Virgin to the Process, a lot of questions.

[Court128]

Hello All,

 

I am virgin in this whole process so, I have a few questions.

 

Let me give you a little back ground. Ill be graduating in 2014 with bachelors in Interdisciplinary studies. The disciplines of study were IT Security and Psychology. Needless to say, I want to continue on to graduate school and pursue a degree in Psychology. I do not have any research experience, and I will be making a career switch from accounting into psychology. From the reading, that I have done an also looking at some of the blog post it seems as if you need to be a research assistant in order to get into grad school. Also note, I want to go on to pursue my doctorate in psychology. So here are my questions. I am sure I will have 80 more. So thank you in advance for your help.

My goal is to be able to teach at a university and/or counselor women in domestic violence situations and women that just need help in going through life.

 

Here are my questions:

 

What do you look for when looking for graduate schools?

 

Should I start looking for a job as a RA?

 

As far as getting job as a RA, do you just contact different professors to see if they need assistants?

 

After you get your undergrad, do you apply for PhD programs or do you go to get your masters?

 

Is it better to go right into a PhD program?

 

What is the process for to schools?(this question I can look up, I think I saw it in the forum)

 

That is all for now, I am sure I will be back.

Thanks

Court

 

[PsychGirl1]

Lots to say:

 

1. Getting a job as an RA isn't a mandatory pre-req for grad school. However, it sounds like you have no research experience at all, let alone in the psych world, so I would strongly suggest getting a job as an RA/RC. Look for jobs where you will have an opportunity to do research and be on posters, manuscripts, etc. For paid positions, you can look at university job listings, hospital job listings, websites like Indeed/Monster/Craigslist/etc. If you are very highly interested in one specific area, you could try emailing professors in that area, asking if they will have any RA/RC openings or if they know anyone who will. For PT or FT volunteer positions, you can just email professors of interest and ask them if they have volunteer opportunities. When I worked FT, I did this in a local lab.

 

2. Grad schools: look at fit, most importantly- research fit with the professor of interest. Look at balance between clinical vs research, APA internship match rate, what their graduates do after, etc. You will have to know your career goals and research interests before you start looking.

 

3. Master's is optional, you can apply to programs just with a BA/BS.

[Lisa44201]

Teaching and counseling are two slightly different paths. You can become a counselor with a Master's degree and make only slightly less than a PhD, given the current reimbursement rates (which are decreasing, by the way). To teach at the University level, yes, you need a PhD.

 

1. FIT. It's less about the University than it is the person you're applying to work with. I'm sure Harvard has a great program, as do Yale, Columbia, & etc., but none of them had folks doing what I want to do. Especially when you're starting out, when you write a paper, take note of the folks you cite over and over again; they might make good POIs.

 

2. If you're in an area where you can get research experience, then yes, start looking to pick up lab hours. Alternatively/additionally, you might want to look at Masters programs (there are funded ones, but they're rare).

 

3. Yes.

 

4. Depends. I advise people to apply to a mix of Masters and PhD programs, because you never know. I applied to both my first time around, and got into Masters programs, but not PhD programs. I happened to live in an area where there were no psych labs to join, and I knew I needed research experience, so I went for the Masters degree. I'm now in a PhD program, and have a job which required the Masters degree.

 

5. ..... In theory, yes, but it's not a guarantee. Some folks will get into PhD programs, some won't. If a school has 300 applicants and can admit a cohort of 7, that's a lot of people who didn't get in.

 

6. Check the individual schools for deadlines.

[MsDarjeeling]

The other two made excellent suggestions and I have one more.  You mentioned specifically wanting to counsel women in domestic violence shelters, but do you have any experience working with that population?  Many people (often women) have that goal and then find out way later it isn't something they enjoy for various reasons or they find out they absolutely love it and can't imagine doing anything else.  In order to get experience I suggest becoming a victim advocate at an organization that works with this population.  Typically nonprofits that have services for sexual assault or domestic violence victims are desperately in need of volunteers and they will be thrilled to have you.  Your degree in psych will help, but it certainly isn't mandatory.  You'll need to pass a criminal background check, be reliable, open to learning, and ready to deal with very very complex emotional and physical tragedies.  The district attorney's office often has paid victim advocate positions, but they are few, not well paid, and very hard to get.  It is likely the sequester nonsense or constant budget cutting in general is creating even more challenges. 

[Court128]

Lots to say:

 

1. Getting a job as an RA isn't a mandatory pre-req for grad school. However, it sounds like you have no research experience at all, let alone in the psych world, so I would strongly suggest getting a job as an RA/RC. Look for jobs where you will have an opportunity to do research and be on posters, manuscripts, etc. For paid positions, you can look at university job listings, hospital job listings, websites like Indeed/Monster/Craigslist/etc. If you are very highly interested in one specific area, you could try emailing professors in that area, asking if they will have any RA/RC openings or if they know anyone who will. For PT or FT volunteer positions, you can just email professors of interest and ask them if they have volunteer opportunities. When I worked FT, I did this in a local lab.

 

2. Grad schools: look at fit, most importantly- research fit with the professor of interest. Look at balance between clinical vs research, APA internship match rate, what their graduates do after, etc. You will have to know your career goals and research interests before you start looking.

 

3. Master's is optional, you can apply to programs just with a BA/BS.

 

 

Pyschgirl,

Thanks for responding.

The one thing that I am doing is going through a training to volunteer at women’s domestic center. It’s not just a place that houses women. They have a lot of different programs in this center. They have an in-house psychologist that deals with the women and being a volunteer, we can choose to work with the psyD. I have expressed to them that this was one of my reason for volunteering. But I feel that I will need more than that.

 

What is a RC? Is that research coordinator?

 

When you made this comment: “ Master's is optional, you can apply to programs just with a BA/BS”.. Do you mean a masters is optional for Phd programs? If so, I am trying to see the best route. Is it better to go for your master or go right into the Phd program?

 

Thank you again. 

[Court128]

Teaching and counseling are two slightly different paths. You can become a counselor with a Master's degree and make only slightly less than a PhD, given the current reimbursement rates (which are decreasing, by the way). To teach at the University level, yes, you need a PhD.

 

1. FIT. It's less about the University than it is the person you're applying to work with. I'm sure Harvard has a great program, as do Yale, Columbia, & etc., but none of them had folks doing what I want to do. Especially when you're starting out, when you write a paper, take note of the folks you cite over and over again; they might make good POIs.

 

2. If you're in an area where you can get research experience, then yes, start looking to pick up lab hours. Alternatively/additionally, you might want to look at Masters programs (there are funded ones, but they're rare).

 

3. Yes.

 

4. Depends. I advise people to apply to a mix of Masters and PhD programs, because you never know. I applied to both my first time around, and got into Masters programs, but not PhD programs. I happened to live in an area where there were no psych labs to join, and I knew I needed research experience, so I went for the Masters degree. I'm now in a PhD program, and have a job which required the Masters degree.

 

5. ..... In theory, yes, but it's not a guarantee. Some folks will get into PhD programs, some won't. If a school has 300 applicants and can admit a cohort of 7, that's a lot of people who didn't get in.

 

6. Check the individual schools for deadlines.

 

Lisa,

I am going to school on line, its kind of hard for me to get any help and get my questions answered. Thank you.

As far as Psych labs, do you mean that there are just different labs in various places where people can go and join them and start their research that way?

 

Also, I think it was you that said, its the person that has to be the correct fit. How do i find that out, just go and google psych prof. and see what they have written?

 

Thanks

[Lisa44201]

For research-oriented Universities (and/or medical centers, for that matter), some labs will hire people / have people volunteer to work in the lab. The work done in that lab usually revolves around what the professor is doing, with lab assistants helping out with data collection, maintaining the lab, and perhaps helping out with aspects of assessment/reports/presentations, but this varies greatly by lab, and is also somewhat dependent on the training you received as an undergrad. If you're hired as a research assistant, as opposed to having a student research assistant position, you probably wouldn't get to start doing your own research in that setting, but you'd be able to help; this is very different from being part of a lab even as a Masters student, where you conduct your own research under the advisement of your faculty supervisor. From what I understand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a paid position as a research assistant.

 

Fit with a POI is possibly the most important part of grad school. Obviously grades & GREs play a role as far as Admissions Committees are concerned, but a POI needs to read your cover letter / SOP and be convinced that you are the perfect fit in his/her lab. It's going to be more difficult for you to figure that out given that you're taking online classes right now, but yes, Google Scholar / PsycInfo are going to be good sources for you to start. Keep in mind that you're basically committing to studying a topic for 4-ish years (in addition to clinical training, if you go that route), so you need to have a really strong interest in whatever that topic is, as well as working with that particular professor.

[PsychGirl1]

It seems like you have a lot of basic things you need to find out and figure out about this process. I suggest getting some books about applying to clinical psych grad programs and reading them. It would be much more efficient than asking us these very broad questions.

 

RC = research coordinator.

 

Clinical experience is important, as is research experience- some matters more than others depending what type of program and what your ultimate career path is. You need to figure that out first, as I said above.

 

Master's isn't required for entry into PhD programs. Some people do them for the experience beforehand. It's not required.