a bachelor's degree. Any advice on how to find these jobs, and increase my chances of getting in? (Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.)

[QxV]

*Points to various Social Psychology PhDs in business schools*

Heck, even in just my own department there are 7 marketing professors with PhDs in Social Psychology.

And the b-school pay (and subsequent opportunities for consulting) is pretty generous relative to other academic disciplines:

http://docsig.org/in...-salary-surveys

I stand corrected. I do maintain, however, that pursuing a Ph.D is an extremely inefficient way of trying to get rich (in terms of cost/benefit).

[carlyhylton]

I'm not looking to make a substantial amount of money. Nothing to live off of extravagantly. I want to pay off my undergraduate loans, which amount to around $15,000. And I'd like to have enough money to spend on food, an occasional movie, etc. I'm not talking about an official job that I can make a living off of. Just something to get by in between undergraduate and graduate school.

Basically, I'm looking for something that pays more than minimum wage, and will offer me 30-40 hours a week. How would I go about finding an RA job? I've applied to the Research Labs at my university, but they only require 10-12 hours a week. And they're unfunded for anyone without a bachelor's degree. Any advice on how to find these jobs, and increase my chances of getting in? (Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.)

I think this is all going to vary a lot from prof/lab to institution etc.

From what you've written it seems that it might be worth it to look at different opportunities outside of your institution, state. Possibly in another country. I'm not going to offer too much specific advice as I don't have experience looking outside of Canada and I know there are a bunch of resources in the states. There are a lot of threads that go over this in this forum so you might want to refer to them, and do your own research as well.

[Behavioral]

I stand corrected. I do maintain, however, that pursuing a Ph.D is an extremely inefficient way of trying to get rich (in terms of cost/benefit).

True that. I'm at a top business school and surrounded by people who will ultimately be in school for two years for a degree that will net them as much (and for many, more) money as I would doing a job that is (in my opinion) still easier than doing top-tier research (i.e., publishing only in A-level journals).

That said, however, I worked in consulting for a short while and figured it definitely wasn't for me--even with the nice little salary I earned and all the traveling I did.

The fact that I can do what I love (academic research) and get paid a decent amount is the best of both worlds.

[Bgajdor1]

So, should I contact my professors about paid research positions (full-time), or should I look outside of my university? Any personal anecdotes are helpful, thanks guys,

~ Ben

[Behavioral]

Either works. The more relevant the research to your interests, the better--but some experience is better than no experience, so don't overlook any opportunity to do paid work.

[svh]

I stand corrected. I do maintain, however, that pursuing a Ph.D is an extremely inefficient way of trying to get rich (in terms of cost/benefit).

i want to go to a b school afterwards...

[Behavioral]

i want to go to a b school afterwards...

Surprised you didn't take the Booth offer

As long as you make your research relevant and applicable to marketing/consumer behavior or management/organizational behavior, you'll be fine.

A very recent example of a top placement from Psychology -> top business school is Kristin Laurin from Waterloo. She published with Aaron Kay and Graianne Fitzsimmons (both at Duke Fuqua School of Business with Kay only recently moving there from Waterloo Psychology) on topics that translated well into organizations (justice, inequality, system justification, etc.).

The more typical route, though, is Psych graduates doing a 1-2 year post-doc at a business school (something like Florida Warrington's PDB program) then going to a business professorship (one example is Hal Hershfield who went from Stanford Psychology -> Kellogg Management and Organizations -> NYU Stern Marketing).

The transition to a business professorship is a bit tougher for non-business academics (compared to those graduating with PhDs at business schools already), but it's quickly becoming more and more common, which is good for the field in developing more theory (though possibly losing out on applicability and managerial implications).

[randompsychologist]

I second 3point14's NIH suggestion-- that's a great program. I also recomend that you look at the Hot Metal Bridge Program at the University of Pittsburgh...its funded and there's a stipend. There are two other funded fellowship-type programs that will get you good research experience, one at Duke and the other at the University of Florida that are geared towards neuro people...but I don't think that's your thing... unless if you're into social/personality in the neuro literature? These programs have deadlines in the spring semester of your senior year and I recommend that you submit those applications when you're doing your grad school apps.

MA programs are a good idea for students who come from a different field and want to do psychology, or were psych undergrads but did not have a good GPA. As someone else here said, it is a really expensive way to get RA experience and even then, it may not be the best way to do it. That is, of course, unless you get a funded MA . With your GPA that's not a good way to go. However, that said, does your school have a BA/MA option? If it is cheap enough to be feasable, and you find an advisor you really really want to work with over this summer you may want to pursue this option. This way, you will see a project from start to finish, perhaps get a poster or two out of it, get a thesis out of it, and have a good letter without having to go through that period where you acclimate to a new department. This option worked for me. Explore it if this is available to you.

Also, unfortunately, it may be too late in the game for this now, but NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates programs are a great idea if you have another summer and/or year of school left... but the deadlines for the summer should have already passed. However, if you end up spending a fifth year at Binghamton, it may actually be a very good idea to apply for REU opportunities for next summer. If you stay for a fifth year, you should also consider the APA Summer Science Fellowship for next summer.

With your lack of research experience, I would recommend taking a gap year and applying later. You can obviously do the school work (your GPA shows this) and, with good research experience and strong GRE scores, you will be a competitive candidate. Don't shortchange yourself now--you may be cheating yourself out of amazing acceptances and/or funding opportunities that you could get if you had waited.

Edited May 20, 2012 by randompsychologist