Psychology What Graduate School Is Like

Introduction

Master's degree programs may be one or two years long. If they are one year, they are often very intensive, and one must be very organized and motivated to complete the program in the year allotted. A good question to ask about one-year programs when you're investigating them is how many students in the program actually finish in one year.

Thesis

The master's thesis is usually the written report of a research project that the graduate student carries out. The idea for this project often comes from the student's advisor or may be the result of research team group discussions. It is not very often the student's own, original idea.

Proposal. The first step in the process is to develop a research proposal with the student's advisor. This includes a rationale for the study, a description of the subjects, materials, and procedures to be used, proposed analyses, and expected results. Once the advisor approves, the members of a defense committee are chosen by the student and his or her advisor, within the requirements for the composition of the committee.

Committee approval. The student finds out what the composition of the committee must be, distributes copies of the proposal, meets with each member to discuss the proposal, and schedules a meeting of the committee to approve the thesis proposal. At this meeting, the student gives a formal, oral presentation of the proposal, and committee discusses its merits, possible problems and how to solve them, and hopefully, approves the study.

Carry out study. The student obtains human or animal IRB approval, generates the materials, finds subjects, tries out the procedures, runs the study, analyzes the results, and writes up the results and conclusions in consultation with the student's advisor.

Oral defense. Again, when the advisor approves of the thesis, the student distributes copies to the other members of the committee, meets with them individually to discuss possible criticisms or reservations, schedules a committee meeting, and presents the completed study formally. Again the committee discusses the study, asks the student questions, and hopefully approves the completed project and granting the master's degree.

At some defenses, the committee members may not only ask questions about the research project, they may also ask questions about anything the student might be expected to know, given his or her progress in the graduate program.

The student must then make various changes in the thesis text as required by the committee members and submits the thesis to have the format approved by the graduate school. After this approval is granted, the thesis must be copied and bound, and the student graduates with a master's degree.

Introduction

Doctoral degree programs may be one to five years long. The length of the program often depends on the motivation of the individual graduate student. The coursework at the doctoral level is quite similar to that at the master's level except that there is less of it and more of it is in the form of seminars. In addition, at the doctoral level, students often major in one area of psychology and minor in another. This allows them to develop expertise in two or more areas.

Dissertation

The procedure for the dissertation is very similar to that of the master's thesis. One writes a proposal, gets committee approval, carries out the study, writes the complete dissertation, and defends that work in the committee, after which the Ph.D. is granted.

One important difference is that the dissertation is often considered to be a test of the student's ability to generate original, important research ideas. Although the idea for the project probably comes from previous work in which the student has been engaged, and the student will probably discuss the idea as it evolves with his or her advisor, the decision to follow a particular research question is the student's alone. Many students spend a great deal of time (months) thinking of ideas, evaluating them, and discarding them before they settle on one research question.

Being admitted to a graduate program is the first indication that your roles and situation are changing. You are no longer "just" a student; you are now a junior colleague. Furthermore, your success in graduate school will not depend solely on your ability to get good grades--it will also depend a great deal on your ability to schedule, plan, and motivate yourself in what often is a very unstructured environment.

Core Program

Many programs have a core program (1-2 years) that is designed to bring all of their graduate students up to speed in basic subject areas. If you are well-prepared before entering graduate school, you may be quite disappointed at the quality of these courses and may feel as if these requirements are a waste of time.

Instead of complaining about these aspects, however, think of this period as a gift--a chance to really dig into topics that you didn't have time for at the undergraduate level; a chance to beef up your knowledge in areas that you missed at the undergraduate level; a time to settle in and figure out what graduate school is about--what the rules are; whom you should work with for research projects; how expectations have changed. Use this time to plan your course of research and study over the next 2-5 years; to get acquainted with faculty with whom you are interested in working; and to hang out with older graduate students who are willing to pass on their wisdom.

Coursework

For both the master's and doctoral degrees, a certain amount of coursework is required. The idea is to get through your coursework so you can concentrate on your research, your internship, and your thesis and dissertation. The coursework is important to the extent that it can be an effective way to gain the knowledge you need for the qualifying exams to come. When you are choosing courses, then, choose appropriate courses to fulfill the requirements for your major and minor (Ph.D. only), but also to provide yourself with a solid background for your qualifying exams.

As a side note, the grade scale is often truncated in graduate school: A, B, and C, where C is failing. In one program, if you got Cs in two courses, you were expelled from the program. On the other hand, one might argue that the grading scale is inflated as a result; a student who got Bs and Cs at Westmont got all As and Bs in his graduate program.

Course Load

Course loads may be lighter in graduate school than they were in college. Check to see how "full time" is defined. It may be as little as 8 units (where 1 course is usually 3 units). In addition, the assignments in courses may appear lighter. There is often a great deal of reading to do but students are frequently evaluated by just a midterm and a final exam, or just a final paper or final exam.

Graduate courses may be scheduled in the afternoon and especially seminars will meet just once a week for 3 hours. This leaves time in the mornings and evenings to be a teaching assistant (TA).

Types of Courses

Core program courses are often lecture courses; they are also the largest courses. After the first year or so, more courses will be seminars. They often focus on the newest material in a specialized area. You will read published research, present a coherent summary of a number of articles to the rest of the group and be ready to initiate and guide discussion of issues that are raised (and that you've identified and thought about beforehand). Seminars often involve massive amounts of reading. The idea is not necessarily to read all of it thoroughly. Learn to scan the material for what you don't know; get the basic ideas from each chapter or article or book; and move on to the next source.

A good strategy for both lecture and seminar courses, when the amount of reading is great, is to get a group of students together to discuss and summarize material with each other and to prepare for tests.

Introduction

In order to advance to doctoral candidacy almost all programs require that the student demonstrate his or her competence in the field of psychology in preliminary, comprehensive, or qualifying exams. Generally, there are two parts, the written portion and the oral portion.

Written exam

The written exam may consist of essay and/or multiple choice questions. It may take one day or several days, depending on the school and the philosophy of the graduate program. The subject matter of the exam also varies. Some programs limit it to the students' major and minor; others require a broader more comprehensive knowledge base. Some departments provide a list of questions that will be asked, beforehand; others require students to take, in their core program, a series of courses designed to provide the knowledge they will need on the exams; some departments simply tell the students the range of subject areas in which they can be expected to be tested. Some departments set up the exam so that the student's preparation for it is also preparation for his or her dissertation proposal.

Generally, students prepare for these exams for several months by reviewing coursework that's been completed, by reading material related to the questions that will be asked, or by developing the dissertation proposal.

Oral exam

Once the written exam is graded, an oral exam is scheduled. A number (3-5) of faculty ask questions of the student, relating to various areas of psychology. This can be a second chance for the student; if some of the student's answers on the written portion were weak, he or she can expect to be asked about those areas in some detail.

Passing the written and oral portions of the qualifying exam advances the student to doctoral candidacy. The student is now ready to develop his or her dissertation proposal.

Introduction

Your primary task in graduate school is to develop skills that will help you develop and succeed in your professional life: researching, teaching, and therapeutic skills.

Research Skills

There is often the least amount of structure with respect to developing skills in this area. It is unusual for a faculty member to approach a student to request that the student help with the faculty's research, therefore, the student should make an effort to introduce him- or herself to faculty members with whom he or she is interested in working. Prepare beforehand by reading the newest published studies that this faculty member has authored. Discuss the possibilities of doing research with the faculty member. Find out what kinds of tasks for which you could be responsible.

Try to work with a number of faculty members over the course of your graduate career. This will help you develop a number of different research skills and knowledge bases. In addition, you have a larger number of people who know you in different situations and can write recommendations for you when you go on.

Besides developing skills in research design and in asking interesting and important questions, it is also important to develop skills in writing successful grant proposals. Try to work with a faculty member who has expertise in this area and is willing to share his or her strategies for success with you and to critique your efforts in writing grant proposals.

Teaching Skills

Even if you're sure that you don't want to teach, learn how to teach and get some experience doing it. Keep your options open. You will probably be required to teach as part of your job at some point (training, seminars, in-service). You may find that you love teaching and want to continue doing it.

Learn to be as good at it as you possibly can because this is an important professional skill whether you continue in academia or not. If you have had experience teaching and you are good, you are more likely to be considered for an academic position (except at a research university). If you have taught before, you are more likely to have course lectures developed, which is less preparation you have to do when you teach full-time.

Learn how to teach. If your graduate program offers a course on teaching, take it. If it doesn't, talk to faculty and other graduate students who are good teachers at the undergraduate level. Find out what their strategies are; what their perspective on teaching is; how they handle assignments, tests and test preparation, what they think about lecture versus discussion. In addition, contact the publisher of the text that is being used in the course(s) with which you are assisting or teaching and make sure that you get the auxiliary materials--test banks, instructor manual (with lecture suggestions, audio-visual aids, demonstration and activity ideas, and advice and tips for the novice instructor), and any digital materials.

Development or sequencing of experience. Usually, one begins teaching by being a teaching assistant for quiz sections of general or developmental psychology. Often one will be responsible for a number of sections that meet once or twice a week. If one has a teaching assistantship, the assumption is that, including in-class time, he or she will be working about 20 hours each week.

Depending on one's area and the demand for teaching assistants, he or she can then move to being a teaching assistant for lab sections of laboratory courses. The TA has more independence and responsibility in this position. He or she is required to explain laboratory procedures and psychological theories in a lecture or discussion format; to maintain, set up, and put away equipment; to assign questions and papers and to grade them; and to supervise and help students as they complete lab projects.

Many schools offer summer school courses and if the faculty do not want to teach these courses, experienced graduate students are paid to teach them. These courses are usually general, adjustment, or developmental psychology. On rare occasions, outstanding graduate students may also teach a course during the school year as well.

Internships

Search for and take the most challenging internships at which you can be successful. Research the sites beforehand; talk to people who have been at them. Find out what tasks, expectations, and responsibilities are involved. Find out what kind of training and support are available from the permanent staff.

You want to develop and hone your skills in a work setting, but you want to do it in an environment that fits your present abilities. Make sure the site is a good match for you. These are the professional skills you will be using a good part of the rest of your life, so do the best you can to learn everything you can.

Depending on your more long-term goals, your internship, teaching, and research experiences may be focused in different ways. Do some realistic thinking about what you want to do upon receiving your graduate degree and get the experience and skills you need to accomplish those goals.