Chances? Psychology Co-op?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

<p>I'm a caucasian male, I've got an unweighted gpa of 3.8, having taken almost all of the honors and AP classes available to me, my class rank is about 30 out of 400, and I scored a 2000 on the SAT's (1260 without writing). My significant extra-curriculars are: varsity tennis, editor for the school newspaper, NHS member, and a member of a peer mediation program. I've served about 100 hours of community service (mostly a homeless meals program), and worked at my local library during the summer for three years, as well as part time during the school year for one year. </p>

<p>What do you think my chances are? Thanks a bunch</p>

<p>Also, I am curious as to what kind of co-op jobs are available to psychology majors. If admitted, I'd be interested in doing 3 co-ops in 5 years, but I can't imagine what sort of positions a psych major could hold as only an undergraduate. Thanks again! :)</p>

2

<p>Co-op jobs for psychology majors:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.psych.neu.edu/coop/employers.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.psych.neu.edu/coop/employers.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>Being from MA, I would think you should try hard to bump your SAT scores up. Your GPA and class rank are in the accepted students range but your SAT scores are on the low side. Will you be taking the SAT again?</p>

4

<p>I might take them again in october, what do you think I should aim for in order to definitely get in?</p>

5

<p><a href="http://www.neu.edu/admissions/apply/academicprofile.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.neu.edu/admissions/apply/academicprofile.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>25% of the last admitted class had above a 1310 so I would think in order to definitely get in you need to be above that number.</p>

6

<p>I am going into my senior year as a psych major at NEU. I have completed two co-ops and do not intend to complete another one.</p>

<p>The short answer to your question is:
-Really taxing jobs on psych wards with crazy hours
-Jobs with very troubled children (some residential programs)</p>

<p>The following are popular co-ops:
CASCAP
Italian Home for Children
Vinfen
Morgan Memorial - Goodwill
Home for Little Wanderers</p>

<p>If anyone would like a list of all the jobs and descriptions I pulled from the database for myself when I was searching for my last co-op, I can email it. Just message me.</p>

<p>If you're STILL interested... allow me to recount my experiences... starting from admissions! Bear with me. I know this is a tremendous post, but if you want to know the inside scoop of a psych major's life, here it is.</p>

<p>---Tour/Info Session/something like that---</p>

<p>Me: So, I've had about 2 years of office experience working at a nonprofit art education organization, and many years as part of a performing troupe with young performers. <em>list resume</em>. What do you think my chances are of getting a good co-op my first time out? I feel like I've already 'paid my dues' with filing and should be able to get something a little meatier.</p>

<p>Co-Op Rep: Wow, that sounds great for someone just entering college, most people have just babysat or been lifeguards or camp counselors! I'm sure you'll get a great job!</p>

<p>---Co-Op Round 1: Fall of Year 2 (soph)---</p>

<p>Please note that there are two psych co-op advisers, one for the first half of the alphabet and one for the last. You only deal with YOUR adviser.</p>

<p>Mandatory co-op class with my adviser, once a week for 4-5 weeks. We wrote our resumes. She taught us about professionalism, dress code, how the co-op application system works... We were given a time table for when to go through the co-op database and select our top 10ish choices to send our resume to, when our two mandatory meetings with the adviser should happen (one re: resume, one re: 10 co-op choices), when the resumes would actually be submitted, when we should expect to hear back from places and start interviewing... you get the picture.</p>

<p>My adviser was pregnant (having just come back from maternity leave...), and was somehow sick during BOTH our mandatory meetings. My resume was fine, but I had issues with my choices. I had trouble picking choices from the database because I needed something that did not require a car OR a license. When I finally did meet with my adviser, she had eliminated at least half of my top 10 list due to car/age/class year/certification/etc restrictions that were NOT listed in the database!</p>

<p>In the end, only one place called me in for an interview. A doctor's office. Internal medicine. They needed a receptionist. I had no other offers, no other callbacks, I now assume my adviser never sent my resume anywhere else.</p>

<p>---Co-Op Round 1: Spring and Summer1 of Year 2 (soph)---</p>

<p>Life in a doctor's office. It had NOTHING to do with psych other than figuring out how to tell patients they could not have more narcotics because their prescription wasn't up yet. I did not deem it to be a co-op worthy job.</p>

<p>By this time, my lovely adviser had gone on maternity leave... again. Her replacement? Some random person from some other department who had a vague idea of jobs, careers, and maybe a little bit of co-op stuff. She couldn't really help me. My only options were to quit the job and fail co-op (thereby not being able to ever take one again), or suffer. I suffered.</p>

<p>At the end, there's a reflection process. Normally, you can do this one of three ways. 1) group reflection meeting with other co-op students. 2) individual meeting with advisor. 3) three page paper reflecting on the experience (and this post is approximating that by now...). About this time was when my adviser announced that she's leaving for Colorado... with two days notice. We got an email that our ONLY option was the three page paper. Fun.</p>

<p>---Co-Op Round 2: Fall of Year 3 (middler... which turned out to actually be junior... it's NEU, we're weird!)---</p>

<p>Reflecting on my previous disaster, I opted for the super-annoyingly-pro-active approach this time. I wanted to work in a school (ideally a high school). I contacted the FINALLY appointed official new co-op adviser, recounted my tale of woe, and was told to contact the education co-op adviser. I did, she was wonderful, but said that because her ed students were required to take co-op and psych students weren't, the ed students got priority on the co-ops she coordinated. That was fine.</p>

<p>I perused the wonderful database again, trying to keep an eye out for those pesky 'must have a car or non-public transportation' jobs, and selected almost every school available to me (as well as some other more psych-y options). This time, I went on about five interviews. One, a middle school, called me back to say they wanted me. I never heard from the others.</p>

<p>---Co-Op Round 2: Spring and Summer1 of Year 3 (middler but turned out to be junior)---</p>

<p>I worked in a K-8 school with the 6-8 middle school kids. I had lunch/recess duty, and a schedule of which classroom I should be in and when. Overall, it was a wonderful (and exhausting) experience because I actually got to INTERACT with students. Even though I was frequently thrown to the wolves and had to figure out how to be most useful (either with classroom management, grading, copying, etc.), I think it was well worth while and deserved the title of co-op.</p>

<p>The only negative about this round was that my adviser was out of the country at the end of June and beginning of July and I went home to NYC for Aug/Sept. This meant that I could not do the group or individual reflection session to get my credit. I pointed out to my adviser that I did not feel like the paper would be of any use to ME as a reflection (it'd be more like a report to the co-op office), and she said she'd give me an incomplete until we can meet in Sept. We'll see how that turns out.</p>

<p>---In Summary---
Co-Op, NEU, and any college really is exactly what you make of it. No more, no less. If I had been more confident and vocal about my dissatisfaction during my first co-op process, I probably could have been switched to the other (better!) adviser. If I had called the places where my resume was supposedly submitted (even though we're "forbidden" to have direct contact with employers until they call us for an interview), or called the places who didn't call me back after interviews, I may have found better jobs. You get out of it what you put in. Unfortunately, you can't just expect the machine to work for you and drop you into your cookie cutter pattern. It just doesn't happen that way.</p>

7

<p>Thanks...</p>

<p>Your thoughts about the subject should be required reading for all prospective & current NU students.</p>

<p>I guess the moral of the story is co-op, like all potentially valuable college programs, is ultmately up to each student's level of persistance and tenacity to insure one receives the best bang for their college buck.</p>

<p>Question:</p>

<p>If you were to do it again, would you still choose Northeastern?</p>

8

<p>I don't remember all of the schools I was accepted to, but it all came down to NEU and Clark. Both gave me merit money. NEU gave more and was in the urban setting I needed. As a psych major, I now know a little more about Clark and wish I had considered it a little more carefully. It was the only school I had toured in the sun (everything else was raining/snowing), and I hated it.</p>

<p>If I were to do it again, I'd have gotten better grades in HS so I could get into the schools I had really loved (they were reaches for me), and if my grades weren't better I'd have applied to more/different schools. Do I think I, personally, would have had a drastically different experience at a different school? No. Again, it is what you make of it. I don't think there's a major difference in professor quality between any school, it's all hit or miss on their ability to actually TEACH. With regard to social life and clubs, I, personally, have not reached out enough and tried to network and be included in things. That's my problem, and it would have been the same anywhere no matter how many or few opportunities were offered.</p>

9

<p>i personally think your SAT scores are fine for NU. aim higher if you want a better scholarship.</p>