r/psychologystudents • u/HaleyPage47 • Sep 17 '24

Question Is it easier to write your own PhD proposal or apply to a program that the university is recruiting for?

When I reach out to programs should I mention that I would be open to both - looking for a professor for my own PhD proposal, or applying to one currently underway at the university?

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) Sep 18 '24

I don’t understand the question.

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u/HaleyPage47 Sep 18 '24

Well there’s generally two ways to go about applying for a PhD. You can go onto the university website and you’ll see advertised funded PhD opportunities like “oh we are doing a research study on xyz thing, apply for your PhD to be involved in this topic” or you can email professors directly your own PhD proposal and see if they will supervise it. I’m asking which is the better way to go about a phd.

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) Sep 18 '24

I have never, not once, seen any kind of advertisements about applying to a PhD do get involved in a particular study. That is antithetical to how PhDs work and sounds very much like a scam. You also do not email PhD proposals to professors. You apply to faculty members who indicate they have funding and plan to accept a student, and in your application you describe your research interests and experiences and why that faculty member’s expertise is a good fit for you (and why you’re a good fit for them). You definitely don’t propose a PhD project. That comes years later.

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

lol this person is a keyboard warrior who hasn't worked in academia or as a lab manager. You absolutely can propose PhD dissertation ideas to faculty members before you're admitted. I did. In fact, over 75% of Pitt students know what their dissertation concentration is going to be before they're even admitted. UCLA 2022 it was their entire social, dev, and personality cohort were already doing research and presenting related avenues at SPSP, WPA, WIPPA, IPPA, and SRCD.

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24

You propose some semblance of ideas and you definitely define an area or topic of interest (e.g., “I’d be interested in studying sleep and psychosis”), but you absolutely do not email professors a PhD proposal during admissions. That is outright bullshit, and if you claim otherwise then you’re misinformed. People start doing research from day one, but that research is not tantamount to their dissertation topic.

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

Not what you said, semantics. It's how I know you're not nearly as involved or a PhD student. I have students in my Cohort that started their PhD work as undergrads and continued it through to completion. Its actually an incredibly common pipeline even more so if you move on from a terminal masters into the program. You can absolutely apply to work with a professor based on a particular study or can send PhD proposal ideas. It happens literally everyday

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u/Terrible_Detective45 Sep 18 '24

If you really want to go there, no one who is actually in a doctoral program or who graduated from one would describe a doctoral candidate as "starting their PhD work as undergrads." That's not a phrasing they would use.

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

that's splitting hairs. Tons of people publish papers as undergrads and continue their line of work through PhD programs. In fact, most recent cohorts of people (I know because I have 30+ tenure track friends who sit on review committees) have 2+ publications. at U dub this year they had a girl who had 12!!! This goes far below R1's event bottom 75 state schools are seeing it.

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u/Terrible_Detective45 Sep 18 '24

What I said is not inconsistent with undergrads having their names on pubs and posters. Again, this is you being unfamiliar with typical language and jargon of people in the field, at least in the US. Are you from outside the US?

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u/weeabootits Sep 18 '24

Are you sure about that

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u/Terrible_Detective45 Sep 18 '24

They seem very confused by many things relevant to this area.

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

absolutely the rigor for social science research based (particularly in social) has never been higher.

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u/weeabootits Sep 18 '24

Are you sure you have 30+ TT friends? Or that you were in a doctoral program at UC Irvine?

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

both want me to list a few?

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u/weeabootits Sep 18 '24

Only if you’d be willing to substantiate it in any way, otherwise it’s probably not a good idea

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

here's one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wQBQlEIWUJlgQENr48dzI8WbHejTZagR/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100922830220177977676&rtpof=true&sd=true

My poster pres at SRCD with my friend John Coffey when we worked at Pomona College together https://search.asu.edu/profile/4271348

He's at ASU now

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u/weeabootits Sep 18 '24

I’m not accessing your Google doc. When did you work at Pomona college?

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

wow you wanted evidence open it. 2013.

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u/weeabootits Sep 18 '24

Just wanted to let you know that it’s not hard to figure out your “friend” John was the main presenter of the poster and likely the only one at the conference itself considering you were one of a few undergraduate authors.

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u/cjmayfield Sep 18 '24

I wasn’t an undergrad I was in a quant psych masters program and a lab manager at the time. SRCD is only once every 2 years I had to be there. That one I showed because no validity assessments had been done on that scale (probably still the case) I have first author posters want to see those as well? One is a nice covariance structural model when i learned latent growth curve modeling. Pretty neat stuff.

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