Listing degress in progress on CV

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NYRangers1

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I am starting a phd program this fall and was wondering how I list my current educational status on my CV.

Phd Student in (name of degree)
Name of School
Fall 2012- current

Any feedback would be great.

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I am starting a phd program this fall and was wondering how I list my current educational status on my CV.

Phd Student in (name of degree)
Name of School
Fall 2012- current

Any feedback would be great.

I'm not sure what kind of program you are attending (i.e. a program where students come in with an MA and don't earn one en route to the doctorate?), but in my experience "PhD student" usually implies advancement to candidacy. Presumably you'll earn an MA first, then advance (go ABD after all course work, comps, and diss proposal are successfully completed), right? It might be better to list:

MA (expected Spring 2014)
title and chair/committee members' names added here once those details are determined.

congrats and good luck.
 
You definitely don't want to refer to yourself as a "Ph.D. candidate" until you actually fulfill your school's criteria for that. However, I don't think listing that the degree is "in progress" on your CV is problematic, so long as you put a ballpark figure for the "expected" date.

And, as wigflip mentioned, I'd probably also put the MA/MS on there along with its associated "expected" date so that readers don't assume you've already completed it.
 
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There are a growing number of psychology programs now where you actually don't get an MA at all and go straight through to PhD (regardless of whether or not you have one going in). I applied to a couple programs like this.

I'd avoid using the word "candidate" but I do think its fine to note in some way that you are enrolled in a PhD program so people don't think its a terminal masters.
 
Oh, I was talking about respected, university-based PhD programs. University of Vermont was one.

http://www.uvm.edu/~psych/graduate/...program_schedule.html&SM=clinicalsubmenu.html

They complete a "second year project" that is supposed to be roughly equivalent to a master's, but there is no degree. It was done to streamline the process, which is one way they keep program length on the shorter end (4-5 years on campus), and also as somewhat of a disincentive for student attrition.

You've seen my posts, do you really think I even considered PsyD programs let alone applied? 😉
 
Oh, I was talking about respected, university-based PhD programs. University of Vermont was one.

http://www.uvm.edu/~psych/graduate/...program_schedule.html&SM=clinicalsubmenu.html

They complete a "second year project" that is supposed to be roughly equivalent to a master's, but there is no degree. It was done to streamline the process, which is one way they keep program length on the shorter end (4-5 years on campus), and also as somewhat of a disincentive for student attrition.

You've seen my posts, do you really think I even considered PsyD programs let alone applied? 😉

I hadn't thought of that aspect, but it certainly makes sense. I'd imagine people would be at least somewhat more at ease with leaving after 3 or 4 years if they'd earned a masters (even if there isn't much you can do with it) than if they'd have to go empty-handed.
 
I dunno....it disappoints me to see that. I think the master's thesis is a critical part of doctoral training. At least my own program viewed it and treated it that way.
 
Well keep in mind the idea is that they complete a project that is roughly equivalent to a thesis. The process just seemed (slightly) less formalized and they didn't award a degree at the end. Completing my thesis was very valuable, but I didn't care in the slightest about actually "getting" the MA degree itself.
 
I'm not sure what kind of program you are attending (i.e. a program where students come in with an MA and don't earn one en route to the doctorate?), but in my experience "PhD student" usually implies advancement to candidacy. Presumably you'll earn an MA first, then advance (go ABD after all course work, comps, and diss proposal are successfully completed), right? It might be better to list:

MA (expected Spring 2014)
title and chair/committee members' names added here once those details are determined.

congrats and good luck.

I am attending a phd program in Counselor Education & Supervision. Masters degrees and and least one year of post Masters experience are prerequisites to these types of programs; therefor masters are not earned on the way, but prior.
 
I am attending a phd program in Counselor Education & Supervision. Masters degrees and and least one year of post Masters experience are prerequisites to these types of programs; therefor masters are not earned on the way, but prior.

First off, many congrats on your choice of sports teams! Go rangers. 🙂. Feel free to PM me to talk about the Nash trade heh.

Regarding your initial question... on my cv, I have "Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology, expected August 2013," as others have said. I don't have the date I enrolled.

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Well keep in mind the idea is that they complete a project that is roughly equivalent to a thesis. The process just seemed (slightly) less formalized and they didn't award a degree at the end. Completing my thesis was very valuable, but I didn't care in the slightest about actually "getting" the MA degree itself.

I just don't understand the point. Why have a project? Higher education is already getting watered down. Why make things less and less stringent?

Yes it is different if a program requires a masters before you start. But if you just show up, whip through, and do a dissert, I believe a very important part is missing.

Getting a master's is mostly about the experience in doing research in a Ph.D. program. It is only more of a title and possibly a billing advantage in other programs.
 
I'm probably not the best suited to "defend" the practice since I 1) Don't go there, and 2) Largely agree with you. I just wanted to make folks aware of its existence given it gets at the point that one can be a PhD student without having an MA.

I am a bit confused by your post though, since you pose the question of "Why have a project" and then go on to delineate exactly why they should do a project. My understanding of it when I interviewed was that they retained most of experiences involved in a master's, but did not award a degree for it. The point was just that if a school doesn't award a master's, one would pretty much have to be "PhD in progress" per the above the discussion - though I agree "candidate" should not be used.

I agree with watering down - it seems the system has become more about getting people in and out quickly while building a "CV" rather than building actual qualifications (i.e. abilities). I'm not suggesting a return to a few decades past when many programs expected people to stick around for 9-10 years, but I do think its gotten pushed much too far in the other direction, with people cutting corners on theses/dissertations/etc. rather than doing more substantive projects where they would likely learn more. (I realize you got out fast, but it also sounds like you worked faaarrr more than average to achieve it).

Psyman - Sorry if you find that obnoxious, but I'm not sure why. I'm on a hardcore research path, what possible reason would I have to consider PsyD programs? Even the respected PsyD programs are certainly not in the same league of research-emphasis and research training opportunities as clinical science programs.
 
I'm probably not the best suited to "defend" the practice since I 1) Don't go there, and 2) Largely agree with you. I just wanted to make folks aware of its existence given it gets at the point that one can be a PhD student without having an MA.

I am a bit confused by your post though, since you pose the question of "Why have a project" and then go on to delineate exactly why they should do a project. My understanding of it when I interviewed was that they retained most of experiences involved in a master's, but did not award a degree for it. The point was just that if a school doesn't award a master's, one would pretty much have to be "PhD in progress" per the above the discussion - though I agree "candidate" should not be used.

I agree with watering down - it seems the system has become more about getting people in and out quickly while building a "CV" rather than building actual qualifications (i.e. abilities). I'm not suggesting a return to a few decades past when many programs expected people to stick around for 9-10 years, but I do think its gotten pushed much too far in the other direction, with people cutting corners on theses/dissertations/etc. rather than doing more substantive projects where they would likely learn more. (I realize you got out fast, but it also sounds like you worked faaarrr more than average to achieve it).

Psyman - Sorry if you find that obnoxious, but I'm not sure why. I'm on a hardcore research path, what possible reason would I have to consider PsyD programs? Even the respected PsyD programs are certainly not in the same league of research-emphasis and research training opportunities as clinical science programs.

Before I had my coffee this morning, I think my point was basically that if they aren't going to do a master's, why even bother? yes there are reasons to do a project, but why not just do a master's? To me it seems akin to the PsyD "dissertation projects" at FSPSs. Pointless.
 
You should probably list the university, dept, prog and years attended. Title should be Student or Graduate Student, as there can be quite a bit of variance between programs, and you do not want to misrepresent yourself (even by mistake). Listing Ph.D/Psy.D. Candidate is not the same thing. Most ppl probably won't take exception to it, but some might.
 
Well I agree, its a little weird, but either we have VERY different objections to the PsyD dissertation projects or we've got our wires crossed on this a little bit.

My issue with the PsyD "projects" you mention are that they are generally not real dissertations - they are narrative reviews of extremely limited scope that generally could not be published anywhere remotely respectable (if anywhere at all). They aren't very intensive, standards are generally low, they don't necessitate much in the way of skill development/knowledge, etc.

I don't know the details on their end of how these "Master's-equivalent projects" work, but they are meant to be of a caliber that will get published in a top-tier journal, and the ones I knew about were certainly on par with the typical thesis at most balanced programs. My understanding was that this was just a way to dodge some of the bureaucratic BS regulations at the administrative level (i.e. have to defend the MA the semester before taking comps, take comps the semester before proposing the dissertation so candidacy paperwork gets processed, etc.) that was pushing back timelines unnecessarily if one say, had a slight problem with data collection but could have easily finished up and comp'd in the same semester, and limited what students could do for their thesis/dissertation. I'm by no means advocating for the system though my opposition is likely a bit different than yours seems to be - I'd much prefer to see faculty/departments stop accepting some of the more pointless systems we have (*cough* IRBs *cough*) and just start pushing back hard against that and other administrative BS. However - I get it. Its an end-run around bureaucracy. Make them do the work but don't call it a master's or award the degree and you can skip a lot of it and keep things on schedule.

I couldn't care less about having "earned" my MA and now being able to list that title. I'm in a doctoral program, that was always the goal, that's what I came to do, etc. I DO care about what I learned from it (hah - how to publish failed experiments in APA journals) - my understanding from the interviews was that UVM was trying to create a system with the same amount of "learning", but less bureaucracy. The Argosy "Dissertation projects" seem to be about decreasing the amount of learning that people have to do so the additional costs associated with providing a full-blown psychology degree don't eat into profits.
 
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Well I agree, its a little weird, but either we have VERY different objections to the PsyD dissertation projects or we've got our wires crossed on this a little bit.

My issue with the PsyD "projects" you mention are that they are generally not real dissertations - they are narrative reviews of extremely limited scope that generally could not be published anywhere remotely respectable (if anywhere at all). They aren't very intensive, standards are generally low, they don't necessitate much in the way of skill development/knowledge, etc..

We are in complete agreement here. I don't think it is even fair that the term "dissertation" is included in the title 'dissertation project" because the ones I have seen of these are complete jokes.
 
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