Grad Schedule

[AryaStark]

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So I know that there has been extensive posts about this and that people say you can work about 60-70 hours a week during grad school, but I am just having a hard time understanding where all the hours come from. First, I will tell you that I am going to a very balanced program where they say they are proud of producing competent full time researchers as well as full time clinicians. I just got my schedule for my first year first semester classes and I have class from 9-12 on Tuesdays, 9-12 and 2-5 on Wednesdays. Although I can see myself spending a lot of time studying for these, having office hours (even though all the grad students said no one ever comes) and running studies, where will the rest of these hours come from? Or does this crazy schedule come into play when you start actually seeing patients? Thanks in advance for your responses!
'Arya'

 

[KillerDiller]

Yeah, classes are really not the most time-consuming part of grad school. For me, my weekly schedule last year was approximately:

8.5 hours of class/ week
7 hours TAing
16 hours at practicum
20 hours fellowship/ own research

Of course, that doesn't include any prep time for all these activities. So 60-70 hours a week is about right.

 

[PamBeasLizLemo]

Do you do a lot of your own research your first years? Also, this may be a dumb question but what kind of things do you do in the fellowship and your own research time? I know that undergrads tend to run a lot of studies. In this time are you talking about running your own studies or just doing the statistics and stuff? I am pretty new to the thought of this kinda stuff for grad school as opposed to undergrad, I guess.

Yeah, classes are really not the most time-consuming part of grad school. For me, my weekly schedule last year was approximately:

8.5 hours of class/ week
7 hours TAing
16 hours at practicum
20 hours fellowship/ own research

Of course, that doesn't include any prep time for all these activities. So 60-70 hours a week is about right.

 

[JockNerd]

Do you do a lot of your own research your first years? Also, this may be a dumb question but what kind of things do you do in the fellowship and your own research time? I know that undergrads tend to run a lot of studies. In this time are you talking about running your own studies or just doing the statistics and stuff? I am pretty new to the thought of this kinda stuff for grad school as opposed to undergrad, I guess.

Generally, undergrads run participants, not studies. I work about 60-70 hours in a week, and a good portion of that isn't much more than sitting in a chair thinking. "Running your own studies" is a complex process that involves analyzing and synthesizing existing work (you're going to do more reading than you ever thought you would to run one good study), identifying gaps, conceptualizing studies that address those gaps, and constructing the means to do the work (whether that's booking an fMRI or finding the right survey instruments). "Statistics and stuff" can mean learning covariance structure modeling, grounded theory, odds ratios, or hierarchical linear modeling, if that's what's needed to analyze the data in the study you're conceptualizing.

So, it's an interesting question: what's work? I can sit for four hours and clean data, and by golly that LOOKS like work, but it's probably using about 1/50th of my brainpower. I can sit in a chair with a cup of coffee and build a structural equation model in my mind, which looks like non-work, but is consuming most of my cognitive abilities.

In the last academic year, my schedule probably broke down something like:
-9 hours of classes
-0-10 hours of homework for classes
-about 5 hours of reading specifically for classes
-6-7 hours of therapy
-1-2 hours therapy logistics (note-writing, etc)
-4 hours clinical supervision
-20-30 hours of reading for my research/therapy
-10-30 hours of study design/analysis/writing/editing/rewriting

When I started seeing clients, I brought the research/writing etc. time down a little bit. If your research is pretty programmatic this is easier to do, since you'll have read a lot of the foundational work before you see clients (assuming you don't see clients till year 2).

 

[deleted176373]

So I know that there has been extensive posts about this and that people say you can work about 60-70 hours a week during grad school, but I am just having a hard time understanding where all the hours come from.

'Arya'

Class time is NOTHING... Reading, Research, Running Studies/Participants, Reading, Writing, Patients, Preparing Presentations, Reading, did I say Reading.

You will spend a huge amount of your time reading.


Here are my first two years of classes though, wanna know where the time went! In this respect, USUHS is BRUTAL, the time demand for classes and studies is fairly unbelievable.

First Year, 1st quarter
RES METH & COMPLEX HU EXPER I (3 hrs/wk)
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1hr/wk)
ETHICS & RESP CONDUCT OF RES (1hr/wk)
EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS (3 hrs/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (variable ~10 hrs)
ADULT PSYCHOPATHOLOGY (3 hrs/wk)
PHYSIOLOGY (3 hrs/wk)

2nd quarter
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1 hr/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (variable ~10 hrs)
EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS (3 hrs/wk)
CLINICAL ASSESSMENT: I (3 hrs/wk)
APPETITE BEHAVIORS (3 hrs/wk)
RES METH & COMPLEX HU EXPER II (3 hrs/wk)

3rd quarter
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1hr/wk)
ETHICS IN PSYCHOLOGY (3 hrs/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (variable ~10 hrs)
CULTURAL DIVERSITY: RES & PRAC (3hrs/wk)
CLINICAL ASSESSMENT: II (3hrs/wk)
HLTH PSYCH/BEHAVIORAL MED SEM (3 hrs/wk)
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (3hrs/wk)
INTRO TO MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY (3 hrs/wk)

summer
CLERKSHIP I (24 hrs/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (15 hrs/wk)

Second year, 1st quarter
CLINICAL SKILLS TNG SEMINAR I (2 hrs/wk)
PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING (3hrs/wk)
PRACTICUM (10 hrs/wk)
FOUND. INTERVENTION: COG-BEHAV (3hrs/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (~10 hrs/wk)
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1 hr/wk)

2nd quarter
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (10 hrs/wk)
CLINICAL SKILLS TNG SEMINAR I (2 hrs/wk)
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (3 hrs/wk)
SELECTED TOPICS IN PSYCHOPHARM (3 hrs/wk)
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1 hr/wk)
PRACTICUM (10 hrs/wk)

3rd quarter
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (3 hrs/wk)
CLINICAL SKILLS TNG SEMINAR I (2 hrs/wk)
PRACTICUM (10 hrs/wk)
MED PSYCH SEMINAR (1 hr/wk)
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (10 hrs/wk)

**** Qualifying Exams **** No pressure. 16 hours of testing over 2 days.

Summer Year 2.
RESEARCH IN MED PSYCHOLOGY (15 hrs/wk)
CLERKSHIP II (24 hrs/wk)


Piece of cake,
Mark

 

[AryaStark]

Thanks for all the informative responses. Would you say this type of schedule is consistent through all 4-5 years or are there huge differences between the first few years and the last (obviously other than working on your dissertation and seeing clients)?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Thanks for all the informative responses. Would you say this type of schedule is consistent through all 4-5 years or are there huge differences between the first few years and the last (obviously other than working on your dissertation and seeing clients)?

Most programs seem to front-load courses, so as you move through your research, add pts, etc....you have more time. By the time my 4th year rolled around I finished my classes and it was just research, TA'ing, work, etc.

 

[deleted176373]

Thanks for all the informative responses. Would you say this type of schedule is consistent through all 4-5 years or are there huge differences between the first few years and the last (obviously other than working on your dissertation and seeing clients)?

USUHS front loads heavily... plus the military students (like me) have to be done in 4 years... I just finished my Master's thesis (hopefully) tonight and I should start to shift to seeing clients more over the next year, a lighter class load, and working on my dissertation proposal soon (like tomorrow.)

Mark

 

[Ollie123]

Agree with everything that has been said, class schedules are misleading. If the coursework was the primary time-sink, grad school would be a cakewalk, but everyone would come out grotesquely incompetent. Coursework is a necessary foundation, but really just the tip of the iceberg, and I'd say < 10% of what I've learned came from classes.

 

[JackD]

I am curious to see how much different the professional schools are, in terms of overall work. I obviously did my undergrad stuff at a state school, so I saw how much time the PhD students spent on research, teaching 4 classes a semester, office hours, grading tests and projects, etc. When you cut that stuff out, such as with a professional school program, you have to wonder how much different the experience is.

 

[krisrox]

USUHS front loads heavily... plus the military students (like me) have to be done in 4 years... I just finished my Master's thesis (hopefully) tonight and I should start to shift to seeing clients more over the next year, a lighter class load, and working on my dissertation proposal soon (like tomorrow.)

Mark

Wahooooooo!!!!!

 

[Psychology 76]

So I know that there has been extensive posts about this and that people say you can work about 60-70 hours a week during grad school, but I am just having a hard time understanding where all the hours come from. First, I will tell you that I am going to a very balanced program where they say they are proud of producing competent full time researchers as well as full time clinicians. I just got my schedule for my first year first semester classes and I have class from 9-12 on Tuesdays, 9-12 and 2-5 on Wednesdays. Although I can see myself spending a lot of time studying for these, having office hours (even though all the grad students said no one ever comes) and running studies, where will the rest of these hours come from? Or does this crazy schedule come into play when you start actually seeing patients? Thanks in advance for your responses!
'Arya'

I think 60-70 hours always sounds like a whole lot more than it is. I work 50-60 hours in a normal week as an undergrad and 60-70 hours in a busy week. But like other people said its not like for all those hours your completely exhausting yourself by doing hard physical work. "working x amount of hours" implies to connotation for a job such as at some company in a cubicle doing tons of paper work and answering phone calls all day. For me at least. This summer I've been working around 60 hours a week between 2 jobs (one is my awesome but unpaid internship and one is a terrible fast food place). That is exhausting work and its about 60 hours. I also "work" about 60 hours a week at school but only 10 is work study and the rest is homework, extra curricular type stuff, research and reading which doesn't feel like work like moping the floors or running around the hospital does. I hope that made some sense because I tended to ramble. Anyway, good luck at grad school!!

 

[psybee]

USUHS front loads heavily... plus the military students (like me) have to be done in 4 years... I just finished my Master's thesis (hopefully) tonight and I should start to shift to seeing clients more over the next year, a lighter class load, and working on my dissertation proposal soon (like tomorrow.)

Mark

likely due to the Health emphasis, my program also front loads the first year-I'd say we had 20 hours just of class a week! add research, program-oriented work, and studying, and we were at 50-70 hrs, depending on how much effort you put into research and how much you needed to study.

this coming year (my 2nd) it's:
16 hrs class
10 hrs studying for class
12-16 research
and 20 minimum for clinical work (3 groups, 7 clients, 4 hrs supervision, and tons and tons of writing and reading).

but like the others say, class and studying isn't such a big deal. some classes i'll put a lot of effort into and need to keep on top of my reading, others not so much. Clinical paperwork i have to keep on top of, otherwise it's unprofessional and I'll drown, and because I work w/ a medical pop, I often need to do unique reading for each client, since they are all so diverse personally, medically, and psychologically. Some of my research work, like doing mail merges to send out letters to potential participants, is super mindless and i can do it while listening to "Mitchell and Webb" on the radio, other things require thought and processing, and i can't predict how long it will take to do what i need to do. The good thing is that because you do so many different kinds of work, you are guaranteed to do something every week that feels like "flow".

 

[AryaStark]

Thanks so much for this info! What kind of things were you doing in the hours spent on research your FIRST year?

likely due to the Health emphasis, my program also front loads the first year-I'd say we had 20 hours just of class a week! add research, program-oriented work, and studying, and we were at 50-70 hrs, depending on how much effort you put into research and how much you needed to study.

this coming year (my 2nd) it's:
16 hrs class
10 hrs studying for class
12-16 research
and 20 minimum for clinical work (3 groups, 7 clients, 4 hrs supervision, and tons and tons of writing and reading).

but like the others say, class and studying isn't such a big deal. some classes i'll put a lot of effort into and need to keep on top of my reading, others not so much. Clinical paperwork i have to keep on top of, otherwise it's unprofessional and I'll drown, and because I work w/ a medical pop, I often need to do unique reading for each client, since they are all so diverse personally, medically, and psychologically. Some of my research work, like doing mail merges to send out letters to potential participants, is super mindless and i can do it while listening to "Mitchell and Webb" on the radio, other things require thought and processing, and i can't predict how long it will take to do what i need to do. The good thing is that because you do so many different kinds of work, you are guaranteed to do something every week that feels like "flow".

 

[psybee]

Thanks so much for this info! What kind of things were you doing in the hours spent on research your FIRST year?

For me, the 1st year, 1st semester was a lot of lit reviewing, narrowing down my interests and doing things to help out my prof on other ongoing research projects. Have you been an RA? You'll keep on doing things like that in grad school-entering and cleaning data, training others, doing lit serches, recruiting and running subjects, etc... . 2nd semester invloved me working on my pre doc as well, as by then i had a direction.

 

[KillerDiller]

I think 60-70 hours always sounds like a whole lot more than it is. I work 50-60 hours in a normal week as an undergrad and 60-70 hours in a busy week. But like other people said its not like for all those hours your completely exhausting yourself by doing hard physical work.

I agree that 60-70 hours of manual labor is absolutely back-breaking. I've done a fair amount of the cleaning and service jobs, so I very much sympathize with people in those positions.

That said, I'd caution against underestimating the toll that working 60-70 hours in grad school takes on you. It's not really the same as sitting in a generic office job where, theoretically, you can zone out or take your time doing low-priority tasks. It may not be physically exhausting, but it is definitely mentally and emotionally exhausting. I often find that I can't turn my brain off after getting home or even after getting into bed. In short, you become very stressed over the course of the school year....Still worth it, though.