What do you have to do to get into grad school in Psychology? A lot of people apply. Who ARE these people and how are you going to stand out among them? Meet one future grad student – Erin Breedlove – who is a college junior and she’s already positioned herself very well for grad school. How did she do it? What is she doing that you ought to do? And how, of all things, is she using Twitter to get into grad school?
Use Social Media To Get Into Grad School?
Among the many tools you’ll want to use to help you get into grad school, like getting into grad school books, you’ll want to add twitter. Find out how Erin is using twitter to make connections with potential future Psychology mentors and increase her chances of knowing what she wants to do in Psychology and which faculty she might like to work with while in grad school.
- If you’re interested in a career in psychology you should check out the Careers in Psychology webpage. Lots of excellent resources here. Be sure to check out the Experts section – it has interviews with psychologists from a variety of different areas in psychology.
- Need Helping Picking a Psychology Graduate Program? Here are a Few Tips
Kelda
July 29, 2011Thank you for your reply 🙂
Michael
July 29, 2011Kelda: you’ve listened to all the podcasts! Looks like I better get to work.
Ah yes…listening to the podcast while doing housework. I’ve actually heard from others who do that to. But how can you hear it over the vacuum cleaner I wonder…
I definitely am a human and I can relate to your experience about educational content on the web (and too often in person) can be boring. I had some really boring teachers in my day. What can you do…
I aside the idea of an app containing ideas on how to do experiments. Lack of time and I just didn’t think enough people were out there who wanted such a thing. Maybe I’ll re-think that..
Thanks for your post!
Kelda
July 29, 2011Hiya,
I posted back when I first found your pod casts lasy year, Thats my now listend to them all todate lol I think its only taken about 6 months.
I have two actual points. First one even though I’m in the uk the advice here about aplying to places and also about how to study is still relavant. I noticed one of the negitive coments on I tunes and those ‘negitive’ comments were exactly what I love about this pod cast. For me, its so easy to listen to and I get fantastic advice that I can actually aply all while doing the house work.
A lot of people who do anything educational in any way are really boring to listen to, they are almost robotic. I like that you are human.
You were talking about other apps and one spacificly for students donig reserch and how to do it. I think thats a fantastic idea. I’m just in second year of uni now but its still something that a lot of people in my class, me included find hard.
Thanks,
I have no idea how you manage to do your day job, the preformances and shows you do, the pod casts and apps, then of cource there is your family, children, pets. Do you just never sleep lol
I’m currantly reading Philip zimbardos Time paradox, talks a lot about the way we think about and use our time.
Kelda
Kelly
July 29, 2011Hi Michael, I’m a third-year psychology undergraduate student and I’m new to your website. I must say that this is a great website you have created! Thanks for this post, which is very useful for undergrads like myself who’re keen in graduate studies. I like your joke about the funeral, and I do agree this is a common reason that most undergrads have when asked why they’re studying psychology. One definitely needs to have a greater insight about oneself before pursuing graduate studies.
I’m looking forward to hearing your post about narrowing down one’s research topics, or on the subject of applied Industrial-Organizational psychology, which is my field of interest.
Thanks Michael, I’ll definitely recommend this site to my psych and non-psych friends.
Michael
July 29, 2011Thank you Alison – excellent advice. In fact, I quoted your comment in episode 157. Really excellent advice to anyone out there who is applying to grad school.
Allison O'Mara
July 29, 2011Great interview!! I know from experience that applying to graduate programs in psychology is a very long, daunting (and potentially expensive) process. I am actually starting a doctorate program in clinical psychology in the fall and I enjoyed Erin’s comments.
One thing that I learned during the application process is that closeness of fit between the applicants research interests/experience and the faculty’s is something that admission panels take into great consideration. Almost every school I applied to asked for specific faculty names/labs I would be interested in working with/in. I did a lot of research on specific faculty members before applying and even contacted them directly to get more information about their lab and work- then I worked into my personal statement how I would be a good fit for that specific lab or to work with that professor. It’s important to remember that most applicants (sometimes hundred’s for 3-4 spots for funded clinical programs) have top GPA’s, great GRE scores, some research experience, so schools are going to really look at who is the best fit for their program. Also, if there is a specific professor you are interested in working with I would suggest contacting the school, website, or the professor directly to inquire if they are taking on another student. You can save yourself a lot of time and money in application fees this way. I picked up a copy of APA’s ‘Getting In’ and found that helpful as far as the logistics and timeline of the process (it’s about a year process). I also contacted current students of the programs I was interested in and spoke to them over the phone. They were very helpful and gave a realistic picture of the program and what their day to day is like. If you want to reach out to others going through the process (biting their nails waiting for interview invites) you can check out the student doctor forum.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=57
Good luck!!!
Allison