Worth it to apply to PhD programs with limited/ no research experience?

Beaudreau
Sun, 06 Sep 2020 19:09:57 +0000

If you are interested in a PhD, why are you limiting your chances by rushing into an either/or strategy. You acknowledge that you lack research experience and did not major in psychology… But you conclude that you would go the master’s route if you don’t get accepted into a PhD program. Why not take a year to get more research experience, take some more psych classes, and then apply to a PhD program?

You are trying to give yourself your best chance for a lifelong career. Do you want to be 40-years old and regretting that you settled for a master’s degree, when with one more year of preparation, you could have attended a top PhD program? A year seems like forever when you are 21; looking back it will seem like no time at all, especially when regrets last a lifetime.

Why not focus on the top PhD programs, rather than those you have listed that offer master’s degrees? Some top programs, like Michigan State’s number-one Industrial/Organizational Psychology program, don’t even offer terminal master’s degrees.

“Students are accepted for graduate study in psychology only if judged by a departmental committee to be qualified to complete a doctoral degree, and programs of study are planned with this goal in mind; the master’s sequence is generally developed as an integral part of the doctoral program with special attention given to the plans and needs of each student. Additional details are given under the doctoral program as outlined below. There is no terminal master’s program.”