Workload and lifestyle of a PsyD student

[Mike Grisonich]

Greetings,

I'm interested in enrolling in a PsyD program one year from now. This has been a longstanding goal of mine, and one to which I'm now ready to commit.

However, it occurs to me that I have little to no idea what I should expect once I get there.

My questions:

1. what should I expect an average day to be like?
2. how many hours should I expect to be working on school-related tasks per day?
3. of those hours, how many should I expect to dedicate to reading, researching, writing? how many to lectures? how many to supervised hours?
4. do many PsyD students work part-time jobs unrelated to academia?

I recognize that what I'm doing will vary from year to year. Advice pertaining to any stage (first year, final years, internship year) will be much appreciated, though general insights are also welcome.

Thanks.

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[WisNeuro]

Any particular reason for a PsyD?

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I attended a Ph.D. program which, because it was funded, had additional responsibilities that may or may not be applicable in your case.

Briefly: In the first year or two, your workload will be much more heavily coursework-skewed. I began doing clinical work my first year, but I don't know that that is common. You'll be able to figure out how many hours you'll physically be in class that week, and if you want to get through all of the associated readings (and depending on the intensity of the coursework in the program), you could dedicate anywhere from 1-3x or more of that time outside of class.

Practica, in my experience, usually range anywhere from just a handful of hours per week (e.g., 4-8) to about 20 hours/week, the latter being if it's your primary placement and, potentially, if you're receiving funding through that practicum.

Research activities, in my case, were about the same as clinical activities, although it was more variable.

My advice is to treat school like a full-time (and then some) job. Set a 40 hour/week schedule and stick to it. For me, that meant being physically on campus on most days when I wasn't at a practicum site, because in my case, I was more productive there than at home (and more likely to actually do the work). This was especially the case for my dissertation, most of which I wrote in the library (and because "back in my day," a not-insubstantial portion of the articles and books I needed weren't electronically available).

I'll let other folks weigh in on whether working a part-time job is feasible. For me, I performed evaluations for my advisor on a part-time basis for which I was paid (and that were separate from other activities), which helped supplement my stipend. They were usually 6-8 hours a pop, and I'd typically do one/week at most. I don't know that I would've had the time or energy to work in a part-time job completely unrelated to psych.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I did a PsyD program and a part-time job is not a good idea. Focusing as much energy as possible into the training and education and getting dissertation done is essential. The costs of a PsyD are super high and so getting licensed as quickly as possible is helpful. The quicker you get licensed, the lower the debt and the quicker to start paying it down. Alternatively you could spend the time up front to get research experience and aim for funded PhD. Also, geographic flexibility can be key to success in this field so factor that in. Might make more sense to apply to a funded PhD in a rural area than try to work in a high cost metro area.

 

[PsyDr]

There is an old thread about this. You should look at it, for clarification, and because the TOS say so.

 

[Temperance]

do many PsyD students work part-time jobs unrelated to academia?

I'll echo what has already been said about part-time employment and add that most programs actually forbid students from taking on paid employment outside of the program, so you may not even be allowed to do this. It doesn't stop some students from taking on incidental gigs (e.g. babysitting), but it's grounds for getting in trouble if you get caught or if it affects the quality of your work as a graduate student (which it will).

 

[psych.meout]

I'll echo what has already been said about part-time employment and add that most programs actually forbid students from taking on paid employment outside of the program, so you may not even be allowed to do this. It doesn't stop some students from taking on incidental gigs (e.g. babysitting), but it's grounds for getting in trouble if you get caught or if it affects the quality of your work as a graduate student (which it will).

Also, it's one of those cases where asking forgiveness isn't better than asking for permission. I'm pretty sure any of the faculty in my program would be pissed at students in their labs if they lied by omission and didn't tell their mentor that they were breaking the explicit program guidelines and not obtaining permission for outside work.

And it's not like my program will categorically deny any outside employment altogether, they just want to be kept in the loop about what the student is doing and how it's affecting their progress in the program. A former student in my lab had an outside job (though it was clinically related), because they unexpectedly needed extra money and the stipend wasn't enough.

 

[texanpsychdoc]

Greetings,

I'm interested in enrolling in a PsyD program one year from now. This has been a longstanding goal of mine, and one to which I'm now ready to commit.

However, it occurs to me that I have little to no idea what I should expect once I get there.

My questions:

1. what should I expect an average day to be like?
2. how many hours should I expect to be working on school-related tasks per day?
3. of those hours, how many should I expect to dedicate to reading, researching, writing? how many to lectures? how many to supervised hours?
4. do many PsyD students work part-time jobs unrelated to academia?

I recognize that what I'm doing will vary from year to year. Advice pertaining to any stage (first year, final years, internship year) will be much appreciated, though general insights are also welcome.

Thanks.

I completed a Psy.D. with a neuropsychology concentration at a school in South Florida. To answer your questions based on the order you wrote them:

1. Your "average day" will likely vary by semester, but likely by week and sometimes even day. For example, when you first begin, many programs will structure their curricular sequence as to provide you with a foundation set of knowledge as to prepare you to enter into your first practicum experience. Typically, you will likely have 2-3 days where you will be on campus to be in classes, but this may vary based on program as well. In my program, that was the case. A typically course load was 5 courses a semester, plus practicum. Our program required that a student stayed in their practicum site for a year (per their contractual agreement with the site).

2. The amount of hours you will spend doing school-related tasks will also vary based on your own comfort with the course content, meaning, how much you might know about the subject already, how easy or difficult it might be to learn the material, etc. I would say for me personally, I allocated my time based on learning material that would likely be more challenging to grasp initial concepts, or, when rote memory was concerned (this was definitely the case of learning all of the disorders in the DSM). I think studying outside of classes will vary, so I won't really speculate on that, however, rule of thumb is, I believe for every class you take, you'd ideally spend about 2-3 hours of outside studying per course, so, roughly 10-15 hours a week of studying outside of classes.

3. Regarding hours dedicated to reading, research, etc., that will vary as well. So, in addition to 10-15 hours a week of studying, plus attending classes, and engaging in practicum (which typically ranges 16-20 hours a week), if you are involved in research, you might have some team meetings on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis (this will largely vary based on lab). It will depend on how proficient you are with SPSS, writing, etc. You may have to do some initial "leg work" in the beginning to build that hone those skills, so there may be considerable time spent in the beginning phase of your tenure in your program.

4. I am unsure as to how many folks might work during the program. I did, but it was only during my 2nd and 3rd years of the program. I worked in a private practice in South Beach on Thursday and Friday evenings after practicum (5-9PM) and Saturday mornings from 9AM to 12PM. I had decided that it was a bit much for me considering I was involved in multiple leadership roles/committees in my school and program, I was in practicum, taking courses, studying for courses, studying for comprehensive exams, researching and publishing, attending multiple conferences throughout a given year. It was a lot.

In general, you will likely be "course heavy" in your beginning years, especially as they integrate the practicum experiences. You will "feel the burn," but that's manageable. Pace yourself, carve out enough personal time each day for yourself. I set boundaries where I stopped studying by 8PM usually so I had the rest of the evening to myself during the week, and I made sure to really relax on the weekends when I could. In my program, the final year before going into internship, I took my written and oral comprehensive exams, then proposed my dissertation (from a hospital bed mind you), and defended my dissertation 3 months prior to going off to internship. I also managed to squeeze in publishing 3 book chapters concurrently while working on my dissertation.

Hope this sheds some light on my experiences...I am unsure if this would generalize to yours, but take it with a grain of salt if you will.

 

[PsySeeker]

My Psy.D. program was essentially 3/4 fully funded, that said, we weren't even permitted to have outside jobs...

 

[smalltownpsych]

Another thing to add is that I did work as a grad assistant for a MA cognitive assessment class that was taught by the supervisor of my neuropsych rotation and I also did a couple of paid practicum placements so o did make a little money during the program. It was pretty concurrent with it and so not exactly like an outside job which is what I had during my masters. That was extremely hard to do because of the cognitive load of two different paradigms of functioning.

 

[ClinicalABA]

It's been a awhile, but I remember there being a lot choosing what WASN'T going to get done to the best of my abilities each week, as there wasn't time to do a killer job on everything. There were 3-4 classes, 20 hours per week of (paid) TA/RA responsibilities, weekly research team meetings (doing your own or others research), weekly clinical team group meetings and individual clinical supervision (with training clinic session observations and/or seeing our own clients). I prioritized things I currently was getting paid for (TA/RA), things others were paying for (my training clinic clients), and things that would help me get paid in the future (e.g., finishing my thesis and dissertation). Classwork was often moved to the bottom of the list- articles got skimmed instead of read in detail, I studied enough to pass but not be perfect (remember "B=Ph.D.!"). We always made time for social interaction and recreation- maybe as small as getting lunch with a classmate, up to an afternoon hike with multiple students/faculty fromt the program). I also got married at the end of my first year, so I wa sure to find time for my significant other. Some weeks really sucked, but most didn't- you get into a groove and figure things out (or, I suppose, you don't and don't last too long- though there was minimal attritiion from our program). I've had jobs since that seemed like way more work and responsibility (things like if I didn't work 80+ hours that week, other people didn't get paid!).

 

[orion.x]

My Psy.D. program was essentially 3/4 fully funded, that said, we weren't even permitted to have outside jobs...

What program is this??

 

[neurotic_cow]

My Psy.D. program was essentially 3/4 fully funded, that said, we weren't even permitted to have outside jobs...

Same here in terms of funding. We weren’t allowed to have any “formal” jobs outside of the program but I knew some people who took up side gigs of babysitting and dog sitting but the program didn’t seem to have a problem with that, as long as it didn’t interfere with performance within the program.

 

[PsyDuck90]

My PsyD program provided funding and would allow outside jobs depending on the individual. If you were meeting all your benchmarks in practicum, dissertation progress, etc., they wouldn't mind if you worked outside. In some instances, several of us had paid psychometrist gigs and because we got weekly supervision from a licensed neuropsychologist, our DCT allowed those hours to even count as a supplementary practicum.

To answer the OP's original questions: our days varied but we had coursework, 16-20 hours a week of practicum, and 10-20 hours of research tasks each week. Funding was either tied to RA, GA, or teaching responsibilities, so add another 10-20 hours a week for that (if you had an RA funding position, that could be rolled into the research hours for your lab although some people were in multiple labs).

 

[PsySeeker]

Same here in terms of funding. We weren’t allowed to have any “formal” jobs outside of the program but I knew some people who took up side gigs of babysitting and dog sitting but the program didn’t seem to have a problem with that, as long as it didn’t interfere with performance within the program.

Yes. Same deal.

 

[deleted760483]

If you're doing a PsyD it's doable. I can't speak to PhD as I don't have one of those. We were "strongly discouraged" from working but I had part time jobs the entire time I was in grad school, initially in retail and eventually in mental health. Grad school just wasn't as time consuming as I expected it to be and I never had any problems doing both. That being said, be careful about job selection. I don't know if this is still the case, but when I went through the APPIC match one of the stipulations was that you couldn't match with a previous employer, so don't work anywhere you think might be a potentially desirable internship for you if this is still true.