Graduate School Research Assignment
Graduate School Summary Assignment
Total Points: 50
For this assignment you are going to research a graduate school program that interests you. An excellent research source is APA’s Graduate Study in Psychology. For those of you interested in clinical or counseling doctoral programs, the book an Insider’s Guide to Clinical and Counseling Psychology Programs by Norcross et al. is a must. Petersons.com is also another good resource for researching schools online, as well as the school’s own website.
The ASSIGNMENT: You need to research one graduate school and answer as many of the following questions as you can (summarize in your own words rather than copying and pasting from resources). Your answers must be typed in 12-pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced with 1” margins.
1) Name and location of school
2) Type of program (e.g., MS clinical, PhD experimental) you are researching (there may be others at the school, but just mention the one you are interested in).
3) What other programs are also in the psychology (or other) department?
4) How many students are admitted each year (to the graduate program, not the school)?
5) How many students applied to the graduate program the last year reported?
6) What was the average admitted person’s GPA, ve
al GRE, quantitative GRE, and analytical GRE scores? What are the minimum requirements?
7) What are the dates for application for each semester admission (e.g., May 15th for fall semester, October 15th for spring semester)?
8) What are the in-state and out-of-state tuition costs?
9) What kind of funding do they offer to graduate students and what is the % of students that get said funding?
10) Do they offer Teaching or Research Assistantships? If so, what would your responsibilities be if you were to receive one (describe each if both are available)?
11) Research two faculty members in the program:
a. Name of faculty
. Areas of research
c. Why does this faculty member interest you?
12) Finally, I would like you to rank order for yourself (with 1 = most important reason and 9 = least important reason) the following reasons for eventually choosing to apply to a graduate program (in general, not necessarily a specific one). Use each number (1 through 9) for only one of the reasons below:
_______
Location of the school
_______
Assistance available (monetary)
_______
Your interest specifically matches a faculty member’s interest
_______
Opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant
_______
Opportunity to serve as a research assistant
_______
The reputation of the school
_______
The reputation of the psychology faculty
_______
Internship opportunities that would be available
_______
Ability to meet the program’s entry requirements
Adapted with permission from Dr. Lauren J. Roscoe at Western Oregon University.