Help with Psychology Graduate Programs

juillet
Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:57:31 +0000

Why are you looking for master’s programs?

There aren’t a lot of master’s programs in psychology, and few of them give you the opportunity to practice. Furthermore, most psychology PhD programs will accept few, if any, of the credits from your MS program. You’ll essentially have to start over. If you’re lucky, you may get up to a year’s worth of work, more often a semester.

Psychology isn’t really one of those fields where if you did poorly or had a mediocre performance in college, you can do a master’s to pull up your grades. The preferable way for most PhD programs is to work for 2-3 years as a lab manager or research assistant in a professor’s research lab. This is better, IMO, because you are actually making money doing the research that you love to do (or should, if you want a PhD) instead of paying someone else money.

I know that Columbia has a post-baccalaureate program in psychology for people who wish to go to PhD programs, but it’s designed for students who don’t have a background in psychology.

One master’s degree that may be useful is getting an MSW and becoming a licensed clinical social worker. You could do LOTS of work with children and adolescents with this degree, including clinical counseling, and if you decide to go back for a doctoral degree you can either get a PhD or you can get a DSW - so it opens some doors.

You may also be interested in MS or Ed.S programs in school psychology if you are interested in working with children and adolescents.