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Graduate School

Graduate School. Start to study for the GRE. Start to study for the GRE as soon as possible. If you are planning on applying to Clinical programs or competitive programs in other areas, you will probably need to take the GRE Subject Test in Psychology as well. Studying for the GRE.

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Graduate School

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  1. Graduate School

  2. Start to study for the GRE. • Start to study for the GRE as soon as possible. • If you are planning on applying to Clinical programs or competitive programs in other areas, you will probably need to take the GRE Subject Test in Psychology as well.

  3. Studying for the GRE • There are plenty of online resources and books that can be used to study for the GRE. Actually, the number of options may be overwhelming. • Each person will have their own preference for certain study materials. • Here are a few good resources…

  4. Study Materials • www.syvum.com/gre • Barron’s “How to Prepare for the GRE” • ARCO’s “GRE CAT Questions to the Real Essay Questions” • Barron’s “How to Prepare for the GRE Psychology”

  5. Barron’s “How to Prepare for the GRE”

  6. ARCO’s “GRE CAT Answers to the Real Essay Questions”

  7. Barron’s “How to Prepare for the GRE Psychology”

  8. How long do you want to be in school? • How much time can you commit to graduate school? • Master’s programs take about two years. • Ph.D. programs typically take anywhere between four and six years to complete. • Clinical Psy.D. and Ph.D. programs can take from five to seven years to complete (including practicum).

  9. Funding • The funding/financial aid that programs offer varies greatly, depending largely on the type of program that you are applying to (Master’s, Ph.D., Psy.D.), and the cost of living in each area. • In Master’s programs, students typically need to pay their own tuition. • In most Ph.D. programs, tuition is covered and students are offered either Research Assistantships, Teaching Assistantships, or Fellowships that provide additional funding to take care of living expenses.

  10. Are you mobile or place bound? • You will have more options if you are mobile. • Just remember, some of the best schools aren’t in the nicest areas.

  11. Figure out what you like. • What area of psychology do you want to pursue? • Biopsych/ Neuropsych • Clinical • Cognitive • Developmental • Industrial/ Organizational • Social • Maybe there are a number of areas that interest you – this is OK!

  12. Continuing to figure out what you like. If you are interested in clinical work, consider what populations you would like to work with. Are you interested in certain age groups, SES, men/women, specific psychopathologies, etc.? If you are interested in research, consider what specific things you would like to look at (It’s great if you know exactly what you want to research, but if you aren’t sure yet, that’s not necessarily bad). A good way to get some ideas would be to go through some of your old textbooks, or thumb through some psychology journals in the library.

  13. Begin your search. Once you have considered your interests, how long you want to be in school, funding, and whether you are able to apply nationally or not , you’re ready to begin looking at specific programs. Run web searches for topics that you’re interested in. (You can run an Advanced search in Yahoo and choose to find “only .edu domains”). Check out the search results and note the schools that interest you. If you find journal articles that interest you, look to see who wrote them and what university they’re associated with.

  14. Check out the programs. • Once you find some universities that interest you, check out their web sites. Make sure to look for: • Acceptance rates • Mean and median GPA • Mean and median GRE • Browse the whole list of faculty in their Psychology department – there may be other people there who are doing cool things. Many faculty actually have bio sketches on their university’s website. • Another great resource is APA’s “Graduate Study in Psychology”.

  15. APA’s “Graduate Study in Psychology”

  16. Contact the programs. • If you find a program that you are interested in and that you think you will be competitive for, it’s a good idea to contact an interesting faculty member from that program before you apply. • This has a number of benefits: • Introducing yourself may plant a seed. • You want to know if the faculty member that you are interested in working with is actually taking students for the following year. • The course of a professor’s present work may be different than the stuff you saw published. Ask them about what they’re doing now.

  17. Letters of Recommendation • Letters of recommendation are one of the most important aspects of your application. • You’ll probably need at least three letters of recommendations (maybe four if you apply to Clinical programs). • Make sure that you choose people who know you relatively well – professors that you have done research with, professors that you have taken multiple classes with, etc. • Give people plenty of time to write letters. It is considered courteous to inform someone at least a month in advance of an application’s due date.

  18. Research Experience • Most research-focused programs look for students who have had prior research experience. • This helps programs know that you really do enjoy research and that you were involved as an undergrad. • It’s also a great way to get to know professors…who may end up writing you letters of recommendation.

  19. Time Off What if you don’t know exactly what you want to do in graduate school? What if you don’t have any research experience? What if you want to have more time to study for your GREs? Don’t worry! It is not at all uncommon for graduates to take a year or two off to work on these things.

  20. So what about FIU? • FIU has Ph.D. and Master’s programs in: Developmental Psychology Legal Psychology Industrial/Organizational Psychology • FIU has Master’s programs in: Counseling Psychology Behavior Analysis. • http://psych.fiu.edu/GraduateProgram.htm

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