Stuart Korshavn, St. Norbert College, Career & Graduate School Decisions

Stuart Korshavn, Ph.D. Go to my Faculty Home Page

Career and Graduate School Decisions

Careers | Graduate School | Personal essay and letters of recommendation

Careers

Career Services, St. Norbert College. Career Services provides comprehensive assistance to students and alumni. This assistance ranges from selecting majors to planning for future careers and professions. Career Services maintains mutually beneficial partnerships with professionals, including alumni.

What can I do with a degree in psychology? This four-page brochure, available through SNC Career Services, outlines the areas in which students interested in psychology find employment (Human services, Research, Human resources, Public relations, Advertising, Market research, Teaching, Retailing (management), Sales), the types of employers in each area, and how students can prepare to be successful in a career in each area.

Psychology: Careers for the twenty-first century (pdf, November 2003). This on-line version of the American Psychological Association career booklet describes what psychology is, the job outlook in psychology for the text two decades, what psychologists do and where they do it, and how to get ready to work in psychology. A wide range of career options are described: conducting research, promoting health, helping educate, providing social services, and assisting business and industry.

Career and employment articles from Eye on Psi Chi, the magazine of Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology for undergraduate students. Click here

Divisions of the American Psychological Association. Many of the the 53 divisions of APA provide career and education information related to their specific areas of interest.

Careers in Psychology. This site, maintained by Margaret Lloyd, Ph.D., Georgia Southern University, offers an excellent collection of on-line resources to help students make informed decisions about their futures. These resources are relevant to all psychology students, those who plan and those who do not plan to pursue a graduate degree, those who seek a psychology-related career and those who do not.

Finding a job: Career resources for psychology students (PsychSTAC Online) This site, maintained by Vincent W. Hevern, SJ, PhD, Le Moyne College, provides links to general career planning and job hunting skills and strategies, information about careers in psychology, and desriptions of the types of jobs one can obtain with a Bachelor's, Master's or doctoral degree in psychology.

Online Psychology Career Center This site, maintained by Scott Plous, PhD, Wesleyan University, is designed to be a one-stop resource for psychology students and professionals. It offers guidance on gaining admission to graduate school, advice on preparing for the Graduate Record Exam, suggestions for developing an academic vita, hints for obtaining good letters of recommendation. It also provides a searchable database of hundreds of job listings in psychology.

Data on education and employment: Baccalaureate-level. The data reported here by the Research Office of the American Psychological Association are based on national surveys of students completing undergraduate degrees in psychology. The 1995 APA Survey of 1992 Psychology Baccalaureate Recipients is a particularly informative report.

Occupational Outlook Handbook. This Bureau of Labor Statistics site is a nationally recognized source of career information. It describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations. Employment in the approximately 250 occupations covered in the Handbook accounts for about 7 out of every 8 jobs in the economy. The occupational information presented here provides valuable assistance to individuals making career decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook can be searched by keyword. Some entries that might be of particular interest to students of psychology are:
Psychologist
Counselor
Social Worker
Human Services Worker
Social Scientist
College & University Faculty Member
Personnel, Training, and Labor Relations Specialist or Manager
Management Analyst or Consultant

A student's guide to careers in the helping professions. This site, maintained by Melissa J. Himelein, University of North Carolina at Asheville, describes 15 helping professions both within and outside psychology. For each of the helping professions, information is provided on typical job duties, job outlook, potential earnings, equired professional degrees, finding graduate programs, and graduate entrance requirements, and sources of additional information.

Social Work Graduate School: How to Get In. Along with considering graduate education in psychology, students interested in careers helping others might want to consider graduate education in social work. This site includes links to rankings (2000, US News) of the top 80 MSW programs in the country and also a state by state list of CSWE accredited programs.

Licensing. Mental health and human services professionals are licensed by the state. The Wisconsin Department of Regulation & Licensing provides information about and sets forth the requirements for licensing as a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, professional counselor, social worker, advanced practice social worker, licensed clinical social worker, The Division of Professional Regulation provides information about and sets forth the requirements for licensing for the state of Illinois.

Life beyond clinical practice, academic research and teaching. A growing number of people earning graduate degrees in psychology are forging ahead in new, less traveled directions. They're finding that employers increasingly recognize--and crave--the skills psychologists have, from critical-thinking, to an understanding of human behavior and a grounding in statistics.
The career path less traveled. APA Monitor, February 2001. Profiles 21 psychologists who have recently completed their graduate training and are now working in non-academic settings.
Psychological scientists in the private sector. APS Observer, Ongoing series. Profiles more than 20 research psychologists with non-academic careers.
Gradaute School -- General | Specific Fields
- Articles on gradaute education in psychology and related fields from Eye on Psi Chi, the magazine of Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology for undergraduate students. Click here
- The Fellowships and Scholarships Committee of St. Norbert College has prepared a resource page for students seeking financial aid in support of graduate study.
- National Collegiate Honors Council maintains a list of links to major scholarships and fellowships supporting advanced undergraduate study and graduate study.
- Psychology Ph.D. Programs, General
  - Graduate Admissions in Psychology: I. The Application Process An article in a recent issue of Eye on Psi Chi the magazine of the national honor society in psychology.
  - Graduate Admissions in Psychology: II. Acceptance Rates and Financial Considerations The second article in a series from a recent issue of Eye on Psi Chi the magazine of the national honor society in psychology.
  - Psychology Ph.D. programs in the United States. This page contains a comprehensive listing of and links to 185 psychology PhD programs across the United States. The schools are rank-ordered in quality according to the results of a 1995 study conducted by the National Research Council.
  - The Gourman Report Rankings of Programs in Psychology contains links to 40 top psychology Ph.D. programs ranked in quality according to the Princeton Review's "Gourman Report of Graduate Programs" (8th edition, 1997).
  - U.S. News and World Report RankingsThis site provides rankings of Ph.D. programs in fields ranging from biology to sociology. In psychology, overall rankings are provided for the top 5 of 176 Ph.D. prgrams. Rankings for the top programs in clinical psychology, experimental psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and Industrial/Organizational Psychology are provided.
  - Comparison of ratings. This table compares the ratings reported by US News, the NRC and Gourman for top Ph.D. programs in psychology.
- Psychology Ph.D. Programs, Specific fields
  - Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada.This page contains a comprehensive listing of and links to 183 doctoral clinical psychology programs (Ph.D., Psy.D., Ed.D.). The schools are rank-ordered according to average scores on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology for students graduating between 1988 and 1995. The Gourman Report Rankings of Programs in Clinical Psychology contains links to 24 top clinical psychology Ph.D. programs ranked in quality according to the Princeton Review's "Gourman Report of Graduate Programs" (8th edition, 1997).
  - Graduate Programs in Social Psychology. This site provides links to numerous PhD programs in social psychology. The links are listed in alphabetical order. The Gourman Report Rankings of Programs in Social Psychology contains links to 32 top social psychology Ph.D. programs ranked in quality according to the Princeton Review's "Gourman Report of Graduate Programs" (8th edition, 1997).
  - Graduate Programs in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. This site provides brief descriptions of all MA and PhD programs in Industrial and Organizational Psychology in the United States. Gateway to I/O Programs provides links to many graduate programs in industrial and organizational psychology. The links are in alphabetical order.The Gourman Report Rankings of Programs in I/O Psychology contains links to 17 top I/O psychology Ph.D. programs ranked in quality according to the Princeton Review's "Gourman Report of Graduate Programs" (8th edition, 1997).
  - Behavioral Medicine Training Programs in the United States and Canada This directory, maintained by the Society of Behavioral Medicine, is an informal resource on education and training opportunities in the interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine. You may search the directory by area of specialiaztion, (e.g., coronary heart disease, cancer) or by geographical region to locate predoctoral, internship, postdoctoral and other training experiences.
  - Graduate Programs in Applied Behavior Analysis This directory, maintained by the Association for Behavior Analysis, can be searched by area of emphasis, minimum GPA and GRE scores required, accreditation, and location.
- Graduate Record Examinations Program, Educational Testing Service. This site provides information about the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Program. Most graduate programs expect applicants to submit scores from the General Test of the GRE. The General Test measures developed verbal, quantitative, and analytical abilities. Some programs expect applicants to submit score from the Subject Test which measures achievement in a specific field, such as psychology.
Personal essay and letters of recommendation.
- Along with helping students make career decisions and plans for graduate education, members of the psychology faculty are also very willing to help students prepare their application materials. If you wold like one of us to work with you in this way, please review the materials on this page. We have described how we approach the process and what we expect of students as we work with them.

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