This post is for any undergraduate student who might be interested in a clinical psych PhD. Maybe you applied this year and didn’t get into a program (which isn’t unusual–clinical psychology doctoral programs are among the hardest in the country to get into), or maybe you aren’t sure if you want to commit to a doctoral degree, or maybe you just want to take a little time off. Regardless of where you’re at, here’s some thoughts for you.
Getting a Masters Degree. Sometimes students thing, “Well, if I don’t know about committing to a doctoral program, maybe I’ll just get a masters in psychology.” You *could* do that, but I don’t typically recommend it. Why? Well, masters in clinical psychology or experimental psychology are not terminal degrees–you won’t be able to do much with just that degree. Remember, most students begin a doctoral clinical program with only an undergraduate education, and get a masters along the way…the masters thesis is actually often “built in” to the doctoral training program. And unfortunately, completing a separate, independent masters in psychology often doesn’t get you any “credit” toward your eventual PhD program. The classes often won’t transfer, and you won’t save much time, because most doctoral programs want you to take THEIR courses in THEIR sequence. Could you maybe get out of a class or two? Yep, you might. Sometimes students can even “count” a thesis done at a masters program toward the thesis requirement portion of a doctoral program, but that’s rare.
There are good reasons to complete a masters program in psychology. In my view, there are three great reasons. First is if you have a crappy undergraduate GPA and you need to show PhD programs that you’re capable of being a good student. A masters program is excellent for this. Second is if you have limited research experience and you need to get some to show PhD programs that you’re capable of doing research and thinking about research (and I should note that experimental masters may be more advantangeous in this regard than clinical masters programs). Do you see how both of these reasons are basically reason to build your competitiveness for PhD programs? The third reason, is that you want more exposure to the field and YOU want to know for YOURSELF if you like and can hack graduate level work.
Now, if you already have a decent undergrad GPA (e.g., 3.5ish or above), there are other options for getting additional research experience to make you competitive or to give you an idea of what research is really like. That is to get a paid Research Assistant job. These are real jobs where you typically work on a grant-funded project for a particular researcher, and you get paid to do research. What does “do research” mean? It could mean lots of things. Conducting or transcribing interviews, running participants through brain imaging studies or parent-child interaction studies or any number of other studies, doing data management, doing administrative work on a grant….there are a LOT of different kinds of things research assistants can do. Advantages? You get paid instead of having to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for a masters degree, you get valuable work experience, and you get to see research in action! Disadvantages are that RA jobs are typically at VA hospitals, academic medical centers and institutes in larger cities–you might have to move to get one of these jobs.
Taking Time Off. If you don’t know if a doctoral program is right for you, taking time off to get a “real job” can be a great refresher. Maybe you’re just sick of school, and a break will remind you of why you like school in the first place. Or maybe a break will tell you that actually, you don’t miss school at all and you don’t really need an advanced degree to be happy. Either way, taking time off can be fine.
Do you have family pressure? Sometimes I hear from students who *want* to take time off, or are open to getting an RA job, but their parents are worried that they might not be as competitive for graduate school with those options, and think that getting a masters right away is a better fall-back plan. I disagree with this. So, if this is you, below I’ve written a note to your parents. Feel free to print it out and give it to them; maybe it can help open up a discussion. Clinical Psychology PhD programs aren’t like other kinds of programs, and they are different now than they were 25 years ago. Sometimes you gotta educate yourself *and* those around you, so lets see if I can help a bit.
A note to parents: Hi there! I’m a faculty member in an American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited clinical psychology PhD program. I understand your son or daughter may be interested in applying to clinical PhD programs at some point, but is currently thinking about taking some time off. I get that you might be concerned about how this time off could hurt their chances of getting into a doctoral program, so let me just tell you a few things to set the record straight.
First, you know your child, and hopefully they also know themselves. I can’t know if taking time off would make your son or daughter feel disconnected with school or “lose momentum” in the schooling process. The trouble is, you and your child probably don’t know that either, because we as human beings are bad at predicting our future feelings (I say this as someone who studies emotion and self-regulation). What I can tell you is that I’ve never actually heard stories of people who regretted taking time off. Instead, I tend to hear stories of students who have ultimately appreciated time off because it helped prevent academic burnout, and then going back to school feels exciting and like a choice, rather than like something they were “supposed” to do. I myself took five years off between undergrad and grad school, and in that time I figured out some things about myself and I was a MUCH better student in graduate school than I ever was as an undergrad.
Second, let me speak from the perspective of someone who reviews hundreds of applications every year. I’m going to put this in bold because it’s so important: People who have taken time off, particularly those who have WORKED in research, tend to be more competitive for clinical psychology PhD programs than people applying straight from undergrad. People with paid research assistant jobs are also typically more competitive than people with masters degrees. Yes, you read that right. When I’m reading an application, and I see someone who graduated with a bachelors degree and then worked in a paid research job for two years, I think “Awesome! Here is someone who has real-world work experience and knows how to be professionally responsible, who can show up on time and get the job done, and who understands the process of research.” These applicants typically have more research experience, better research experience, and better letters of recommendation (from researchers) than other applicants. Do you see how “research experience” is kind of the key factor here? That isn’t the case for every clinical psychology doctoral program, but it’s a major factor in most PhD programs.
Students with masters degrees I sometimes question. Why did they do a masters? Did the masters teach them bad habits (not good) or actually prepare them for doctoral level work (good, but how do I know if I don’t know the masters program)? I’ve definitely interviewed students with masters degrees, and sometimes they are great, but sometimes they aren’t. To be fair, that’s true for any other criteria I might come up with, including paid RA experience, but for the most part paid RA experience tends to trump masters degrees.
So, please don’t push your son or daughter into a masters program over other options like taking time off to do something else (ideally a research assistant job). Taking time off is actually valued by faculty members reviewing applications. Really. Students who have had work experience and return to school tend to have an easier time adjusting to graduate school and are happier to be there. I’d rather take someone who is more prepared, wants to recommit to school and has a bit more life experience than someone who has “known” that they are “destined” for a doctoral degree in psychology and wants to go straight from undergrad.
Thanks for listening.
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