希望在学术界获得职业的学生, 咨询或临床工作, pharmacology or other professions requiring a license will need a graduate degree. Completing a graduate program is a huge investment, both in time and money. A master’s degree typically can be achieved in 2-3 years, whereas a Ph.D. degree will take a minimum of 4 years, with the average program being 5-6 years.
研究生项目竞争非常激烈, and the application process can be expensive and quite time consuming. Students with intentions to go to graduate 学校 will need a good GPA, 强有力的推荐信, a well-written personal statement and solid scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Typically, students apply to 8-10 graduate programs to increase their chances of being accepted.
如何让自己进入研究生院的轨道
1. Get experience in the field – Complete a real-life and/or research practicum.
2. Make the best of your research methods, statistics and data analysis courses.
3. 加入并积极参与Psi Chi和心理学俱乐部.
4. 提高写作技巧.
5. Identify a particular career or subfield of psychology that you want to pursue, 例如:社交, 个性, 发展, 认知, 临床, 咨询, 学校, 法医, 实验, 社区, 跨文化, 健康, 定量, 生物心理学和神经心理学. 这些子字段的描述可以在 Marky Lloyd的职业心理学页面.
也看到 充分利用你的本科时光.
启动申请流程
这是一个 研究生院时间表 to help you in preparing for the graduate 学校 application process.
1. Make a list of the programs and their application deadlines.
2. Most applicants have good GPA’s (>3.2), so you will need to find other ways to distinguish yourself.
3. Find out what the programs offer in terms of monetary assistance – Most master’s programs do not offer assistance so you likely will need to look into student loans. 另一方面,大多数Ph.D. programs offer assistantships or fellowships to help pay for living expenses and tuition costs. Assistantships can come in the form of a teaching or research assistantship where students receive money in exchange for teaching and/or work. 研究金的功能更接近奖学金.
4. 如果你申请临床项目, it is strongly recommended that you apply to programs that are accredited by the American Psychological Association.
5. 许多网站, books and organizations compile information about graduate 学校s that offer psychology programs. 以下是其中几个:
American Psychological Association Graduate 研究 in 心理学 (available in the 心理学资源中心)
All心理学Schools.com
社会心理学网络- NRC大学排名.S. 心理学Ph值.D. 项目
GradSchools.com
心理学.org
研究生入学考试(GRE)
1. 大多数研究生课程都要求GRE普通考试, 哪个评估批判性思维, 分析性写作, 语言理解和定量推理能力.
2. 研究! 许多学校都有申请的分数线. Either purchase books containing practice tests and/or enroll in a GRE General Test preparation class. Books with practice tests also are available for student use in the 心理学资源中心.
3. Plan to take the GRE General Test at least twice (once in the spring of your junior year, 还有一次是在你大四的秋天). Your exam scores should be received by your programs on or before their application deadlines.
4. 一些, 但并非全部, graduate programs require the GRE Subject Test in 心理学, 除了GRE普通考试之外. This subject test assesses information you have learned in your psychology courses. Your general psychology textbook is a good study tool for this subject test, as are the books containing practice tests that you can purchase (or check out from the 心理学资源中心).
也看到 GRE是什么??
写个人陈述
1. 不为所有的申请写一份个人陈述吗. 你要为每个项目量身定制你的个人陈述.
2. Your personal statement should answer why you are applying to graduate 学校, what interests you have about the particular program and what you hope to accomplish with a graduate degree.
3. 注意页面长度. Personal statements typically should be no more than 2 pages in length. Remember the programs are reading many applications so they appreciate when you get to the point and are concise.
4. 一些times programs have additional questions to answer that are unique to their programs.
5. Start early on your personal statements and ask peers and/or professors to review them. You likely will have multiple drafts before the final product.
6. Research each program and identify particular faculty with whom you would like to work. 如果时间允许的话, read journal articles published by those faculty so you can refer to them in your personal statement (e.g., what you think is interesting about their research and why).
7. 如果你对你的申请包有任何担忧, you may include a few sentences near the end of your personal statement to address these concerns. 例如, 如果你在大学里度过了一个特别糟糕的学期, 导致GPA较低, you might want to explain what happened and what you have done since to improve.
也看到 应用ing to Graduate School: Preparing a Personal Statement.
索要推荐信
1. Most graduate programs ask for three letters of recommendation. 写好信的最佳选择是你的指导老师, 研究主管, 还是教授的一个小, 研讨会性质类. 这些人最有可能最了解你.
2. It always is best to ask individuals if they can write letters of recommendation for you, 而不是假设他们会这么做. 也, 索要推荐信的时候, ask if the individual can offer a “good” letter of recommendation.
3. 给你写信的人也很忙, so make sure you ask them well in advance of the applications’ deadlines (i.e.(最少一个月).
4. Once you have secured your letter writers, provide the following information to them:
-你的总GPA
-你的心理学GPA
-成绩单的非官方复印件
-你最近的简历
-描述你的职业目标
– A list of programs to which you are applying and their mailing addresses (i.e.,递交申请表格)
– Any recommendation forms provided by the particular programs
-填写信件的说明. 有些信件可以直接寄给这些项目, whereas other letters must be submitted with the application. 这些信息应该由每个程序提供给您. If your letter writers are mailing recommendations directly to the programs, provide postage stamps (envelopes are not necessary because letters will be sent in “official” envelopes)
也看到 如何获得好的推荐信.
最后的, 但重要的是, 如果你对任何申请有疑问, programs usually provide phone numbers that you can call to get answers to your questions.