One POI, Two Areas

[Generis]

Hi all. I'm starting to identify potential POIs to apply under this fall an am wondering if anyone has any insight as to POIs that are listed under two areas (in my case dev and cog psych), and which area to apply under. Common sense dictates whichever I want to end up doing more of, but my interests also bridge the two. I have a stronger educational background in dev, but more applicable research experience in cog.

I'm just curious if anyone else has faced this dilemma, and if so, if they can share some insight as to how they made their decision. Thanks!

[Munashi]

Honestly, if I were you - I would reach out to this POI, introduce yourself, express your interest in working with them, note your puzzlement/conundrum, and ask for their input about how to best go about applying to work with them in a situation where you're genuinely interested in both lab areas.  They will likely tell you something similar to what you already know - choose the area you have more interest in, because I would hazard a guess that the different areas might have different requirements for coursework, etc.  But you never know!  They will have more insight about the program.

 

Hopefully someone in one of these two areas will come along and offer some additional insight/advice for you.

[juilletmercredi]

^Ditto the above.  Send a short email concisely describing your background and interests, ask if they're taking students, and ask which subfield you should apply to.

 

I'd also look at course and exam requirements, and also think about marketability as well into the future.  Within psychology, cognitive psych seems to be the "hotter" area - I see far more ads for cognitive psychologists (relative to the number of applicants there probably are) than for developmental psychologists.  For example, the psych jobs wiki seems to list roughly equal numbers of positions for cognitive and developmental but I'm willing to bet that there are far more developmental psychologists than cognitive psychologists.  I also think cog is a bit more desirable/applicable outside of academia, if you're looking to go into non-academic work, although it really depends on what you want to do.

[Generis]

Great! Thanks Munashi & juilletmercredi!