Being an AiO in the United States, from Start to Finish

1
Being an AiO in the United States, from Start to
Finish

• Pamela K. Smith
• Radboud University Nijmegen
• (Ph.D. from New York University)
• p.smith_at_psych.ru.nl

2
Overview

• Getting in How to apply for a graduate student
  position in the U.S.
• Surviving and thriving What its like to be a
  graduate student in the U.S.

3
A quick comment on terms

• What is a graduate student?
• Officially, it is someone who has their
  bachelors degree and is now working towards a
  masters degree or Ph.D.
• However, in the U.S., most people who want to get
  a Ph.D. in social psychology go straight into a
  Ph.D. program after receiving their bachelors
  degree
• So when I say graduate student, I mean Ph.D.
  student, someone working on their Ph.D.

4
The application process

• You apply in the fall to start in the fall of the
  following year
• Application deadlines vary by university, but are
  generally from early December to middle of
  January
• From January to April, you find out if you got in
  or not (maybe you have to interview too)
• You have until April 15 to decide whether you
  will accept an offer from a school
• If you accept an offer, you generally start in
  late August/early September

5
Picking universities

• I wrote universities, not university, for a
  reason People usually apply to multiple places
• You are applying to a department, NOT to work
  with a specific person on a specific project!
• Look for places where you would be happy working
  with more than 1 person
• However, in your application you will indicate
  the people with whom you want to work
• www.socialpsychology.org source for rankings of
  schools and lots of other info

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Questions to consider when picking universities

• What kind of research am I interested in doing?
• Your interests may change (and faculty may
  move!), so look for places with more than 1
  person whose work interests you
• Where am I willing to live?
• What sort of funding can I get? How much teaching
  will it require?
• How hard is it to get indo I have a real chance?
• You can find this information on websites, in
  books, and by contacting the university directly

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The application

• Online applications common
• Generally provide 5 main kinds of information
• Undergraduate grades
• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores general,
  sometimes also psychology
• Letters of recommendation (usually 3)
• Description of previous research experience
• Personal statement

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Useful resources

• Books on applying to graduate programs
• The Complete Guide to Graduate School Admission
  Psychology, Counseling, and Related Professions
• Getting in A Step-By-Step Plan for Gaining
  Admission to Graduate School in Psychology
• How one student got into Stanfords social
  psychology program http//www-psych.stanford.edu/
  amiawake/how/
• Dont forget to contact specific faculty and
  graduate students themselves!

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So youre in. Now what?

• How do you fill the 4-6 years it takes on average
  to get a Ph.D.?
• With classes
• With teaching
• With RESEARCH
• . . . and with a social life

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Ph.D. students take classes too

• Most Ph.D. programs in the U.S. make you take
  classes
• How many? Depends on the university
• At NYU, I took 16 courses in total (only 12 were
  required)
• Princeton University must take 5 courses
• Usually you complete most of your courses in your
  first 2 years
• I took 3-4 courses/semester for first 2 years,
  then 1 course/semester for next 2 years

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. . .but classes are not your first priority!

• Most classes are very interactive, with reading
  assignments, presentations, and in-class
  discussions
• Students need to be prepared enough to be active
  participants
• You need to pass, but classes are not the top
  priorityresearch is
• However, classes can be useful sources of
  research ideas
• Classes give you breadth and depth of
  knowledgethat means some classes will be fairly
  unrelated to your interests

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Comprehensive/Qualifying/ Preliminary exams

• Also known as comps or quals or prelims
• Taken at the end of your second year or beginning
  of your third year
• Come in different forms
• A thesis (usually convering the research you did
  in the first 2 years)
• A written exam (take-home or in-house)
• An oral exam
• Some universities do more than 1 of the above,
  some universities dont do this at all
• You have to pass this before you can continue and
  get your Ph.D.

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My experience at NYU

• The summer after my second year we had comps
• Take-home exam 72 hours to answer 4 out of 5
  questions
• Could write no more than 5 pages (double-spaced,
  12 point font) per question
• Could not ask people for help, but could use all
  notes, articles, books we wanted
• Spent 1.5 months preparing for it, filled a
  cabinet drawer with notes, papers
• BUT. . . almost everyone who took comps at NYU,
  passed them

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How often do you have to teach?

• That depends on. . .
• what sort of funding you have
• Some funding stipulates that you must teach for a
  certain number of semesters
• what the requirements are for a Ph.D.
• At NYU, I had to teach at least 2 classes to be
  allowed to receive a Ph.D.

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Teaching as a grad student being a TA

• TA teaching assistant
• At many universities, graduate students almost
  never teach an entire class themselves
• Professors teach a large lecture course, then
  students attend discussion sections (similar to
  werkgroupen) related to the lecture
• These discussion sections are taught by TAs
• In sections, TAs answer questions about the
  lecture, discuss additional material
• TAs often also responsible for grading papers,
  other assignments, exams

16
Research!

• In the U.S. you generally work on several
  projects as a graduate student
• Probably at least one of these projects will not
  be with your advisor
• Could be with other faculty, even other grad
  students
• As a grad student, you are allowed to publish
  without your advisors name being on the paper
• The goal is to become an independent researcher
  with multiple lines of research

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Advisors

• In the U.S., your advisor can be an assistant
  professor (UD), associate professor (UHD), or a
  full professor (hoogleraar)
• You do not have to work with a full professor
  unless you want to
• There are pros and cons of working with junior
  faculty
• There are pros and cons of working with senior
  faculty

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Independence from the advisor

• Often you are less dependent on your advisor in
  the U.S. than you are in the Netherlands
• You are usually paid by departmental funds rather
  than by your advisor
• It is often expected that you will work with
  multiple people (and that your advisor will not
  be involved in all of these projects)
• It is often not hard to switch advisors
• You simply talk to both parties involved, then
  notify the department
• BUT this is not true of all U.S. universities or
  all advisors!

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The issue of IRBs

• Before you can do any research, that research
  will need to be approved by an Institutional
  Review Board (IRB)
• The IRBs job is to determine if your research is
  ethically okay
• Depending on where you are, this process can take
  weeks
• Sometimes IRBs only meet once or twice a month

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The dissertation

• Compared to Dutch dissertations, U.S.
  dissertations are short
• They generally represent one line of research
• They generally consist only of work you have done
  in your last 1-2 years of grad school
• My dissertation consisted of 5 studies (typical
  for the type of research I did)
• In the U.S., do not make books of your
  dissertation to give to people

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The dissertation process

• Varies by university (like everything else!)
• During third year (sometimes in beginning of
  fourth year) you write a proposal for your
  dissertation and get it approved by your proposal
  committee
• Then you spend the next 1-2 years collecting data
  and writing your dissertation
• Its not as rushed as it soundssometimes people
  (like me) collect some data before the proposal
  is approved

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The dissertation timetable for me

• Warningthis is not typical!
• March 2003 came up with idea
• April 2003 started collecting data
• November-December 2003 wrote and defended
  proposal
• April 2004 finished collecting data
• May 2004 wrote dissertation
• June 10, 2004 defended dissertation

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The dissertation defense (promotie)

• Begin with a short presentation of your
  dissertation (10-20 minutes long)
• Then committee asks you questions
• The defense is generally NOT public
• Sometimes the short presentation is open to the
  public, but before the questioning everyone
  leaves except the committee
• There is NO time limit for the questioning period
• 1.5-2 hours is typical
• You are done when you have answered all the
  committees questions to their satisfaction
• Usually no big party afterwardsjust informal
  celebrating

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Its not a job, its a passion

• Graduate school in the U.S. is intense
• You are expected to work far more than 40 hours a
  week
• You can choose your hours, since you generally
  have 24/7 building access
• Students may come in not much before lunchtime,
  then stay until late in the evening
• Coming to the university on weekends is not
  uncommon
• However, not all those hours at the university
  are spent hard at work

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It has to be a passion because it doesnt pay
like a job!

• Graduate students in the U.S. are generally paid
  less well than graduate students in the
  Netherlands
• They are students, not employees
• Graduate stipends (the money you get to live on)
  vary between universities, but this variation
  does not completely make up for differences in
  cost of living
• A graduate student at NYU will find it harder to
  make ends meet than a graduate student at OSU
• You also get less money for conferences
• Often must pay part of conference expenses
  yourself
• Find ways to save money (e.g., share a hotel room
  with 4 other students)

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. . . but even U.S. grad students have fun too
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The social side of social psychology

• Because new grad students only start at one time
  every year (Aug-Sep), you have a cohort
• You go through similar things at similar times
• Can commiserate, provide support
• For example, I prepared and studied for comps
  with my cohort

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Cohort togetherness
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The social side (cont.)

• In the U.S., people rarely get their Ph.D. at the
  same place they received their bachelors degree
• You are not the only new kid on the block!
• Foreign students are common at many universities
• In fact, a current grad student in NYUs social
  program is from the Netherlands
• Foreign faculty are also fairly common
• Better universities and universities in bigger
  cities are more likely to have foreign students,
  faculty