Career Minded

I regret to inform you...

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:16:41 +0000

It's that time of year when grad school hopefuls check the mail every day to see if they are Accepted or Rejected. Let's address the bad news first.

Rejection can be tough, and if you got a rejection letter you don't need me to tell you about it. There are two things you need to consider when you are rejected to graduate school: Why did you get rejected, and what do you do now?

There are many reasons you might be rejected from a graduate program. Sometimes you have a good feel for your shortcomings (e.g. low GRE or GPA scores), other times you won't know why you were rejected. Your rejection may simply be a a poor fit. You might be a great candidate, with excellent letters of recommendation, high scores and a 4.0 GPA, but if your interests don't dovetail into the interests of the lab... then you might be passed over for a candidate with a better fit.

Sometimes it is a good idea to contact the department for more information about why you were rejected. You can get information about the weaknesses in your application and how you might be able to correct them for next year. But large schools generally have too many applicants to take the time and respond to each student that was rejected. It may be that your application was strong, but this year the school didn't have enough funding to take all of the otherwise qualified applicants.

Looking ahead, you should review the schools that you applied to, make sure you are a good fit. Also be sure you apply to no fewer than six schools next time. Target two or three 'safety' schools, two or three state schools and maybe one or two top-notch schools. Clean up your applications and apply early this time! In the mean time you can take summer classes to up your GPA. If possible you could take summer classes at one of the school to which you will apply. If possible find a psychology lab or clinic where you could get some experience.
Another possibility is an intermediate master's degree. Many schools offer a terminal master's degree is experimental psychology. Even though it may be an unfunded position (you have to pay your own way), showing that you can succeed in graduate school is a great way to improve your application. Often times schools which might not have had funding to admit you into the PhD program might be able to find a place for you in their master's program.

In short, be of good courage. Many aspiring graduate students fail to get into the program of their dreams the first time. Whatever the reason may be, there is no need to despair. Now that you are familiar with the process, have enough time to more thoroughly research schools, and can submit a better application there is no reason to think you won't be opening an acceptance letter this time next year.

And if you have opened an acceptance letter, then check back for my next post: Things to do when you are Accepted.

Rejection photo courtesy of Janet59

Reading Groups

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:23:05 +0000

Reading groups are a great activity whether you are an undergraduate looking for ways to pad your CV and get good letters of recommendation, or a graduate student wanting to be more involved in your program. Seeking out groups that read, discuss and critique peer-reviewed articles is also a great way to immerse yourself in the literature of your field. In this post I will discuss three of the reading groups that I have participated in, as well as suggest some ways to choose and participate in these types of reading groups.

The first reading group I was involved in at my current institution was called the Biological Basis of Behavior (BBoB), a multi-domain (Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Philosophy, and more) discussion group sponsored by the Behavioral Neuroscience division of the psychology department. The discussion leader sends out an article 1-2 weeks before the group meets, and discussants email in comments and questions about the article. Every three weeks during the 1 hour meeting the leader begins by summarizing the paper, and then attempts to address the comments of the group. There is a mix of mainly faculty, some graduate students and a few undergraduates present. The discussion leaders are generally faculty in the fall and graduate students in the spring. The most advantageous aspect of BBoB is the option to e-mail in comments, this allows students to contribute even if they don't have enough personality to compete with faculty in the actual meeting. It is also refreshing to see what papers students choose to present in the spring, and is a great opportunity for graduate students to advertise their interests to faculty. The disadvantage is the high proportion of faculty to students, which means that discussions can sometime revolve around minutiae of interest only to the most invested of readers, and domination of the discussion by faculty. Of course it is also worthwhile to hear faculty debate amongst themselves, and often quite entertaining.

The second reading group I have been attending is the Animal Behavior Discussion Group (ABDG), sponsored by the biology department. This group is similar to BBoB, except that it meets every week, and has a much smaller faculty presence. While not always directly pertinent for my own studies, this discussion group has provided lots of valuable information on the perspectives of a field of science that is distinct but related to my own discipline. The big student presence means that discussions tend to focus on the methods and topics of the paper being presented, and often revolve around understanding the unique features and flaws of the science as published. It is also advantageous to network with students and faculty in related fields as they may be good choices for collaborators on future work.

The last reading group I've been involved with is a grant writing group that hasn't created an acronym yet. The goal of the group is to get students and faculty to help each other read and write grant proposals in an effort to secure more funding for the individuals and the institution. While this group has met irregularly and infrequently I have to say it has certainly been the most valuable. The grant writing process is both arcane and arduous, and having some guidance from those that have been through it has proven invaluable. So I would highly recommend any sort of skill-building group that can help you get an edge when entering unfamiliar territory.

While this post has been entirely biased by my personal experiences, I'm hoping that it will help you recognize the advantages of getting involved in reading groups at your school. It's a great way to become known by your professors and to learn about the recent events in psychology. If your school doesn't have a reading group, check nearby schools, or start your own!

Waiving Your Rights

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:13:00 +0000

As students have been submitting applications for graduate school, one question that I've been asked many times over is: "Should I waive my right to read the letters of recommendation submitted on my behalf?" The short answer is yes.

Soliciting letters of recommendation is an important part of the graduate school application process. Sure, programs are interested in your grades, your GRE scores, and your personal statement, but it can be argued that the letters are the most influential component of your application since it speaks directly to your abilities as observed by faculty. So it is important to solicit good letters, and to submit them appropriately. Let's start with how to get a good letter.

During your undergraduate career it is important to seek opportunities to foster relationships with your professors; you want professors to know who you are, and have a lot to draw from when writing a letter for you. The more that you have done for your professors the more they will be able to write in a letter of recommendation. Here are some situations that provide for greater student-professor interaction (many of these are also good for your CV):

Taking courses: Taking your courses with the same group of professors will help them recognize you and evaluate your in-class academic performance. Be sure to be an active member of classroom discussions, because bad students get bad letters.
Getting involved: Student organizations (e.g., Psi Chi) often require faculty sponsorship and involvement. Becoming an officer would show them your leadership skills
Research Labs: If your professor has a research lab, find a way to join it!
Student Instructors: If your university offers a student instructor program, SI-ing for your professors will allow them to evaluate your teaching ability.
Join Committees: Some departments have advisory committees that are composed of students and faculty. Joining such a committee would afford your the opportunity to display your professionalism.
Office Hours: This can be a dangerous if you go too often, but having a conversation or two with your professor during office hours is another good way to develop a personal relationship.

There is even more strategy that can be employed in regards to letters. Picking professors with connections to programs in which you are interested will make their letters more influential. If your professor graduated from a school to which you are applying (Or perhaps a colleague of your professor, or a former student is in charge of the program), it is likely they know who will be reading the letter they write. So, how do you find out about these connections? A great way is to ask. Ask your professors, "I am interested in and going on to graduate school, do you know anyone offering programs in that area?"

When you ask professors for letters, you need to ask in person, and provide them with everything they need to write the letter. And I mean everything. Give them a folder with a summary of your academic life. Include: A list of extra-curricular activities (honor-societies, etc.), awards that you won, papers that you wrote, labs in which you worked, other work experience, your grades, a list of classes you took, your CV, the personal statement that you will submit, your favorite vegetable, all the materials they will need to send the letter (an addressed envelope with stamp). Everything.

Lastly, it is important to waive your right to read the letters. I know you might be curious as to what your professors think about you, but if there was any doubt in your mind about what they would be writing, you shouldn't have asked them. Refusing to waive, implies a lack of trust in the letter-writer and that is not something you want them to be thinking while they write a letter about you. Not only this, I suspect it implies a level of self-doubt to the reviewers that will be reading your application. Always waive.

Developing a Thick-Skin

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:18:52 +0000

Most of you are familiar with the light-side of science; designing empirical experiments, discovering new information, presenting data and crafting theories. But that is only half of the picture. There is also the often ignored dark-side of science; correcting flawed experiments, criticizing inappropriate data analysis, and tearing down the ideas of fellow scientists. Yes, the peer-review process is a harsh mistress but is equally important to the scientific process (some might argue more so) as its light-sided counterpart. As such, developing a thick-skin to the criticism of others, is a vital step for any developing scientist.

Criticism can come from peers, mentors, review-committees, editors, parents, the media, and anyone else who might be privy to your work. First we should begin with an operational definition of criticism, from Merriam-Webster we find: a critical (exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation) observation or remark. That sounds about right. We usually attach a negative connotation to criticism, but that's not necessarily the case. Criticism can come in many different forms, for example...

Praise: This is the easiest feedback to swallow. Unfortunately it is also not very useful. Don't get me wrong everyone wants to hear that they are doing things right, and to keep up the good work. Better than an "attaboy" is true critical praise where insight about where you went right is revealed. Receiving praise, however, rarely motivates you to improve.That said feel free to send me praise anytime. Please?

Constructive Criticism: Likely the easiest negative comments to swallow. The kindly advice of your peers points out ways in which you can improve. Motivated by a desire to see you achieve, constructive criticism is your best friend. It can still be tough to hear where you went wrong, but the goal of constructive criticism is to make suggestions for improvement. This is the criticism you want to take to heart,as it can only help you improve.

Self-promoting Criticism: When you have presented a research talk about disgust sensitivity and superstitious conditioning and you get the question, "Did you find any interaction with circadian rhythms?" you know you are the victim of this type of insidious criticism. The key is to recognize it for what it is: the asker wants to talk about her own research, or a clever idea she had. Common mistakes in dealing with these questions is to argue against them ("Circadian rhythms have nothing to do with this.") or admit failure ("We didn't think about that at all."). A better solution is to throw the ball back into the asker's court and let her talk about her ideas ("That's an interesting point, how do you think circadian rhythms would affect the study as presented?"). This allows the asker to promote her ideas and you appear neither petulant nor incompetent. And it has the potential to become constructive criticism if (unlike my example) the points she raises are actually related to what you are researching.

Nitpicking: These are the annoying nettles that reviewers send. Usually about grammar (sometimes Latin grammar), formatting or semantics. It is usually easiest to just correct any nitpicks. Unless you know you are right, go ahead and make whatever changes are suggested by the nitpicker. Since for the most part it doesn't really matter, these criticisms are just white noise.

Bad Advice: This is the worst. When what looks like constructive criticism is actually destructive. Imagine if you were looking at social development in adolescent rats, and one of your measures was playfighting (pairing the rat with a same-gender rat to see them play). And you received the note that you have to look at cross-gender social interactions in your playfighting paradigm. This might seem like good advice at first glance, eliminating your imposed gender division of play-fighting partners sounds like something you'd want to do. Except that instead of play-fighting, you will observe mating, or at least attempted mating. So be on the look-out for bad advice. Your best bet is to solicit advice from several different sources, hopefully then you can better separate the wheat from the chaff.

So now that we know what types of criticism is out there, how do you take this criticism well? There are books and books about it, but I think the best advice I ever got came from a Terry Gross interview with actor Seth Green. Seth was talking about not being cast in roles he really wanted:

"I never took it as a failure on my part, I kinda had an objectivity at a young age that I really held onto where if you believe in a director or if you believe in a project in a project you have to respect their vision for what it is and if you don't fit that vision then you just don't fit. And there's a lot of times that no matter how good an actor you are that you're just not right for it. And I became very aware and zen about that."

So by that reasoning, if you've chosen a good pool of peers (mentor, colleagues, etc.) from which to solicit criticism, then you you can be reasonably certain that they are trying to do what is best for science when they give you feedback. Don't take it personally if your vision of a project, a paper, or a presentation doesn't mesh with their vision. Remember, by integrating their suggestions into your work will help make you a better scientist. No matter what the criticism it is always worthwhile to address it, at the very least you will dissuade others from making the same critical observations. In a future post I'll show some examples of feedback I (and my colleagues) have gotten on journal submissions, or other projects. But as a teaser here is some feedback we received about this (now published) paper:

"Only the questionnaire data are analysed. However, the subjects had a keyboard to try to control words. Even if self-report may be an interesting behaviour to study, subject probably uses their keyboard with a high rate. What is the rate of responding in each condition? What is the rate of responding on each button of the keyboard? Is the rate of responding related to self reports? Is the rate of responding to try to make the word "bad" appearing comparable to the rate to try to make the word staying at the screen? All these questions are important because directly related to the central question of the research."

I'd call that constructive criticism. We did in fact collect response rate data, but there were no correlations. Not to mention that the question of the relationship of response rate to superstition has been well answered in previous research. To address the criticism however we added this line: "The tendency for these behaviors to be unique to the individual organism has made traditional operant measures, such as response rates, less useful in assessing non-contingent reinforcement."

So just remember, in science you will present your ideas often. Just as often people will comment on your ideas, and you need to be prepared to deal with that. Good luck!

Writing Your Curriculum Vitae

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:11:00 +0000

First time authors of a Curriculum Vitae (CV or Vita) can easily be intimidated by the task. If you've never created a resume' or even if you have, knowing what to write, and how to write, and even in which order to write your vita is a challenge. Hopefully this post can point you in the right direction and by the time you submit your graduate school applications you can have a polished looking vita. Or if you are already in graduate school, dig out the vita you sent with your application and update it with all you've been doing; someday you'll be applying for post-doctoral fellowships or faculty positions and you'll want your vita to look its best.

Absolutely everything goes in your vita and as your academic career unfolds you'll increasingly add to this document. But as an undergraduate (and even as a graduate student), your vita might be a little sparse. Don't worry we can beef it up a bit by including some info that you will eventually prune away. There are many sites about vita-writing, and I'm not sure I could do any better than them. But I can share with you the Vita I enclosed with my grad school applications. This is it. I'm not saying it is the paragon vita that you should strive for; it is more of a cautionary tale, but let's walk through the document and I'll try to explain why it is what it is.

Education: I put this upfront because it seemed the most relevant. In retrospect I think it might've been pointless to list the A.S. I got along the way to my bachelor's (I got it because my job gave me education credit if I got a degree), and it really wasn't an important milestone. But I did want to list a lot of experiences that I had as a student, like founding an organization. Other vitas might put this information in a separate section, but I thought including it here would show my performance as a student (aside from my GPA). Which is another point: I see a lot of vitas with GPA or Psychology GPA listen in this section. That seems like a good idea, even if it is also reported on your transcripts. My GPA wasn't stellar and I discussed that in my statement of purpose so it was redundant (in a bad way) to put it here.

Academic Experience: This header is out of place and all of its sub-headers ought have been headers. I think. Nevertheless this section is out of control. The title actually sounds like where I should have put the items listed under education. Oh well, hindsight.

The next four sections look like a bibliography because it is. Publications are huge for grad school applications so I listed everything in APA 5th (more or less) format, including a paper that was in submission and a conference I was planning to attend (and did). All of that shows that you are active in research. Try to present your work as often as you can; that is the only way to get better at it. There are lots of undergraduate research conferences that you can attend and present a poster or talk, and you best take every chance you get.

Research Experience: This is another important section, in that it shows that you can work in a lab. You are familiar not only with learning science, but also with doing science. Goodness of fit is incredibly important to the faculty looking at your application and by showing that you have the knowhow and the elbow grease to gather data is a big step in showing that you could be a valuable addition to their lab as well.

I was out of things to say at this point so I threw in some jazz about my work history, thinking that Information Technology experience would be valuable no matter in which lab I work as there are a lot of computers in science.

Professional memberships seems out of place now that I look back; I could probably have included it with the other “academic experiences” I listed in the education section. But including this information also shows you are involved in the scientific community, which is good.

You can compare this with my current vita which is here. It looks a lot the same with a few things added a few things cut. But a vita is a living document and will be updated and changed many times throughout your academic career, so show it around to people and keep working on it from time to time. That way when you need it (and you will need it), it is ready for you.

Lastly I'll link you to a handful of vitas from some other research scientists. I'm not sure how useful these are if you are applying to graduate school, as these are quite long and may be intimidating. But keep in mind, this is what your vita will one day become.

David Diamond, PhD

Joshua D. Greene, PhD

Ken Carter, PhD

Mark Zervas, PhD

Hey What's Your Minor

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:37:50 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, tacking on a minor, or second major in your senior year is usually a bad idea. But a minor in a related area can be a great addition to your education if it is well planned. As APS Preseident John T. Cacloppo wrote in September of last year, "Psychology is a Hub Science." This means that psychology as a field integrates with a lot of other scientific disciplines and an academic background in these synergistic fields can make a huge difference in your graduate school applications (and thus your career as a research scientist). Adding in a second field of study is something that ideally would happen early in your academic career, however it is a rare thing to meet a college Freshman that won't change her major at least once during her college career. Peter Vogt, a MonsterTRAK Career Coach, claims that 60% of college students will change their majors at least once before graduating. So what are some useful disciplines to tack on to a psychology major?

Biology (and other Life Sciences): This is a great addition for almost all expirimental graduate programs. Ultimately psychology reduces to the study of the brain, a massively complex biological organ. A good understanding of the physiological underpinings of psychology opens up a plethora of research programs and funding opportunities, so much so that I would say this the best minor you could possibly add. Okay, let me mitigate that by saying that if you are interested in clinical psychology or industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, that biology isn't really necessary or even important.

English/Technical Writing: No matter what graduate program you go to, you will have to write a lot. From grant-writing and journal articles, to research proposals and your dissertation, you will have to write a lot. Having good language skills is a must in graduate school and you might as well get practice now. I'm not sure how much of a selling point this is on an application, but the skills you gain could be valuable.

Math: As a graduate student you will have to take quantitative statistics. If, for some strange reason, you are both good at stats and enjoy working with numbers, then you could make a career out of statistical analysis.

Computer Science, Philosophy, or Anthropology: These may be less intuitive choices, but for the field of cognitive science they make perfect sense. Cognitive science is a relatively new discipline that is the study of intelligence (or mind). Researching learning, memory, language, perception and artificial intelligence. The field is actually very interdisciplinary, and research seems to come from a lot of disparate sources. Outside of cognitive science these fields might still be useful, philosophy for example could be used in the emergent field of neuroethics, but I wouldn't count on them being a big draw for the majority of graduate programs.

Ultimately, adding a second discipline should be a carefully thought out decision. You should try to integrate the study of your minor (or second major) with psychology and allow enough time to complete both programs successfully. If you are a traditional student, then you are young and you have time, so even if it adds another year of undergraduate work, it may be well worth it in the long run. As always YMMV.

Getting Started

Mitch Harden, M.A. — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:27:00 +0000

If you are planning to go to graduate school, the summer before your senior year should be a busy one. By the start of fall semester you should have: determined your final year’s class schedule, taken the GRE, written your Curriculum Vitae (often CV or Vita), and contacted graduate students and potential mentors at graduate schools where you might apply. Each of these tasks can be daunting, especially if you don’t know where to begin.

The easiest of these tasks should be scheduling your final year of classes. You’ve been scheduled for classes all through your undergraduate career and senior year shouldn’t be any different. Unfortunately as you look to graduate school you often get ideas about adding a minor, or a second major. Popular choices are biology, philosophy, math, or chemistry. Each of these fields has significant interaction with psychology and it would be advantageous to have experience in them for certain (but not all) graduate school programs. Last minute changes in curriculum though will often require you to take a heavy course load your senior year, or--even worse--intensively scheduled summer school courses. Taking Organic Chemistry as a 6-week course when you don’t have a strong chemistry background is probably not a good idea. Neither is taking 12 hours of math courses in the fall on top of your psych courses, because all fall you will be busy applying for graduate school. You want to try to keep your fall semester relatively light so you can focus on your applications. In a later post I’ll talk more about the advantages of minors or double-majors, but just keep in mind that changes in the 11^th hour don’t often work out well.

Taking the GRE should be relatively straightforward as well. You probably already took a big standardized test (like the SAT or ACT) before you came to college in the first place. The GRE isn’t really much different. As psychology students you probably have been developing your verbal skills by writing and reading numerous papers as an undergrad. You likely didn’t spend near as much time on math. Practice, practice, practice. I can’t stress it enough; take every practice opportunity you get for the GRE. Often times Kaplan offers a practice administration; check on your campus to see. You can buy practice books, and take practice tests online as well. This score isn’t necessarily the end-all-be-all of your graduate applications, but it is often used as a limiting factor. If a graduate school gets 200 applications, and is accepting 6 students, they have to pare down the list somehow and it is easy to cut the bottom half of applicants based on GRE. The other question is whether or not to take the Psych Subject GRE. This psych specific test may be required at some programs, and that is the only reason to take it. If you’ve had a History & Systems course then many of the questions will be familiar, but the same advice about practice applies to the subject tests.

A Curriculum Vitae (CV), or vita, is like an academic resume’ listing all of your academic achievements, experiences and interests. It is a very important part of the process of applying to graduate school, not only because it relates to others your academic history and future, but also because it helps you to determine your possible specializations in the broader field of research psychology. If you’ve never seen a vita before you are welcome to check out mine here. Your vita is an opportunity for you to show how your unique combination of training, skills, and experience will fit in to the lab of your graduate school. Throughout your undergraduate career you have done things to develop your vita (whether you knew it or not); memberships to organizations like Psi Chi, leadership roles in any student organization, presentations at undergraduate conferences, work in a related field, related minors, or even taking special topic electives all go on your vita. Future posts will look more in-depth at ways to both develop your vita by both doing things and different ways to present your information.

Networking is huge. This summer you should be visiting the program pages of the graduate schools where you might apply. “But,” I hear you lament, “I’ve already gotten a stellar score on my GRE and my vita looks amazing.” These things may be true, but what graduate schools are looking for is ‘fit.’ You have to fit into the lab where you apply. Talking to potential mentors is a great way to establish your goodness of fit, and to determine how the program of research operates at your potential graduate school. Good questions to ask include (but are not limited to): “Your vita indicates that you have researched <TOPIC> in the past, are you continuing to research in this area?” “Are you currently taking on graduate students?” “What is your mentorship-style? How involved will you be in my academic development?” “Do you accept Master’s students?” “What are funding opportunities like at your institution?” and many more. The idea is to not only gather information that will be useful to you in applying but also to convey your research interests, so that before ever seeing any paper about you the professor has a good impression. I’m going to tease you one more time here and say, in future posts I’ll look more at how to choose a program, how to choose a mentor, and how to get involved in a program of research.

Hopefully these tips can help you get some direction on where to apply your time and energy over the summer break. If you wait until fall to get started on these graduate school application chores your coursework will surely suffer in the scramble!