| Getting Into A Psychology Graduate Program |
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Page 2 of 8 Your Last Summer as An Undergraduate During your last summer as an undergraduate, you want to begin rolling around the idea of graduate school. Sure, you just finished your junior year (or 4th year… or 5th year…) but you can’t begin to start thinking about graduate school early enough. Here are some good time frames: • May: Take a look at your previous grades in psych courses and decide what you’ve done well in. If you’re deciding on what area of psych you want to pursue graduate study in, this will help you narrow the field down to what you’re good in. • June: Start preparing for the dreaded GRE. The GRE is, in my opinion, one long excruciating trick question. A trick question that many graduate schools place HUGE amounts of emphasis on. Buying books or taking a GRE prep class is a great idea. Studying with friends (When done properly and without giggling over the word bacchanalia can also be extremely helpful. • July: Plan on taking the GRE for the first time in late July or early August. Visit www.gre.org or call 1-800-GRE-CALL (DO NOT CALL 1-800-CALL-GRE…). You may schedule at any test center for pretty much any time of the day you’d like. I recommend calling at least 3 weeks in advance. The cost for the General test is $130, and the subject test (which you’ll take later) is around $115. • August: Plan to fall flat for a week or so after you first take the GRE (If you’re one of the lucky ones who only take it once and gets a great score, congratulations!). Then get back on your feet and schedule your second attempt for mid-September. You want to be done with this GRE crap by September 30 at the latest. Fall of your Senior Year 
Fall of your senior year will be your busiest time as far as the application process goes. It can be VERY intimidating and stressful. Planning early is the KEY to success!• September: Finish up all the GRE junk this month and make sure you register early for the Psychology Subject test. If you would want to take GRE again, schedule it for Mid October or Mid November. Remember – you’ll have a psych GRE to take as well, and you don’t want to neglect your classes this semester with GRE studying. Some graduate programs do not require the subject test, but most do. To be on the safe side, plan on taking in November, so that you’ll have your results by mid-December. In September, you should be looking at schools and deciding which ones you want to apply to. Most students apply to 6 – 10 schools. I played it conservative and only applied to 5. It kept me sweating throughout the spring as I only had 5 rolls of the roulette wheel of life! o Also, remember to be diligent about due dates for applications. Most are Jan. 1, some are Dec 1 however!• October: Download or acquire all the admissions materials you’ll need for your schools. I suggest getting a file folder for each school to keep everything organized. o Make a list of each school and what applications materials they want. o Prepare and distribute packets of materials to your recommendation letter writers. o Acquire envelopes / postage for your applications.• November: Take the Psych GRE and then take a sigh of relief. If you needed to take the GRE another time, this is also the month to do it. Then buckle down and study for your classes this fall semester (remember those?). Finish the semester with a good set of grades and proceed to December. • December: Put your final touches on your applications and mail them out. If you haven’t requested score reports from ETS (your GRE scores) then do that early in the month. Shoot to have everything out by Dec. 10 as most programs have a Jan. 1 deadline. |
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