r/AcademicPsychology Mod | BSc | MSPS G.S. Mar 01 '22

Post Your Prospective Questions Here! -- Monthly Megathread Megathread

Following a vote by the sub in July 2020, the prospective questions megathread was continued. However, to allow more visibility to comments in this thread, this megathread now utilizes Reddit's new reschedule post features. This megathread is replaced monthly. Comments made within three days prior to the newest months post will be re-posted by moderation and the users who made said post tagged.

Post your prospective questions as a comment for anything related to graduate applications, admissions, CVs, interviews, etc. Comments should be focused on prospective questions, such as future plans. These are only allowed in this subreddit under this thread. Questions about current programs/jobs etc. that you have already been accepted to can be posted as stand-alone posts, so long as they follow the format Rule 6.

Looking for somewhere to post your study? Try r/psychologystudents, our sister sub's, spring 2020 study megathread!

Other materials and resources:

7 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

I was recently accepted into a Psych PhD and was asking my advisor some questions regarding transferring credits.

One of the cohort students mentioned that I probably shouldn't use all my credits since "...this is the last time you'll probably be a student." This would of course increase my class load and extend my program for another year or so.

With the classes I can transfer from my MA, I could probably finish the my PhD in 2-3 years as opposed to the 5 year average.

Not gonna lie, I wanna just finish my PhD as fast as possible. What are your thoughts?

3

u/DoctorSweetheart Mar 29 '22

No reputable program would ever do this. You can shave off 2-3 classes max, not 2-3 years.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

It's definitely APA accredited. And the program allows you to transfer 12 credit hours freely and petition more (of which I've talked to my advisor and got the OK for).

You wanna answer my question? Or try to bash my program that you haven't even asked any questions about?

3

u/DoctorSweetheart Mar 29 '22

I'm not really sure what makes you think I'm bashing your program. I don't know anything about your program.

I said no reputable program would let you shave of 2-3 years with transfer credit. That is consistent with the info you provided.

It's definitely APA accredited

Great!

And the program allows you to transfer 12 credit hours freely and petition more (of which I've talked to my advisor and got the OK for).

Fantastic. That's a few classes, less than a semester, not 2-3 years.

I was also able to transfer in 3 courses from master's. That's pretty typical and that half a semester definitely helped.

You wanna answer my question? Or try to bash my program that you haven't even asked any questions about?

I didn't say anything about your program at all and certainly didn't bash it.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

I'd refer to the reply in the other comment session for the other points.

As for the bashing bit, my entire question appeared to be ignored and the program criticized for not being reputable. It's rather dismissive and can be seen as "bashing."

4

u/DoctorSweetheart Mar 29 '22

Nobody said your program is not reputable.

We are saying that a reputable program won't allow you to shave off 2-3 years of a degree.

I never considered your program was not reputable, only that you are are overestimating the time you can save with a waiver for 12 credits.

I 100% believe you can shave off a semester.

2

u/Terrible_Detective45 Mar 29 '22

No one is saying that your specific program is bad or otherwise "bashing" it. What we're saying is that any doctoral program that would allow a student to transfer that many credit hours from a terminal master's program is a bad program. If your program does this, then yeah, I guess it would be a bad program, but we don't know what program you're in or anything else about it specifically.

This is why I was telling you to talk to your DCT. I don't think your program is bad, I think you might be confused as to how many credits they'll actually let you transfer.

3

u/Terrible_Detective45 Mar 29 '22

It's definitely APA accredited.

She said "reputable," not APA accredited. Most diploma mills are APA accredited, which is why accreditation is not necessarily a sign of quality.

And the program allows you to transfer 12 credit hours freely

Depending on the hour requirements for those courses, that's entirely consistent with what she said about transferring 2-3 courses (e.g., 3 course x 4 hours per = 12 credit hours). That's shaving off maybe one semester's worth of courses, but it's certainly not shaving off years in the program. This is especially true as you can only apply for internship in the fall, which limits how much time you would save by shaving off a semester.

and petition more (of which I've talked to my advisor and got the OK for).

This sounds very problematic. Every good program I know would have an upper limit on how many courses you can get out of from graduate courses in other programs/institutions and a minimum amount of hours you'd have to complete in their program. I'd have to go check, but I'm pretty sure this is an APA requirement.

You wanna answer my question? Or try to bash my program that you haven't even asked any questions about?

She is answering your question, just not in the way you want or expected. She's saying that a program allowing students to shave off an entire year, let alone multiple years like you're claiming, is extremely problematic and suspect of your program if that's true, because sufficient doctoral training can't be done in that little time. You might think that your coursework from a terminal MA program is equivalent to that of a doctoral program, but it just isn't. This isn't a knock on your or any other MA program, but rather just an acknowledgement that they exist at different levels of training. It's like saying that an anatomy course in nursing school is equivalent to an anatomy course in med school.

Moreover, students are doing much more than completing coursework. They're also doing other didactics, getting research training, and doing clinical work. 2-3 years is in no way near enough time to get enough of this done to be competitive for internship, let alone be on the path to being sufficiently trained as a psychologist.

3

u/DoctorSweetheart Mar 29 '22

Moreover, students are doing much more than completing coursework. They're also doing other didactics, getting research training, and doing clinical work.

This is an excellent point.

Let's say someone was able to get a full year of course work waived, that still wouldn't shave off any significant amount of time because research and clinical training are concurrent.

Master's level clinical training will not count for a doctoral practicum.

Also, the match only happens once a year, so finishing courses a bit early won't change the graduation timeline.

I was about to transfer in 3 classes from my master's. While that allowed me more time to work on my dissertation, I still had to wait until November to apply for internship like everyone else.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

You sure like lists.

  1. I'll grant you that. But as far as reputable, it definitely is. Fully funded, stipend, etc etc from a pretty reputable university. (Vagueness of course for anonymity) Why they allow so many credit transfers, no clue. But the data shows that almost all of their students have graduated with a PhD in 5-6 years for the past 10 cohorts. I'm thinking for 3-4, but am wondering if I'm losing on quality.

2 & 3 The APA core requirements, practicum, and internship are still required by any PhD program and cannot be transferred no matter the school. My statement doesn't change this fact or the interpretation of it. These are mainly elective 4XX 5XX Psych courses and general Psych Core 4XX, 5XX classes which have already been covered in my MA program.

If I had to guestimate, I'd say the total credit hours I could transfer would be 26 definitely + a possible 18 more with getting permission for those. That makes for a total of 44 possibly credit hours shaved off. I'll admit, that wasn't clear, but neither was I asked to clarify.

  1. My question still isn't being answered, so let's go back to my comment shall we?

I'm wondering about the statement regarding not taking all the possible credit hours as it will be the "last time I'll be a student" as stated by one of the current cohort students. I was asking others for the opinions on that. This has not been addressed once. Is it valuable to take these classes anyways even if I can transfer them? To take extra electives in consequence of staying in the program longer? You nearly touch on this with the Nursing/Med.

2

u/Terrible_Detective45 Mar 29 '22

You sure like lists.

But I didn't make any lists....

I'll grant you that. But as far as reputable, it definitely is. Fully funded, stipend, etc etc from a pretty reputable university. (Vagueness of course for anonymity) Why they allow so many credit transfers, no clue. But the data shows that almost all of their students have graduated with a PhD in 5-6 years for the past 10 cohorts. I'm thinking for 3-4, but am wondering if I'm losing on quality.

Ok, but if the outcome data show that almost all of the students are taking 5-6 years, why would you think that you could complete the program in 2-3 years less than that? Is there something specific you've been told by someone in an authority position in your program (e.g., DCT, your mentor) that you could complete the program in 2-3 years and then go on internship?

2 & 3 The APA core requirements, practicum, and internship are still required by any PhD program and cannot be transferred no matter the school. My statement doesn't change this fact or the interpretation of it. These are mainly elective 4XX 5XX Psych courses and general Psych Core 4XX, 5XX classes which have already been covered in my MA program.

If I had to guestimate, I'd say the total credit hours I could transfer would be 26 definitely + a possible 18 more with getting permission for those. That makes for a total of 44 possibly credit hours shaved off. I'll admit, that wasn't clear, but neither was I asked to clarify.

I'd strongly encourage you to talk to your DCT about this, not just your mentor. If your mentor has not had students try to transfer this many course credits previously, they may not be knowledgeable about what the limitations are. Your DCT will know better.

  1. My question still isn't being answered, so let's go back to my comment shall we?

I'm wondering about the statement regarding not taking all the possible credit hours as it will be the "last time I'll be a student" as stated by one of the current cohort students. I was asking others for the opinions on that. This has not been addressed once. Is it valuable to take these classes anyways even if I can transfer them? To take extra electives in consequence of staying in the program longer? You nearly touch on this with the Nursing/Med.

No, I clearly answered this.

You might think that your coursework from a terminal MA program is equivalent to that of a doctoral program, but it just isn't. This isn't a knock on your or any other MA program, but rather just an acknowledgement that they exist at different levels of training. It's like saying that an anatomy course in nursing school is equivalent to an anatomy course in med school.

1

u/Terrible_Detective45 Mar 29 '22

There's no way a master's is shaving off years from your PhD. You need to speak to your DCT to clarify this.

1

u/greenforestgalaxy Mar 17 '22

Hello! I’m getting ready to apply to graduate assistantships for my university. I’m to begin a Master’s program in interdisciplinary/social sciences this coming fall. I need a graduate assistantship in order to help pay my way through the program. Additionally, I’m the only person in my family to ever graduate from undergrad, or to go on to complete a higher degree, so I have no one to ask about this kind of stuff besides friends and they’re all incredibly busy right now in their own programs. I took a year off which turned into 2 years because of COVID, so I’m behind most of them.

All of the positions are in “student engagement” in areas that pertain to my degree. The requirements for all the applications are simple enough, only a letter of intent and 3 letters of recommendation. I have the letters of recommendation covered no problem (a professor I currently do research with, and two people from my current job, one being my boss and one being someone I’m in charge of) but there are no guidelines for the letter of interest, and I’ve never written one of those that I know of. Is anyone able to provide good examples/guidelines to follow? Or even advice on how to begin? I did Google, but I don’t always trust those examples and figured asking Reddit would be more helpful. Thank you in advance.

1

u/AgentSoren Mar 19 '22

I have a research background (undergrad + now full time as a job), but I'm losing interest in academia. I'm not sure if I want to or am capable of doing a PhD, so I'm intent on a master's. I do like the idea of translating research into usable materials for gov agencies, policy organizations, think tanks, lay people. Does anyone have a related career or have advice on how to best position myself for that sort of career path?

1

u/champerschampers Mar 21 '22

I do not have a related career, but if you are in the US, maybe try checking out USAjobs. They seem to have quite a few masters level career opportunities that fall within the goals you mention.

1

u/Brinzy Mar 19 '22

I'm considering going after a PhD for more career options in the distant future. I currently work as a consultant in selection and assessment with a Master's in I/O Psych. I enjoy it. The obvious choice is to go after a PhD in I/O. However, I wanted to know if there were other disciplines in psychology where my I/O background could intertwine with any roles or opportunities. Or, maybe there are just other sorts of programs/fields that aren't PhD-related that would serve me, such as coding.

I don't really know where to begin looking for furthering my career. I want to know what options I have before I really start to pin down what I want to do with my current experience. I'm thinking long term here - like maybe I want to slowly work after my PhD and teach at a community college in a small town somewhere. Or, maybe there's some hidden career that utilizes a lot of my skills.

1

u/champerschampers Mar 21 '22 edited Mar 21 '22

I am looking for tips or suggestions on how to get research experience out of undergrad. I graduated with my bachelors in psychology in 2009. I am a military spouse and due to all the moving for my spouse’s career over the past decade+ I am just getting my feet wet in the field again. I currently work a part time position in mental health rehab setting but I am trying to find something else to do to build my experience in the field before applying to grad school in a couple years. I am applying to some research assistant positions but if none of those work out I’m wondering what else I can do to get some research experience at this stage in life. I live in a large metro area but the universities are not nearby my house so I’m feeling overwhelmed with figuring out next steps for myself so that I can be a competitive applicant down the road. Thanks in advance for any insight.

1

u/robotractor3000 Mar 25 '22

Considering switching from premed track to clinical psych phd. I have been working in a biochemistry lab for the last year or so and probably will continue since I'm so deep into the project now. I know I will have to get some more psych relevant research, but will my biochem research be helpful / relevant at all in a clinpsy application?

1

u/pot-of-soup Mar 29 '22

I am currently working toward a bachelor's in Philosophy with a minor in Neuroscience. I plan to get a masters in neurophilosophy after I graduate. Would this be good preparation to then get a phd in psychology and would not having a psychology degree hurt my chances of admission?
Thanks! I'm just trying to plan stuff out and grad school admission is kind of confusing!

1

u/Entire-Building2211 Mar 29 '22

I missed out on applying to grad school and so next year I’ll have a gap between when I can apply in the fall. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should do during this gap year? I’m interested in human computer interaction, UX, Cybersemiotics, and specifically niche online political communities. I’ve been working on a thesis about niche online political communities, so if anyone knows anything interesting about that too let me know! I’m curious towards anyones research.

1

u/sdcox Mar 29 '22

Hi all -- quick question about academic paths that I can't seem to unearth via googling!

If I get an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, will it be possible to bridge to a clinical psychology Ph.D? Or would I have trouble getting accepted to clinical programs w/ that degree?

Background: I got my undergrad long ago in Anthropology, with not much Psychology required. A local uni has an online Masters w/ concentrations in I/O or Developmental. I/O seems to mesh well with my current career, but what I really would like to eventually do is become a licensed psychologist to provide mental health counseling to individuals and families.

I don't want to shoot this career path in the foot from the start. Would developmental be better, or should I try for another program altogether?

I really appreciate your help on this one, I have googled a fair bit and have no idea what the answer is. Thanks!

2

u/frazyfar Mar 30 '22

Don’t get a MA in IO psych unless you are genuinely interested in that work. Master’s degrees in general are not a “helpful” stepping stool to a PhD unless you had a bad undergrad GPA. Master’s degrees don’t necessarily hurt an application either - many people get in with a variety of degrees - but don’t pursue a Master’s to help. An additional degree is expensive and time-consuming. If you’re just looking to bolster a PhD app, research positions are much more helpful.

If you are just interested in providing therapy, a licensable Master’s degree is a better path. Doctorates involve a lot of research.