This ebook gives advice regarding what types of coursework is required for the school psychology degree, help you complete the application, the importance of the GRE and GPA, and the types of work and/or volunteer experiences that are essential. More importantly, this ebook provides applicants a glimpse into the mind of the school psychology review committee that will ultimately hold your fate in their hands. This information will be your all-important advantage over your school psychologist competition and will make the difference between a rejection, waiting list or welcome letter.

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Excerpt:

10 Proven Tips for School Psychology Graduate School Applicants:

I chose to write this book after answering numerous questions that I have received in the last 5 years regarding School Psychology.  Specifically, this book will address the common questions and concerns that undergraduate students have asked regarding school psychology and graduate school.

This book focuses specifically on school psychology degree programs. This fact sets it apart from the general “How to get accepted into a psychology graduate school?” books. The goal of the book is to give you an edge over your competition in the application and interview process. I will share with you some “Proven tips” that are specific to school psychology. The information contained in this book may be what sets you apart from the hundreds of others that are applying to the same graduate school.

This book assumes that you are reading it because you have already decided to attend graduate school in school psychology. Therefore, I will not be writing to help you process whether you should even apply to a program. If you have this book, I assume you have already made this decision. Good for you!

The goal of you reading this book is to get accepted into a graduatelevel school psychology program. You might want to earn a Master’s Degree (M.S.), a Specialist’s in Education (Ed.S), or a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in School Psychology. It does not really matter to me what degree you earn. The nuts and bolts contained in this book will help you.

Let’s be honest. There is a lot of competition in graduate school. It is not easy to get accepted. However, it is also a business. Did you catch that? Graduate (and undergraduate) school is a business. It doesn’t matter if your degree is in Education, Business, Science, Medical School, etc. If they do not get students to apply to their program, they would not have a business (school). It believe it helps to know this because you can, to a certain degree, enhance your odds of being accepted.

What am I saying? Well, the chances of getting accepted to Harvard are small. The chances of you getting accepted into the University of South Dakota are high. This is obvious. If you do not have a great GPA and your GRE scores are not great, you would not apply to Harvard. So, seriously think about the programs you would like to attend. If you do not have a snowball’s chance in heck to get accepted, do not apply. It is a waste of money and a waste of time.  Yours!

Is that bold enough for you? I think the only person that would be equally honest is Donkey in the movie “Shrek.” Think about it. It costs some serious money to send off applications to graduate schools ($35-$70 each), pay for transcripts, and taking the GRE. If you plan on applying to 8 graduate schools or so at a minimum it would cost you $250.00 in application fees alone. This does not even take into account the time involved in typing an application and your statement of purpose with zero typographical or grammatical errors.

The first thing that you need to know before you begin applying to programs is how the selection process works in graduate school.  Yes, it is different than undergraduate. All you really have to do to get into college is show the school some money and get a halfway decent ACT. In graduate school, the applications are initially screened in order to determine if you meet the minimum requirements. If you meet the minimum, you move into the small pile  If you don’t, you move into the big pile. This part is similar to the undergrad process, I guess. However, this is where the similarities end.

The next step involves your application being moved on to the school psychology chairperson in the department and then to individual faculty members within the program. However, sometimes these decisions are made by a small committee of three faculty members. The committee approach is most often utilized in smaller school psychology programs.  Larger universities and thus larger programs accept larger numbers of applicants and are more likely to use individual faculty members. Rest assured, whether it is in a small group of three or a individual professor, your fate rests in their hands.  Since you now know your fate is in the hands of a small group or a single professor you can understand the importance of communicating your strengths to potential faculty members. This is done through your application, letter of intent, and any written research that you choose to submit. You can increase your chances by targeting individual faculty members and not to colleges and universities. You can do this by visiting faculty member web pages and reading about their research interests. If you find that a professor has similar interests to you then attempt to write specifically about them in your letter of interest. It might also be worth a personal e-mail to a couple of professors on your graduate school list. Targeting a faculty member’s interest may be just the edge you need.

You also need to be aware that School Psychology programs are not as much focused on research in graduate school. I am not saying that it is not important. It is just that school psychologists are typically practitioners in public schools rather than researchers. Only a small minority of school psychologist teach in a university setting. Besides who wants to be a stuffy professor when you can work with children and get paid the same? Just kidding on the stuffy professor part! The most important thing to a professor in a school psychology degree program is interpersonal skills with children. The ability to establish rapport with children, parents, and school personnel is the most important factors in become a good school psychologist.

Letters of recommendation are also very significant to the application process. Most universities request three letters that are written by professors. It is important that you work on these recommendations at least 1 year, yes I said year, before you ask for one. You need to get involved in these undergrad professors research. You need to get to know them personally. No “lucky scrunchie” and lap dances, please. They need to know something about your character and interests in order to write about you in a positive manner. If the people who you select to write your recommendation do not know who you are and are forced to rely on your grades and classroom attendance, you are in trouble. In order for this to happen, you need to become proactive and help these professors on their research projects, ask frequent questions outside of class, and enroll in directed studies courses offered by these professors.

Ok, this is enough of the basic stuff. Let’s now discuss specifics that focus on school psychology graduate school applicants. I will now share the ten most important and specific tips to help you get accepted into a school psychology graduate program.