Books

American Psychological Association. (1986). Careers in psychology. Washington, DC: Author.

A 30-page booklet designed to answer the typical questions that APA receives from students who want to know how to become a psychologist and/or what psychologists do. Contains a broad survey of different areas of psychology and various career possibilities within those areas. Presents students with a no-nonsense account of differing career opportunities with various degrees and, thus, may be helpful in making decisions about graduate school. Salary data are quite old and need updating. (New edition due out in Spring, 1996)

American Psychological Association. (1996). Graduate study in psychology.

The standard reference book for students applying to graduate school. Provides a wealth of information concerning each graduate program in the US and Canada. Students should use it to make educated selections of programs to which they will apply. Most helpful to juniors and seniors.

Keith-Speigel, K. (1991). The complete guide to graduate school admission: Psychology and related fields. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

A great addition to the literature on getting into graduate school. Crammed full of advice for students who are applying, or thinking about applying, to graduate programs. Much of the advice is backed by data from surveys of faculty.

Sayett, M. A., Mayne, T. J., & Norcross, J. C. (1992). Insider's guide to graduate programs in clinical psychology. New York: Guilford.

A useful supplement to Keith-Speigel's book or to Getting In because you will advise so many students who want to go to a clinical graduate program. About half the book is composed of reports on individual programs (similar to Graduate Study in Psychology's listings).

Journal Articles

Descutner, C. J., & Thelen, M. H. (1989). Graduate student and faculty perspectives about graduate school. Teaching of Psychology, 16, 58-61.

Students and faculty in nine clinical programs agreed about items that describe a successful clinical graduate student: working hard, clinical/counseling skills, and getting along with people. Students placed greater emphasis on handling stress than did faculty. The authors conclude that students seem to know the factors that are important for success before entering graduate school. They thus recommend that graduate orientation programs should concentrate on assisting students to deal with stress and to feel more control over their environments.

Lawson, T. J. (1995). An adviser update: Gaining admission into graduate programs in psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 22, 225-227.

Provides an update of Smith's (1985) course preference and nonobjective criteria data gleaned from Graduate Study in Psychology (1993). Also gives GRE scores and GPA's of students accepted for graduate study.

Mayne, T. J., Norcross, J. C., & Sayette, M. A. (1994). Admission requirements, acceptance rates, and financial assistance in clinical psychology programs: Diversity across the practice-research continuum. American Psychologist, 49, 806-811.

Provides interesting data to compare PsyD, practice-oriented Ph.D., equal-emphases Ph.D., and research-oriented Ph.D. clinical programs.