Advice for Masters/PhD admissions,how can I gain research experience? letters?

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wildcat82

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hello,

i'm seeking admittance into an i/o masters program, but i do not prove very strong in most of the admittance criteria.

my overall gpa is 3.2; 3.4 psych

i have few letters and limited research experience.

i graduated in 2004 and spent the last 3 years working.

i wasn't ready for grad school right after college....... but i can appreciate it now and can accept the things i cant change (my gpa) and willing to do whatever it takes to prove myself.

i hope to boost my acceptance chances with a stellar gre score, and was wondering if it's possible to volunteer with local university faculty? to get a better letter, and gain research experience. Is this an option? I currently live 600 miles away from the university where i did my undergrad so its out of the question to do work with professors who might actually remember me. There are several excellent local universities here; but do non students just volunteer out of the blue like this? it seems rather odd, but doable.

what are your recommendations for working on research experience, and getting a better letter after graduation? it is a done deal after graduation, like a gpa? Or can i still express interest now that i'm no longer a student? I know it's only been 3 years but i feel like i've been out of the academic world for ages.

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Wildcat: it looks like your post got buried so I thought I would try and give you a little bit of (hopefully helpful) guidance and bump the thread up so maybe others can chime in.

In terms of getting research experience, you can definitely volunteer your time at a local University, maybe hospitals or other research organizations. There are threads on SDN about that, you could probably search and find a lot more info than I could give you.

In terms of getting letters, if you had a relationship with any of your profs from UG, I'd start there. Barring that, I would do the research (maybe a couple of different labs) and ask for letters after you've put in a good amount of time there.

In my opinion, it's never a "done deal" ....you can always do things to improve your chances of getting in. Sometimes the gap is a good thing...grad programs realize you're a little more mature and you're sure about what you want.

Hope that is helpful. :)
 
From what I know about I/O programs, you NEED to have a strong stats background or you will be at a severe disadvantage. My friend completed her Ph.D in I/O a few years ago and most of her classes involved stats and research, so the more...the better.

-t
 
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Agree with both. I'm not entirely sure why, but seemingly every I/O program is VERY heavy on stats. Not that it isn't important in I/O, its vital for any area of psychology, I'm just not sure why I/O seems to emphasize it above and beyond other areas.

I wish clinical emphasized it more! We take 4 stats classes here and even that doesn't seem like nearly enough given what is out there. Its going to be a tough call for me later on when I'll want to go light on classes so I have more research time, but there's still so many stats classes to take (meta, SEM, HLM, factor analysis....there's just too many good options that are sooooooooooo useful).
 
Agree with both. I'm not entirely sure why, but seemingly every I/O program is VERY heavy on stats. Not that it isn't important in I/O, its vital for any area of psychology, I'm just not sure why I/O seems to emphasize it above and beyond other areas.

I/O in the biz world is ALL ABOUT stats. A couple of my friends are in the biz, and the majority of their time is spent with data models and/or analyzing data. They've both moved up so they don't do it as much, but it is a big part of what they do on a daily basis.

-t
 
There is a non-student currently volunteering in my lab. As a matter of fact, she has just begun a project that will hopefully get her published as first author when all's said and done. Also, 2 people from other schools volunteer at my lab b/c their schools don't have research labs. So I think it's always possible to volunteer in a lab whether or not you are a student at that university. Good luck!
 
At my UG someone came in who had already graduated and wanted to volunteer to get research experience she didn't have the opportunity to do at her UG institution. My school required that she be enrolled as a student to be able to do so, so she had to be taking at least one class in order to work in a lab. Quite an expensive "volunteer" job!

...just letting you know that might happen.
 
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