<p>I remember coming to CC for the first time at the end of my HS sophomore year and being amazed at the sheer depth and breadth of what I needed to know about examining, applying to, and hopefully getting into colleges! After my senior year application process ended successfully, I thought I was done with that! Not so! </p>
<p>Here I am, a college junior, sorting through grad programs, looking for the right fit. I’m still shocked at tuition costs, but this time have much, much, much more limited options in terms of merit aid, as almost all programs in one of my fields are unfunded… My other field funds most good programs, but they’re almost impossible to get into (>10% acceptance rates across the board), and unfunded programs aren’t worth the general lack of outcomes or the debt/salary ratio)! Eeekk! I again don’t know how much my parents will fund, and they again tell me contradicting things. </p>
<p>I feel like in some ways I have a much broader scope of choices in that the programs could reallly open doors for me, but I also know I have a much smaller one (approx. n=200 in one field, approx. n=40 in another) and less choice in terms of money (tuition=expensive!). I feel like I have a lot more reaches and almost no safeties this time around, just due to the nature of grad. programs. It’s a bit nerve-wracking!</p>
<p>Any other juniors or parents of juniors starting to prepare for grad. school/med. school/law school applications (curmudgeon?)?</p>
<p>My daughter is a Senior and has started her PhD applications and fellowship applications. I guess you are doing well to get such a head start. She is still researching schools. Not schools so much as departments and professors who she wants to work with and if you want to read their papers, it is a lot of work. Her Junior year was very important in helping determine the sub-area she was interested in.</p>
<p>The field she is looking at is generally funded for good programs. But of course it’s very competitive. If she doesn’t get in, it will be very disappointing for her. I think she will then go one more year and get a Master’s though, and I don’t think that is a bad option at all, she will likely continue research with profs she is working with now. Except she will have the debt of it, I guess, perhaps offset by a RA job. </p>
<p>Yes it is a huge amount of debt. I think people should make the decision to do it based on their own willingness to pay/have debt, not to expect your parents to reduce retirement.</p>
<p>I think in her field the top 4 schools are reach for everyone. I don’t know how to define match, can top 20 schools be match? I don’t know how to define safeties. How safe is safe till it is not good sense to get your PhD there? Is there such a thing? The hopeful thing in this process is an encouraging professor with more confidence than we (I?) have. </p>
<p>I guess I can’t really understand your hints about the two programs you are interested in, but do look around for fellowships and apply no matter the odds. Good luck with your search. Spend junior year talking to your professors about their ideas on what schools you should look at, and cultivating some relationships for your LOR’s.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior and college. She was heading towards graduating a semester early, but is now considering grad school. she has been feeling a little overwhelmed lately with how quickly college has been going.
Also, her current carreer path will limit where she will have to live and that is making her nervous too.
She will be checking out one of the original schools she visited back when she was a hs junior…who’d have guessed ?</p>
<p>QQ - Congrats on completing you UG. And welcome to another big decision in your life. They’re called “big decisions” because there are no obvious or easy answers. Like the other big decisions, this one will tell you much about who you are. My personality would urge me to “go for the gold,” knowing that even if I did not gain entry into one of those hard-to-get positions that (a) at least I gave myself a shot, and (b) regardless of the outcome I would learn some useful things for the next time I faced this quandry. Of course other personalities would see the situation differently, and those viewpoints are equally valid (for those other persons). What does your personality urge you to do?</p>
<p>Your fin aid “need” in no longer calculated based on your parents’ assets, so you can get student loans, etc. Of course, it is much better to find a program that is funded, and will not require taking on debt.</p>
<p>I heard many times that you should not go to grad school unless you genuinely can’t see yourself happy doing anything else. I think it is a good advice - you should not go to grad school just because it postpones getting out into the “real world”… You certainly should not count on your parents’ financial help with tuition.</p>
<p>Not sure if that was directed at me, but if it was… I’m very sure I want to go to graduate school, as it’s very germane and necessary to what I want to do in life (micro-level clinical work). I’m a psych/social work double major and am deciding whether to go the MSW route or the psych PhD route, leaning more toward the MSW route. I have lots of research experience and LOVE research, but I know that it’s not what I want to do in terms of career. I like the research and assessment training in clinical psych, not to mention the funding, but an MSW would only take one year and it’s a pretty flexible degree as well, with good recognition at the LCSW level.</p>
<p>In terms of funding, my parents have (luckily) offered to helpp fund grad. school because I’m on a near full ride to my UG (I belive cur and his daughter had a similar deal). The only thing is, they differe in how much they say they will pay–my mom says they will cover everything, my dad only a few thousand. They hate talking money with me, refused to give me a ballpark range when looking at UG school, and then balked at some of the costs when I was admitted. Fortunately, I aimed for merit aid schools. As neither social work or psych pay particularly well, the less debt the better.</p>
<p>Have you considered a Psy.D? Same ability to be licensed and work as a clinical psychologist as a PhD, but more clinically-based than research-based training, and no dissertation requirement, which can shorten the training process. Also, back in the day, there were funding sources for mental health training that were termed loans but were forgiven completely if the student then worked with an underserved population. Do these funds still exist?</p>
<p>Have you considered getting a job for a year or two? I felt like I needed a break after undergraduate school. My plan was to work for two years and then go back for grad school, which I did. It allowed me to see the real world for a while, which really is so different from academia. I got a good recommendation from my employer, which couldn’t have hurt on my grad school applications. And it did make me appreciate the whole college schedule thing–you only have to work really hard for <em>16 weeks</em>, and then you get a big break! I was in a technical field, so grad school was paid for with a teaching assistantship. That plus working summers (for my old boss!) was enough to see me through financially.</p>
<p>Strongly second the suggestion of working for a year before applying. I work in Corporate HR and interview hundreds of people a year; manage a team that interviews thousands of people a year. The most common story we hear is “I wish I’d taken time off to work before getting a Master’s degree in X”. Sometimes we meet physicians who hate being Doctors; very often lawyers who hate lawyering; but most often it’s the 2 year Master’s folks.</p>
<p>You would be surprised at what a year of work at a clinic, homeless shelter, large hospital system, or what have you will do to your perspective on being a social worker. You may decide that you’d rather get a master’s in public policy or hospital administration; you may decide to get a culinary arts degree; you may change your mind on the PhD in psych. Best case, you get to confirm that you really want the MSW and that will make your application that much stronger.</p>
<p>I would not encourage my kids to take on much debt for a career in social work.</p>
<p>I graduated from college and decided to work first. It was the best decision I could have ever made. I was literally burned out by the end of my senior year. I got a job back home where I could just focus on assignments and leave them on my desk for the next morning! I got back into my hobbies (something I could not concentrate entirely in college). I even lost weight (a definite plus for those who gained the Freshman 15) and exercise regularly now. I am able to chill and make some money and learn more about myself. If I had gone straight to grad school, I would have made a terrible mistake. My research interests have also changed because the real world has shown me what I should avoid and what I should pursue.</p>
<p>If you are not 100% sure you want to go to graduate school, take a break. Gain work experience and you will be a much more competitive candidate by the time you apply.</p>