Anyone transitioned from engineering to PhD psychology?

[enigma82]

Hi everyone,

I just want to know if anybody here successfully switched their careers from engineering into a PhD Psychology program.

I am an engineer by career, I completed by Masters in Engineering at University of Southern California (Masters GPA: 3.8, Undergrad GPA: 3.8). I always wanted to get into PhD program in psychology, but have no idea how to go about it.

Can you give some tips on what exactly I should be doing? Can I apply to grad schools with my engineering degree after doing some courses in psychology, (along with GRE + GRE psych.)? I do not have research experience in psychology, but I have done research in other fields (I don't know if that helps...)

Thanks,
K

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[KillerDiller]

You will need to get some pre-req psychology classes out of the way. If you've taken statistics and research methods for your engineering work then those may count, but you will need some courses such as psychopathology, developmental, and social psych. Also, stats and research in the social sciences can be extremely different from the hard sciences, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to take those courses again in a psychology department setting (though you will get them again at the grad level anyway).

Even though it is great you have engineering research experience, I am betting that you will need to do some work in a psych research lab. Mostly, this is so you can gain an idea of the type of research you will want to do as a graduate student. Demonstrating a research match is the number one admissions factor for the majority of PhD programs. Also, working in a lab will get you a letter of recommendation that can speak more to your qualifications than a simple "enigma82 got an A in my class".

 

[deleted176373]

Hi everyone,

I just want to know if anybody here successfully switched their careers from engineering into a PhD Psychology program.

I am an engineer by career, I completed by Masters in Engineering at University of Southern California (Masters GPA: 3.8, Undergrad GPA: 3.8). I always wanted to get into PhD program in psychology, but have no idea how to go about it.

Can you give some tips on what exactly I should be doing? Can I apply to grad schools with my engineering degree after doing some courses in psychology, (along with GRE + GRE psych.)? I do not have research experience in psychology, but I have done research in other fields (I don't know if that helps...)

Thanks,
K

You might want to calculate the huge pay cut you will likely be taking. Still undaunted? Read on.

As for tips...

1. You want to know where you stand on the GRE.
2. Gotta get PSYCH research experience, they won't care about other research... I know it sounds horrible, but it's true.
3. You want to get a separate undergrad done in psych (should be EASY) just knock out about 30-40 credit hours and you should be in good shape. Makes more sense than trying to apply to a psych masters program. Maintain a high GPA in those psych courses and use that to get your research experience as well. Most of your profs will be running research. The preparatory work might take you 4 semesters (so that you can get the research experience as well.)
4. Apply to the programs you want to get into and hope that you get in. It's a tough competitive field, for generally low pay. It is very rewarding at the same time, and having come out of Comp Sci, I can understand why you would leave one for the other.

Mark

 

[IOPsych]

Hi everyone,

I just want to know if anybody here successfully switched their careers from engineering into a PhD Psychology program.

I am an engineer by career, I completed by Masters in Engineering at University of Southern California (Masters GPA: 3.8, Undergrad GPA: 3.8). I always wanted to get into PhD program in psychology, but have no idea how to go about it.

Can you give some tips on what exactly I should be doing? Can I apply to grad schools with my engineering degree after doing some courses in psychology, (along with GRE + GRE psych.)? I do not have research experience in psychology, but I have done research in other fields (I don't know if that helps...)

Thanks,
K

Are you only interested in clinical psychology? I think you would fit well into a human factors program. I have heard this is fairly similar to industrial engineering, I know a student who was applying to HF programs that was offered a spot in an Industrial Engineering PhD program. I also had a current theories class with an industrial engineering PhD student and his research was very human factors oriented.