<p>I am currently a graduate student at Wayne State University getting my MS in Employee and Labor Relations. My undergrad is in psychology and I have been working for the past 2 years in human resources. I have decided I want to get my PhD in I/O Psychology because I am sick of all of these business majors making poor decisions for companies off of nothing more than a gut feeling or "this is how it was always done". I realize I am a scientist, not a business person.</p>
<p>With that being said I'm a little concerned about my chances of getting into a program. I am interested in studying gender discrimination and diversity management so I have only applied to 3 schools who have faculty with those research interests: Wayne State University, Penn State, and University of Central Florida. </p>
<p>My graduate GPA is 4.0 and I've interned with fortune 500 companies including DTE Energy and Chrysler. I've been given projects related to I/O such as job analysis and fixing an employers exit interview data. My undergrad GPA is a 3.68 and I was in 3 research labs, 2 related to I/O. I did an oral paper presentation on social media and recruitment at a business conference, and presented a poster at APS. I also won an award through the psych department of my undergraduate university for research, scholarship, and service (1 of 2). I'm having 3 psych faculty members who I worked with write my LOR.</p>
<p>My problem is my GRE score. I hate standardized tests and had low expectations going into it. I got 156 on verbal, 148 on quant. I'm worried my GRE and mediocre undergrad GPA will hinder my chances. I didn't apply for a psych program out of my undergrad because I was intimated and I'm starting to feel those same frustrations. I've considered getting my MS in I/O first and then applying to a PhD program but I am already in debt from my current MS degree and really want to get into a fully funded program. </p>
<p>What do you think my chances are? Should I apply to MS programs just in case? </p>
<p>Thanks! I'm hoping this discussion will give me some peace of mind. </p>
<p>If you are already working on an MS, then no, you shouldn’t apply to MS programs - unless you want to work as a master’s level I/O psychologist. If your eventual goal is to get into PhD programs, I don’t think another MS will help you.</p>
<p>Your undergrad GPA is not mediocre. It is very good to excellent. Do not worry about it any longer.</p>
<p>If the problem is your GRE score, then you need to raise your GRE scores; a second MS is not going to solve that problem. I think your verbal score is okay; it’s really your quant score that needs raising. Get a prep book and study for the GRE, and attempt to retake it. You might not be able to retake it in time for this year’s deadlines, but in the case that you don’t get in anywhere you can be prepared to reapply next year.</p>
<p>You should also apply to more programs. Gender discrimination and diversity management is such a broad area that I am sure there have got to be more than 3 programs in I/O psych that have people doing that kind of research - so expand your search a bit. I would try to apply to 6-10 PhD programs.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response! I am currently studying for the GRE and focusing on quant. I will retake it at the end of November and crossing my fingers my score is higher. </p>
<p>As for the programs I am applying to, I looked through SIOP’s site and researched different programs. The ones that had faculty with similar research interests either looked too competitive for me to get into or was not the type of program I was interested in. For example I want a PhD through the psychology department and not the business school. I will keep looking around with your recommended number of applications in mind. </p>
<p>One additional question: do you think my work experience in human resources will have any weight in my application? Or that I will have an MS in a similar field? I was hoping these two aspects would increase my chances of admissions even with a lower quant score. </p>
<p>Why do you want a PhD through the psych department and not the business school? There are legitimate reasons for that decision, I am simply curious. If you need to go to an APA-accredited program to practice (I am not familiar with the I/O licensing requirements or anything), then that’s one thing. But you should investigate whether you can still do what you want to do with a PhD from a business school. If you’re not worried about licensure and basically just want to work with businesses to improve diversity training and prevent gender discrimination, you could probably do that with a PhD from either. If you want to be an academic who researches at a university and maybe consults with firms on the side, you can definitely do that with a PhD from either.</p>
<p>Yes, I do think that your work experience in HR will have some weight, but it depends on how you spin it. You need to talk about how your past work experience has influenced your research interests and the perspective/approach you take to your research. For example, you might discuss how you’ve noticed that past handling of gender discrimination complaints has not been evidence based, and that there are few evidence-based interventions and trainings designed to improve employee relations and gender discrimination amongst employees. Therefore, your experience handling these situations made you determined to perform your own research to attempt to design the appropriate interventions and look at how gender discrimination affects the workplace - something like that.</p>
<p>Same thing with your MS - you have to be specific and tell them why your MS in a related field and your HR experience makes you an asset to their program. I can see many ways in which it could, but just be specific here.</p>
<p>Generally I liked the courses provided by the PhD through the psych school better than the business school. The Business school programs usually prepare a student for consulting or academia in business (I want to go for academia in psychology). I learned this by looking at SIOP’s page regarding programs and what discipline most of their students end up. Considering it is very important the program and faculty is a great fit for the student I paid very close attention to each program and determined where I would fit in. </p>
<p>I think my personal statement was very specific, for example I have been tasked with recruiting female engineers in many of my HR positions and I want to study gender bias and leadership related to the STEM field. My current program has an emphasis on employment and labor law, and legal knowledge is important for researching this area. </p>