Attaining Research Experience for Admissions into Graduate School for Psychology

[richterpsyche]

Hello everyone. I recently finished school with a BS in Marketing, and a Minor in Psychology. I am seriously considering going back to school for Clinical Psychology and need some advice or tips on what I can do to help my chances of getting into a PhD/PsyD program. I have researched the career options a lot, and believe I will be pursuing a PhD degree with a very balanced program (meaning their will be an emphasis on both clinical experience and research experience, but much more emphasis on research experience in regards to the admissions process). I am well aware of the admission requirements for these programs, as well as the tedious application processes. I am currently seeking a paid Research Assistant position at a research organization (profit and nonprofit) in hopes that this kind of experience will qualify as research experience for graduate school. My question is, do you think the kind of work done (program evaluation, qualitative research (focus groups, site visits), quantitative research (surveys, analysis of large databases), study design, and analysis) will qualify as research experience for a graduate program in Psychology? I am just a little doubtful because it seems most people acquire research experience working for a professor as a psychology undergrad. Being a business major, I didn’t have this option so I am kind of slacking, but I am very determined to get into grad school and become a psychologist. Anyway, any advice, thoughts, or tips would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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[numbereight]

i think it looks like good experience. it all depends on who's reading the application of course. also, it depends on what you want to do. a professor who's in to psychophysiology probably wont give as much weight to that experience as someone who focuses on program evaluation. i've said it before and ill probably say it again. i think professors especially like relevant work experience. e.g. if they work on ADHD and you have experience with ADHD research, that's a big bonus. youll probably be competing for spots with people who've had that relevant work experience. relevance can take different forms. e.g. if they administer the DANVA and you have experience with the DANVA, that's good.

I say try to find work in an area that you would like to study as a doctoral student. if you are unsure and want to try this job out, go for it. also consider taking a few psych courses, preferrably graduate level at a school with an APA accredited program.

cheers,
#8

 

[cara susanna]

If you have no psych research experience atm, getting a paid position might be difficult. If you can't (not saying it won't happen, but just in case), would you be able to volunteer in a lab at a nearby university?

 

[richterpsyche]

Thank you both (numbereight and cara susanna) for your prompt replies. Your advice has been very helpful. Numbereight, I think I will take a similar position as the one I described and see if I like the reality of working as a researcher. The thing is, I do have some research experience as I did take a handful of marketing research courses in college, so I am able to land a position as a Research Assistant, but probably not as a researcher researching a topic related to psychology. I have been considered for a position as a research assistant studying child education. This is not ultimately what I'd like to be researching, but I see the job as somewhat of a 'stepping stone'. Maybe after a year or two of that kind of position (one in which I'm researching, but not researching anything psychology related) and after taking several post-bacc classes, and volunteering at a lab and/or a clinic, I can land a research assistant position in the field of psychology. Cara Susanna, is anyone allowed to volunteer at a university lab? I thought you'd have to be a psych undergrad or something…I'm not sure, but if I am just as qualified as everyone else, I would definitely like to volunteer at a lab.


Are you both in graduate school for Psychology? What are you studying? If so, what was your pre-graduate school work experience like? Obviously you don't have to answer any of these questions; I'm just curious and wanting to meet people with similar interests. Thanks again for all of your help! 🙂D

 

[cara susanna]

Some do. I know of a few that certainly let non-students volunteer. If not, try local hospitals or other organizations that have research going on. But I would also try for paid positions; it'd be great if you could get one! I just know that they're competitive and a lot of people try to get them, so I would have a backup plan, just in case.

I'll be starting at a Clinical Psychology PhD program this fall. My research interests are in mindfulness, personality, and emotion. I've never worked full time in research (which is getting rarer and rarer in people who are admitted), but I have around two years' experience of being a research assistant during undergrad. My duties haved ranged from running participants and entering data to being leader on certain projects. Hope this helps 😀

 

[richterpsyche]

Some do. I know of a few that certainly let non-students volunteer. If not, try local hospitals or other organizations that have research going on. But I would also try for paid positions; it'd be great if you could get one! I just know that they're competitive and a lot of people try to get them, so I would have a backup plan, just in case.

I'll be starting at a Clinical Psychology PhD program this fall. My research interests are in mindfulness, personality, and emotion. I've never worked full time in research (which is getting rarer and rarer in people who are admitted), but I have around two years' experience of being a research assistant during undergrad. My duties haved ranged from running participants and entering data to being leader on certain projects. Hope this helps 😀

Okay, thanks for the insight. I will definitely look into securing a position at a local hospital or university lab. Thats really great that you're starting your prgm this fall, congratulations! Good luck with it all, I'm sure it'll be extremely time consuming! 🙂

 

[starsinnight]

Hi- When I was in undergrad, I had a Psych Major and Education Minor and I focused more on Science and Education than I did on Psych at the time. So I also had NO research experience at all, so that is why I didn't bother applying to PhD programs at the time.

After undergrad, I realized I wanted to be more psych-oriented and I did get a fully paid RA position at the University I am getting my Master's at, with free tuition paid by them also. I know I really lucked out, but it can be done. I also work with 4 other RA's who are doing the same thing as me, and in my program many of my classmates do the same thing. So it can be done.

I found my job looking on the University's career website/ job listings under "research" and applied to them all. Right now, we have a bunch more listed that I've been thinking about since my job is having funding issues and isn't as research-intense as I'd hoped (no journals or posters in 2 years!!). And yes, times were different 2 years ago than now but I think the prospects of getting a research job are much better than a regular job since my university has frozen all jobs except Research ones, since they run on multiple-year grants.

As far as the type of research you do and how intense, I think that depends on the schools you want to go to too. I work now with Child Development but am not sure if that's what I want to do either, but it was too good an opportunity for experience that I couldn't pass it up. Hope this helps in any way, not too sure about volunteering in labs though since I've never done that. however, you can volunteer at non-profit research organizations. We have many student volunteers come in here, atleast a few every semester, and I'm sure we wouldn't pass up any help whether they are students or not. So that might be a place to start looking. Good luck with everything!

 

[KillerDiller]

I've never worked full time in research (which is getting rarer and rarer in people who are admitted)

Why do you say this? I know many students in my program who have spent a couple of years as a full-time RA.

 

[richterpsyche]

Hi again. Thank you stars for your advice. Judging by the job descriptions and requirements I've looked at, it will be somewhat difficult for me to find an entry-level full time position researching psychology related topics at this point in my career (or should I say inexperience), so I think I will settle for something that isn't ideally what I would like to study, but is something that will give me a strong basis in data collection, and research methods. Maybe while I do that I can volunteer on the weekends at a local hospital or university. After a year of that, maybe I'll move on to research something that really genuinely interests me, which I can later apply to graduate school. I just wish I would've made the right decision 5 years ago when I chose my major! AGH!!

 

[cara susanna]

Er... I meant that it's getting rarer where people are admitted without having worked full time as an RA (as in, straight out of undergrad), not the other way around.

Though someone in another thread said it's actually the norm, so who knows.

 

[numbereight]

Hi again. Thank you stars for your advice. Judging by the job descriptions and requirements I've looked at, it will be somewhat difficult for me to find an entry-level full time position researching psychology related topics at this point in my career (or should I say inexperience), so I think I will settle for something that isn't ideally what I would like to study, but is something that will give me a strong basis in data collection, and research methods. Maybe while I do that I can volunteer on the weekends at a local hospital or university. After a year of that, maybe I'll move on to research something that really genuinely interests me, which I can later apply to graduate school. I just wish I would've made the right decision 5 years ago when I chose my major! AGH!!

ha. yeah i understand that. i am transitioning from a different career too. it's not easy. some advice. first, relax. (not sure you need this advice but i figure it cant hurt). you have many years of training ahead of you and with that is the opportunity to study what you really want to.

#1 get in a master's program. do this for fall if you can. consider going unmatriculated if you've missed the deadline.

once you're in a program, you will have the credibility you need to land some type of position that will give you expereince you need to figure out where you want to go and to be a competetive PhD program applicant.

#2 try your best to find out what you want to do before the end of your first year, and spend your second year getting experience doing it. i think this is huge for your competetiveness for phd programs. if you can't make this happen, it's not the end of the world, but if i were to do it all over again, id make this my plan..

how do you do this? i think you do this by reading and writing. spend a lot of time on the internet looking up things that are interesting to you. google stuff. read about it. then, write down your thoughts journal style. when you find somethign that's entertaining to read and write (and think) about, and when your thoughts become possible research questions or experiments, you may have struck a legitimate research interest. this would probably work for clinical practice too.

i am finishing up my masters and starting a PhD program in clinical psych this fall. my research interests are developmental psychopathology, cognitve development, and how social processes (parent-child, peer group) contribute to adaptive and maladaptive development. before going for my master's i worked in cancer research in both academic and biotech. mostly molecular bio/cell bio/biochemistry lab work.

 

[richterpsyche]

numbereight: Thank you so much for all of your advice. Its really helped. And yes, I did need to hear 'relax' haha. I am not sure if I will be applying to schools for this fall (09), but I'm going to start the application process for fall 10. I'll be spending the next months taking my GRE, getting LORs, and hopefully getting some experience (I've already contacted some universities asking if I could work in their labs).

I am interested in finding a fully-funded, or, at least a partially-funded program. I am interested in General Psych prgms as I was not a psych undergrad and this will introduce me to a broad range of topics. This may be silly of me to ask, but do you know of a good place to research this kind of thing? Should I just think of schools and look up their programs? Are fully-funded programs pretty rare? I have the Insiders Guide, but it only mentions PhD and PsyD prgms. Anyway, thank you again for all of your help and best of luck in your program this fall! Congrats 😀

 

[futureapppsy2]

Pretty rare. Wake Forest, Bucknell, and Western Carolina all have funded Master's programs.

 

[cara susanna]

My undergrad school has an experimental masters program that offers assistantships. Not sure if you'd be interested in that or not, but yeah.

 

[KillerDiller]

Pretty rare. Wake Forest, Bucknell, and Western Carolina all have funded Master's programs.

As do William and Mary, Villanova and Connecticut College. There are previous threads that have lists of programs that offer funding if you do a search.

 

[richterpsyche]

Thank you all for your help. I'll be checking out the colleges listed, as well as other threads.

 

[jimmy87]

Hi..
I am also in the same boat as you richterpsyche...I am also looking for an experience in psychology..
Have you find any yet..if you did, please let me know what and how did you search for it...

Thanks

 

[erg923]

Clinical experience: As an undergrad I woked as a psychiatric technician (nurses assistant kind of) at a large state hospital. If there are no state hospitals in your town..a tertiary hospital with a psych floor/unit would work. Generally speaking, you do not need to have a bachelors degree to do for these types of positions.

Research: Worked with the same professor for 3 years running subjects in his lab (alcohol and agressive behavior). Did data entry and conducted psychophys and neuropsych measures, personality meaures. My senior year I helped rewrite the grant renewl proposal with him.

 

[PsychRox]

Hey guys!
I'm almost done my undergrad in psych and my college doesn't have any research opportunities for us. 🙁
Anyone have any ideas for me in the NYC area ???

Thanks for any help !!!

 

[erg923]

Well its nyc...tons of colleges, hospitals, and academic med centers there. Get on the horn...

 

[LM02]

Hey guys!
I'm almost done my undergrad in psych and my college doesn't have any research opportunities for us. 🙁
Anyone have any ideas for me in the NYC area ???

Thanks for any help !!!

A lot of hospitals have a human resources/employment opportunities link directly on their website. You can often find job announcements there. For example, here's the link from nyspi:

http://rfmh.iapplicants.com/SearchJobs-city.html

I'm sure you can find something similar at Mt Sinai, NY-Cornell, NYU, etc.

Good luck!