Have you decided on which psychology doctoral programs you want to apply to? The whole application process is an exercise that often builds character and helps an individual to understand his goals better. Preparation, as much as perseverance, is key to success and you will appreciate the experience just as much as actually being in the program itself.
Getting Your Foot In The Door
It can be a daunting task to select what to pursue for graduate studies and where. So to simplify things a bit, you really should be clear where you want to go and what you want to accomplish. It’s been said time and again that admission to universities whether for psychology doctoral programs online or on campus, can be extremely challenging. You don’t want to be wasting your time going through the entire process only to change your mind in the end because you weren’t entirely sure about yourself.
One reason why slots to graduate programs are so limited is because of the funds involved. More often than not acceptance, for the masters in psychology and especially at the doctorate level, means the schools pay for the tuition and provide stipend to successful candidates. This can be through grants received by faculty members who individually work with students for specific research projects.
It will be crazy and expensive to apply to several psychology doctoral programs, so the first task is to narrow down your choices. Five is usually a good number. While it isn’t realistic to target all those listed on the top of psychology doctoral programs rankings, it won’t hurt to send out your application to one or two of them since you’re preparing for admission anyway and the requirements are usually similar.
Remember that distance learning has provided another option to studying, although most of the psychology doctoral programs offered in schools with an entire department devoted to the field, only have campus classes. Besides, you need to interact as much as you can with your advisor in this kind of program so the traditional set up is perhaps a more preferable method of learning.
Doctoral Programs For Consideration
Based on the National Research Council Rankings, Stanford University in California, is ranked first among psychology doctoral programs. Cornell University in New York, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Chicago in Illinois, also made it to the top 20 list.
Stanford’s Ph.D. In Psychology has five areas of study: Cognitive, Developmental, Neuroscience, Affective Science and Social Psychology. At Cornell, the three defined areas given focus in their Ph.D. Programs are biopsychology, cognition and perception and social/personality psychology. Educational psychology is the focus at University of Texas, while University of Chicago’s doctorate in psychology programs are in the areas of cognition, developmental, integrative neuroscience and social psychology.
University of Florida, accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1953, adheres to the scientist-practitioner model of education and training for its doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology. There are six doctoral programs under psychology offered at the University of Georgia: neuroscience and behavior, clinical psychology, cognitive/experimental psychology, applied psychology, social psychology and life-span developmental psychology.
Working For Admission
If you’re bent on pursuing a doctorate degree in psychology, it’s best to know preparation for admission starts way in advance, even a year, prior to actual submission of all requirements.
Why does it take so long? To give you the best possible chance to get in, you need to learn everything you can about the school and their psychology doctoral programs. If you need to give a better showing in some areas to offset some of your weak points, then time is what you need. Research experience is crucial and unless you’ve had lots of it prior to application, you need to make time for that as well.
Many successful candidates will tell you that getting accepted to top programs like Stanford’s is not all about GPAs and GREs. It is your commitment to the field and your desire to contribute and learn that will be given weight.
You want to get into good programs, you better work hard for it. Study. Review. Research. Ask questions. Learn. You’ll find out the entire exercise will be to your benefit in the end. Your search for the best psychology doctoral programs was just a start to make you a more focused individual.
Below find more interesting articles about the different programs, schools, rankings and salaries.
