[Social-sciences-list] Doctoral Programs

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Jeannie and all,
I only took a semester off between my bachelor's degree and my
doctoral program, to attend the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
However, I think it's becoming increasingly common to take a longer
time off to work in research or in the field and develop one's skills
before going to grad school. In fact, at least in experimental social
psych, it's difficult to get admitted to grad school without
substantial research experience. Completion of an honors thesis at the
bachelor's level and/or a master's thesis is considered substantial
research experience, as is working for several years in a lab.
In some fields you can get a master's degree separately from a Ph.D.
(a "terminal master's") but in other fields, like mine, the master's
is integrated and you get it midway through the doctoral program.
A nice surprise (or it was for me) is that many doctoral programs are
funded. This means the university pays your tuition and pays you a
modest living salary in exchange for part-time employment (usually
teaching, but can be for additional research duties instead). My
program pays all of my tuition and I earn just under $20,000 annually
as a part-time employee to the university. I was recently awarded a
graduate fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to support
my research, which means I will get a stipend directly from NIH
without needing to teach.
Employment beyond half-time is discouraged, and additional university
employment requires special approval. Some doctoral students in my
program request additional teaching hours and earn additional salary
for them. I have been working part-time (5 hours per week or less) as
a psychology tutor for the university athletics department for the
past 15 months and it has been a very rewarding job without being
overly demanding. The university also subsidizes most of our health
insurance costs (~80%). The only educational expenses we are
responsible for is student fees, which run around $500 per semester
and are sometimes partially subsidized by additional department
fellowships. Of course, this is just my field, and counseling psych or
any other doctoral program could be completely different. I am told
that terminal master's programs are rarely funded, though.
Arielle