Transition to Psychology/Neuroscience

juillet
Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:05:57 +0000

Slow down a bit.

My advice is to first get some research experience. Social psychology is very competitive; social neuroscience less so, but still pretty competitive, and successful applicants often have 2-3 years of research experience beyond the bachelor’s degree. Your first goal is to get research experience. You should also get some research experience because that is what’s going to tell you whether you actually need to get a doctorate in psychology. Taking a class is much different from doing the actual work of a psychologist.

Also, you will need to take a foundation of classes in psychology. You need to at least take intro psychology (1-2 semesters), social psychology, research methods, and intro to statistics. If you are interested in neuroscience, you should also take 1-3 classes in that field as well. If you are interested in doing work on mental health disorders in the field, abnormal would also be advisable; if you are interested in social cognitive neuroscience, cognitive would be a good choice; if you have interests in developmental social neuroscience, then developmental would be a good addition.

1) The best option is to get a job as a lab manager in a psychology or psychiatry lab for 2-3 years. OR you can use your MS/MPA to get a job as a research associate in a related field. Take some classes as a non-degree student to fulfill the requirements, and then apply if you still want to.

2) Second-best option would be to do a master’s or post-bacc program in psychology, where you can get research experience with a professor in addition to taking classes. The downside to this is that it’s expensive.

3) Another option is to take some classes as a non-degree student and volunteer as a research assistant while you work some unrelated or semi-related job to pay the bills.

Personally, I would do 1 or 3 and only do 2 if you can’t get in by doing the others. The reason is cost - you want to minimize debt.