skatesolja181

My mother is interested in pursuing a PhD in Developmental Psychology with a research focus in gifted children.

She has been told by others that since she has no documented background that she should get a Masters in Social Work, work for a year or two, and then apply for the PhD program.

I'm hoping theres a better way. Most Social Work Masters are given out by private schools who offer no aid/scholarship. This seems like a 100k 4 year waste to me...

Anyone have experience getting in to a PhD program in Psychology without a matching bachelors or work experience?

Also, given her background, what are her chances at top Programs?
(Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Columbia)

BS MIT (Chemistry and Music)
MD UMass *Dropped out due to family crisis*
MS Columbia (IT) *Dropped out due to family crisis*
10+ years experience in Analytical Chemistry
1 year experience as a High School Chemistry Teacher

nwcrazy

Honestly, I think your mom has just about a zero chance of getting into any of the schools you mentioned.

The lack of job related experience/research is death when it comes to Ph.D programs, especially in competitive fields like psychology. One has to pay one's dues to even have a shot.

My wife has a BS degree in biology, but has worked the past several years as a manager in the social work field. In the meantime, she is taking the prerequisites to enter a MSW program at a PUBLIC school next Fall. After that, she'll probably work another couple of years...but in a more clinical/counseling capacity as opposed to being a social work administrator, which is what she is currently doing. After all that, she'll think about the possibility of a Ph.D in psychology or social work.

Bottom line: There are NO SHORTCUTS.

juillet

No, there are no shortcuts. But you don't need to work for 10+ years to get into a PhD program, and clinical/counseling experience won't help someone get into a developmental psychology PhD program - which is a research focused program. I don't understand the advice to get an MSW either - that might be helpful for a CLINICAL psychology degree, but not for a research-focused degree. Most people getting into PhD programs nowadays have 2-5 years of research experience before going in. In fact, your mom's 10+ years of experience with analytical chemistry (assuming she did research in the field) will be helpful because she can prove that she's done research and she likes it.

The 'work experience' you need to get into a PhD program in developmental psych is research experience. You don't need to have done it full-time for years, either, although that helps. Do you live nearby a large research university or some research labs? Your mom can look for lab manager/research coordinator positions if she needs to work full-time. Many psychology labs need a research coordinator, but she should also look at schools of medicine/departments of psychiatry, schools of public health, and even hospitals and independent research centers. Her years of experience as an analytical chemist will help because even though it's a different field, she knows generally how research works.

While she's doing this, she should also take some classes. The best thing to do would be to take graduate psychology classes, but she will probably need to take undergrad classes first. She doesn't need a second bachelor's degree; she just needs the coursework. She'll need to take introductory psychology, research methods, intro to statistics, 1-2 psychology lab courses (psychology of learning is my recommendation, given her research interests - cognitive psychology is another one she could take), and undergrad-level developmental psychology. If she can take classes in child psych, psychology of education, and advanced statistics, she should.

After 2-3 years of research and getting the required coursework she needs, she'll probably be ready to apply to a PhD program.

Your mother may also be interested in school psychology. She can do research with that, but it would also give her a license/certification to work in the schools. She could specialize in working with gifted/exceptional children.