"This course pushed me to learn. It got me out of my comfort zone and gave me a head start on the rest of my college career and beyond."
What do you want to be when you grow up? This is something most people have heard over and over again their whole childhood...this mantra ramps up in college and becomes a frequently asked question as you approach graduation.
It is completely, utterly, and absolutely normal to not have a good idea (or any idea) of what you want to "do". It's also actually helpful to have an understanding of what you DON'T want to do, too. Part of what this class will do is help you come to some of those decisions, or at least narrow down some options.
As a psychology major you need to start thinking about at least two main categories of employment (because making this broad distinction early on can guide the whole rest of your thinking and planning).
Clinical Careers---"Clinical" means to observe, and treat disorders, problems, or disease in people. Do you want to engage in some way in a 'helping' profession, working with clients or patients in some way? Do you see yourself as a therapist or counselor, regardless of the setting (school, group home, clinic, hospital, prison, private practice, etc, etc). Then a clinically oriented career is what you want.
Non-Clinical Careers--pretty much everything else! This does not mean you don't work with people..as a professor, I am in a non-clinical career, and the people I interact with are students. As a legal consultant, I work with people (attorneys, defendants, judges, juries, police officers) but not in the capacity of treatment. A non-clinical career could still be very much psychological in orientation (like a psychology instructor at a community college, or a professor at a university; using psychological techniques and principles like in IO psychology, or in a research capacity); or it could seem completely outside of psychology (but where you are still using your degree (business/management, law, criminal justice, etc, etc).
First, I'd like you to fill out this questionnaire, located here.
Next, go to www.talentoday.com. You can login in by clicking on the facebook, twitter, or linkedin buttons (if you already have one of those accounts). Otherwise, you can create an account. Take the test..it's fairly long (about 20 minutes). Review your results (both your graphs and the narratives provided).
Next, bring a copy of your questionnaire filled out, and a summary of your experience taking the test and reviewing your results (you do not need to send me your results from the talentoday site) to class.
All Week 1 materials are due by Thursday class time.
Explore!
The advisor I have assigned to me is not the advisor I go to with questions, simply because he doesn't do research, etc. in the area that I'm interested into applying to grad. school for. He's not unwilling to meet with me, I just kind of got taken under the wing of my "surrogate" advisor.
Either way, I keep in contact with my advisor all the time and meet with him when necessary. He has been an awesome help with information concerning graduate school. He has also given me great opportunities as he asked me to be a teaching assistant for one of his classes and gave me the opportunity to get involved in my first research experience. He is also a great guy to talk to about things unrelated to school because he has a great sense of humor (not to mention he cooked his TAs and RAs a steak dinner after the semester was over!). Also, he serves as a committee member for my senior thesis work.
Because of the relationship I have built with him, he is also a point of reference for my grad. applications. Additionally, because I have had so many quality experiences with him (he is knowledgeable about my work ethic and abilities as a student and has a sense of "who I am") he is able to write me an awesome reference letter. He is truly awesome in the sense that he will literally do anything to help me get into grad school (except maybe risk his life...lol).
Overall, I have had a very positive experience with my surrogate advisor and am thankful for all of the opportunities and guidance he has given me. I remember being an underclassmen and literally shook in my boots to go talk to my advisor, but I've learned since that you cannot let your fears get in the way of your goals. Although the simple task of going to talk to your advisor may seem unrelated to your future, I think my experience shows you otherwise. My experiences with my advisor have had a HUGE impact on my future, and I hope that you will all have similar experiences to mine.
I have switched my major from psychology to family services multiple times. I have two advisers currently because of the switches I have made; one for psych and the other is the head of the family services dept. Normally when I would try to get an appointment to meet with my psychology adviser he would either have to reschedule or forget that we were meeting at a particular time. The person I have decided to turn to for help in this area is surrogate adviser. She has helped me so much more than anyone else. I went to her for many questions about what I should take for classes. She also laid out a plan for me to help me get through the rest of this year. This is definitely my hardest semester so far here at UNI. She makes me feel more at ease about the whole situation though.
I went to a different individual concerning graduate school. This lady is in the school counseling area and talked to me about the program we have here. She stated to me that the school counseling program we have at UNI is one of the best. Although it is one of the longest master programs there is it is well worth it. This is the only other thing I am interested in. If I don't get into this program I really have no idea what I will do.. I told her if I didn't get in I would probably take a year off and try to find work to save up money. She said it is best to attend right after you graduate with your BA because if you take a break a lot of the time it is hard to go back.
I think I have a pretty good relationship with my family services adviser. I currently have a family service minor and have talked to him multiple times about what I should or shouldnt do. He is a very reliable person and I think that he would definitely write me a reference letter. Even though he isn't an adviser for my major he still knows a lot about me and knows that I am a good student. Getting accepted into grad school is one of my major goals I have. To be able to accomplish this goal you HAVE to talk to advisers and faculty members. If you dont put yourself out there why would anyone want to help you out; even if you are the best student ever.
My advisor from last year was amazing and I really liked talking to them about what I wanted to do with my life because they were very avalible most times and they always made sure to tell me the truth and really knew what they were talking about because they took the same path that I hope to take someday as far as my education and my career.
This year has been a little bit different in the fact that they switched advisors on me and I was very confused. I have been emailing my first year advisor with my questions because I have met her before and she is readily available. I have also, this year, been getting a lot of help from my professors and staff in general in UNI's psychology department. They have given me a lot of different opinions on things and helped me make a better decision on future plans.
I feel like the first chapter of the book is very good in giving options on different things as far as what psychology students can do and what opportunities they can do. It started out as most textbooks do.....explaining to those who were confused about what psychology exactly is. But the rest of the chapter was really informative about what a degree in psychology. I also skimmed the rest of the book and it seems like it could provide a lot of interesting information about specifically what to study in psychology based on who you are and what your interested in and what you can do with that degree.
Being a double major I have two assigned advisors. I have had both of them as professors for past classes, so I have met both of them. For my Exercise Science major I have met with my advisor, but not over the past few semesters because there are other professors that I feel more comfortable with, and feel that can better advise me about my future.
Throughout the course of this semester thus far I have emailed/discussed in person 2 professors that I have asked advice from in the past about what job resoure information they have/recommend. I also did ask each of them if they knew of any good capstone courses, as I will have to take one next semester to finish my Gen Ed requirements. Throughout the rest of this semester and during the early part of the spring semester I plan to continue my discussions with them about job resources. And I plan to meet with career services to have them critique my resume, vita, and even possibly to discuss good job interviewing procedures.
I often use the departmental website as a reference. I find it to be very useful for finding links to resources.
I was assigned to a new professor when I was a freshman. I was later informed that he was not allowed to advise during his first year teaching, so I was very frustrated. During that time I did find other professors that I was comfortable with speaking with. My adviser and I still have difficulty with communication. I generally do only refer to my adviser if I need something signed, so I, like many above, refer to a surrogate professor with questions or if I just need someone to discuss things with.
My surrogate adviser is open for me to speak with about anxieties about applying to graduate school, stress balances of work and school, etc. I plan to continue meeting with my surrogate adviser as I approach graduation and my anxieties and need of advice grow.
Like Kayla, I meet with someone who is not my assigned advisor. I've met with my advisor and he gave me great advice on how to get started on getting ready for grad school and getting into research, but now I spend so much time with one of my other professors that when I need advising I typically just go to her. Its been great having someone that I can talk to though, especially as I'm getting ready to apply and am starting to feel pressure and tense and stressed about what I'm going to do with my life. I think that freshman should get so much more involved with their advisors than at least I did, because it helps so much! (Another good reason why this class will hopefully be required soon!)
Now that my book has arrived, I have read chapter one. I highly agree with the tips for success regardless if you are applying for graduate studies or looking for a careers upon completion of your B.A.
I was mainly interested in what the book had to say about the reasons for majoring in Psychology. I do agree with the authors in that my psychology courses have made me a better writer, critical thinker, etc., but I have to say that a psychology major is what you make it.
If you choose to be an involved psychology student, you'll undoubtedly gain these skills through research and being curious about the science of psychology. But, if you are just a psychology major that takes it because it's "easy" and takes the bare minimum classes, I don't think you'll come away with the same skills you would otherwise. I have been very involved in the department and have worked with a lot of faculty members through research and being a teaching assistant. Research has by far been the best experience because it gives you an outlet to really "use" what you learn in class rather than studying the material for a test and then forgetting it. Research also gives you the chance to ask YOUR questions in your way through formulating research questions and creating research methodologies (that of course agree with the IRB).
If research isn't your thing but you still want to get a lot out of psychology, become engaged in your courses and have conversations with other psychology majors. I find that talking to other students presents me with alternative perspectives which furthers my understanding of psychology and the world around me. I have found that throughout psychology, whether it be in class or in research, your views will be challenged. If you engage in intelligent conversations with other students, you'll better be able to prepare or these challenges and present evidence for your reasoning (if that makes sense!?)
Overall, even if you don't come out of a psychology major remembering social psychology theories or specific research methods and statistics, you'll at least come out with a greater ability to critically reason about the world around you!
Oh, here's what I think about the department website. While I think there is useful information on there, I feel that it could be improved. Now, I am not a web designer, but I wish the faculty members engaging in research had "lab" pages with up-to-date information about what is going on in their lab and bios of students who work with them. During my grad. school quest, I find that a lot of faculty members put biographies of their students online including links to their vitaes which I find helpful in the sense that I can gauge my qualifications compared to theirs. If I feel equally qualified (according to activities and experiences on my vita), I feel more confident in my choice to request that faculty member as an advisor.
Beyond the grad. school scope, I think having updated lab pages would better help students looking to start research choose an advisor who is doing research they are interested in. For example, you can tell what the faculty members are interested in, but what are they actually doing? Are they currently conducting research...if so, what about? Additionally, are they looking for research assistants?
I also think the website could benefit from stories about current undergraduate students. This would better help other students connect with upperclassmen interested in the same field as they are. We all believe what our advisors say (for the most part) - get involved, volunteer, etc. but I think advice is more readily accepted if it comes from another student in the same boat as they are.
I also think that the website should have information about obtaining internships. I am the psychology representative for the CSBS student advisory board and at our last meeting we talked a lot about internships. I think it would be awesome for the department to track (if they don't already) where students have done internships and what they did at their internship. This way, students looking for internships will better have an idea and launching point when looking for an internship. I felt uninformed of the internship world and wish I would have been given more guidance and options as far as where to seek an internship!
But, that's my two cents :)
I currently spend quite a bit of time on the psychology department's website, as well as other departments. While I am taking classes for my LAC, I browse other departments websites to look at various professors class syllabi, to see which professor I find most interesting to help shape what classes I want to take next semester. Specifically in the psychology department, I have again been reading various class syllabi to help me choose future psychology electives based upon what the current class is learning about and how much homework they have so I know when to take them.
I had a rather short visit with my advisor. Freshman are required to attend small group advising meetings next week, so he didn't to seem too repetitive. We mainly discussed my questions concerning grade classification and he showed me a possible schedule of my classes for the next few years.
Overall, I enjoy the layout of the book. Its simple, and to the point. The $11.75 price tag for renting it until the 23rd of December sure didn't hurt either! I found table 1.1 to be really interesting too. I knew there were a large number of disciplines underneath psychology, but it brought a few to light I hadn't thought about.
I am a sophomore and I just declared my major in psychology a few weeks ago. I have met with my advisor last year when I was still considering majoring in psychology. She helped me with deciding on what classes I should take this semester. I also have a academic advisor outside of my major who I meet with about twice a month.
I have spent some time looking over the faculty members, department info, and undergraduate program on the department website. I thought it was neat how they have a photo to go along with the names of the faculty. I also noticed how they have graduate program applications, which I hve never seen before.
I haven't gotten a chance to stop by the bookstore to pick up a book yet, so I havent looked over it or read chapter one.
I have browsed the psychology department's website before, but looked more seriously at it within the last few weeks. I like that it lists all the psychology professors, and tells a little about them, such as what classes they teach and their research interests. I think this information could be helpful when I am registering for classes or considering approaching a professor about assisting them with their research. However, like Kayla mentioned, I feel that the website could be improved with more information to help students get involved in their major. For instance, I know a lot of psychology majors are a little confused about how to get involved in research, so I think it would be helpful if professors listed on the department website if they are looking for research assistants.
I met with my adviser for the first time today, since I had a general adviser last year. I thought the experience was very helpful. My adviser seemed really nice and helpful. She also commented about meeting again in the future to discuss the progress of things I talked with her about today, which showed me that she is happy to help and readily available for further advising.
I read chapter 1 of the book, and I thought it was helpful. Although I have a fairly good understanding of what psychology is, I liked that the book went over that information. I also liked how figure 1.1 showed the many different areas of psychology. I thought it was neat that they incorporate your personality into what area of psychology to be involved in. I had never given that a thought before, but it does make sense. Like others mentioned, the book does a good job of explaining all the careers one could have with a psychology degree. I also skimmed the rest of the book, and it looks like it will be very helpful and informative!
The department website has been helpful for me to get to know the faculty, or to find out who to contact if I have a question. I've also used the undergrad page to look for various psych classes to take.
Ch. 1 of Careers in Psych helped guide me into what kind of direction in psychology I want to take. The personality characteristics page was very helpful for me in seeing what field is most suitable. From this book, I've gathered the information I need to guide me and have a clearer picture on what I want to do.
I've only met with my adviser in person once, but whenever I have a question she's great to respond. She even encouraged me to take this class which has been the most help I've had during my college years. I've also met with different professors in areas that I thought sounded interesting to get more information and they have all been really helpful.
I did not realize how much information/resources was on the psychology department website. I want to get in on a research next semester, so it is nice that it has listed what each professor researches. As I freshmen, I really wish I would’ve gone to the website to look at the layout for what classes you should be taking each semester. I also think that we have a clear and well understood grad program website. I have been looking into different grad programs that I would like to go into and I think that we have one of the best websites in clearly stating what is expected in order to get accepted.
Reading the first chapter of our book, I had two different feelings come over me. My first feeling was confident that I chose the right major (psychology). I chose to be a psych major because it is something that I am extremely interested in. I didn’t choose psychology as a major for anyone but myself. And honestly I have had many family, friends, and coworkers tell me that majoring in psychology is a waste of money. I chose to be a psychology major because I love talking to people, listening, and it pushes me to become a critical thinker. Psychology is fascinating to me. Although I do love psychology, as I was reading this chapter I also started to feel a little overwhelmed. I have changed my major a couple of times before deciding on psychology and then I studied abroad for a semester, so I have not started any volunteer work or research. Going through this chapter just really made me realize all of the things I need to get going on because I do plan on going to graduate school.
My appointment with my adviser isn’t until next week so I will post something again as soon as I speak with him.
I've met with my advisor a total of two times I believe. I've talked with him when I was a freshman about what classes to take and when, and also about opportunities to get involved in on campus. The second time I met with him was I think my junior year. I talked with him about applying to graduate schools and the process that it takes. He was very helpful, however his focus is more on I/O psychology, where I'm more of the clinical/counseling route. He told me that he didn't know a whole lot of information on the clinical aspect of things. I tend to interact with a variety of my professors, since they all of different views on things, and I think it's a good idea to get multiple inputs from different people.
If you don't have a strong connection with your advisor, I think it's a good idea to find a certain professor that you know well, and talk to them about your issues or any questions you may have. A good way to do this is to become a teacher or research assistant (which is also a good way to get Letters of Rec!). I understand that some people, like myself, don't have a good relationship with their advisors, so it is a good idea to try to find a professor that you communicate well with.
The adviser assigned to me has been very helpful. He helped me a lot when I took the GRE. He is also helping me with Graduate school. I have found a some other psychology professors who I can talk to as well. Since my adviser is not in the same field that I want to be in, I have had to find resources elsewhere. All of my professors this semester have been very helpful.
After looking at the Department website, I found several interesting research projects taken on by UNI professors. There was one topic that particularly interested me. After talking to the professor in charge of the project, I was assigned to do research with her next semester.
Chapter one really made clear to me that Psychology is what I want to do. I have a passion for helping others as well as many other useful skills that pertain to this career. I have made the decision to pursue Clinical Psychology and am in the process of applying to graduate school in this field.
I found a lot of nice information on the department website. I am a senior and had never actually been to it before. There is information that would have definitely been useful the last few years when trying to figure out where I wanted my psychology degree to go. I found it very useful how all the undergrad professors and their information was readily available. It took me a while to figure out a professors e-mail the other day, because I wasn't aware all of psychology professors are on here! It was also very interesting to have some background information on what every professor teaches and where they got their PhD from. For myself, the most useful tool on the website is the graduate program information. This helps me in the decision process of what it is I want to continue learning after undergrad.
I am currently in the process of setting up my meeting with my adviser. If all works out, we will be able to meet on Monday. I have talked with him before, just not this year. He is very helpful since he knows all about psychology and has been in my position before. I look forward to discussing my future.
As far as the chapter goes, I should have the book sometime tomorrow, so i will re-post more information regarding my adviser meeting and the chapter as soon as possible.
Okay, for some reason I cannot use the reply button so this a continuation of my previous post. In regards to the department website, I think that it is a very useful resource. I use it often. I do however wish there was more information as to what could be done with a BA psychology or options for graduate studies with this degree (other than MA psychology). I also think that freshman should be more informed about the website so that they can use it as a resource.
My adviser did not have any openings this week, so I plan to stop in next Monday. I did see my surrogate adviser. We discussed the stresses of studying for the GRE, as well as applying for graduate school. When I left, I felt a lot of relief.
As for the book, I strongly agreed with the section of rules for choosing a major and career. I think that those points are important and are often overlooked. As I have come to my senior year, I think it is very important to note that "your major does not dictate your career." There are many career opportunities that have small aspects of psychology, but that are not completely psychology based. It's important to make that decision based on what you want for your life.
I also agreed with the tips for success. I found getting to know professors as very important, especially as I am not looking for letters of recommendation. I feel like I have a little bit of a start on that now, having made some relationships with professors.
I haven’t talked to my actual advisor in quite a while. I have nothing against my assigned advisor, but I have just found talking to one of my other professors has been more helpful. When I went to see her, she was very welcoming and said that if talking to her works better she would be more than happy to help and answer any questions I had. We didn’t talk about spring scheduling yet, but I will do that very soon. When I was in her office this week, we discussed teaching assistant opportunities. I was not sure how to go about this but she instructed me to email my professors that I liked and received good grades. Common sense told me to do this as well, but it was nice to hear it from someone who knows what they are talking about. We also discussed research opportunities and how I can get involved with that. She was very helpful in advising me to check out www.uni.edu/psych to get professors’ email addresses and find out which professor’s research would interest me. Overall, it was a very informative meeting and she was very helpful.
While on the website, I found a lot of useful information about professors and their research. I have contacted a few of them to receive more information about becoming a research assistant for them and had a positive meeting with one of them. There is also a lot of vital information about graduation and opportunities after graduation. The book also has this information and I am actually looking forward to reading it. Different opportunities within psychology interest me because it will affect the rest of my life so it is very relevant to me. It will not be a book that I dread reading (or just don’t read) which is a nice change from other classes.
I just added my psychology major at the beginning of this year, so I have never been on the department website until today. I thoroughly enjoy the intense biographies and educational research of the professors in the psychology department.
I really wish I would have had the opportunity to read the choosing a major and career section in the chapter before today. I have a hard time making decisions, so making a massive decision that affected the rest of my life was rough. I struggled to declare a major for a long time. I went back and forth multiple times as well which was very frustrating and discouraging. With reading this, I would have had a great guide to helping me to create less stress.
I currently have two advisors due to my double major. I have one in criminology and one in psychology. Honestly, I have never met with my advisors. I have always planned and figured everything out on my own. I usually try to plan out my schedule and acquire answers through various ways. At times, it has been hard. When I tried to meet with my criminology advisor, he wasn’t very open or excited to be helping me. I opted to working it out on my own.
Recently, I added my second major as psychology. I have started to connect more with my psychology majors. As for schedule help, I haven’t been in to ask questions about scheduling. I have had more contact with talking about my future after my undergraduate degree. Until this point, I don’t think I realized what a great resource the faculty can be. I talked with one professor about grad school and the overwhelming amount of things to think about when applying. Even though I left extremely overwhelmed, I feel more confident about getting prepared. She has become a valued resource. I have had a lot more positive experience and feel more compelled to asking my professor a question instead of trying to work it out on my own.
I was really excited that there was a section about school counseling in the book. I found a lot of great information regarding that profession but I didn’t see anything on art therapy. Oh well :)
On the UNI website I was able to look up our Graduate program for school counseling. It’s nice that UNI undergrad students don’t have to pay an application fee and that the program does not require a GRE. As for the psychology website, I am very familiar with it and the different links associated.
I have spoken with my assigned advisor, but I prefer to get my questions answered by other professors that I’ve actually had in class and made connections with. Currently, my painting professor is helping me decide on art therapy schools should I choose that route. I also went to the "Thinking about graduate school" seminar in early October and spoke with the department head of UNI's school counseling program. She told me that art therapy is very consentrated and that I might have a hard time finding a job after graduation. That's the LAST thing I would want to hear after investing more time and money into my education. So, I am still trying to make final decisions.
I read the first chapter and then the chapter on I-O psychology. Most of the things I read were review to me. I was aware that it is the most popular undergraduate major which made me very hesitant to major in psychology in the first place because it meant more competition for graduate school opportunities. I was not even planning on going to graduate school until my senior year so I am a little late in the game when it comes to preparing to apply for graduate school. I just honestly didn’t think I was smart enough to even get accepted in a graduate program. I had no idea that I-O psychology consulting is expected to grow by 78% in the next five years making in the fastest growing career. A lot of people have never even heard of I-O psychology or if they have, they have no idea what it means to be an I-O psychologist. When people decide to major in psychology most think they will become the stereotypical psychologist listening to peoples’ problems, but then their lives get in the way and they never go to graduate school. College is an endurance contest in that aspect.
The website has a lot of useful information for undergraduate students and prospective graduate students. I wish UNI would get their I-O program back. It makes me sad that it was removed. I was wishing I could have stayed in Iowa for graduate school (financial reasons) but it is now more than likely I will have to move out of state. I was able to review the requirements for the I-O certificate. I will be taking one more class next semester and then I will have the certificate, which will be another thing I can put on my graduate school application.
I met with my advisor for the first time this year. Honestly, she was very nice but not very helpful because she is a completely different type of psychologist than I want to be. She did tell me to get up the courage to ask one of the I-O staff here at UNI (Gasser, Butler, or maybe Hitlan) for research opportunities. I did ask Gasser but sadly he doesn’t have anything for me. So I will be asking Butler this week and hopefully he can help me. If I was going into a more typical field of psychology I believe it would be easier for me to find opportunities.
My experience with my advisor was positive. I was able to contact him and he responded within the same day. Between our schedules it seemed it would be a little difficult to find a time to meet. However, he was able to switch is schedule around in order to meet with me. Because this happened, I gained respect for him. Not a lot of busy advisors would change their plans to meet with a student, but mine did. In the past I have not met with my advisor very often. This is something I now regret. During our meeting I was informed that I was not very well prepared to apply for graduate school. He assured me that I wasn’t the only one to blame. He also expressed that the department as a whole is failing to prepare undergraduate psychology majors for the future. One of the things we discussed was graduate school. I was really confused on what type of graduate program I should apply for, but after talking with my advisor he mentioned several other fields in psychology that match my personality. He actually suggested getting my Masters in Social Work. This idea had never even crossed my mind but when I was given more information about it, it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I wish I would have had a closer relationship with my adviser during my whole undergrad because I think he is a very knowledgeable person and he went out of his way to assist me with some important topics.
I am very familiar with the Psychology Department’s website. I remember the first time I looked at it I was a little overwhelmed. I really like the biographies on some of the professors. This makes it easy for students to try and take classes with professors that share similar interests with them. I think one thing that the website should invest in would be a tab on preparing for graduate school. I think this would help a lot of students by giving information that they might not know about. For instance, I only found out probably a month ago what a VITA was. Now I realize how important it is as well as other things such as a resume, professional references, etc. (one of the main reasons I am taking this class).
Chapter one in this book was very helpful. Although I am well aware that there are several different types of careers in the psychology field, it was nice to be able to see what some of them are. Most people just decide they want a degree in psychology without further defining what they want and picking a specialized field. This chapter also reiterated the important of picking a major based on personality. I was relieved to see that my personality matches up well with psychology. Another thing I liked about this chapter was that it gave good “tips for success”. I with that I had read this book my freshman or sophomore year that way I could have put some of these tips to use.
Sorry for late post. My advisor has been a resource for me for the past two years. He has given advice several times on what to look for in grad programs and what things are good to spend time doing as an undergrad. I also was a T.A. for one of his classes and that put me in a much better position to ask for help from him. Now he offers to write letters of recommendation and he lets me know if there is a program he is aware of that he thinks I would enjoy.
The department website is easy to navigate, pretty simple and straightforward. I looked into the grad program at UNI mainly. I know that for some programs no GRE is required at UNI but I saw that the psych program does indeed ask for a GRE score of at least 1000. There is a lot of info online but not much of it is directly useful. You basically have to already know what you are looking for.
Chapter 1 was pretty much review and common sense. It was interesting to read their opinions on choosing a career or field. I cannot say I had anything in common with their methods when I chose Psychology. I first got into psyche with the idea of becoming a therapist or better yet the forensic psychologist from law and order. After I was disillusioned with therapy and realized that much of my perception of forensic psychology was fiction (thank you freshman year) I had to actually find something I was interested in. Luckily it was still in psychology but it was a much more science based and logically bound aspect. I think you just have to have genuine interest otherwise you will grow to hate your field.
I find the psychology department website very useful and have used it a lot over the past three years I have been at UNI. I have used it to familiarize myself with the psychology staff, to look at the I/O certificate which I am working on getting, and to see what classes I should take each semester. There are also links on the website for good study habits and to look at different jobs we can apply for with a psychology degree.
I thought that chapter one was very informative. I like the reason this chapter gave for why we should earn a degree in psychology since over 88,000 baccalaureate degrees are awarded each year in psychology. The book stated that “we should earn a psychology degree because it is a solid liberal arts degree, which means it will teach you how to think and problem solve and will prepare you for lifelong learning. Psychology majors develop critical thinking and analytical skills, learn how to learn, and become independent thinkers.”
I switched from my original advisor to another one because I thought she was not giving me enough advice for me to be able to succeed. My new advisor is much more helpful and gives me great advice on an array of topics. I just met with her today and she helped me plan my schedule so I can graduate this May, she gave me advice on how many grad schools to apply to and who to choose for my references, and she gave me advice on other topics that are not psychology related. I think it is very important to have a good relationship with your advisor, and if you do not have a good relationship or experiences with your advisor do NOT be afraid to switch to somebody that will help you out more. Just ask other psychology students who their advisor is and I am sure you will come across a better fit for your needs.
This is a continuation from my previous post. Chapter one did a nice job of defining the various skills that are associated with the psychology degree. All the classes I have taken so far at UNI do a nice job of expanding the knowledge needed for the workforce. This major was chosen by myself as one I truly found interest in. The section on finding your interests and skills helped me really think about what it is I want to do and become when I graduate. It's still a tough decision, even as a senior, but I find the counseling aspect to be the most appealing thus far. Finding work experience in the field and getting involved in research is an excellent way to grow in the psychology field and looks good on a resume.
I was able to have a one-on-one visit with my adviser to talk about various things. First we discussed my scheduling for next semester class. We also talked about the opportunities to TA and the benefits associated. He helped me with discussing graduate schools and which programs I was interested in.
I haven't spent too much time in the past looking through the department website, but now that I have, I have been looking at it more and more. I like seeing what the class syllabus' are for different professors. I really enjoy looking at all the graduate school information on the website. It gives me a good idea on what I all need to do to get ready to apply and everything that needs to be turned in.
I've only met with my adviser a couple of times, but I have had good experiences every time. He really helped me out when thinking about grad school and different programs that I could do. The first time I met with him, he told me a LOT about the GRE and how to best get ready for the test. I found that really useful.
After looking through the first chapter and the rest of the book in general, I found it very useful! There is so much information in it that I had no idea about. I didn't realize there were so many things that you could do without your master's degree in Psychology. Everyone always asked me if I had wanted to go to graduate school, and I originally said no. They would ask me what I could do with my bachelor's degree and I would have to tell them that I had no idea. Now, after looking through the book, I realized that are a lot of jobs that you can do with just your bachelor's degree.
Excellent points! And your experience is pretty common..where you seek information from multiple advisors...im sorry your experience with a psych advisor hasnt been better!