Career Change

[Armatis68]

Hello,

I received a bachelors degree in psychology in 2008, and after spending the last 1 1/2 years in internet marketing (good learning experience, but realized that business is not for me), have decided that I would like to pursue a graduate degree in psychology. I know I have a long road ahead of me, but I was wondering if I could get a little help with some of the first steps towards attaining an advanced degree. Some of my main concerns are:

How do I get clinical experience?
How do I get research experience?
How do I improve my GPA (3.4)
What are some fields relating to biological psychology (my favorite courses in college were related to neuroanatomy and cognition).
I recently applied for 2 year, post baccalaureate that would fulfill all science requirements -is this a wise choice, or should I focus my time on areas related to psychology?

I appreciate any support or advice I may receive, and just want to say that I am very passionate about psychology and the human body. I am greatful for finding this website, and am open to exchanging knowledge/ ideas with anyone who is interested.

Thanks,
Dan

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[6SAnthony]

One idea would be to look at 1-2 year masters degree programs to get more experience (both research and potentially clinical). Are you interested in a PhD or PsyD?

 

[neuropsyance]

How do I get clinical experience?

Volunteer at hospitals, or like I do you could work with kids with autism as a line therapist. I'm positive you could find some private companies that hire college students to do this (about ten hours a week). Also, if you're planning on Ph.D. you could go for clinical experience, but I'd suggest you focus on research experiences.

How do I get research experience?

I'm sure you want a Ph.D. but maybe a master's program? That would give you experience and coudl help with your GPA situation (just kill the courses). This could also be a good refresher since you've been out of college.

How do I improve my GPA (3.4)

Post-bacc work might be kind of annoying, costly, and redundant. I'd suggest doing a masters first and getting a good grad GPA.

What are some fields relating to biological psychology (my favorite courses in college were related to neuroanatomy and cognition)?

Look into clinical neuropsych programs maybe? This could also depend on which kind of population you want to work with (if you have one in mind, clinnically that is). If you want to focus on research for sure, and you liked neuroanatomy, I'd check out traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative disorders, and cognitive neuroscience like stuff.

I recently applied for 2 year, post baccalaureate that would fulfill all science requirements -is this a wise choice, or should I focus my time on areas related to psychology?

Not a bad choice, it will help your GPA, but a 3.4 isn't terrible, especially if you did well in a master's program and killed the GRE.

Hope that helped a bit. I typed fast, so my apologies for the grammatical and spelling errors.

neuropsyance