graduate school

Resources: Pathways to Ph.D panel

Psychology, Resources, UC San Diego

During UCSD’s Pathways to Ph.D event, some of the panelists shared resources which helped them navigate the graduate school application process.

  • UCSD’s Psychology Department has an “Applying to Graduate Programs” webpage. This webpage contains information on: how much time to set aside for applications, when to consider applying to graduate school, additional links / resources / downloadable forms, and information about choosing programs / advisers / schools and making one’s application competitive. This webpage is tailored to people interested in research programs in psychology, but much of it can be applied to other disciplines.
  • UCSD’s Career Center has a “Get into Grad School” page. They provide important academic resources as well as questions you should ask yourself before choosing a program.
  • Colors of the Brain is a UCSD-based program promoting diversity within the brain sciences. Their graduate mentors will review academic CVs and applications of undergraduate students looking to enter a graduate STEM field. All of the graduate mentors are first-generation or come from a historically underrepresented background. Also, Colors of the Brain can provide support and resources to students about life in STEM and/or graduate school in general.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to those who made this event possible.

Panelist: “Pathways to Ph.D”

Psychology, UC San Diego

This Wednesday (November 4th, 2020), I’ll be a graduate panelist for the “Pathways to Ph.D” event. This event is for undergraduate students who are hoping to apply to graduate school in Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, and Clinical Psychology. The panel will discuss life of a graduate student, research, as well as how to approach the application process.

If you would like to attend, here is the form to RSVP!

Panelist: Graduate Student Panel Meet ‘n’ Greet

Psychology, UC San Diego

Yesterday, San Diego Mesa College hosted a UCSD Psychology graduate student meet-and-greet for LatinX Heritage Month. I thought it was a massive success! I think it’s important to continue outreach opportunities with budding/curious/future researchers, especially when they come from groups that are underrepresented in academia.

The students were highly engaged, which made me happy. I think we could have gone an extra hour! The topics we covered were:

  • financing graduate school
  • what skills should be developed before applying
  • classes to take before applying
  • navigating adviser-student dynamics
  • narrowing research interests
  • pursuing research opportunities as an undergrad
  • the pressures of graduate classes
  • the impact of COVID-19 on research productivity and running human participants
  • the common myths surrounding the graduate school experience
  • separating self-worth from productivity and a study’s success
  • mental health

If you are considering graduate programs in psychology, feel free to reach out to me via email (find my info here: contact). People helped me get to where I am. I’m happy to be that person for you too.

-A.Y.

The Writing Process (Tips)

Resources, UC San Diego

As all of us in academia know, the writing process rarely begins with a blank Word document titled, “rough draft.” It begins with an idea, notes jotted into a notebook, a lot of (annotated) reading, study design, data collection, and a whole host of other steps before the aforementioned Word document even exists. Large-scale writing projects can be daunting, not only because they require a lot of hard work, but because organizing oneself can be challenging.

Before UCSD went fully remote, I attended a graduate writing retreat to make progress on my qualifying paper. The writing retreat, hosted by the Teaching + Learning Commons (TLC), is meant for those with large writing projects (e.g. qualifying papers, dissertations, etc.). It was my first time attending a writing retreat. I expected attendees to spend the entire time quietly working, but the TLC structured the time such that students first learned how to efficiently work. Below is one of the most-helpful handouts that they gave to us.

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A Reintroduction

Personal Blog, UC San Diego

New headshot for a new year of graduate school.

If you’re picking up on different vibes from me this year, it’s because I’m finally back to my old self again (actually, I’m better than my old self).

At this point, most people in my circle know what I mean when I say my “old self,” but for those unaware: I was the victim of two instances of sexual assault by separate perpetrators. In 2018, I wrote about what happened in order to process what occurred. The outpouring of support was wonderful, but my story missed one key piece—my battle with clinical post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Graduate School

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

UC San Diego

Wixted Lab

I’ve officially committed to the University of California, San Diego in the fall for a doctoral program in experimental cognitive psychology.

Excited, grateful and incredibly inspired are only a few of the many emotions I’m feeling at this moment in time. Thank you SO much to Dr. John Wixted who offered me a position in his memory laboratory. Every time I step on the UCSD campus, I feel like I’m at home. I know this is the place I am meant to be and that I will produce excellent work in this program. Even though I didn’t verbalize this during my interviews: I have been eyeing this program at UCSD since 2013.

Furthermore, thank you so much to UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside for extending admission offers as well. As a first-generation college student, the privilege of being offered the opportunity to earn a Ph.D at such prestigious research programs is not lost on me.

Once again, thank you. I’m humbled, but ready to put in the work.