Masters in Psychology or Phd in Psychology?

[Studentwithhope]

Hi there,
I am a fourth year psych student who is extremely interested in applying to a PHD in developmental or cognative psychology. However, I am not a stellar student who has a 4.0 gpa, 175 gre score, a million years of research experience, and a million conference presentations. I only have a 3.4 gpa, 1.5 years of research experience, two conference presentations, and 1 publication ( in an anthropology journal)

Based on my information, do you think it would be wise for me to get a terminal masters degree in psychology first? Or should I apply for both master and PHD programs?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[nugget]

Did you work your hardest or do you think you were capable of doing better in undergrad? While I am not in the field, I am inclined to think it would be better to apply to Master's programs and complete an MA at a decently ranked school. During those 2 years, work extremely hard to prove your ability and worth to the department, get outstanding references and build solid experience to put on your cv so you can get into a PhD program at a higher ranked school later on.

 

If university ranking is not too important to you (although it should be if you want to get into academia later on) and you can afford to apply to a bunch of schools (both in terms of time and money), then you might want to apply to a couple of PhD programs as well because you never know, you might be able to get in somewhere that isn't a top tier school. But I'd focus only on PhD programs that are an excellent match for your background and interests since your GPA is very good but also not highly competitive for this field.

Edited May 19, 2013 by jenste

[somethinbruin]

Something to consider, because I know this happened to two friends of mine who did psych Master's programs. Many Psych PhD or PsyD programs will require you to do an MA as part of your coursework, so getting it before moving on to doctoral work might not be the best option. Both my of my friends (one PsyD and one PhD) entered their doctoral programs with Master's, and they had to re-do the two years of master's work anyway. Having a master's did not really shorten their time to degree in the doctoral program. Both felt like they "wasted" a lot of time on the Master's program.

 

That's about all I can say because I'm in a different field, but I thought it was relevant to your question. Best of luck to you as you consider your options.

[lypiphera]

If you know you want to go for a PhD, definitely apply to both.  As others mentioned, most PhD programs cover the same coursework as masters and you can get your masters on your way to a PhD.  You will have lost time getting the masters first, and it will likely have less funding than a PhD program

 

Having said that, there are two reasons to apply for master's programs as well.  One is if you can't get into a PhD program because of your undergrad credentials.  Yours don't seem that bad, so if you can get great rec letters and a really convincing statement of purpose, I would think you would have a shot.  Still good to apply to both.  The other reason is that many careers only require a masters, so make sure to look into potential careers and see what the qualifications are.