ADVICE ON GRADUATE SCHOOL ADMISSION

COURSES

Plan ahead! It is never too early to begin to become familiar with the lay of the land. Take a variety of courses in the foundation areas of psychology beginning as soon as possible. The Psychology Major with a concentration in Academic Psychology is a good guide to such courses. In addition to exposing the student to various specialty areas in psychology, those required courses will provide the good general background that most graduate schools like to see. Choose your elective courses carefully with your specific goal in mind. They should be used to strengthen your knowledge and skills in your particular area of interest. Courses outside of the Department of Psychology may be very relevant. Discuss those options with your advisor. All the courses that you take will appear on your transcript. If you want to be perceived as a serious student, act like one when you choose your courses.

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

In real estate it is said that three things are important in establishing the value of property: location, location and location. Although an oversimplification, it might be said that there are three things important in determining the value of a potential graduate student: research, research and research. Why is research experience so highly valued? First, graduate programs invest significant amounts of time, money and energy in the training of their students. They want students who will complete their training in a timely manner. The number one reason for students not finishing their degree program is their failure to finish their own doctoral or masters research. If past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, students with a demonstrated interest and experience in research are safer bets. Secondly, faculty are rewarded on the basis of the research they generate, and it is their students who do much of that day-to-day work. Students who can help with research in all its stages are a distinct value to their supervisors and program.

Start obtaining your research experience early. If you wait until your senior year, it will be too late to be reflected in your application. Find out how to sign-up for Psych. 489 (Supervised Research) hours and do so at the first opportunity. A long history of research involvement looks better than activity that appears to be an afterthought. You should strive to find a project that will offer authorship or coauthorship of a poster session, paper or article as the result of your work. Although all research experience is valuable, your contributions are more likely to be taken seriously by others if they have resulted in authorship or coauthorship. Be sure to discuss this matter with the project director before becomming too involved with a project that will not meet your needs and desires.

GRADES

Your grade point average (GPA) will be one index that graduate schools will take quite seriously. The higher your GPA the better. These days competitive programs may require a GPA of 3.5 or higher. But they will also examine the specific courses that you have taken. Obtaining a high GPA on the basis of easy courses will not mean very much. As you know grade inflation is rampant, and it is difficult to judge the relative merit of GPAs from different universities and from students with varying backgrounds. This is one of the reasons that scores on the Graduate Record Exam are so highly valued. Everyone takes the same exam and it is believed that this levels the playing field. While good grades will be required for admission, they will not be sufficient.

GRADUATE RECORD EXAM

Most graduate programs in psychology will require that you submit your scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) General Test. The GRE General Test scores are reported for three parts of the test: verbal, quantitative, and analytic. Some schools may also require that you take a Subject Test as well. The Psychology Subject Test is the P81 and is essentially an achievement test in psychology. It covers learning, language, memory, thinking, perception, ethology, comparative, sensation, physiological, abnormal, developmental, social, and applied psychology, personality, history, measurement, research designs, and statistics. The more psychology you know (the more courses you have taken) the better you will do on this section. This is not necessarily true for the three previously mentioned parts.

It is important to prepare for taking the GRE. At a minimum study the preparation materials availiable from the GRE people and pick-up a copy of a test preparation book from the bookstore. Consider seriously taking one of the commercial test prep courses. You can't successfully cram for such tests--plan ahead. Kaplan offers some sample questions for the GRE as well as sample questions for the P81.

You should also plan to take the test early enough so that you can take it a second time if your scores are not what you think they should be or what you need. Be familiar with when the tests are offered and with your application deadlines. Taking the test in the early spring of your junior year will allow for study between administrations. You could probably take the exam twice in the fall of your senior year, but this does not leave much time for study between exams. Application deadlines for taking the tests are well in advance of the test dates.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

You will probably be asked to submit three or four academic letters of recommendation from faculty members. Strong, enthusiastic and supportive letters can be very important and may even help to compensate for a weaker GPA or GRE score. How can you obtain such letters? Plan ahead and get to know the potential letter writers well enough so it will be possible for them to write such a letter. Just sitting through Dr. X's course, even if you earn an "A" will not be sufficient for Dr. X to know you well enough to have something significant to say about your interests, abilities and experience.

The best letters are likely to come from individuals who know you well and with whom you have shared some relevant activity. Working with the faculty on research projects is one of the very best ways to do this. However, do not miss the opportunity of talking to a potential referee after class or visiting them in their office occasionally. Taking multiple courses from the same individual will also help you to become known. Letters from employers may be useful if the work done was relevant to the field of psychology. Letters from friends, neighbors, public officials, family doctors, ministers, priests or rabbis, or personal therapists will likely be offensive to many academics.

Lastly, make sure to provide the letter-writer with written, detailed information about yourself. At a minimum this should include a recent copy of your transcript, a copy of your GRE scores, titles of any published research papers or presentations you have made or on which you were a co-author, awards won, relevant extracurricular activities like volunteering at a mental hospital, working on an emergency hot-line, teaching disadvantaged children, etc., and formal work experience. Be also sure to include a "statement of purpose" or description of what you want to do in graduate school and your professional goals. Remind the letter-writer of any special circumstances that might account for inconsistencies in your performance or anything else you might want an admissions committee to know. With this information in hand your referee can easily include the level of detail that will make their letter standout from among the masses of other generally positive letters submitted for other candidates. Providing detailed information on application deadlines, necessary forms and stamped envelopes, and general directions for the submission of the letters is also essential. Provide ample lead time--at least a month should be sufficient. Ask the programs to which you apply to inform you when your application is complete or check with them to make sure that your letters have arrived. You may need to remind your referees to get your letters mailed in time to meet the deadlines. You are the person who will suffer if the letters to not arrive on time. Do what is necessary to make sure that they do. Waive your rights to read the letters or forms. Admissions committees will likely place more weight on letters which are confidential.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Most graduate programs will request a personal statement of some kind. Take the task seriously. You will need to tailor your statement to the particular program to which you are applying. Even though you may be applying to a dozen programs, don't be seduced by the one-size-fits-all short-cut. Be sure to state why you are applying to that particular program and what you find of interest there. What do you have to offer that specific program? Who would you most like to be able to work with and learn from? Yes, this means you will probably need to do some research on each program and the faculty. No one said submitting an application was going to be easy. Make sure to type your statement and do not forget to use a spell-checker and a friend to check clarity and grammar. Enclosing a Vita is generally a good idea.

MAKING APPLICATION

After reviewing programs in Graduate Study in Psychology and Associated Fields and consulting with the faculty, graduate students and friends, choose about twenty or so programs in which you may have some interest. Write to them and request additional descriptive information and application materials. After reviewing all this material plan to actually apply to about a dozen programs. Many programs reject ten to twenty very good applicants for each one they accept. You probably need to apply to that many programs to help even the odds. Be sure to apply to the programs that are most desirable to you, but also apply to some programs that appear to be less competitive. Consider Masters programs, Psy.D. programs, programs in out-of-the-way locations, and programs in associated fields. A good discussion of the pros and cons of obtaining a Masters degree before the Ph.D. can be found on the Hanover web pages. The odds of being admitted to any single given program are usually fairly low unless you have truly outstanding GRE scores and/or an unusually strong research and publication record.

VISITING AND INTERVIEWING

Many programs will require an on-site interview of applicants. However, it is a good idea to visit prospective programs and talk with faculty and students there before you are invited. It may help you to decide if you even wish to submit an application.

It is always best to make appointments ahead of time before your visit. Not everyone who you might wish to see will be available on a moment's notice. Talking with people on the phone is the next best thing to being there, but e-mail contacts and exchanging webpage information are becoming more popular as well. Prepare for your visits or contacts by finding out about what the people are actively doing. Look up abstracts of their work in PsychLit, search Webpages, read or skim relevant articles and books. Think of questions you want to ask ahead of time. One way you can appear interesting is to be interested. It is expected that you will be anxious/excited--be yourself.

Social events often take place during interviews. Bring appropriate dress. Don't drink too much even if others do. Don't flirt. Don't gossip. Assume you are being evaluated at all times--even in your interactions with other students.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED...

If you are not successful in gaining admission into gradtate school on your first try, do not give up. Many other students have been successful on their second or third attempts. There may well be nothing wrong with you; you may be a victim of the extreme selection ratios. However, you can use the time between application years to think about ways you can strengthen your credentials. Pay attention to your weak areas. Study (again) for the GRE. Gain some additional research experience. Take a job working in a relevant area. Find people who can and will write strong letters of recommendation for you. Consider taking graduate level courses as a non-degree student to improve your background and demonstrate that you can be successful in graduate level courses. Don't give up your dream easily. Do get some individual advice concerning how realistic your chances are. Develop alternative plans. There are many valuable, fulfilling careers besides being a psychologist.

HELPFUL BOOKS

          American Psychological Association. (1996). Graduate study in psychology and associated fields. Washington, D.C.: Author. [BF77.G7 (Reference)]

          American Psychological Association. (1993). Getting in: A step-by-step plan for gaining admission to graduate school in psychology. Washington, D.C.: Author. [BF80.7.U6G47 (Reference)]

          Fretz, B. R., & Stang, D. J. (1990). Preparing for graduate study: Not for seniors only. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. [BF77.P72]

          Keith-Spiegel, P. (2000). The complete guide to graduate school admission. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [BF77.K35]

          Insider's guide to graduate programs in clinical and counseling psychology: (1996/1997). Serial. [RC467.7.I57 (Reference)]

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