gradPSYCH - November 2011 - (Page 16)
DEGREE INSIGHT
Grad school
Eight hazards to avoid on the way to your degree.
BY JEN USCHER he journey toward your doctorate, while rewarding, is full of potential pitfalls. Looking back, some former students regret that they worried so much or that they didn’t publish their research. Others wish they had communicated better with their advisers or finished their programs sooner. To help you sidestep such common laments, gradPSYCH asked advanced graduate students, early career psychologists and other experts to share their biggest mistakes. They recommend that you: Don’t view your dissertation as a burden. “I treated my dissertation like a beast that needs to be conquered and saw other students doing the same,” says Susan G. Vitti, PhD, a clinical psychologist in New York City who graduated from Adelphi University in 2003. Now she feels she would have gained more from the experience if she had viewed at it as a learning opportunity. Tara Kuther, PhD, a psychology professor at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, says you’ll be much less likely to develop a negative attitude toward your dissertation if you start working on it as early as possible. “Start formulating some ideas that interest you and talking with the faculty about them during your first year in graduate school,” suggests Kuther, author of “Surviving Graduate School in Psychology: A Pocket
traps
Mentor” (APA, 2008). “For many of us, putting it off is what makes it stressful and overwhelming.” Don’t take criticism personally. If you’ve slaved over a paper and crave praise and recognition, a professor’s critical feedback can really sting. But experts say it helps to remember that he or she is criticizing the work, not you. “I find that if I can distance myself a bit from my work, I can read critical comments in a more open way,” says Kuther. “Sometimes that means taking some time before I read the feedback, and some more time before I reread the feedback and make plans to revise the paper.” Learning this skill will serve you throughout your career, says Shane Bush, PhD, a neuropsychologist in Long Island, N.Y. “It’s a part of the process any time you submit a paper to a journal, for instance, or apply for specialty board certification,” he says.
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Set a schedule. Priyanka Agrawal, a developmental psychology student at the Indian Institute of Technology–Delhi, suggests taking a structured approach toward adviser meetings. “Make a calendar and plan out milestones, like turning in a particular dissertation chapter by a certain time and then discussing it at your next meeting,” says Agrawal, who defended her dissertation this summer. “It will make you more disciplined and the process easier for everyone.” Touch base with your adviser at the beginning of each semester and figure out when you’ll meet, says Rachna Jain, PsyD,
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16 • gradPSYCH • November 2011
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of gradPSYCH - November 2011
GradPSYCH - November 2011
Contents
Most practice-oriented psychology students Google their clients
Does romance quash women’s interest in science?
Goodbye to the ad hoc postdoc
Graduate students take on Capitol Hill
Media Picks
Odd Jobs
Research Roundup
Grad school traps
Chair’s Corner
Postgrad growth area: Designing workplace wellness programs
Study smart
Fighting food addiction
Matters to a Degree
Using social media in your research
Midlife grad students
Are you really ready for private practice?
Bulletin Board
Jobs, internships, postdocs and other opportunities
The Back Page
gradPSYCH - November 2011
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