life of a psychology grad student

[Srimoye]

Hi,

I am extremely interested and serious in pursuing a career in clinical psychology. I am trying to decide if I should  pursue Masters or PhD. I have everything sorted out except one thing I am trying to find out is the daily life of a psychology graduate student.

My sister was in Molecular Biology PhD program. She had to work 7am-10pm in the lab, read articles, write research proposals after that and even go to the lab at least for 6 hours every weekend. My question is very straight and simple. Do psychology graduate students need to work like that as well?

I am not scared to work hard. I just wanted to be fully aware of what I will be getting into and prepare myself accordingly.

Thank you in advance for your time & information.

Best wishes,
Sri

[adepaola21]

Hi Sri,

I can't speak 100% about psychology, but I did complete an MA in criminology and can tell you how my two years went. My schedule sounds a lot different than your sister's. 
For my first year, I had to complete two courses each semester so two of the days were spent at the university for at least three hours. I would then go to my office or home to read for next week's classes. I also TA'ed for a course that had seminars so I instructed third year students in a methods class twice a week as well. Once a week, I had office hours and I made sure to schedule those for one of the days that I had classes, so I could more or less hit two birds with one stone. All in all, I probably spent 4 days on campus every week, with a lot of course preparation happening at home or in the library.

For my second year, I really was not on campus that much (only to meet with my advisor regarding my thesis and for my stats class in the winter semester). Other than that, most of the time I worked on my own to finish up my thesis project. A lot of the time, however, I went to campus if I needed to focus, or get away from the comforts of my own home, where I would sometimes procrastinate... damn you netflix.

 

I know you said you are in clinical psychology, so I'm assuming you will have lab time as well (which I didn't have)?
 

Hope this helps a little!

-A

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

I'm not a grad student but this is the schedule of the grad student who works in the same cubicle as I do (in the same research lab). 

In the summer: gets here at around 9 am, leaves at 5pm, also works on Saturdays for about 4 to 5 hours.

 

During the semester: The hours are usually longer since she usually has to teach a course, so you're looking at maybe 9am - (7:30-8pm). I'm assuming she does her reading and everything else that isn't data analysis at home since that's pretty much all I see her do here. Also comes in on weekends during the semester. 

Now you're thinking, can data analysis take that long? Short answer: Yes!

Also, the following scenario is common: 

grad student: hands in results of analysis to advisor
advisor: I like your ideas and what you've done, based on this, why don't you try analysis a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,..... 

Disclaimer: this may vary from lab to lab. 

[lewin]

At the minimum, consider your research a full time job that's 9-5pm Monday-Friday, with some coursework or TA work in evenings and on weekends.

 

Next consider your post-graduate school career. Do you just want to complete a PhD? Then see the minimum above. Do you want an academic job? Then you'll probably need to put in hours more like your sister's, especially if you want to end up working at a top program. There's really no ceiling to how much you can work if you're ambitious.

Edited August 5, 2015 by lewin

[Losi]

Hey there!

 

I know that getting into a grad program is hard and the requirements for clinical psychology can be tough. So I would expect that the workload would be the same. I believe if you are passionate about something, that it wouldn't matter how much work there is, since you should have the drive. 

[gellert]

In experimental psychology PhD, my schedule looks like this:

 

Go in at 8 am on days I have class, 9 am when I don't.

Work work work

Meetings meetings meetings

Go home at 6 pm

Keep working

Stop working at 10 pm

Bed

 

8 am - 10 pm day

 

On weekends I work from maybe 9 am to 6 pm.  

 

I work the LEAST out of everyone in my program.  (Or, idk, do I? I don't have to TA or RA, so I spend most of my time doing my own research.  The people who work longer than I do are usually juggling TAships as well, so that eats up a lot of their time.)

 

Basically, ymmv.  

 

In grad school, you get out of it what you put into it.  I want an  R1 TT job, as do the other people in my program, so I/we work hard. If I didn't, I could get away with 9-5 or less.  Students from previous cohorts worked 9-5 and got jobs at teaching colleges just fine, but they weren't competitive for the jobs I want.  It also partially depends on what kinds of experiments you run. Experiments that take less time to run result in less time spent in lab.

Edited August 12, 2015 by gellert

[VulpesZerda]

Reading these responses has me horrified! I'm starting a MA/PhD program next week. I was hoping to do something like 8am-6pm M-F and maybe 6 or so hours over the weekend if necessary. Some students' schedules don't quite seem healthy in my book, but I study health so that could be why.

[Dedi]

It also depends on what species of subjects you are using. With animal work (which I do), you'll have some extremely busy periods with some downtime in between. Take advantage of the downtime.

[lewin]

Reading these responses has me horrified! I'm starting a MA/PhD program next week. I was hoping to do something like 8am-6pm M-F and maybe 6 or so hours over the weekend if necessary. Some students' schedules don't quite seem healthy in my book, but I study health so that could be why.

gellart has it nailed. Do you want to just graduate? Then those expectations sound fine. But if you want to land somewhere at the top of your field then more is required... It's the same in any professional field--just ask an associate who's trying to make partner at a top firm, or a med student who wants a residency at Harvard Medical School.

[adela]

I'm not sure if anyone actually in a clinical program replied, but everyone is really focusing on research. In clinical programs you don't really worry about research alone. Fact is, you will have long days as well.

I'm in an MS program and am looking to apply to the PhD program at my university. That said, in addition to research you also will end up looking at clinical work. My university separates the clinical work into 3 separate areas. You'll have an internal pracitcum at an on campus clinic, then an external practicum community placement, and finally your Doctoral Internship. Many people finish up their internship around the same time as their dissertation, some of them finish up their dissertation later. It depends, but this is a piece to remember. Though I'm not sure if you're looking at an entirely research-oriented program. 

Personally, my spring semester definitely led to some days where I wasn't home until 9ish. For my MS I've certainly had days where I didn't get home until rather late. My program doesn't require research (but is optional if students are interested and want the experience), but focuses on therapy practice.  This semester I have a rather full schedule including my community internship, research, course work and my TA position. I assume I'll have many nights spent grading with wine...again.

[RDV_neuro]

I'm in an MS program. Some of the students here (though not me) will be going on to clinical PhD programs.

I took 3 classes in my first and second semesters, in addition to a 14 hour a week job as a graduate research assistant (though I ended up working quite a bit more). I've been in the lab all summer doing research, and this year I will take one class each semester while working on my thesis and working 20 hours a week (at least) in the lab.

I'm in the lab from 10-7, and I take work home. I don't usually break for lunch, but then I do work with animals so there is downtime. I spend my downtime reviewing literature, checking out PIs, writing matlab programs, working on my thesis proposal, working on publications, working on poster designs... then I go home, read some more, write some more, go to bed at 12. I probably work 6 hour days on weekends.

Like others said, the research itself is a 40 hour/week job (at least!), and then I have coursework and thesis wiring on top of that. Not to mention reviewing the literature on random subjects that pique my interest... it's a lot. But if you want to publish, that's what you do.

Edited August 21, 2015 by RDV_neuro

[Applemiu]

Reading these responses has me horrified! I'm starting a MA/PhD program next week. I was hoping to do something like 8am-6pm M-F and maybe 6 or so hours over the weekend if necessary. Some students' schedules don't quite seem healthy in my book, but I study health so that could be why.

Hi Vulpes, I completely agree with you. I think that your schedule sounds very reasonable and it is what we should all strive for, with proper organization and focus, considering maybe a couple of late evenings every week and a few weekends here and there when necessary (before exams, before grades are due, etc.).

I did my undergrad at an elite program (top 15) and I can tell you that basically nobody puts in that kind of non-stop hours (like 9AM-10PM every day), unless maybe they all work from home? I doubt it.

About half of the students get good TT jobs.

My advice: get up early in the morning and dedicate a few hours every day to work/study/research only; no email, messages, browsing the internet etc. This will boost your productivity.

 

Edited August 22, 2015 by Applemiu

[fuzzylogician]

Reading these responses has me horrified! I'm starting a MA/PhD program next week. I was hoping to do something like 8am-6pm M-F and maybe 6 or so hours over the weekend if necessary. Some students' schedules don't quite seem healthy in my book, but I study health so that could be why.

I am not in Psychology so take this as you will, but I started out with schedules not unlike the ones people have described here (shifted by roughly 4-5 hours, since I am very much a night person, but otherwise the same). Over the years, starting roughly in my third year, I've been cutting back on my work hours. As long as you are taking a full course load and TAing or teaching alongside doing research, your days are often filled up with lots of non-research tasks that have to get done. Research can easily get pushed back or not be prioritized correctly. Once your coursework is complete, you are left with a lot of unstructured time that should mostly be dedicated to doing research and writing papers. The first few years of school should have by this point made you more experienced and hopefully better at time management. This all helps with having shorter and better planned days.

For me, this means that now I try to spend no more than 8 hours a day working (though, notice, not at work necessarily), and with the exception of impending deadlines (or doom), I take at least one full day off a week, plus another half day, sometimes two. I often work at home, which allows me to take unconventional breaks (I am on a writing break right now, writing this) and work at unconventional hours, but that's how I stay productive. I think it's extremely difficult to be productive for the entire 12-14 hours that people report working at the office. Time just disappears through going to meetings and prepping for teaching and getting lunch/coffee and hallway chats and responding to emails and talking to the secretary (you get my drift) when you are at the office. Actual productive time is much scarcer. When I was counting my time based on how much time I spent at work, I "worked" more. But I think I am actually working more now, though spending less time on it, and I'm enjoying it more. 

[VulpesZerda]

Hi Vulpes, I completely agree with you. I think that your schedule sounds very reasonable and it is what we should all strive for, with proper organization and focus, considering maybe a couple of late evenings every week and a few weekends here and there when necessary (before exams, before grades are due, etc.).

I did my undergrad at an elite program (top 15) and I can tell you that basically nobody puts in that kind of non-stop hours (like 9AM-10PM every day), unless maybe they all work from home? I doubt it.

About half of the students get good TT jobs.

My advice: get up early in the morning and dedicate a few hours every day to work/study/research only; no email, messages, browsing the internet etc. This will boost your productivity.

 

I am not in Psychology so take this as you will, but I started out with schedules not unlike the ones people have described here (shifted by roughly 4-5 hours, since I am very much a night person, but otherwise the same). Over the years, starting roughly in my third year, I've been cutting back on my work hours. As long as you are taking a full course load and TAing or teaching alongside doing research, your days are often filled up with lots of non-research tasks that have to get done. Research can easily get pushed back or not be prioritized correctly. Once your coursework is complete, you are left with a lot of unstructured time that should mostly be dedicated to doing research and writing papers. The first few years of school should have by this point made you more experienced and hopefully better at time management. This all helps with having shorter and better planned days.

For me, this means that now I try to spend no more than 8 hours a day working (though, notice, not at work necessarily), and with the exception of impending deadlines (or doom), I take at least one full day off a week, plus another half day, sometimes two. I often work at home, which allows me to take unconventional breaks (I am on a writing break right now, writing this) and work at unconventional hours, but that's how I stay productive. I think it's extremely difficult to be productive for the entire 12-14 hours that people report working at the office. Time just disappears through going to meetings and prepping for teaching and getting lunch/coffee and hallway chats and responding to emails and talking to the secretary (you get my drift) when you are at the office. Actual productive time is much scarcer. When I was counting my time based on how much time I spent at work, I "worked" more. But I think I am actually working more now, though spending less time on it, and I'm enjoying it more. 

Thank you both for your responses! I would go as far as to say the law of diminishing returns applies to grad school work. For me personally that means 11pm is the latest I can focus before my work turns to crap quality (aka waste of time and energy). And mental well-being is important! I once worked with a grad student for a few months who was very unhealthy imo. He never slept and I could tell because he would email me several times during my 8-hour sleep, then I would see him at 8:30am back in the lab, agitated, yawning, and guzzling coffee. Maybe if TT was my goal I would think differently about all this. It's hard not to analyze these things when you study health  

[fuzzylogician]

Maybe if TT was my goal I would think differently about all this. 

My goal was (and is) not just TT but to eventually get tenured. That notwithstanding, a more important goal is to be healthy and happy and to actually have a life that my work fits into, but doesn't take over. 

[rising_star]

gellart has it nailed. Do you want to just graduate? Then those expectations sound fine. But if you want to land somewhere at the top of your field then more is required... It's the same in any professional field--just ask an associate who's trying to make partner at a top firm, or a med student who wants a residency at Harvard Medical School.

I guess this depends on how you define "top of your field". If your goal is to land a TT job at Harvard, then maybe. If your goal is to get a TT job at a R2/SLAC, you probably don't need to work 12-14 hour days in order to succeed. Also, this really does depend on how you're counting work time. I think everyone would benefit from logging their work time for a week or two to see how much time they spend actually working and how much work time they spend doing other things. Every time I do one, I'm kinda surprised by the difference between the number of hours I actually work and the number I think I work. I highly recommend everyone do it at least once a semester if possible.

[gellert]

^ Tangent, but I highly recommend the Pomodoro method for getting the most bang for your buck productivity-wise.  It's good to take small breaks (ESPECIALLY if you plan to or prefer to work long hours), but the first semester I sometimes had trouble keeping those breaks from spilling over into work time.  I believe there's a free app, in fact.

Edited August 23, 2015 by gellert

[isilya]

I believe working insane hours is not only bad for your mental and physical health, but also isn't even that productive. I've had days where I got much more done in 8 hours of productive work than days where I work for 12 hours. Being constantly tired and burned out is not a good idea for a PhD - it's a marathon, not a sprint. I haven't started my program yet, but this last year of undergrad I worked between 40-50 hours per week completing two honors theses and multiple grad classes every quarterquarter in addition to my undergrad coursework. It's all about efficiency.

[VulpesZerda]

I agree 100% with isilya, and I want to thank gellert for the head's up about the Pomodoro app. I've used it this week to get lots of work done!

[juilletmercredi]

I guess this depends on how you define "top of your field". If your goal is to land a TT job at Harvard, then maybe. If your goal is to get a TT job at a R2/SLAC, you probably don't need to work 12-14 hour days in order to succeed. Also, this really does depend on how you're counting work time. I think everyone would benefit from logging their work time for a week or two to see how much time they spend actually working and how much work time they spend doing other things. Every time I do one, I'm kinda surprised by the difference between the number of hours I actually work and the number I think I work. I highly recommend everyone do it at least once a semester if possible.

I was coming in to say this. People who say that they are routinely working 12-16 hour days are, almost universally, not actually working 12-16 hours. There's ample research showing this: people simply cannot work 80-hour weeks for months on end without breaking down physically and/or mentally. Generally, folks are doing 6-8 hours of productive work and there's a lot of stuff in between that: procrastination, travel time, eating, daydreaming, conversations with peers, meetings, drifting off, surfing the web, etc. You don't need to work 12-16 hour days to be TT at an R1, even at Harvard. (And I have some friends who have gotten TT jobs at some elite places. They worked a lot...but not 16-hour days, every day, for months.)

I did the very exercise that rising_star advocates and realized that not only was I certainly not working 10-12 hours a day as I thought...I was also not organizing my time in an efficient way. That gave me the appearance of working all the time but made me unhappy, because I didn't have focused time to spend on my hobbies. So instead, I scheduled blocks of time that totaled about 6-8 hours a day (10 if I really needed to get something done), and left myself some unstructured time to do hobbies. I was so much more productive when I did this, because I had some non-work time to look forward to and really got to recharge with my friends and personal hobbies - and I scheduled time for exercise, which was SO important. (Note, though, that I did this after I had finished coursework and most effectively during my ABD stage. You WILL feel like you are working all the time when you are still taking courses.)

I would say that my real work time during the PhD was about 40 to 60 hours a week. More in the beginning of the program, less towards the end. And I came out with four publications, an NSF, an award for my dissertation, and a postdoc at an R1 that led to many R1 TT positions, so I wasn't a slouch. (I then decided not to go into academia, but I have a very good non-academic research job at a well-known company.)

8-6 M-F plus about 6 hours or so on the weekends sounds completely doable for a PhD program in social psychology, even if your goal is TT at an R1, as long as that 8-6 time is actually being used for productive work rather than fooling around.

[Guest joshw4288]

I was coming in to say this. People who say that they are routinely working 12-16 hour days are, almost universally, not actually working 12-16 hours. There's ample research showing this: people simply cannot work 80-hour weeks for months on end without breaking down physically and/or mentally. Generally, folks are doing 6-8 hours of productive work and there's a lot of stuff in between that: procrastination, travel time, eating, daydreaming, conversations with peers, meetings, drifting off, surfing the web, etc. You don't need to work 12-16 hour days to be TT at an R1, even at Harvard. (And I have some friends who have gotten TT jobs at some elite places. They worked a lot...but not 16-hour days, every day, for months.)

I did the very exercise that rising_star advocates and realized that not only was I certainly not working 10-12 hours a day as I thought...I was also not organizing my time in an efficient way. That gave me the appearance of working all the time but made me unhappy, because I didn't have focused time to spend on my hobbies. So instead, I scheduled blocks of time that totaled about 6-8 hours a day (10 if I really needed to get something done), and left myself some unstructured time to do hobbies. I was so much more productive when I did this, because I had some non-work time to look forward to and really got to recharge with my friends and personal hobbies - and I scheduled time for exercise, which was SO important. (Note, though, that I did this after I had finished coursework and most effectively during my ABD stage. You WILL feel like you are working all the time when you are still taking courses.)

I would say that my real work time during the PhD was about 40 to 60 hours a week. More in the beginning of the program, less towards the end. And I came out with four publications, an NSF, an award for my dissertation, and a postdoc at an R1 that led to many R1 TT positions, so I wasn't a slouch. (I then decided not to go into academia, but I have a very good non-academic research job at a well-known company.)

8-6 M-F plus about 6 hours or so on the weekends sounds completely doable for a PhD program in social psychology, even if your goal is TT at an R1, as long as that 8-6 time is actually being used for productive work rather than fooling around.

Dead on. 

[dancedementia]

Also keep in mind that most Psych programs do not directly involve going in for "lab work" per se. Biology, chemistry, "hard science" PhDs have to be in lab 10 hours because they're most likely monitoring experiments. As a clinical psych student, you'll probably be going in to lab to run human subject experiments when scheduled, doing some large dataset crunching on the hefty school computers, and meeting with advisors. Most of my friends in clinical/counseling psych programs say that they have a lot of flexibility during the day to get stuff done whenever they feel like it. Want to take two hours midway through the day to go take a pilates class? As long as you don't have class/experiments/meetings, go for it! It's really much more flexible than people make it out to be.

[clinicalapplicant]

So I want to clarify a few things as someone who recently started a PhD in a Clinical Psychology program. 

I do not work from 8AM to 6PM Monday to Friday and all weekend. In fact, I don't know anyone who actually works those hours straight. It's variable to be honest as to what your workload will look like. Some courses are demanding, and have a lot of reading you're required to get through. I've spent entire weekends on readings and writing mini-papers, and other weekends I've done barely anything. 

You cannot keep an intense school work schedule. It's just not feasible. You burn out too quickly because you've over exerted yourself. I'm the type of person who wants to maintain a social life, and yes, that did take a big hit in September when I started. I just had a lot to finish, and I was reading/writing a lot. However, now that the semester has cooled down a bit, and I've settled in, I'm able to make time for friends and family.

You'll be overwhelmed at first and will most likely work a lot of long days, but it will get better as you move along. In Clinical Psychology, there aren't any real set hours you spend in the lab (at least at my university). If you have participants, you'll have to be there but depending on the type of research you're getting involved in, it varies. Again, people in my cohort have vastly different interests but none have indicated they have to be in the lab for a certain number of hours per week. I think 10 hours a week is what I've heard, but again, it's impossible NOT to be there for 10 hours.

Anyways, just my two cents. You know yourself the best, so don't be freaked out at all these responses. With the exception of studying for an exam, or having a paper due, I don't fit this "intense work/school schedule" stereotype at all. That sounds terrible. 

 

Edited October 11, 2015 by clinicalapplicant

[hh0505]

I realize this is by now a very old thread, but wanted to resurrect it because the topic is quite on point to the one I am considering right now.

The PIs at the lab I will be joining in the Fall stressed to me during visitation day and throughout the recruitment process (correspondence, phone & Skype conversations) that they did not expect any of their graduate students to work more than a M-F 8/9 AM to 5/6 PM schedule consistently (of course, we all acknowledged that 60-80 hour weeks are simply a reality when it comes to acclimating, crunch times, etc), that none did so, and that all were able to successfully complete all milestones ahead of time, publish a lot, and go on to TT faculty jobs at R1 institutions (some straight out, others after 1-4 years as post-docs). The public record showed the latter to be true, while the former was vouched for by the graduate students I stayed or met with, as well as former graduate students I was able to get in touch with.

After accepting that offer, I received a congratulatory message from the lab PIs saying they very much look forward to working with me soon and are very excited. However, the message took on a different tone with respect to the time commitment they expected. Contrary to what was the "recruiting pitch," I was told to, in essence, steel my resolve for consistent 60 hour weeks, in addition to an expectation that I would be in the lab (or at least physically in the department or on campus) during business hours, even if I did not have anything to physically do at the lab because I might need to be on hand to help out a PI or other lab member with a task or question.

I don't want to call this an "about-face" because I know that people exaggerate the positives and minimize the negatives, prefer to leave messy details out, and feel pressure to paint things in the most positive light possible during recruitment. But frankly, I am worried about the stark difference in the tone and content of the messages (and expectations) before and after the recruiting process. Because I have the support of a fellowship, I will not have additional TA duties for at least a couple years. So the expectation of consistent 60 hour weeks is purely research and a bare minimum spent on coursework. I consulted with both my undergrad and Master's advisers, and they both told me that they themselves have never set such high hours expectations, nor were they expected to do so themselves by their advisers. Both graduated from top 5 schools and went straight to TT faculty jobs at R1 institutions. Both are worried about how my health and productivity will hold up were I to honor this commitment to the letter. And both of them said that in their honest opinion, they might still advise me to go ahead with this were I attending a top 5 institution, but I will be attending a program that fluctuates in the 15-25 rank zone. My Master's adviser went so far as to ask me if I could somehow back out of the offer because he views the expectations (and the change in tone) to be "unacceptable" for a program of that rank, which he insists will require an additional 1-4, and possibly up to 6 years of post-doc work at a higher ranked institution to be competitive for a R1 TT faculty job.

Edited April 5, 2017 by hh0505
typos

[Guest joshw4288]

Realistically you will find a lot of variability depending on your productivity during your working ours. I am a 3rd year social psych Ph.D. and work roughly 9:00AM-6:00PM plus a few hours each week on weeknights/weekends. I don't generally do much reading in my working hours and save this for downtime during the evenings. I read a half dozen books and dozens of research articles per term. I read in full every article I cite. Of course, there are crunch periods where I work much more (e.g. the time I got three r&r's back in the same week or the time I taught an intersession-6 week format course). I am generally productive. In 2016 I published 4 papers in good journals, a government report, and a book chapter. I have two papers in press for 2017 and a half dozen papers in prep plus a number of projects with data being collected. I supervise honor's students, teach an independent study course on Chinese immigration, work as an RA for a government/academic research partnership, and am active on the executive board of a scientific organization. I know others who have published nothing, have published one paper, a few papers, and who have published close to twenty publications/brief reports in 3 years. Some people come into the office at noon and leave by 3:00PM everyday, others work more than I do. Some of the people that work more than I do have less to show for it because they are less productive while they work. Keep in mind as a clinical student you will be conducting research, taking far more courses than the experimental people, and doing practicum hours. The hours necessary for clinical are certainly greater, in my view, than the others areas of psychology. Ultimately it depends on your goals. I am on track to hit around 12 good journal articles plus a few book chapters and government reports by the time I graduate. That may not be your goal. Some people want to go into private practice and are happy to reduce their research, conducting a study here and there and completing their dissertation. Others want private sector/ government research jobs and couldn't care less about obscure academic publications. Some want four year liberals arts college jobs that focus on teaching and they reduce research output, others want T1 research universities. I even know some that spend their afternoons getting inebriated and then begging for extensions on everything from course assignments to their masters thesis...

Keep in mind too that research suggests that people highly overestimate the amount of time they actually spend working. When people tell you they consistently work 80 weeks, its probably a good idea not to believe them. Thats 11.5 hour days, 7 days a week . That's 9-8:30 everyday with no lunch break. I call bullshit on these people every time. MAYBE they do this every so often. For example, during my comprehensive exams where we have 1 week to write 5 papers, I worked over 13 hours each day but that was only for 7 days and I would never be able to carry that on for any extended period of time nor have worked that many hours in a week since.  In summary, your hours will vary depending on your productivity and don't compare yourself to people that pretend to work exorbitant numbers of hours. Rest is good. It keeps you productive. A sleep deprived zombie isn't accomplishing anything even they are staring at their computer smashing keys. 

Edited April 5, 2017 by joshw4288