Psychology PhD programs?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone, </p>

<p>I'm currently preparing to begin the graduate school application process for programs in psychology, and I'm very, very unsure of what I'm doing. I have never posted on any kind of online forum, but I'm pretty desperate for advice, so I've made a cc account and will now attempt to explain my situation in a somewhat concise manner. Thank you in advance for any insight/suggestions you might offer.</p>

<p>I graduated in May with a B.A. in psychology, and I would like to apply for graduate psychology programs this fall. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, I'm not sure which programs (or what kind of programs - counseling, educational, social psych, etc.) I should apply to, as I have a few different interests. First, I am interested in cross cultural research, and I'd love to get into a social psych program that does this kind of research. </p>

<p>I'm also interested psychological issues related to diversity and social justice (yes, i know this is vague). One topic that I would be interested in studying is identity development, and more specifically, it's implications for educational achievement. I know that this line of research often falls under counseling psychology. However, I'm not sure if I should be looking at counseling programs, as I am more interested in research than practice. In addition, I have also been considering school psychology programs (since I am interested in education and enjoy working with children). </p>

<p>Does anyone have any insight/suggestions for programs I might look into? </p>

<p>Also, I was wondering if anyone could tell me whether going directly to a PhD program would be realistic for me. (I don't want to get into a top program or anything, just ANY program anywhere in the U.S.).</p>

<p>I graduated with a 3.94 gpa. I worked in a cognitive psychology laboratory for four semesters, and I am currently working in two different industrial/organizational psychology labs. I've also been involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters for over a year now, and I have worked occasionally as a substitute teacher at a private school for the past few years (although I'm not sure that's really relevant). I plan to take the GRE next month, so I don't know my scores yet. </p>

<p>If you read all the way through, thank you. I guess I failed to be concise. Anyway, as I said before, I'm very unsure of what I'm doing, and I would be incredibly grateful for advice. </p>

<p>Thank you! </p>

2

<p>Psychology is my field; I’m a social-health psychologist.</p>

<p>You can study your interests from any of those subfields. Your choice will be determined primarily by the approach you want to take and the researchers available in a given department. Basically, you need to look for people who are doing the kind of work that you really want to do, and apply to the departments in which they work. Lucky for you this is a fairly popular area of inquiry in psychology and spans subfields! You can study this from social/personality psychology (probably the most popular), educational psychology, developmental psychology, community psychology and maybe counseling.</p>

<p>If you are interested in identity development across the lifespan - i.e., how identities change and grow within people over the course of their lives - then developmental psychology might be the place for you, particularly if you are interested in outcomes that include but are not limited to educational psychology. Social psychology is also a place for it; you would take less of a developmental aspect but could look at how identities are shaped in response to people’s interactions with others (i.e., how gender identity is shaped in the face of discrimination, media images, role modeling, etc.) Educational psychology is going to be primarily concerned with educational inputs and outputs, so if you are primarily interested in academic achievement then that could be a good place for you. If you wanted to do some counseling within schools, school psychology is also a possibility - you can study the same things you would as an educational psychologist with the option to work as a clinician. Community psychology departments would probably also treat this topic, although the focus will be a bit more macro than social or developmental.</p>

<p>Your career goals should also be taken into account. Social and developmental are the biggest subfields out of these. There are more jobs listed in these areas, too. If you wanted to teach and do research in an academic setting, social and developmental are probably easier to parlay into that. Educational psychologists often end up in schools of education, perhaps teaching primarily graduate students (you couldn’t teach pre-service teachers unless you had some teaching experience yourself, I think). Community psychology is growing and they end up lots of places - sometimes traditional departments of psych and sometimes interdisciplinary schools. You can sort of market yourself how you want a little with that one. Counseling psychologists also can end up anywhere; every year there are lots of clinical and counseling ads, and you have the flexibility of having a license.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>You seem to have a pretty excellent record. I’m assuming that you have strong letters from your lab PIs.</p>

<p>Look into Stanford. Geoffrey Cohen’s work is probably perfect for you (<a href=“Geoffrey Cohen | Stanford Graduate School of Education”>Search | Stanford Graduate School of Education). Hazel Rose Markus also does similar work (<a href=“Professor Hazel Markus | Mind, Culture, and Society Lab | Stanford University”>http://web.stanford.edu/~hazelm/cgi-bin/wordpress/&lt;/a&gt;). You might also be interested in working with Carol Dweck (<a href=“https://psychology.stanford.edu/cdweck”>https://psychology.stanford.edu/cdweck&lt;/a&gt;), and, if you are interested in race, Jennifer Eberhardt (<a href=“https://psychology.stanford.edu/jeberhardt”>https://psychology.stanford.edu/jeberhardt&lt;/a&gt;). At Stanford you could either study social or developmental. Markus and Eberhardt are in social; Dweck and Cohen are in both areas. Cohen is also a professor of education. Stanford is of course very very VERY competitive, and these professors are very famous, prominent psychologists.</p>

<p>Michigan is another powerhouse in this area. They offer a joint PhD in education and psychology. And of course there are plenty of people who do identity and academic achievement here. Robert Sellers is one of the most famous names in the game (<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.sellersrobert_ci.detail”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.sellersrobert_ci.detail&lt;/a&gt;). I met him at a conference once and almost drooled - I study identity too, but how it relates to health - but he’s super nice. Tabbye Chavous also does very similar research (<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.chavoustabbye_ci.detail”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.chavoustabbye_ci.detail&lt;/a&gt;). Jacquelyne Eccles is probably really perfect for you too, as most of her research surrounds identity formation and school settings. L. Monique Ward also does research on identity (mostly gender and sexual) but how it relates to sexual decision-making; there might be some collaborations or at least a resource? (<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.wardlmonique_ci.detail”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ci.wardlmonique_ci.detail&lt;/a&gt;). You could do psych and education, or select social, developmental, or the personality & social contexts area (nobody knows what this is - it’s just a catch-all for lots of cool psych stuff. Sellers and Chavous are both listed there) but you can work with any faculty member from any concentration I believe.</p>

<p>Were I you I would put Stanford and Michigan at the top of my list. They’re both great for what you want.</p>

<p>I’m not sure exactly what kind of identity formation you’re interested in. If you are interested in racial and ethnic identity, then Princeton could be a good fit - look up Rachel Shelton and Susan Fiske.</p>

<p>At Columbia (my graduate alma mater!) look at Valerie Purdie-Vaughns (<a href=“People | Laboratory of Intergroup Relations and the Social Mind | Columbia University”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/vpvaughns/people.html&lt;/a&gt;). She does research on intergroup relations and some of her work focuses on identity and education/academic achievement, including a really cool intervention.</p>

<p>I have to go but I’ll come back later with more!</p>