<p>I have never taken psychology classes but I decided to take two (psych 102 and psych 134) over the summer at UCSD because I want to minor in psychology. How hard are these classes? Also is it a lot to take 8 units over the summer? I am taking a 4 week session from August 1st to September 3rd.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input</p>
<p>G.</p>
<p>I’d like to know this too. When possible I just look at ratemyprofessor.com.</p>
<p>hey! i’m also a psyc minor and gonna be your classmate in 134 haha</p>
<p>Right on! :)</p>
<p>As a former Psychology double major (with lots of classes in a variety of departments), it’s hard to argue against Psyc classes being some of the easiest. Of course everyone is different, but my (grade/effort) ratio was so so high.</p>
<p>^ Thank you for the insight Oyama. As long as I’m learning that sounds great. I’m interested in the BS/MA degree program. This requires that you earn a 3.3 in all your courses, major and non-major alike.</p>
<p>I would not look into doing a Master’s in Psychology.</p>
<p>There are literally no positions in Psychology that would require Psyc Masters (outside of Clinical/Counseling) over a Bachelor’s. UCSD’s in particular is just the first year’s courses in the Ph.D. curriculum with a thesis requirement. </p>
<p>The only people who should even look into the integrated program are people looking to do a Ph.D. afterwards, and if that’s the case, they’re wasting money on a redundant Masters since you’d get one for free en route to a Ph.D.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I’d argue that if you’re doing a Masters to make up for a less-than-exceptional GPA from undergraduate, I wouldn’t even consider a Ph.D. right now since the job market is hurting right now and only graduating Ph.D.s from top programs are getting Post-Docs (or ANY jobs for that matter) right now.</p>
<p>///</p>
<p>Edit: And if you’re looking to get into Clinical/Counseling, the BS/MS is not good preparation for that. Get involved in research during undergrad and intern at the VA, UCSD CAPS, or some other mental health-related organization and get experience shadowing professionals. The BS/MS is for experimental psychology and not the professional fields of psychology.</p>
<p>I’ve considered the program in hopes of 1) helping with admission into a PhD program 2) shortening grad school by a year. I am pursuing experimental psychology and have no intentions in clinical psychology. </p>
<p>I actually started my major as a Psychology BA so to do this program I’d have to take the math 20 series, whereas I’ve already completed the math 10 series. Also, all of my tuition is free until the age of 27 so is it still not worth going for this program?</p>
<p>The only masters degree’s in psychology fields that will help you find a job are probably industrial psychology and human factors / engineering psychology. If you want to do research you will likely need a PhD.</p>
<p>EASD:</p>
<p>1) They won’t. Research experience will get you into Ph.D. programs, not just getting another degree. If you get a job as a research assistant, you will not only get (arguably) more valuable research experience (since all your time is devoted to research and not coursework), but you will get paid as well–and not accrue $12k+ in debt.</p>
<p>2) You can talk to Gail Heyman or any of the undergraduate advisors in the Psychology department. Unless you continue on to the Ph.D. program AT UCSD, you will probably have to redo all the courses you complete in the BS/MA program. Very few schools accept other schools’ coursework as transferable. There is absolutely no reason to pursue an MA/MS if your goal is a Ph.D. The professors at UCSD will be the first to tell you that the job market is absolutely awful for new doctorates–if you’re not doing all the right things as an undergraduate, I would honestly advise you to consider another field.</p>
<p>RE Tuition: What are the stipulations for your free tuition? Were/are you military? Low-income? Usually these programs will only cover your first bachelors and not any post-graduate degrees. Double check that to make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew.</p>
<p>But yeah, I’m sorry if any of my posts sound harsh, but Psychology is one of the majors that do a great job attracting students only to lead them to dead-end jobs unrelated to their fields. The problem right now is that there are WAY too many Ph.D. students graduating and not nearly enough Post-Doctoral fellowship and TT Professorships to accommodate even half of those graduating. Jobs are extremely scarce and if you’re doing yourself a disservice by attending a non-top program (I’d argue for Psychology it’s only worth it if you’re going to a Top 10-15 program for your sub-discipline), you’re risking wasting 6-7 years of your time (sure you’re getting free tuition and a small stipend, but someone working full-time at McDonalds will be making more than you per year) only to not be competitive for any jobs.</p>
<p>Read: [Doctoral</a> degrees: The disposable academic | The Economist](<a href=“The disposable academic”>The disposable academic)</p>
<p>And you doing the 20 series is great. Don’t just use it as a means to an end. This past year, I’ve been working full-time as a research associate/epidemiologist (while applying to Ph.D. programs), and I owe my being able to get that job (paid really really really well compared to what my friends in Psyc or even Econ were making) to my taking more rigorous math and statistics courses through my major. All fields in academia, NAMELY the social sciences, are definitely becoming more quantitative in their methodologies. The era of simply using a students t to find significance is over; publishing standards in top journals require a lot more rigorous analytical models like multivariate regression analysis, probit/logit discrete choice modeling, structural equation models, survival/risk analysis, etc., for them to be taken seriously. If you have nothing but a Psyc BA/BS (or even an MA) under your belt with only the minimum amount of quantitative training, you’re going to be hard-pressed to get a job over even an Econ major.</p>
<p>tl;dr - Don’t do the MA. Get a job as a research assistant/associate and get paid to do research. Research is the #1 component of Psych Ph.D. admissions (ESPECIALLY at top programs where most have at least one pub at an A-level journal). You’re going to have to re-do the Masters coursework anyway unless you stay at UCSD for your Ph.D. (which is also not advised due to the whole stigma against academic incest).</p>
<p>Oyama, my financial aid is from the California college tuition fee waivers for veterans’ dependents. It covers all tuition and most college fees at California community colleges, csus, and UCs until the age of 27. </p>
<p>I understand many Psychology PhDs are dissatisfied (thank you for the article, the Economist is great). Even on Linkedin psychologists are recommending students to pursue other majors. Because of the low prospects in most Psychology fields, I would happily take up an Industrial Organizational MA if this sector is more promising. My dad works in a Defense company so I have some knowledge about the tools they use. I’ll definitely research the possibilities some more. No BS/MA program for me. Calc 20 series yes :)</p>
<p>IO Psychology is one of the few subfields of Psychology that I would push people towards just because it’s still a new field that’s gaining a lot of ground in a lot of industries.</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to SIOP](<a href=“http://www.siop.org/]Welcome”>http://www.siop.org/)</p>
<p>There was a time when I was looking into applying to I/O Ph.D. programs and a lot of the research being conducted in the discipline was very interesting (cross section between cognitive and social psychology with organizational behavior [which is a subfield in business academia/management]). An MA/MS is typically what’s needed if you want to pursue a professional career in I/O, though a Ph.D. is still necessary for those wanting to be in academia. Once again, if you’re really thinking about a Ph.D., an MA/MS is redundant and personally I’d gun for a Ph.D., and drop out after your thesis/coursework with a free Masters–but that’s just me.</p>
<p>I’d check out the SIOP website I included in this post a lot, too; it has information on the schools that offer degrees in I/O (at both the Masters and Doctoral levels), annual reports on job prospects/salaries, what the field entails, etc. It’s really full of great information. </p>
<p>The great thing about graduate programs in I/O is that just about any psychology research experience looks great to them since this is an applied subfield of psychology, and borrows most of its methodologies/theories from experimental psychology. UCSD doesn’t have any I/O researchers (outside of maybe the adjunct lecturer teaching PSYC178 – I/O Psychology), but that hasn’t stopped a lot of my friends from getting into Masters programs (most went to SDSU for their MS in I/O; one went to NYU for their M.S. in I/O); they were all involved in research labs as undergrads, and most weren’t even involved at a great extent. A few quarters or a year of research experience (i.e., ~10 hours/week volunteering as a PSYC199) was enough to make them competitive, though the more the better, especially if you’re looking at competitive Masters (NYU, Columbia Teacher’s College, etc.) or any Ph.D. program.</p>
<p>Also, if you’re actually considering a graduate degree in I/O psychology, I might as well give my spiel on academic programs in business (the “other” side of business graduate degrees). For people with backgrounds in Psychology, there are two very popular sub-disciplines in Business: Consumer Behavior (Marketing) and Organizational Behavior (Management). </p>
<p>[Consumer</a> behaviour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour]Consumer”>Consumer behaviour - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[Organizational</a> studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_behavior]Organizational”>Organizational behavior - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The former deals with how/why consumers do or don’t buy products/services, and how/why firms use information from marketing research to employ marketing campaigns. The other side of marketing is the side I’m in (Quantitative Modeling), which is using mathematical models (and game theory) to describe firm/consumer behavior and strategy.</p>
<p>The latter deals with behavior inside the workplace. This is the closest sister field to I/O Psychology. I don’t know too much about this, since I didn’t apply to OB programs. The other side to this is Strategy, which goes a lot deeper into game theory about inter/intrapersonal relationships within and between organizations.</p>
<p>The positive thing about a Ph.D. in a Business field is that the job market is surprisingly ripe, since most people graduating with a Ph.D. choose to enter industry instead (thus creating a shortage among doctoral-level professors). The average salary has been increasing for professors year after year and business professors are the highest paid professors at every level of tenure. However, unlike Psychology Ph.D. programs, these programs are incredibly incredibly tiny. At Northwestern, for example, around 200 people applied for 3 positions for my field. Only around 100-120 universities in the US and Canada offer a Ph.D. in business, too, so if you look at this aggregately, there’s only 300-360~ (approx.) openings for students in a discipline any given year (as opposed to around 6000 a year for Ph.D. students in Psychology [300 x 20 students/year].</p>
<p>[The</a> PhD Project: Real World Success](<a href=“http://phdproject.org/granting_inst.html]The”>http://phdproject.org/granting_inst.html)</p>
<p>That’s the list of schools granting Ph.D.s in Business (not all grant in all disciplines; i.e., some may only offer a Ph.D. in Finance, but not in Marketing or Management). Take a look at the rest of the site as it also has a lot of information regarding a business Ph.D.</p>
<p>Lastly, there’s this, too:</p>
<p>[Doctorate</a> and PhD Programs in Business](<a href=“http://www.bestbizschools.com/doctorate/default.asp]Doctorate”>http://www.bestbizschools.com/doctorate/default.asp)</p>
<p>Hopefully that’s not too much information to swallow. I feel like I might be linking a lot of people to this post in upcoming months, so I figure it may as well be fairly comprehensive.</p>
<p>As a caveat to the above, the 3 students/discipline per school is also only typical among the bigger (i.e. top and most-funded schools). Most schools outside the Top … 10 or 15 or so in Business only admit 1-2 students/year for each discipline.</p>
<p>Here are some of NYU’s admission statistics for 2010:</p>
<p>[NYU</a> Stern | Admissions Statistics](<a href=“http://www.stern.nyu.edu/AcademicPrograms/PhD/Admissions/AdmissionsStatistics/index.htm]NYU”>http://www.stern.nyu.edu/AcademicPrograms/PhD/Admissions/AdmissionsStatistics/index.htm)</p>
<p>As noted there, those are fairly typical numbers for schools in the Top 5/6 (i.e., Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, UPenn, U of Chicago). Most other schools have admit ranges around the 10%~ rate (instead of the < 5% admit rate), but also note that those applying are self-selected and are usually of top caliber, too.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you for such a thorough response. I like your reasoning. When I have the time this weekend I will read each of the links you posted. It’s an honor to hear thoughtful feedback from someone with experience :)</p>
<p>Yeah, my pleasure. Let me know if any questions arise.</p>
I was wondering if you had any info regarding the cognitive and behavioral neuropsychology program? How are the professors for the courses? Is it a bachelor’s, or could I go inn more depth and get a doctorates, if so what could it be in? Pretty much what info should I know.