PSYCHOLOGY ADVISING PAGE

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ADVISING IN PSYCHOLOGY AT UW-L

Who is the advising coordinator?  For 2007-2008, our advising coordinator is Dr. Emily Johnson.  She teaches Psy200 (Orientation to the Major) and advises all students who are declaring a psych major.  After seeing her, you will be assigned a faculty advisor within the psych department.

Who is my advisor? Click HERE to get web access to your advisor.  Your advisor's name is also in the top corner of your SNAP.

Why do I care?  This person is always the person with whom your SNAP will abide after Psych Faire.  It is best if you see him/her regularly; however, you may see ANY  faculty member for advice.  Indeed, as your career plans become clearer you may wish to chose someone whose interests are closer to yours.

What kinds of questions should I ask of my advisor?  Your psychology advisor will be best for answering questions about course sequencing, course content, careers and graduate school.  In addition to faculty advisors, there is an academic advisor that all psychology students can see.  Tim Walls is housed in Morris Hall his number is 785-6634.  All students near graduation should see Tim for a degree audit.

CAREER INFORMATION - GENERAL

Part of our tutorial for new majors has a lot of good information about psychology careers and myths about psychology careers.  Click HERE, if you'd like to peruse that section of the tutorial.

IN THE OFFICE (335 GMH) -- We have several excellent resources, including books on careers and graduate schools in psychology.  Some can be checked out.

FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY.  There are many subfields in psychology - the link leads to a complete listing of psychology fields and specific information regarding these fields.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS.  Dr. Drew Appleby from IUPUI has collected a list of links to occupations of interest to psychology majors from the U.S. Department of Labor . These descriptions identify the skills people in these occupations must possess to perform their jobs successfully.

Nationally - there are many excellent sites that discuss careers in psychology.  First, there are organizations and then there are good individual sites.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 

• APA The American Psychological Association is a good resource that will also include information about joining as a student affiliate.
• APS The American Psychological Society is more research oriented than APA. APA has excellent student resources too.
• PSI CHI This is the national site for Psi Chi, an honors association for psychology undergraduates. There is information about the organization as well as student grant opportunities.
• MPA The Midwestern Psychological Association is an excellent regional group that puts on an annual meeting in Chicago every year. Several UW-L students have presented papers through Psi Chi at the MPA conference. Information on membership and the conference is available at this site.

OTHER GREAT SITES:  

• Scott Plous’ site at Wesleyan is devoted to general psychology and social psychology—including links to graduate programs.  It is one of the best sites for psychology undergraduates.  http://www.socialpsychology.org/
• Linda Walsh's site at the University of Northern Iowa:   http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda1.html
• Psych Web by Russ Dewey:  http://www.psychwww.com/
• Hanover College offers good information and important links:  http://psych.hanover.edu/

JOB SEARCH TIPS AND LINKS:

• There are many career and job resources on the Net. This is just a sampling of a few sites that may help your job search.  There are caveats below.
• Don't forget our own great  UW-L CAREER SERVICES.
  • Monster.com
  • Campus monster.com
  • Career Builder:  http://www.CareerBuilder.com
  • Jobstar:  http://jobstar.org/
  • Government Employment Listings from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  Most states have a similar website for state jobs.
  • The National Assembly of Health and Human Services Organizations  http://www.nassembly.org

General Career Searching Caveats & Tips for WEB-based searching

• Most of these sites do not involve a cost to you to post your resume or search for positions.  Employers bear the cost of the service.
• There is considerable variation in the format requirements for resumes across the various sites.  However, it will be helpful for you to start or convert your resume to a web-friendly format for easy posting.
• These sites offer the ability to search for jobs by title and region, the ability to post your resume and often a service that automatically sends your resume to jobs where there appears to be a “match.”
• IMPORTANT – many of the sites are still best for industry-based jobs.  Often human service and non-profit jobs are still listed primarily in newspapers.  Therefore, psychology majors will want to search the sites that have the links to the job listings of major newspapers.  For instance, JobTrak and CareerPath that are listed above both have access to newspaper listings. Currently, research suggests that businesses use the Internet in about 30% of their recruiting activities.  We recommend posting your resume on several sites.
• There are a few drawbacks to the web sites.  In the more corporate sites, it make take several layers of clicking to get to the actual job postings. Additionally, sometimes employers can get pesky by too aggressively pursuing you for a position.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook website http://www.bls.gov/oco/ 
• Additionally, there are commercial sites that offer similar types of information (e.g., http://www.salarysource.com/
• Check out our own Career Services site for UW-L salary information by college and major.

GRADUATE SCHOOL INFORMATION

Currently, 30%+ of our students go on to graduate school. The vast majority attend 2-year applied Master's programs. Applying to graduate school takes a lot of time, energy and money. Students should start planning during their junior year (if not earlier!). There is a lot of useful information below. Be sure to read it before seeing your advisor. 

GRADUATE SCHOOL LINKS:

• One of the best sites lets you search by subject and by school name:  gradschools.com.  A former student created the following helpful chart that makes gradschools.com easy for psych majors to use.  Each field listed below is a link to its corresponding web page on gradschools.com:   

LINKS TO PSYCHOLOGY-RELATED CONTENT AREAS AT GRADSCHOOLS.COM:

• Don't forget to visit the websites of the universities you are interested in as part of your search.  Here is a site that indexes colleges and universities, an easy way to explore the schools in which you are interested:  http://www.clas.ufl.edu/CLAS/american-universities.html   It may save you time to use the search engine for the specific university’s site after you access its homepage.
• Peterson’s (http://petersons.com) allows you to search for graduate schools and also has good general information regarding graduate work.
• Check out the graduate student groups associated with APA (APAGS) & APS (APSSC)
• Don’t forget more career-specific sites such as the National Association of Social Workers homepage (http://www.naswdc.org/) or the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (http://www.aamft.org//).

WHAT ARE GRADUATE SCHOOLS LOOKING FOR?

Graduate schools are looking for strong students with the initiative and ability to do graduate work. In particular, they need to know that YOU know why you want that particular degree. Internship and/or research experience is valued because it signals a graduate school that you have a clue about your future endeavors. Strong grades and strong evaluations also play a major role. Strong GREs can secure a spot;  however, poor GREs (if offset by other strong records) will not usually harm a student.

STEPS INVOLVED IN APPLYING TO GRADUATE SCHOOL

1. Decide whether graduate school in psychology is right for you.
2. Define the area of concentration and degree that you will pursue.
3. Research schools and programs and choose a range of places to which you want to apply.
4. Complete the applications to these programs.
5. Attend interviews (if applicable) and make a final decision regarding which program you will attend.

SOPHOMORE YEAR:

- Pursue extensive career exploration.

- Take statistics and research design courses.

- Volunteer at an organization of interest to you.

JUNIOR YEAR:

- Do an internship.

- Go to the Psych Department's Graduate School Night.

- If you qualify, think about doing the Honors program.

- If possible, get involved in faculty research.

- Join the Psychology Club or Psi Chi.

- Investigate graduate programs. The Psychology Department, Murphy Library, and Career Services all have resources to help with this. APA provides a complete list of programs. Books such as "Peterson's Guide" gives rankings of programs as well as information about acceptance rates, etc.

- Send for information and applications using the phone numbers and/or addresses found in the resources discussed above.

- Start to plan and study for the GREs, making sure to take practice tests. You may want to take the GREs during your junior year. See Career Services or the Counseling Center for information and applications. They also have practice GREs on computer that you can take for a small fee.

SENIOR YEAR:

- Visit Career Services to polish your resume and interviewing skills.

- Take the GREs in early fall (or before).

- Double check that you have the applications for all the schools in which you are interested. Organize them by application deadline, keeping in mind that financial aid applications are usually due earlier than the program's deadline.

- Double check that you have the finances secured for the application process.

- CAST A WIDE WEB! Apply to as many schools as possible (unless you would not go there if accepted). Geographic difference will help your application.  Apply to some schools below your ideal as potential "Plan B" schools.

- Give your faculty members all your recommendation forms at once (if possible) and give them lots of time.

INTERNSHIPS:

The Psychology Department STRONGLY recommends that all students complete an internship before graduation.  Even if you do not receive credit, professional experience is very important.  Both employers and graduate schools mention professionally-related experience as one of the top things they look for in their candidates.

In Psychology, we offer:

• PSY309 - Psychology Volunteer experience.  (1 credit)  This course is a chance to "get your feet wet" in the community.  You complete approximately 2 hours each week at a site and attend class 4-5 times a semester. In the Psych Department office (335 GMH) there is a folder with a list of the types of organization at which students have volunteered.
• PSY450 - Psychology Fieldwork (undergraduate internship).  You may apply up to 3 credits toward your psychology degree.  This course is a more intensive course that allows you to be more deeply involved with an organization.  You are normally given more responsibility and a wider range of experiences.  To register for PSY450, you arrange your internship with Career Services, you bring the paperwork to the instructor of Psy450 (normally Dr. Seebach), and have it signed by the department chair.  You then take the paperwork back to Career Services, and they enroll you in the class.
• CEI450 - Internship.  This course allows you do internship work that applies to your 120 credits but NOT toward your psychology degree.  It does apply toward the program option and you can take up to 15 credits.  In order to arrange for CEI450, you start the paperwork at Career Services and then ask a faculty member to be your internship advisor.  If he/she agrees, they sign the paperwork, as does the department chair, you take it back to Career Services, and they enroll you in the class.

• to set up an internship you MUST attend an internship workshop at Career Services in Wilder Hall.
  • They will work with you to set up a file and to select a site. Many of the placements are in demand, so you might have to "compete" for a spot.
  • You need a minimum GPA of 2.25 and junior standing.
  • Set up your placement file the semester before you want to do the internship:
    • in early Fall for Spring
    • in late Fall for Summer
    • in Spring for Fall

• The internships listed here are just a sampling of what is available. Furthermore, you can choose from sites that are:
  • local (possibly including your hometown during the summer)
  • national
  • international (through International Education)

Popular internship sites for psychology majors

The following is a list of several La Crosse area sites where our majors have interned. They are in alphabetical order and are provided to give you a sense of what kinds of opportunities are available. Career Services can also work with you to create a specialized internship.  It is a good idea to contact the site supervisor before agreeing to an internship. You should be clear about their expectations:

• How much supervision and training is provided?
• What skills will I gain?
• What is expected of me?

Coulee Youth Centers

Several internship positions are available at this site. Some of them include: Visitation Monitors transport children to designated visit sites with parents and document events that occur during the visit;  Counselors often work on confrontation and problem-solving skills with youth clients;  Juvenile Trackers make check-in visits to delinquents at their assigned curfew time;  Home Detention interns check home behavioral charts for progress.

Domestic Violence Intervention Project

DVIP assists individuals experiencing abuse or the threat of abuse in their family.  The intern gains  experience with the criminal justice system and community agency coordination. Interns may also attend Men's Abuse Program staff meetings.

Family and Children's Center

Teacher's Assistant/Program Assistant interns work with chemically dependent, delinquent, truant, aggressive, and runaway adolescents. Interns working with the Leadership School provide basic education and counseling for at-risk adolescents.

Family Resource Center

Several different internship opportunities are also available at this site. Parent Educator Interns work with staff members visiting families and helping with parenting issues. Child Care Resource & Referral Interns gather information by telephone from parents seeking day care for their children and generate a list of providers who match the criteria established by the parent.

First Call For Help

Interns assist the professional staff at the telephone helping service in crisis intervention or telephone counseling. An extensive training period is required.

Job Service

Responsibilities of this internship position include working with the Program Manager to study the effectiveness of post-secondary education, and providing case management and counseling to youth referred to JOBS who are subject to Learnfare requirements.

Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital Eating Disorders Program

Students accepting an internship position with this program may gain hands-on counseling experience, and will learn about developing treatment programs and forming treatment teams.

Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital Human Resource & Development

This internship opportunity gives students a variety of hands-on experiences in human resources such as compensation & benefits, employment services, and resource planning.  For instance, interns help organize Gundersen/Lutheran's Special Tuesdays series.

Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital Perinatal Services

This site provides childbirth education programs to families expecting the birth of a child. Interns may expect opportunities for learning development, administration, data collection, and analysis of surveys relating to this program's services.

Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital Teen Health

Various responsibilities of this internship include:  working with pregnant teens, conducting home visits to pregnant teens and teen parents, working on grant applications for increasing program services, job shadowing professionals, and occasional OB visits with clients.

New Horizons Shelter and Women's Center

Children's Program Interns participate in planning and leading children's weekly group sessions, research funding sources, and collecting resource materials, and participate in speaking engagements whenever possible.

St. Francis Programs - Gerard Hall

This home for pregnant teens offers interns the opportunity to co-facilitate group sessions and recreational therapy groups, monitor residents' house responsibilities, attend speaking panels at area high schools with residents, and attend Lamaze classes with the girls and see them through their delivery.

Wisconsin Division of Probation & Parole

Interns serve as an Assistant Probation/Parole Agent in the identification of the nature and courses of client's problems in order to develop resources for coping with and/or resolving problems. Specific responsibilities include:  conducting home visits, taking statements from clients held for probation violations, and conducting home searches for possession of illegal drugs.

Wisconsin State Public Defender

Interns interview clients to determine their eligibility for a state-appointed attorney. Other possible projects may include:  testifying in or sitting in on court hearings, and gathering information from crime scenes.

 

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