Category Archives: Graduate School

Did you get my text? Processing biases over iMessage

The following dialogue occurred subsequent to last fall’s gradPSYCH blog post, “The Gift of They“ where an emerging psychologist embraced referring to his client using the plural pronoun of “they.”  

Leighna Harrison is the current Member-at-Large, Diversity Focus. James Garcia is the Chair for the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity (CARED).  Here is Leighna’s iMessage screenshot:

jamesleighna

Following this conversation, Leighna and James asked APAGS to post their conversation and these reflections:

From Leighna:  James and I text pretty regularly, day and night, across time zones, about anything and everything – school, work, APAGS, current events, reality TV, family, friends, romance, the list goes on. Our relationship is honest, respectful and very open. He is a colleague and a friend. When I first read The Gift of They, I knew that I was missing the point, but I didn’t know what it was. As a woman of color, who thinks a lot about questions of power and privilege, I thought whatever I was missing probably had to do with blind spots I have owing to my privilege as a cisgender individual. I decided to message James for a ‘reality check’ so to speak, in order to figure out what I was missing…

From James: My relationship with Leighna is one where we both feel respected as people with intersecting identities. We are regularly “there” for each other whenever we want to process experiences and situations where we have questions or witness inequities related to different social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, gender diversity among others). Our relationship has evolved into a mutual and solid base, where we feel comfortable to explore issues we may not be familiar with.

Now, back to you, dear reader:

  • What are your thoughts on having honest reflections like these?
  • Do you have a peer or trusted supervisor or mentor with whom you can reflect with?
  • Have you attempted to have these conversations with peers in your graduate program? If so, what was the outcome?

If you find you don’t have peers to have these discussions with, there are student groups you can join. One organization, Grad Students Talk, organizes periodic conference calls to discuss difficult topics in a safe space. If you know of other such student groups, please leave their info in the comments section.

State Leadership Conference–Connecting With a Common Goal

U.S. Capitol 1793-1863 Washington, DC, USA

U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC, USA

This past month, I experienced the thrill of “hitting the hill” and advocating for psychologists, graduate students, patients, and community members around the country amidst the hustle and bustle of our nation’s capitol. It was legislative advocacy day, the finale to end my time attending the American Psychological Association State Leadership Conference (SLC) in Washington DC. I had just spent the last four days engaging in training with leaders in diversity, early career issues, social reform, legislation reform, and much more as I participated in passionate conversations with psychologists and graduate students from throughout the nation who shared a single vision—advocacy.

As I stood with clinical psychologists from across Oregon, I felt a sense of power, ownership, and support as we walked to meet several local legislators who wanted to hear about the state of mental health in our nation. While speaking to representatives and their staff, it was an amazing—and nerve racking—experience to share the stories of my patients who are struggling to access quality mental health care. So many times as a student, I have found myself becoming frustrated and discouraged when I met with patients who were experiencing a mental health crisis but who were forced to wait for care in emergency departments, friend’s homes, or on the streets. When I was standing amidst other students and psychologists who cared about people who were suffering and who were advocating for them, it filled me with a sense of hope.

This sense of optimism stemmed from so many individual experiences I had with other people attending the State Leadership Conference. One specific experience took place the night I landed in Washington DC. I was meeting several APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team members (all happened to be women) for the first time at a local restaurant for dinner. As we sat together learning each other’s stories, I was struck by the amazing work that each woman was doing in her community. Additionally, I found myself genuinely interested in not only the professional accomplishments of each individual at the table, but also in her personal reasons for getting involved in advocacy and leadership with APAGS. It was comforting and encouraging seeing the faces of women representing various regions from across the country who cared about the same issues that I did.

I am incredibly grateful for the experience I had at SLC this year—for the connection, the support, and the engagement. From meeting with lawmakers who were honestly interested in hearing about the mental health crisis in our country, to engaging with fellow graduate students who had the tenacity to take on national issues, I have been energized by these interactions. I hope to take this same energy with me as I continue graduate school and grow as a future clinician; I hope one day to come back to SLC as a psychologist who is involved in meaningful change.

With hope,
~Roseann

[Editor’s Note: Roseann Fish Getchell is a clinical psychology student at George Fox University and a Northwest Regional Advocacy Coordinator for APAGS-ACT.]

Debt. Loans. Repayment. Terms likely to make any of us feel like….

Source: Self-portrait by user BrittneyBush on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

What can you do about your debt? Let us walk you through it. (Source: Self-portrait by BrittneyBush on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

…. and rush to click to another, safer page (Facebook!).

But whereas you can easily defer paying off your debt while still in school, you should not defer thinking about your debt and engaging in ongoing financial planning.

As in all cases, knowledge is power. Having access to accurate information about average debt loads and starting salaries is critical to ensure that you plan appropriately and have the best chances of managing your educational debt.

The cost of higher education continues to increase — not just in psychology but for most graduate student borrowers. Case in point: In 2012 the federal government stopped subsidizing student loans for graduate students, but we’re working on getting that subsidy restored through a bill introduced US Rep. Dr. Judy Chu! These increasing costs, compounded by the ever-escalating cost of living, are resulting in larger debt burdens for psychology graduate students.

Graduate Debt in Psychology: A Quantitative Analysis (Doran, Kraha, Reid Marks, Ameen, & El-Ghoroury) offers an up-to-date and comprehensive look at current debt and income levels among graduate students and early career psychologists (ECPs).

Here are some data highlights from the paper:

Debt Loads

  • The average debt for graduate students currently enrolled in a graduate program was $100,603.79 (Mdn = $80,000.00, SD = $77,623.76), with projected final debt loads of $129,717.56 (Mdn = $110,000.00, SD = $92,694.51).
  • Graduate students reported that they anticipated a final average debt load of $141,078.07 (Mdn = $120,000, SD = $97,811.72), including their debt from both undergraduate and graduate study.
  • Students seeking a Psy.D. degree (M = $173,239.29, Mdn = 160,000.00, SD = $78,711.10) reported higher levels of anticipated final debt than students seeking health-service Ph.D.’s (M = $111,590.14, Mdn = 76,500.00, SD = $96,561.01) and research/other Ph.D.’s (M = $68,684.21, Mdn = 72,500.00, SD = $43,977.33).
  • Early career psychologists reported that their final cumulative debt load (undergraduate and graduate) was an average of  $108,127.11 (Mdn = $98,000, SD = $73,817.32), which included debt from undergraduate and graduate study.

Income Levels

  • Early career psychologists reported that their average first year income was $63,260.85 (Mdn = $60,000.00, SD = $19,408.75).
  • They also reported an average current income of $74,577.83 (Mdn = $72,000.00, SD = $29,701.54).
  • 43.3% of ECPs indicated that their current salary was lower than what they expected to make at this stage of their careers.

Impact of Debt

  • Nearly half of all respondents experience significant financial stress.
  • As a result of education-related debt, graduate students delay retirement planning (65.7%), buying a home (62.5%), having children (49.3%), and getting married (31.8%).
  • ECPs also delay saving for the future (63.4%), retirement planning (56.7%), buying a home (42.5%), and having children (32.7%).

While this information can be overwhelming, it is important to keep track of your debt load and make sure you are informed about average salaries in your subfield or area. But how?

  • First, read our paper for full details.
  • Then, use student loan calculators (for example) to help you figure out what your average monthly payment will be based on your total debt and interest rate, so that you can plan accordingly.

If this article has made you fret about debt, don’t despair. We have compiled a few resources to help you learn more about managing your debt, loan repayment, and financial planning.

There are steps you can take at any point to begin to manage your debt. So break through that resistance, do your research, and start planning!

And just in case this article has caused you any distress (and you wish that you had followed your initial impulse to instead return to Facebook), please let us help you regulate yourself with a charming cat photo:

Source: A Geeky World. Some rights reserved.

My debt will never find me. (Source: A Geeky World, Some rights reserved).

Editor’s Note: This article is written by Jennifer Doran and Laura Reid Marks, co-authors of a major peer-reviewed analysis of graduate debt in psychology published this February. The same study made the cover of Monitor on Psychology’s April issue.

Reasons to Attend Convention 2016 (Denver, CO)

Going to APA Convention is an important graduate school experience (and not just to add another line or two to your CV!).  We all know the drill with presenting our research and beefing up our CVs, but Convention has much more to offer! Here are some of my top reasons to attend Convention.

  1. Permission to Dabble!

Graduate school is an odd combination of being indoctrinated by your advisor and learning to critically evaluate everything you think you know (or are told).  Sometimes our focus becomes pretty limited by our long-days and late-nights working on our own research – for me White racial identity development among academicians in psychology.  Convention provides opportunities to branch out and see what the rest of psychology is up to!  My Convention guilty-pleasures (i.e., not related to my own research) are sessions on mental health disparities, feminist roundtables, and racial injustice advocacy.  I encourage you to find your own guilty-pleasures and indulge!

  1. Networking
APA2012_115

An APAGS Member met Dr. Philip Zimbardo at an APAGS Food for Thought Breakfast.

Really, networking could be reasons 1- 5.  Regardless of where you are in your program, networking is crucial. As a second-year doctoral student, I met my future internship training director at Convention. I’m not saying that I matched solely because of this happenstance meeting, but I’m pretty sure I left a favorable impression! Now as I am transitioning to my first job-search as a psychologist, having THOUSANDS of potentials psychologists in one place feels like a dream! I am also always on the lookout for a celebrity psychologist sighting, so that I can have a fan-girl moment…

  1. Any Excuse to Get Out of [INSERT COLLEGE TOWN HERE]

Graduate students who have the luxury of going to school in New York City, Southern California, or Miami may not feel my pain, but I can always use an excuse to get out of Lexington, KY.  While the Horse Capital of the World boasts a cheap cost of living and mild winters, I find myself needing a break from the college town milieu.   Convention is a great way to double dip – professional development and mini-vacation!  Denver has a lot to offer budget-minded graduate students, such as several microbreweries, Colorado Rockies games, and several day-hikes right outside of the city.  Don’t forget to take some time for self-care and enjoy Denver!

  1. Sessions for Students, by Students

Faculty always say that they vividly remember the plight of graduate school… right before they give you a 48-hour deadline of reworking a manuscript and then go home for the evening at 5pm… However, faculty can forget all too soon that graduate students have unique struggles and concerns.  The APAGS Convention Committee provides student-focused programming in response to student feedback and needs.  In Denver, APAGS has prepared programs for stats-phobic students (Stats Phobia: Learn How to Learn Stats [and Work past Beginners Anxiety]), students who moonlight as parents (or maybe the other way around; Two P’s in a Pod: Balancing Parenthood with Psychology Training and Careers), and students from a variety of diverse identities and backgrounds (Connecting with our queerness: Four contemporary takes on being an LGBTQ(A) psychologist & Conducting Research on Marginalized Identities: When Research is “Me-Search”).  For the full APAGS Convention schedule, be on the lookout for the APAGS Convention Booklet that will be released closer to Convention or visit the APAGS Convention website!

The IDP: A Career Plan That Doesn’t End with Your First Job

Sometimes graduate school and postdoctoral training can feel like being in a long, dark tunnel. At the end is the escape. All you have to do is square your shoulders, pump your arms, and keep making progress towards the light at the end.  Once you burst through, you will find yourself basking in the happy, warm glow of…. Your. First. Job.

But a job isn’t a career.

You want a career – a progressive increase in responsibilities and daily activities that are rewarding, have impact, and make use of your current skills and the new ones you’ll gain along the way. You want a path, not a tunnel.

How much time have you really spent career planning?

One often neglected aspect of graduate school and postdoctoral training is career planning. A goal of your training should be about developing that career path – or more accurately, developing both a path and yourself.  You need to thoughtfully research the type of career options that interest you and that are available. Next you develop the skills, knowledge, abilities, and competencies to land those jobs along your career path.  Luckily you’re not alone and this career plan has a proven process. It’s called an Individual Development Plan, or IDP.

What’s an IDP?

An IDP is a career resource – designed by you – that helps map out your career path. I could spend more time explaining what they are, or how creating formalized plans in postdoctoral training improves outcomes, or how both NSF and NIH require career development plans for trainees.  But consider this, from 2009-2014 there was a 20% increase in psychology doctoral degrees.  Over that same time tenure track faculty positions did not keep up with PhD production. But, wait. The good news is, NSF says that the number of jobs that require science & engineering skills is outpacing the new job creation in the total workforce. This means that there are probably more job options and career paths than you thought.

It all starts with knowledge of IDPs and then yourself. But before you start, here are some helpful tips to help you along your IDP Journey:

  1. Get the big picture first, then attack each step:  Resist the urge to just jump in and spend next weekend doing nothing but career exploration. Make a schedule to watch our five videos and go back and re-watch.  Next spend maybe a week (or two) assessing your skills, and searching for a mentor.  Re-watch the videos as many times as needed to feel ready to move to the next step.
  2. Make a schedule:  Make a regular time to do IDP work – every Wednesday right after a lab meeting, or every Friday after your last patient or client.  Or the first Sunday of each month, when all is still and quite and peaceful.  Whatever works for you, but make it a priority.
  3. IDPs are both curricular and extracurricular: We stress that IDPs shouldn’t pull you away from your current training and work obligations.  Quite the contrary – they help you integrate career opportunities day-to-day, and plan for those you need to find outside the lab, clinic, or office.  A plan will balance your demands and help you progress.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started!

Editor’s Note: This post was written by Garth Fowler, PhD, Associate Executive Director of Graduate & Postgraduate Education and Training in the Education Directorate at the American Psychological Association.