Sociology, Marriage and Family Therapy or Clinical Psychology

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I am currently a sophomore at Arizona State University majoring in Sociology with a 4.0 GPA (capped off at 4.0, but technically it is 4.04). I am minoring in Linguistics. I would like to know what my chances are of getting into some of the excellent graduate schools in the United States. I live in Arizona and have lived here for my entire life, and I would like to re-locate to a big city, possibly LA or San Diego, maybe even New York. I've been looking at schools and I am interested in the graduate programs at UCLA, UC Berkeley, NYU, University of Tulsa, etc. If you have any recommendations for me, let me know! I hope to get my Master's Degree in Sociology, Marriage and Family Therapy or Clinical Psychology. Some of the schools, like UCLA, only offer PhD's in these fields. That is fine with me, but I realize I will have to apply for research assistantships, seeing as how my family can't afford to fund for my education. Their combined income is around 75,000 dollars.</p>

<p>I have a tuition scholarship at ASU as well as a department scholarship from the Sociology dept. at ASU. So that is how I am funding for my college education. Even though ASU says that I am not eligible for Financial Aid, I am. My family cannot pay for my education because they are in massive debt.</p>

<p>Anyway, a little bit about my college experience:</p>

<ul>
<li>Brother/President of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity at ASU, Epsilon Omega Chapter (We are actually the charter class and we started the chapter at our school)</li>
<li>Member of Young Democrats</li>
<li>Member of Circle K International</li>
<li>Taking part in Toddler Emotional Development Research Project with several well-known Psychologist professors in the fall and this summer</li>
<li>Volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club in Tempe, AZ</li>
<li>Hoping to be in an internship in Spring 2010, and Summer 2010</li>
</ul>

<p>Below is my course work:</p>

<p>Fall 2007 -
ASU 101 The ASU Experience - A
MAT 106 Intermediate Algebra - A
PGS 101 Introduction to Psychology - A+
REL 100 Religions of the World - A+
UNI 194 Academic Success: Residen Students - A
WAC 101 Intro to Academic - A+</p>

<p>Spring 2008 -
ASM 104 Bones, Stones/Human Evolution - A-
ENG 101 First-Year Composition - A+
SOC 101 Introductory Sociology - A
SPA 102 Elementary Spanish - A
SPE 222 Orientation/Educ of Excep Chld - A+ </p>

<p>Fall 2008 -
ENG 213 Intro to the Study of Language - A
ENG 221 Survey of English Literature - A-
MAT 142 College Mathematics - A
SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish - A
THE 100 Introduction to Theatre -A+</p>

<p>Spring 2009 -
FAS 330 Personal Growth in Human Relationships - A-
SOC 315 Courtship and Marriage - B+
SOC 321 Sociology of Work - A+
SOC 390 Social Statistics I - A +
SPA 202 Intermediate Spanish -A</p>

<p>Fall 2009 (upcoming semester) -
AFS 370 Family, Ethnic/Cultural Diversity
ENG 312 English in its Social Setting
ENG 314 Modern Grammar
SOC 391 Research Methods
SOC 483 History of Social Thought
SOC 499 (Research - Toddler Development)</p>

<p>I was wondering if I have a good chance (of course also depending on my GRE scores, personal statement, and letters of recommendation, etc) of getting into some of the schools I'm looking at, and if any of you had other recommendations that I may be overlooking? If anyone with graduate application experience could reply, I would greatly appreciate it.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Congratulations on the successful completion of your second year of college. Since it seems as though you have nailed the research credits (soc 499) and done well in all of your classes, I can’t think of anything you could do to be more competitive for grad schools. There is no need to stress out over GRE scores (nobody really cares). Something you could do that might make you more successful in picking the right graduate program, is to contact potential mentor faculty at these programs you have expressed an interest in and begin a relationship with them. Be sure you like their research interests and your personalities mesh well before committing to a graduate degree with them. Best of luck.</p>

<p>btw, what is the course entitled “The ASU Experience”?</p>

3

<p>I haven’t thought of that yet, wow, thank you.</p>

<p>And the ASU Experience is basically a required course for all ASU Freshmen in order to help them become better acquainted with all of the resources that are available on campus. It’s kind of useless, but there are some good resources you learn about and as a freshman, they can be pretty helpful!</p>

4

<p>I agree with everything said…and agree that you should further research those degrees and see which might be best for you, and start making connections now to apply to those programs.</p>

<p>My personal favorite of the ones you listed is Clinical Psychology. Getting licensed as a CP will open many, many doors for you and you willl have many choices for your future career–you could be in private practice treating all kinds of different patients, working at a mental hospital, children’s hospital, for the government, regular hospital, for private industry, etc. etc. </p>

<p>I’m not as familiar with the other programs…but if your ultimate goal is to treat people, Marriage and Family Counseling would be great too but it will be harder for you to get on insurance boards and have people pay you through medical insurance for treatment. </p>

<p>It seems that a Masters in Sociology would lend itself toward more of a research-based career. Or maybe the Masters would lead you to be a licensed social worker? </p>

<p>At any rate, you are doing great so far and seem like a very good student/candidate for graduate school in whichever field you choose. Like belevitt said, the best thing you can do to prepare is to get more information about the schools you are interested in–look at each department, the professors there, the student alumni and what they are doing now…and research published by those profs.</p>

<p>With as much information as possible about each program/degree and each school, it will be easier for you to hone in on what you really want to do and where you want to go. Then you can pick a few programs and apply to them, knowing that you are a good fit.</p>

<p>Best of luck !</p>

5

<p>Thanks to the both of you.
I guess my biggest concern is that, once I find a program that is right for me, I won’t be accepted. Maybe it’s a lot of doubt, I’m not sure. I think mostly because I got that B+ in Courtship and Marriage.</p>

<p>I was so close too, I had an 89.5. :(</p>

<p>But anyway, my question really was asking what you all thought about my chances of getting into UCLA or NYU. Do I have a good shot? I was hoping that people that went to either of those schools for graduate studies would answer, but I haven’t heard anything yet.</p>

<p>If anyone has gone to any of the other excellent schools in this country, and has advice. Let me know. :)</p>

<p>Thank you all!</p>

6

<p>For a Ph.D. program, it’s not all about the grades or the GREs. It’s about the experiences you have and the letters of recommendation from your profs. And the interviews. It doens’t matter at all that you got a B+ in a course. They don’t take the people with the highest stats; they take the people whom they want as colleagues for the next several years.</p>

7

<p>First of all, congrats on the 4.0!</p>

<p>A couple of notes:</p>

<p>1) Masters in clinical psych are pretty much ueless–the entry-level degree in the field is a PhD/PsyD. If you want to practice psych at the Masters-level;, look in Counseling Psych MA/MS programs or MFT programs.</p>

<p>2) Decent programs in clinical psych (the ones you would want to go to), are generally fully-funded (tuition waiver and stipend).</p>

<p>3) If you want to go into clinical psych, get involved–heavily–in research NOW. Try to present at regional or national conferences or, preferably, publish.</p>

<p>4) If going for a PhD, location should be one of your last criteria–research match (finding faculty who research what you want to research) is key.</p>

<p>5) If you are thinking about clinical psych, take at least a few more psych classes, especially abnormal psych, research methods, stats, developmental psych, social psych, personality, and, if ASU offers it, tests and measurement. These courses, especially research methods and stats are common pre-reqs.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>No. An MA in Sociology is not any sort of practice degree. A Masters in Social Work (MSW) can lead to license as a clinical social worker.</p>

8

<p>I completely agree with psych_'s above post.</p>

<p>In addition, understand that admission to a PhD program is not at all like admission to undergrad. For example, they will care not a wit that you are a member of Young Democrats. ECs don’t matter.</p>

9

<p>I’m in UCLA and have taken classes in the Sociology Department.</p>

<p>Yet I find it extremely difficult to give you any kind of assurance that you will definitely be accepted for graduate studies. And I suspect graduate at any other universities you fancy will find it difficult as well.</p>

<p>Don’t be mistaken, grade-wise you’re excellent, and grad school don’t really care how much extra-curricula activities you have (those relevant to Clinical Psychology and Therapy etc. may help a bit but it’s not a deciding factor). You definitely have a shot, but is it a good shot? I don’t think anyone (except the admission faculty in the Sociology Department) knows for sure. This is because much depends on whether you are a good fit for the department AT THAT POINT IN TIME. They may decide that they want a grad specializing in Clinical Psychology this year, and then next year they may say “Oh we have enough of those, let’s get more grads specializing in demographics”.</p>

<p>Neither do you want to sound like you’re a jack-of-all-trade in Sociology, they want someone who’s clear in what they want to do. You have that, and you want to show that clearly in your SOP. Yes, SOP is one of the most important deciding factor for admission to grad school. Are you an interesting candidate (note: interesting, not intellectual) with real-life experience to offer? Does your life experience fit your proposed interest AND the goals of the department AT THAT POINT IN TIME?</p>

<p>I guess what I’m trying to say is, you can and should prepare the best you can for graduate school (at UCLA, NYU or elsewhere), but the evaluation of admission probability is dependent on so many multi-faceted factors, nobody really can even venture a good guess.</p>

<p>In all, you’re doing fine. Continue with your momentum at this moment and do what psych_ has suggested. The rest is up to God.</p>