I am graduating from college in May and am taking a year off before applying to PhD programs. I am interested in child psychology, specifically child trauma psych and hope to be a practicing psychologist in the future. I am much more interested in working with clients than doing research, so I have been looking into social service-type jobs such as foster care casework for my gap year. Will following this path instead of doing research hurt my chances of getting into grad school?
Will non-research job hurt chances of getting into PhD program?
- Thread starter rosie712
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No, it wont hurt. But if you're weak in the area of research, it wont help as much either. I'd suggest viewing this instead of helping/hurting as maximization of your odds. Perhaps having a clinically oriented job job and get some research participation at a lab, volunteering at the same time. If you have one year, assuming your #s are good (GRE, GPA) I think getting both clinical and research experience in the next year would be a good idea.
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I second that. I paid the bills with clinical jobs and volunteered in research in my off hours so that I continued to develop those skills. Both can go on your CV, but then you'll have new research experiences to discuss in your statement.