Graduate Education and Training

Considering Graduate
   Education
Enrolled in Graduate
   Education
Postdoctoral
   Education & Training

Higher Education
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Enrolled in Graduate Education

In graduate school, students begin to explore in much greater depth their field of study. Some programs of study are highly specialized while others prepare their students more broadly, allowing some specialization of function for purposes of research or certain applied areas of training. In general, however, graduate education is not intended to prepare you as a specialist or for a particular job so much as it is to prepare you to think critically in the discipline and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (or competencies) that will enable you to continue to learn and contribute to the advancement of the discipline as a science and profession, and to its better understanding and use by the public.

At the doctoral level, you are being prepared to advance the state of knowledge in the discipline through research, to synthesize that knowledge in relation to other bodies of knowledge, to teach and otherwise communicate that knowledge to various publics, and to apply that knowledge in professionally responsible and publicly beneficial ways. Ideally, you are being prepared, in other words, to be a scholar and steward of your discipline.

Some of you may be mentored quite well by your graduate faculty; unfortunately, some of you may not be. In any event, take initiative and seek out faculty who know you and your work, and explore with them interests that you have for your career, at least in planning your more immediate post-graduate years. The following resources may be helpful.

The Preparing Future Faculty program is a comprehensive approach to doctoral education that exposes graduate students to the array of roles and responsibilities awaiting them as the professorate of the 21st Century.

The "Preparing Future Faculty in Psychology Final Narrative Report" (pdf 2.1mb) summaries the activities of four Preparing Future Faculty in Psychology programs.
(Requires Adobe Acrobat free download)

The Early Career Psychologists website provides information for those who are interested in licensure, plus data and employment research collected by the APA on psychologists.

The Students website provides information and links to general resources, funding sources, and career planning.

The Graduate Education section provides information related to policies affecting graduate education.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is dedicated to the improvement and advancement of graduate education.

© 2008 American Psychological Association
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