I can assure all concerned, that after doing a full year NSF sponsored undergraduate research fellowship in psych and law through the University of Nebraska, this student knows exactly what "real" forensic psych is all about :) My student does not want to be a profiler.
But still think that Ed's point is well made--the competition is getting much stronger, even in the nonclinical areas that traditionally were "relatively" easier to get into. My student's coming by at tomorrow morning and I'm going to share many of your ideas with her. Including re-exploring the law school admission because I believe that it is the one linked to the forensic psych phd/jd program in Nebraska (I might be wrong but both are in Nebraska--what do I know?). I think she has some perspective on this that normally the students in that program do all of their phd coursework first and then do the jd work while working on their research. So she is worried about being backwards, but I may be able to give her some ideas to re-evaluate that thinking. I was also surprised at how many social programs she was applying to. But when she showed me the researchers she hoped to work with in each case, clearly the work was related to various aspects of psych and law. All of your ideas have been very helpful. As an aside, I had a student two years ago who did want to be a profiler. And did get into a program at the John Jay school of criminology in NYC. There really is something for everybody :) Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:59:07 -0400 >From: "Pollak, Edward" <[email protected]> >Subject: RE:[tips] graduate program admissions >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" ><[email protected]> > > > > Regarding the highly qualified student who was > rejected from all the social/forensic programs to > which she applied: > > I have three possible reasons: > > 1) The economy has caused many more students to > apply to graduate schools instead of looking for > jobs. > > 2) It used to be that a plurality of my advisees > wanted to be "child psychologists." Nowadays, that > would be "forensic psychologists." They all want to > profile serial killers for the FBI. I can only > wonder if they don't get a bad taste in their > mouths when some of these social programs hear that > a student wants "forensic psychology." Unless the > student was very specifc about her interests, I > might assume that she was a) trying to "back door" > into clinical/forensics or b) was clueless as to > what most forensic psychologists do. > > 3) perhaps the economy has dramatically reduced the > amount of support available in social sych and > the schpools are loathe to admit students without > such support. > > I'm just free associating here. And I DO feel > for tnhis poor student. > > > > > > > > Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. > > Department of Psychology > > West Chester University of Pennsylvania > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & > bluegrass fiddler...... in approximate order of > importance. > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: > [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a21b0&n=T&l=tips&o=1435 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL > if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-1435-13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=1441 or send a blank email to leave-1441-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
