Student Resources

​This week, The Novice Professor is going to put out series of posts geared towards undergraduates, particularly undergrads interested in applying to graduate school. Below are some links and information that undergraduate psychology majors may find useful. Many of the links can also be found in our Resources Section, including helpful information about studying, careers, and graduate programs, for both psychology majors and non-psychology majors alike! 

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Studying

​First things first, keep that GPA up! Stephen Chew (@SChewPsych) at Samford University put together a wonderful  video series to help students get the most out of their studying. Also, for all you psych majors out there who “hate math”, take your statistics class seriously. Jessica Hartnett, a psychology professor that teaches statistics at Gannon University tells her students that knowledge about statistics (yes, that stuff taught in your Intro Stats class!) is in high demand for a variety of jobs. Teachers and students alike should check out her blog post, it is very informative.

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Careers in Psychology

There are numerous jobs open to undergraduates studying psychology, but it can be difficult figuring out what is best for you. The links below give some ideas for the types of careers open to psych majors.

• Drew Appleby’s Psi Chi article on the blessings and curses of being a psych major
• APA’s Careers guide
• LearnPsychology’s list of careers (and what you need to do to get them)
• Psychology Today’s “14 Career Options for Psychology Majors” by Vineel Maharaj​

Research and Internships

Many (but not all!) careers in psychology require you to go on to graduate school. If you want to go to graduate school, you need to get some research or internship experience. Most universities will have research opportunities on campus. As an academic advisor, I told students to look up the psychology department’s website, and read through the research interests of all the faculty. Once you find one or two that seem interesting to you, reach out to them to see if you can volunteer in their lab as a researcher. Even if that lab isn’t a 100% fit for what you want to do with your career, the research experience will help you get into graduate school to pursue that dream job. For internships, we aren’t as familiar with what's expected, but here are some links to help you get started with both:

• APA’s recommendations for getting involved in undergraduate research, written by John Norcross
• APA’s list of Undergraduate Research Opportunities & Internships
• Dr. Steven Buzinski discusses the differences between undergrad and graduate pre-professional psychology opportunities and gives a list of sample internships to look into.

Graduate School Application Process

The application process to graduate school can often be confusing for students. What is a CV? How do you write a personal statement? Who do I ask to be letter writers? Here are some links to help you navigate that murky territory.

• The Novice Professor’s series on facing grad school rejection letters. In this series, we talk about the importance of research and persistence during the application process.  
• APA’s advice for Applying to Graduate Schools. Through that page they have a ton of resources, such as links to helpful videos, advice for preparing your personal statements, and key questions to consider before you apply, just to name a few.
• Dr. Karen Kelsky has amazing resources for graduate and undergraduate students. Some of ideal resources for undergrads (in a variety of programs, not just psych) include:
  • Advice for how to email a professor
  • This article reminding students that grad school is a means to a job
  • A warning to humanities students before they dig themselves into a crater of student loan debt
  • This post geared towards humanities (but relevant to many disciplines) about some of the flaws in academia that you should be aware of before getting a PhD
  • How to navigate conferences
  • Advice for how to make the most out of graduate school once you get there
• 7 Tips for Applying to a Psychology PhD Program by Dr. Todd Kashdan at Psychology Today. Dr. Kashdan gives some great advice and reflects on how the application process as evolved and become more competitive.
• How to Handle Graduate School Denials, from Dr. Don Martin at U.S. News. I will admit I don’t agree with 100% of their advice (for example, I haven’t heard of students writing thank you notes for rejection letters), but they are speaking to a wider audience beyond just psychology students, so norms in other fields may differ from that of psychology programs.

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Do you have other resources you use? Tell us about them! Comment below or email us at thenoviceprofessor@gmail.com. ​