RA Positions and Reapplying

[psychadelics]

Current Background
I applied to 8 schools, received 4 interviews, and 2 wait lists, all of the schools were in the NYC area. None of these ended up becoming acceptances. I am currently graduating undergrad with a years of (unpaid) RA experience, as well as an independent project that was part of an REU.
GRE's : 1160, GPA 3.4, major 3.8; 5 month group counseling experience; 1 conference, 1 pub in preparation.


Now, I've been interviewing for full time RA jobs. My question is two fold.
a) How important is it to have research experience in a related field? I feel that when re-applying it would be difficult to prove a research fit.

b) all of the jobs I've been interviewing for require a 2 year commitment. I, on the other hand would like to reapply during next application season.

Does anyone have any experience leaving their position if they initially agreed to two years?
Would it be suspicious if I didn't have a rec. letter from that supervisor?

Can someone please advise me on the best path to take? Grad school is something I know I can succeed at and I just don't want to spend another 2 years before reapplying.

Thanks

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[BuckeyeAlum]

A) I'm not sure what you mean by your 1st question. Obviously, the best RA position for you will be in an area that is similar to your research interests. If you can't find an exact match, you may be able to find something that at least incorporates something similar.

B) Disclaimer - you don't want to hear this, but...
Why NOT stay for a second year? Do you realize that your application won't be that different if you wait only one year? When I was graduating from undergrad, I remember thinking that 2 years was insanely long to wait to reapply, but now I can't imagine doing anything less. You will get a stronger letter of recommendation and have more relevant experiences (maybe even some publications) if you stay the extra year.

Some POIs also would like a 2-year commitment at best, but may be willing to bend the rules. (Think about it though - if you were hiring, wouldn't you rather go through all of the trouble of hiring, training, etc. if the person was going to stay around longer?). Mine said she'd like a 2-year commitment at best, but understood if it needed to be less than that...

Side note - maybe you want to up your GRE score as well? It's not bad, but it's also not highly competitive either.

Good luck!

 

[bmorepsych]

I'm sorry to echo Buckeye but I agree, I think you should really consider a 2-year RA position rather than something that's just one year. I think it may look strange if you don't have a recommendation from your most recent job. Also, if you left earlier than your job asked you to stay for, you'll be burning bridges which is never a good idea, but definitely not this early in the game. ESPECIALLY if the RA job deals with the same topics you want to deal with in grad school. For ex., if you're working with a big OCD person in Florida and are applying to work in grad school under another big OCD person in NYC, there's at least some possibility they know each other and, assuming you reference the first big OCD person as your mentor in your CV, this could be bad.

I am a senior right now in undergrad and for a long time I planned to go to grad school straight out of undergrad. About 9 months ago though, I decided to hold off on applying because although I had a good amount of research experience, I didn't feel it was enough to get me into the best school I could get into one year later. So I looked for one year positions and they were just not there. I was forced to revise my goals again and trust me, I REALLY didn't want to wait another 2 years. HOWEVER, in the grand scheme of things 2 years is nothing. And think of the caliber of the schools that might give you a second look with having that extra year?

HOWEVER, if you can't bear the thought of working for two years, I guess I'd say you should probably start looking to volunteer as an RA for that one year. One year paid positions are just too rare so volunteer is probably all you'll find. Of course, I could be wrong.

You wrote: a) How important is it to have research experience in a related field? I feel that when re-applying it would be difficult to prove a research fit.

I'm also a bit confused by this question. Do you mean how does it look to apply to schools to work under a professor who's dealing with a diff topic then you've done research with in the past? In other words, you've done all your research in topic A but you want to work with a professor in grad school who works with topic B. If this is what you're talking about then I have SO much to say in response cause I may be dealing with this exact same issue in the future. Let us know or pm me.

I'm sure what I've been saying is upsetting if you really want to go to grad school after one more year, but give it a good hard think. What will be best for the long term? What if you didn't get in after one more year of research? What would you do?

Best of luck!!!

 

[Featheredwyngs]

A. You can do research work outside of the field of interest that you will be applying to work in. It's not too huge of a handicap as long as you are able to highlight what you learned from the work you have done that either relate to what you want to research or that relate to necessary skills for graduate study. I did my RA work in PTSD research and will be going into self-harm/suicide research lab for graduate school. Bmore asked this same question earlier in another thread, search for it as I think it had a number of good responses.

B. I have to echo everyone here too - if you want to get into good grad schools take the full two years and get a letter of rec from the people you will be working for. Although you are sure you will do well in graduate school, your current stats could be much more competitive. To be frank, if you work for one year you will be applying this fall - that means that at best you'll be at your job for maybe 6 or 7 months by the time you apply. In my experience you will have little to show by that time (unless it is a position you are currently at) because publications take months to prepare and poster deadlines for conferences come months in advance. I originally wanted to only take one year off at most too - but when I realized how much more I would have under my belt if I waited longer (i.e., 1 poster, 1 pub. in progress, and no LOR from the job vs. 6 posters, 2 pubs published, and 1 more in preparation, plus a strong letter from my POI etc)...I didn't think twice.

You will also have a very hard time finding a position that will be okay with this in traditional psychology RA positions (i.e., most will be for two years). If you look for research assistant jobs that pre-med students do you might have more luck (i.e., as it's more common there; e.g., more basic science research). With my RA position my boss was direct - he told me that he expected me to go to graduate school but also expected a two year commitment from me and would not write me a letter otherwise (because he wouldn't be able to...cause really, what would he have to say about someone who had been there for 5 months?).

I agree with the rest too - you don't want to burn bridges by working for someone, lying and saying you'll be there for two years, and then quitting. I would say some places might find it weird if you don't have a letter from them. But putting that risk aside, my overall point is that you won't be gaining much from the RAship in the first place (in terms of boosting your application) if you only plan to be there a year -so you may as well look at a lot of other options that might make more sense (i.e., volunteering, doing more clinically-related work, etc.) depending on what type of graduate school programs you want to get into.

 

[psychadelics]

Thanks for the advice so far. My first question might have been worded badly. I meant that if I worked in a lab for two years doing for example, PTSD and then really wanted to get into personality disorders, how much of a detriment would it be? But those who answered seemed to get what I was saying for the most part.

My other question is this, what if their isn't that much chance for publications or presentations? The places I've been interviewing at are large scale studies with multiple sites and well known PI's. Meaning that I'll probably be long gone before any of the work comes to fruition.

I could, in the mean time, continue my independent study especially since I will be presenting it at a conference this June. My hope is that I end up getting this job, and then maybe volunteer Saturday's to boost up the clinical aspect.

 

[robinsena]

My other question is this, what if their isn't that much chance for publications or presentations? The places I've been interviewing at are large scale studies with multiple sites and well known PI's. Meaning that I'll probably be long gone before any of the work comes to fruition.

If they're large scale studies with PI's who are well-respected in their field, that should make up for the lack of publications and presentations. I would in that case definitely tap into your supervisor (hopefully the PI, or someone closely connected to the PI)'s network and see if they can put in a good word for you at the schools you apply to, both formally (rec letter) and informally.

I would still proactively try to find every opportunity available to be involved in some form of presentation, though. Sometimes those studies even if they're not done, have some preliminary data that you may be able to use.

 

[LM02]

As long as you can effectively make a connection between what you're doing in an RA position and what you want to do in graduate school, I think it's fine if they are not identical populations. Taking your example, maybe you're doing treatment development in PTSD but you really want to do treatment development in personality disorders. Even though the populations are (only somewhat) different, the treatment development piece is the same. Similarly, comorbidity is king in our current diagnostic system. So even if you were working in a PTSD lab, and wanted to study personality in grad school, I'm sure you will encounter plenty of people with personality pathology (or whatever you're interested in) during your RA position, and you can build off of that in your personal statement, etc.

Of course, an exact match certainly wouldn't hurt, as you would be working for someone who would presumably have strong personal connections within your specific area of study. But it is by no means a deal-breaker if you can't land the "perfect match" RA position.

As for the time commitment, I'll just echo everyone else. In the grand scheme of things, 2 years is peanuts. But what you can accomplish in 2 years vs. 1 is not insignificant. I did a 2-year RA stint before I went to graduate school, and I was still the youngest person in my cohort. And, in fact, I was the youngest person in my program until I was a third year student! This is not law school, where everyone goes in droves after college.

 

[HopefulStudent8]

I would also ask current RAs at the site if they have been given publication opportunities. Everyone who interviewed with us asked that, and we always gave really honest feedback about that.

Also, even though the big studies that you'll be funded on might be continuing for a number of years, that doesn't mean that there are not smaller studies that you could get involved with. My POI has two huge grants that I work on, but I've had four publications with him on entirely different projects. Faculty members typically need to support themselves with smaller projects for publications while they are in the data collection phase of larger projects.

 

[bmorepsych]

If you end up getting a job in a topic that has nothing to do with what you want to do in grad school, don't fret a ton because it's about the quality of the experience more than the topic.

Also, you wrote: I could, in the mean time, continue my independent study especially since I will be presenting it at a conference this June. My hope is that I end up getting this job, and then maybe volunteer Saturday's to boost up the clinical aspect.

This sounds perfect to me...and almost exactly what I'm doing

DEFINITELY try to get a job PLUS the volunteer position, maybe about 5 hours a week (not more at first I'd recommend, you don't wanna burn out), with a job in research and/or assessment with your desired population (personality dx's). You will be competing against people who have your caliber of experience but may have it in the exact field the POI in dealing with. Doing that extra 5 hours a week in what you really want to do will make you look great.