The Permanent Postdoc

Baby Steps Toward College or Graduate School Success

The College Application Essay

What Clients Have Asked Me: Collection 5

The Dog Walker: A short-short story

How Ph.D. Students and Postdocs Can Optimize Their Lives

So You Want to Become an Academic Researcher

Advice for Bored or Overwhelmed College and Graduate Students

Real-World Lessons from Graduate School: On fear, assertiveness, and a pie plate

Among the most important lessons I learned in grad school weren’t from my classes or my dissertation. They were between the cracks of all that. I describe them in my Psychology Today article today.

Making the Most of Online Classes

We've mainly taken courses in-person. And even when online courses were an option, many people, especially the social, opted to trade the hassles of getting to campus, child care, etc., for the energy that in-person classes tend to evoke. Indeed, the completion rates for online courses has been low—10 to 20 percent.

But now, amid the COVID restrictions, the in-person option is usually not available, My Psychology Today article today offers ten tips to help you not only complete your courses but perhaps learn at least as much as you would have in the in-person version.

Should You Pursue a Psychology Doctorate?

Especially in a weak job market, it’s tempting to go back to school, including all the way to a doctorate. My Psychology Today article today aims to help you decide if it's wise for you.

Tough Problems: Grad school? Laid-off a lot

Today's PsychologyToday.com article is the latest in the Tough Problems series. In each installment, I present two composite questions that my clients face and my response to each.

The first question is about someone who hasn't been able to land a decent job despite a college degree and so is wondering if he should go to grad school, although he has no idea in what.

The second question comes from someone who has been "laid off" four times in six years. 

"Should I Go Back for Another Degree?" An internal debate

Even some well-employed people wonder if they should go back for another degree. 

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers an internal debate on the subject  Perhaps it might clarify your thinking.

"Why Can't I Get Into Graduate School?"

This is the third installment in a series, "Why not me?!" The first was Why Can't I Land a Job? The second was Why Can't I Get Promoted?  

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ideas for people who tried and failed to get into an acceptable graduate program and would like to give it another try.

How to Do Life: Life Advice I Wish My Parents Had Given Me

Here's my latest AOL piece: How to Do Life: What I Wish My Parents Told Me.

Note, it's actually quite different than the similarly titled piece of mine, 10 Life Lessons Guaranteed to Advance Your Career that appeared last week on USNews.com, Yahoo!, and Business Insider.

Keys to Success in College or Grad School

A client today asked for advice on how to get off to a great start in grad school. Here's what I told him:

1. Carefully pick your advisor--Read their bios on the college's site and pick one who both rationally and emotionally intrigues you. Chat with him (or her, of course,) perhaps about his research. If it feels right, ask him to be your advisor. If not, thank him for the conversation, and try someone else.

2. Find out who the best teachers are. Ask the dept. administrative assistant--s/he has read all the student evaluations of all the professors. Or try sites containing student reviews of professors:

Students Review

Universitytools.com

Ratemyprofessor.com.

3. Adapt assignments to your career goal. Most professors don't mind your proposing an alternate term paper topic, fieldwork assignment, etc.

4. Be social. For example, throw parties for your fellow students. Invite your favorite professors. Whether or not they come, they'll be flattered.

How to judge whether a college or grad school is good

Most colleges don't provide the following information, but it's so helpful in deciding if and where you should attend college or graduate school. Ask and see what you get:

• Evidence of value-added: Does the program give pre-post tests to see how much students grow in, for example, critical thinking skills, writing and research ability? Is its value-added superior to competing programs or colleges?

• The cash, loan, and work-study financial aid package you'll likely receive in your 2nd through 6th years. Some colleges use the drug-dealer scam: they give you the first dose cheap and then, after you're hooked, raise the price.

• Retention data: the percentage of students returning for a second year, broken out by S.A.T. score, race, and gender.

• The percentage of the institution’s students who have been robbed or assaulted on or near campus.

• The two-, three-, four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates, broken out by SAT/GRE score, race, and gender. (Nationwide, the percentage of male graduates has plummeted in recent years.)

• Employment data for graduates: The percentage of graduates who, within six months of graduation are in graduate school, unemployed, employed in a job requiring college-level skills, are earning less than $30,000 a year, $30,000-60,000, $60,000-90,000, $90,000+.

• The most recent results of a student satisfaction survey.

• The most recent accreditation visiting team report.