Pat Cabe wrote:
>
> Folks,
> What is your experience advising students who do a psychology undergraduate
> major then go off to, say, law school or medical school or business school
> (that is, a non-psych professional school) or to a graduate program in a field
> that is not psych/social sciences (I think of one person I know who went to a
> geology graduate program, for instance)?
>
> I think I can advise students fairly well about the things they should be doing
> as undergraduates if they want to go to graduate school in psychology. But I'm
> not at all confident about by own ability to advise psych students who have
> other ambitions. Are there differences in what these students should be doing?
> What might such differences be? What do you tell your students?
>
I try to provide a good general education with psychology as an
emphasis, and not soley a prep for grad school in psych. Of course, I
am happy when students wish to go on in psych--well, actually not happy
with all those who wish to go on ;-) but you know what I mean.
We have a fair number that go on in criminal justice, social work,
business, etc and I encourage them in the same way I do other students;
that is, work on public speaking, building writing skills, critical
thinking and being an educated consumer. I feel the psych degree offers
many advantages independent of its possible use for psych grad
programs. I am trying to stress this point to our students more and
more. Many of our majors end up in educational and business settings
where I learn of their accomplishments. I stress in our psych student
advising manual both the diversity of fields possible with a psych
degree as well as the possibilities at the bachelors level.
> So what do other TIPS subscribers think? For example, how important are
> research experience, internships/field experience, relevant work experience,
> etc.? One assumes that solid grades and good admissions test scores are
> important, of course.
I think all of this is still valuable regardless of plans after the
undergrad degree. We are continually trying to provide a variety of
experiences--field work, research both in the lab and the field,
volunteer work, etc. Just some thoughts, Gary Peterson
>
> (910) 521-6630
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
> Thomas Jefferson
>
> "There is the danger that everyone waits
> idly for others to act in his stead."
> Albert Einstein
>
> "Majorities simply follow minorities.
> Gandhi
