how to select general psychology programs?

[hzx4742]

I'm going to apply about 10 research-oriented master general psychology programs. but i found there are so many meet my demands and i can meet requirements of them all. I'm a foreign student having little knowledge about universities in U.S. Nor do faculties in my department. How can I select 10 programs from so many choices? What i want to know is: are there any simple processes can eliminate most of them so I can evaluate the rest carefully?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Edited November 29, 2012 by hzx4742

[kaister]

Depending on whether this is for PhD or Masters programs, that can vary a bit. I would say things to consider are: faculty research interests, style of teaching (apprentice-ship or collaborative?), funding availability, rate of publication. It depends on what is valuable to you. I personally would use faculty interests as my main filter.

[hzx4742]

Sorry i forgot to mention, I'll apply masters, and regard it as a step for applying phd in the future. I know the filters you talke about, but these will spend a lot of time.. it is impossible for me to investigate these kinds of information of each of these about 50-80 programs...how can i eliminate the majority of them so i can investigate their faculty interests, rate of publication,ect...

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

I'd look at the ones affiliated with nicely ranked graduate psychology departments. I do know that William and Mary's program is quite good as is Wake Forest's.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Quant_Liz_Lemon

[hzx4742]

I'd look at the ones affiliated with nicely ranked graduate psychology departments. I do know that William and Mary's program is quite good as is Wake Forest's.

I think this is a good idea as well. But for most of the programs, I cannot find their departments in the rankings.

[grimmiae]

You could also buy a copy of APAs Graduate study in psychology. Cut them down by looking at the ones that actually have funding, some of the information there can be inaccurate but it is a helpful guide. I think the application process is just time consuming in general so even after you pick ten....you're still going to need to devote a significant amount of time just going through the application process. And my opinion is to avoid professional schools typically they are just very expensive.

[hzx4742]

You could also buy a copy of APAs Graduate study in psychology. Cut them down by looking at the ones that actually have funding, some of the information there can be inaccurate but it is a helpful guide. I think the application process is just time consuming in general so even after you pick ten....you're still going to need to devote a significant amount of time just going through the application process. And my opinion is to avoid professional schools typically they are just very expensive.

Thanks, it's such a hard work... I have the 2012 edition of this book. There are 74 master programs in experiment psychology(general), and many programs in general psychology are as well research-oriented, and many programs aren't listed on it. Are the programs not in this book not so good?

Edited November 29, 2012 by hzx4742

[hzx4742]

You could also buy a copy of APAs Graduate study in psychology. Cut them down by looking at the ones that actually have funding, some of the information there can be inaccurate but it is a helpful guide. I think the application process is just time consuming in general so even after you pick ten....you're still going to need to devote a significant amount of time just going through the application process. And my opinion is to avoid professional schools typically they are just very expensive.

And who can tell me what professional schools are?

[kaister]

An easy way to find professors doing research you're interested in, is looking up publications. Have an article that really fascinated you? Look up the authors and from there you can find a lot of related researchers. Funding is a good way to narrow down masters programs, as not as many of them offer funding. There are many threads on here about masters with funding availability.

[watson]

And who can tell me what professional schools are?

Professional schools make you pay a lot of money. They are often online-only. The brick-and-mortar ones usually have "Professional" in their name ("The Adler School of Professional Psychology").

[Penguin278]

Wake, Villanova or W&M...

I go to Wake and they have an extremely high success rate of getting people into good PhD programs...people from last year went to places like UVA and Duke. We aren't very clinically oriented though...great for social, personality and some cognitive neuroscience stuff.

[PsychGirl1]

Drexel! I liked their master's program significantly more than any other I looked at (even turned down a stipend at Villanova for it).

[rockandroll]

1) Funding- Do they help master's students out at all?

2) Research interests- Is there a professor or lab in the school's department who does research that relates to your interests?

3) Location- Is the school near people that you know, or near a town or city that has the amenities that you need?

4) Ph.D. programs- Does the school have a Ph.D. program in your field, or would you need to go to a different school after finishing your master's?

The schools that I found and applied to that offered funding to MA students and had professors who did what I do were Brandeis, The New School, Wake Forest, William & Mary, and Boston College. Boston University and NYU don't offer any funding for master's students, but I applied there as a Plan B.