(Untitled)

[rechan]

I'm going to ask the Most Common Question Ever

Comments

[tylik]

How quickly do Psych PhDs move into teaching positions? Because over where I am, that's a prolonged process more often than not.

[wee_little_me]

Rule of thumb: take out as little as possible, spend as little as possible.

What will you do, even if your potential wage is high? Take out a big loan and piss away your money? Expect to get a job right away and pay it back?

[rechan]

Expect to get a job right away and pay it back?

Yes. Well, not all at once. For instance, I have a small loan right now, and I'm spending 1/7th of my income towards it monthly.

[wee_little_me]

Then dont spend the rest of it on useless crap.

[rechan]

I don't?

[zanylikethat]

It varies HUGELY from university to university. So it would definitely depend on where you got hired, whether or not you did a post-doc, what the cost of living in the area you got hired in is, whether or not you even get hired right away... Psych is a big field, but it's also a well-populated one. You can easily go quite a while after finishing your PhD without getting a job.

As said by wee_little_me, take out as little as possible, spend as little as possible. There is absolutely no way to predict or guarantee your future income, especially now, especially with academia as fragile as it currently is.

[rechan]

"Take/spend as little" is a nice mantra, but it doesn't help in terms of projections.

Questions like "is it better to take a summer session". Or "how much should I take in rent?" don't get answered.

I also don't think I can take 'little' out: I'm disabled - on disability. So, I make a little a month (about $690/m). I have 7K in the bank (I spend little). I am not eligble for TA position right away (but will grab it ASAP). Hence, I don't have a lot of income for rent/food. Not to mention books. So I have to factor that into "how much should I take out?"

[zanylikethat]

The answer is still "as little as possible

[rechan]

When it comes time to schedule your summer, if you have the option of taking a class or teaching or doing research, only you (and possibly your advisor), can really figure out what the best choice is.

Oh. See, I was anticipating like, deciding before I take out the yearly loan, budgeting for summer or not. To avoid trying to get it to pay for the summer at the middle of the Spring semester, you know?

But no, I don't plan on trying to be cushy. My biggest expenditures is food, right now. But I'm looking at how much just renting a room is going to be where I'm going, and I'm not going to have much left after paying for rent, monthly.

[statzman]

Here's the APA salary survey. According to the report, the lowest estimate for a teaching position (excluding post-docs) would be 40K per year.

http://research.apa.org/facsals0708.html

[rechan]

I assume that's not adjunct included.

But wow, that's a lot. I also assume that's "entry".

[rechan]

Thank you, btw.

[shaydlip]

Here's the link to the Chronicle's statistics: http://chronicle.com/stats/salary/salary.htm

However, like others have mentioned, it's unlikely for you to think you can be making that much money immediately after graduating. Typically people do things like post-docs or adjuncting.

Have you looked into placement statistics for people graduating from your department and program?

[rechan]

Have you looked into placement statistics for people graduating from your department and program?

No, but I'm in an MA program. Though, that is something that I 1) had not thought of, and 2) now sounds like a *really* good idea. Thanks for pointing that out.

[shaydlip]

You are in an MA program now, but are applying to PhD programs? Or are you already in a PhD program?

[rechan]

The former; I was just accepted to an MA program, and will start my first year of graduate school in the fall.

My plan is to work my ass off, and then try to apply to several strong PhD programs.