Reddit reviews Graduate Study in Psychology, 2012

http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Psychology-American-Psychological-Association/dp/1433810670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314577432&sr=8-1

I bought that book a while back when I was considering graduate school in Psychology (I opted for and am now attending a doctorate in Marketing instead).

For non-Clinical programs, it's perhaps the best single resource for data and information from almost every American program. Average GRE, GPA, admission statistics, program/school description and orientations, demographics, application deadlines, etc. are all included.

I apologize in advance for this wall of text. There's a TL;DR at the bottom.

I'm a fellow undergrad and working on getting into graduate school also.

One of the biggest things I'm learning is that research experience is crucial to make yourself a better applicant.

If you're in the US and are wanting to get a PhD, you will want to start studying for the GRE and take it in your junior year of college if possible. Most if not all of the PhD programs that are certified by the American Psychological Association require the GRE.

If your college has any research programs, you could try to get involved with those. If they don't, you could try talking with a professor to see whether you could help them with their research.

If these don't work, you might try volunteering at other colleges nearby. Finally some colleges will let you conduct an independent study (often for college credit) with a faculty member. These are excellent ways to gain research experience and show grad school programs that you're a serious candidate.

As far as volunteer work is concern, I've been told that it all looks good, but it looks even better if it's somehow related to what you're trying to study. You might consider doing an informational interview with a clinical psychologist and also a health psychologist. This will help you get a better understanding of what they think about the career, what they had to do/learn to get licensed in their career etc. Additionally it will help you network with other psychologists who will be your peers in the future, and finally it might help you clarify which of the two fields you're interested in pursuing.

I conducted informational interviews with psychologists and counselors and it helped me decide on the kind of degree and research focus I am interested in.

As a final note, the American Psychological Association has published several books that are helpful regarding grad school in the United States. Here are the ones I found helpful:

Getting In: A Step-by-Step Plan for Gaining Admission to Graduate School in Psychology, Second Edition

The "Getting In" book has helpful information and chapter 7 has information on preselection interviews along with information on common questions that are often asked of graduate school applicants, as well as good questions for you to ask them during the interview.

Graduate Study in Psychology - You'll want to wait on this one until you're in your senior year as it is updated annually. This is the best book I've bought as it has info on every APA certified program in the US and Canada.

Surviving Graduate School in Psychology: A Pocket Mentor I'm not in grad school yet, but this helped me get a better picture of what the day-to-day realities of grad school are.

Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You, Second Edition

The "Career Paths in Psychology" text is helpful if you're not certain which specialty you'd like to go into. The chapters in this book are written by psychologists and counselors in a variety of areas including academia, private practice, hospital settings and more. There are three chapters that may be of interest to you specifically. The first two involve clinical psychologists, one in private practice and the other in a hospital setting. The third chapter is specific to health psychologists.

These books are available via the APA website, but are cheaper if you purchase them through Amazon. Also, all but one of them are available in Kindle editions if you have a Kindle or Smartphone or the Amazon reader installed on your computer.

TL;DR Gaining research experience is crucial to becoming a better grad school candidate. Talk with professors about helping with their research and/or look into doing an independent study at your college. APA has several helpful books on this topic if you're pursuing graduate school in the United States.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps!

(edited for clarity - I'm an undergrad working on getting into grad school, I'm not doing both at the same time. Doh!)