Should I bother pursuing a master's degree?

[ThatGuy15]

I am currently an undergraduate senior majoring in Applied Psychology at New York University. My plan after graduation was to pursue a mater's degree in psychology at Queens College and gain more research experience in clinical neuropsychology. However, I am now questioning my plan. As of right now, my GPA is 3.54, my GPA from my previous school (community college) was 3.8. I have had two great opportunities to be involved in psychological research.

I received an NSF grant as a community college student and conducted an independent research study (part of the REU program at Brooklyn College). I was in charge of scheduling appointments with undergraduate students, bringing them into the laboratory setting and explaining the experiment, as well as data entry and transcriptions. As a community college student, I was exposed to different statistical analyses from MANOVAs to transcribing videos. Additionally, when I started at NYU, I was also involved in another research project, but that mostly consisted of data entry and literature reviews. I am a member of Psi Chi, Phi Theta Kappa, and Psi Beta (but have no idea if that is even relevant), and have presented two poster presentations (no publications). I also have four outstanding letters of recommendations all from psychology professors, and clinical volunteer experience working in a Neuroscience Unit at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

I would like to know if I should even bother pursuing a master's degree. Should I take time off, gain more research experience in clinical neuropsychology within the next 4-6 months, take the GRE and apply to Ph.D. programs instead?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[psych.meout]

I am currently an undergraduate senior majoring in Applied Psychology at New York University. My plan after graduation was to pursue a mater's degree in psychology at Queens College and gain more research experience in clinical neuropsychology. However, I am now questioning my plan. As of right now, my GPA is 3.54, my GPA from my previous school (community college) was 3.8. I have had two great opportunities to be involved in psychological research.

I received an NSF grant as a community college student and conducted an independent research study (part of the REU program at Brooklyn College). I was in charge of scheduling appointments with undergraduate students, bringing them into the laboratory setting and explaining the experiment, as well as data entry and transcriptions. As a community college student, I was exposed to different statistical analyses from MANOVAs to transcribing videos. Additionally, when I started at NYU, I was also involved in another research project, but that mostly consisted of data entry and literature reviews. I am a member of Psi Chi, Phi Theta Kappa, and Psi Beta (but have no idea if that is even relevant), and have presented two poster presentations (no publications). I also have four outstanding letters of recommendations all from psychology professors, and clinical volunteer experience working in a Neuroscience Unit at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

I would like to know if I should even bother pursuing a master's degree. Should I take time off, gain more research experience in clinical neuropsychology within the next 4-6 months, take the GRE and apply to Ph.D. programs instead?

For how long were you involved in each of those research projects?

 

[neurobain]

You GPA seems to be fine and you have the NSF grant under your belt, which will be a highlight in your application to PhD programs.

Is there a way to get some neuropsych research experience now without going into a masters program? I would use the masters program as a backup plan, although the Queens neuropsych program is very good.

What I would do is take a year or two off to try to get some relevant research experience in neuropsych, while studying for the GREs. Also, if you can get the chance to volunteer at a hospital in a psych or neurology unit, or get some training in neuropsych assessment that will also help. If your GRE scores wind up being a bit lower than ideal, I would then do the masters while continuing to study for the GREs, while trying to get a paper and some more posters out.

In retrospect, I wish I took this approach. While I got into a good PhD program, I only had one poster. If I had more, my chances of getting into a program with better funding would have increased, thus lowering my loans. It is a trade off though. I will finish postdoc by 30, but with more debt. If I waited, I would have delayed pay further into my 30's, but with likely less debt. At the time, it seemed to make more sense to not wait.

 

[ThatGuy15]

You GPA seems to be fine and you have the NSF grant under your belt, which will be a highlight in your application to PhD programs.

Is there a way to get some neuropsych research experience now without going into a masters program? I would use the masters program as a backup plan, although the Queens neuropsych program is very good.

What I would do is take a year or two off to try to get some relevant research experience in neuropsych, while studying for the GREs. Also, if you can get the chance to volunteer at a hospital in a psych or neurology unit, or get some training in neuropsych assessment that will also help. If your GRE scores wind up being a bit lower than ideal, I would then do the masters while continuing to study for the GREs, while trying to get a paper and some more posters out.

In retrospect, I wish I took this approach. While I got into a good PhD program, I only had one poster. If I had more, my chances of getting into a program with better funding would have increased, thus lowering my loans. It is a trade off though. I will finish postdoc by 30, but with more debt. If I waited, I would have delayed pay further into my 30's, but with likely less debt. At the time, it seemed to make more sense to not wait.

Hey Neurobain. Thank you for responding to my post. And yes I can take a year off to become more competitive. I also know a neuropsychologist (who was one of my mentors when I had the grant) and she is offering me a position in her neuropsych lab. She did mention that I will gain hands on experience in neuropsych assememnts a degree working with patients with dementia and Alzheimer's.

Also, I know you are a post-doc and in a neuropsychologist program (I think!), as a student coming from a low-income family household I am afraid to gamble with my chances. Therefore, I'm afraid of taking time off to become more competive but only fall short on my chances for acceptance. Like I said, I am a first gen and low-income, and my family is not too happy with me pursuing 6+ years of studies in psychology. What I am really asking from you is, can you share some of your wisdom and advice with me? The great thing about graduating from NYU is that I am debt free, all thanks to a generous scholarship.

 

[ThatGuy15]

For how long were you involved in each of those research projects?

Hey, Psych.meout. Tha thanks for responding. And I spent one semester (4-5 months) during the time I had the NSF grant. Additionally, I spent another 3 semesters (1.5 years) as an RA for my other position.

 

[singasongofjoy]

Hey Neurobain. Thank you for responding to my post. And yes I can take a year off to become more competitive. I also know a neuropsychologist (who was one of my mentors when I had the grant) and she is offering me a position in her neuropsych lab. She did mention that I will gain hands on experience in neuropsych assememnts a degree working with patients with dementia and Alzheimer's.

Also, I know you are a post-doc and in a neuropsychologist program (I think!), as a student coming from a low-income family household I am afraid to gamble with my chances. Therefore, I'm afraid of taking time off to become more competive but only fall short on my chances for acceptance. Like I said, I am a first gen and low-income, and my family is not too happy with me pursuing 6+ years of studies in psychology. What I am really asking from you is, can you share some of your wisdom and advice with me? The great thing about graduating from NYU is that I am debt free, all thanks to a generous scholarship.

Taking time off to become more competitive can help you financially in the long run because the more competitive you are the more likely you are to land an offer at a funded program (and even among the fully funded programs, some are more well-funded than others and offer better stipends). And if you do take a year off to be more competitive hopefully your lab position or whatever you end up doing will be funded, so maybe you could be super frugal and sock away some extra to help with moving and application/interview expenses (those reeeeally add up- when I was applying I was adding up total costs for taking GRE, traveling, etc and stopped when I got over $1500 because it was too depressing at that point in time).

 

[neurobain]

Hey Neurobain. Thank you for responding to my post. And yes I can take a year off to become more competitive. I also know a neuropsychologist (who was one of my mentors when I had the grant) and she is offering me a position in her neuropsych lab. She did mention that I will gain hands on experience in neuropsych assememnts a degree working with patients with dementia and Alzheimer's.

Also, I know you are a post-doc and in a neuropsychologist program (I think!), as a student coming from a low-income family household I am afraid to gamble with my chances. Therefore, I'm afraid of taking time off to become more competive but only fall short on my chances for acceptance. Like I said, I am a first gen and low-income, and my family is not too happy with me pursuing 6+ years of studies in psychology. What I am really asking from you is, can you share some of your wisdom and advice with me? The great thing about graduating from NYU is that I am debt free, all thanks to a generous scholarship.

Almost a postdoc! I start in September after I finish internship. I did all my grad school training in NY so we probably know similar people.

I agree with singasongofjoy. Becoming as competitive as possible over the next year can help you get into a partially or fully funded program. What you don't get in pay now, will help you minimize the amount of loans you'll need. 6 years of loans in a Phd or PsyD program is expensive and the interest rates inflate this very quickly. Also, it is hard to work while in a doctoral program, so you might need to take out loans for living expenses/books/conference fees, etc. Therefore, the more funding you can get the better off you will be. This is probably the best advice I can give. My family and significant other pushed me to get into a PhD program ASAP. While I could not be more pleased with the training I received, taking a year or two off could have very likely saved me an unfathomable amount of money later on.

Good luck and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!