Which university for post grad psychology (international student)?

Hi,
I’m about to graduate with a (three year) B.Sc. in Psychology from a university in Germany and I would love to do my post grad studies in the US.
I’m mostly interested in social psychology and general psychology, but also industrial and organizational psychology and am currently working on my Bachelor thesis in the area of judgement and decision making.
My high school grades were pretty good, my B.Sc. GPA is in the A range when converted from the German system and I’m almost fluent in English. I’ve volunteered quite a bit and have always worked parallel to my studies. I’ve also got some research experience and am going to get some more soon. I haven’t done the SAT yet but am confident I could get a high score there too as it seems to be on the same level as our high school exams (or at least that’s what I’ve been told).
So far I’ve looked at a number of university rankings and the schools I might be interested in are Stanford, Berkeley and Yale. Would I even have a chance to be accepted there? Would it make sense to get a M.Sc. first before applying to the PhD programs as I’ve only got a 3yr Bachelor (although I only took psychology classes during my undergrad due to a different program structure)? What other universities might be a good fit? I’m looking for high quality lecturers and research, excellent reputation and also a high living quality. I’ve got a faible for old architecture and history and would love to go to a college where you can ‘breathe’ both. Wouldn’t mind going to an Ivy either but that might be unrealistic? What are universities looking for in future grad students?

Thanks for your advice

Although Yale is of course on of the Ivys. I meant to say any other Ivy

Most PhD students come straight from undergrad. Admission to Psych is VERY hard. Harvard MIT and Penn also very good. Also Michigan and UCLA. For grad school dept rep more important than college name.

Thank you barrons. Most students in the US do a 4yr Bachelors though, don’t they? I know you can do your PhD right after that but I’m not sure if thats possible with a 3yr Bachelors, too.

If you will have a bachelor’s degree, no need to take the SAT. Most doctoral graduate programs require the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). I would look at some specific program websites to see what the admission requirements are for international students who earned a bachelor’s degree outside the U.S.

I’m sure plenty of folks would argue about rankings, but the lists below should get you started and looking in the right t spot.

Admission to top Unis for Pysch is extremely hard, as barons notes above. Need a high GRE score, but that is just a threshold to pass over. The key to admissions is having a research portfolio and a good fit with what you what to study as a doctoral student. Just bcos Yale has a great program in Psych is meaningless if you want to study xx of Social and Yale is focusing on anything but xx.

if you have an undergrad degree in Psych, probably no need to pickup up Masters. The only advantage about a MA would be a chance to conduct more research. Bu

https://www.socialpsychology.org/gsocial.htm

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/social-psychology-psychology-rankings

Research experience and research fit are very important. Doing a thesis is great, and you say you have other research experience. Have you read about the faculty at the programs you mentioned to determine if their research is a fit? The “top schools” in Social Psychology, for example, may not have faculty doing research that suits you - and that alone could hurt your chances for admission. The best way to find faculty doing research that interests you is to read articles in your area of focus (such as what you’re doing for your thesis) and see where the authors work. For example, you may find yourself excited to read articles on moral decision-making, and notice that some of your favorite work is being done by Jesse Graham at the University of Southern California.

A 3-year bachelors probably doesn’t matter, at least I’ve not seen that mentioned in the admissions requirements at any schools I applied to. But some schools have course requirements, such as having a research methods or statistics course, a certain number of credits in psychology, etc. The GRE is usually required, and occasionally the GRE subject test is as well (although this is more common if you have a degree in a field other than psychology). You might need to take the TOEFL as well.

Judgement and decision-making are broad topics, so I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble finding good programs in desirable areas. One thing I might mention, is that if you’re interested in I/O psychology then you may want to consider business management (organizational behavior) programs as well. The funding tends to be better, and you do much of the same research; many business faculty actually have their PhDs in social or I/O psychology. The programs are sometimes shorter (4 or 5 years instead of 6+), and post-docs are not common; graduates are hired directly on as faculty members.

If you do get a PhD in social or I/O psychology, you could always make the transition into the business field later (like Jonathan Haidt did; he was a Social Psychology professor at the University of Virginia before joining the business faculty at NYU). But keep in mind, as @barrons mentioned, program reputation is more important than school reputation. For example, University A might have a top 10 business program, but their social psychology program might be ranked top 50, and they might not even have an I/O psychology program. But again, you need to look at research fit more than ranking.

A masters degree isn’t required for any of these programs. Since you’re not lacking in research experience and your grades seem good, I’d apply directly to PhD programs and see what happens.

As for what is realistic, that depends on your GPA and GRE scores (generally used to pass the first round of admissions decisions; they don’t mean much after that), your research experience and goals/fit (as outlined in your personal statement), and letters of recommendation, preferably from research-active professors in the field. I recommend applying widely, and not just to all “top” programs. You never know what the candidate pool looks like, whether they have funding to take on new students, or if your preferred advisor is taking students (its always good to apply to programs that have more than 1 faculty member doing work you’re interested in).

Thanks everyone for the advice! The whole admission process seems very intimidating and complex to me - in Germany all that counts for admission into postgrad is your GPA and you don’t have to hand in letters of recommendation or test scores or anything else…
Are there reliable advisors out there that can help with international applications? Or could the international offices of universities help with that? I’ve done some research on google and some of the services out there seem a bit shady to me…

Your own school probably has some type of service for students applying to grad school - you might start by asking your Career Services department. I would not look for any outside service, and definitely don’t pay for one. Most schools offer a “checklist” of sorts to make sure you have all required materials when you apply, and they often include some details on how to submit test scores and such, so just stay very organized. I created a spreadsheet in Excel with my program list, required materials, when they were submitted/received, deadlines, etc. Grad school applications take a lot of time, so you’ll want to allow a few months to study for the GRE, write a solid personal statement, determine where you’re applying, etc. It seems like a lot because you’re taking it all in at once; try breaking it down piece by piece to get familiar with each requirement.