Research with Faculty that only work with Children

[MrQuack]

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What should I do if a faculty members interests are 100% in line with mine and the psych. testing center has GREAT lab apparatuses and access to a unique population, BUT...they focus on children and I only want to work with adults.

Can you come in and work in their area, but on adults? I'm just not really that interested in children for my future career goals and I am just wondering how to approach this and what to expect as far as their reaction.

Most prof. seem to give you a lot of slack as far as your research interests, but this is kind of a big deal to me. I have serious research goals and feel that succeeding in the research domain will be essential to getting into my future career so I am really not too flexible about the population I want to work with, military vets and recruits.

 

[Ollie123]

Hard for us to say. Some will be open to it, some likely won't.

We recommend you email faculty to find out if they are taking students anyways. Its great if you have legit questions to ask to prompt discussion (e.g. not just making up something for the sake of it). This seems like a prime opportunity for that. "I'm interested in applying to the program at university of x next year and am interested in your lab. I am writing to inquire if you expect to be taking students. In addition, I am primarily interested in extending your work to include adults, particularly military populations, and am wondering if you feel this is an appropriate fit". You could perhaps elaborate a little bit on what you have in mind if the connection is not inherently obvious.

Worst they can say is no, in which case it just saved you an application fee. They get the final say on what their lab does, and I expect their openness to the idea will depend more heavily on the amount of freedom they typically grant their students rather than you making a good "sell" on it per se. Especially at the applicant-level, chances of swaying a professor to your views is very unlikely - they have 20 other people competing for the same spot who might have the exact same interests but be happy to focus on children.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

What should I do if a faculty members interests are 100% in line with mine and the psych. testing center has GREAT lab apparatuses and access to a unique population, BUT...they focus on children and I only want to work with adults

......I am really not too flexible about the population I want to work with, military vets and recruits.

😕

Maybe if your work could include the family unit or similar, but adult v. child...particularly within a special population, that may be a hard sell.

 

[MrQuack]

😕

Maybe if your work could include the family unit or similar, but adult v. child...particularly within a special population, that may be a hard sell.

Yeah that was what I was on to. I feel like it would be a pretty loose spin on it, but I think it would stick. If you want to help the family of military vets, help the vets.

 

[futureapppsy2]

What should I do if a faculty members interests are 100% in line with mine and the psych. testing center has GREAT lab apparatuses and access to a unique population, BUT...they focus on children and I only want to work with adults.

Can you come in and work in their area, but on adults? I'm just not really that interested in children for my future career goals and I am just wondering how to approach this and what to expect as far as their reaction.

Most prof. seem to give you a lot of slack as far as your research interests, but this is kind of a big deal to me. I have serious research goals and feel that succeeding in the research domain will be essential to getting into my future career so I am really not too flexible about the population I want to work with, military vets and recruits.

I thought you said you were already in grad school? 😕

Ask the professor, but my guess if many will be weary to have to open up a whole new line of recruitment efforts for one students, especially if the lab relies on large data sets, but YMMV.