 Let's get into our PhD programs or study, you know, I'm not judging Here, my name is Nathan. I'm a 28 year old living in New York City I currently attend Columbia University spirituality in my body Institute getting my master's in clinical psychology And I'm also a yoga instructor at core power yoga. So I am a little stressed I'm entering my last semester potentially at Columbia and also applying to Graduate programs will doctoral programs at the same time if you're in the same boat as me Which you might be that might be why you clicked on this video It's very stressful and very hard to navigate So I figured we could do it together and I can give you all the tips and tricks that I learned along the way And we can successfully hopefully get in our first time applying, but Who knows if that's gonna happen fine, it's fine. We're gonna give it our best shot So first things first when you're applying to doctoral programs You want to kind of understand the options you have available Well, there are PhD programs that are typically five to seven years and are fully funded that means that the University ends up paying you to Take and like actually get your PhD Certificately in return you're doing a lot of research papers for them. You're teaching classes or maybe you are assistant teaching classes But long to be short, you're basically working for the University and the highest statement or the highest Salary I've seen for doctoral students was like 60,000 The lowest I've seen is like 30,000 and then, you know, right in the middle there around 40 45,000 a year which if you're anything like me and Had a full career before this I was making Probably double that amount. So it's a huge adjustment, but it's free So instead of, you know, taking out hundreds of thousands of student loan debt It is fully fully fully funded. The second option for doctoral programs in psychology is getting your side D Now I've chatted with a couple of PhD students at Columbia just to get kind of like Their say on it like if they thought the PhD was a good route If not, one person in particular told me that he saw the side D as like medical school But unfortunately because they were an international student, they were not kind of eligible I do like the idea of thinking of side D programs as like kind of psychology like med school So essentially it's a lot shorter. It's typically around four years Some people finished in three, but four years is typically how long the program takes and you get all the same training and qualifications in your internship, but you Don't have as much of a requirement to do research and create publications for the university And you might also not have to do like teaching assistance and stuff like that Side Ds aren't as focused on preparing you to be like a professor or a researcher They're more so focused on preparing you to be a clinical psychologist So seeing patients and taking out patients. You still get that with the PhD You still see patients, you still take patients But you also have that added layer of like being trained to be like a professor So doing like a lot of research at schools doing a lot of teaching, mentorship Like my mentor now for my advisor right now for my master's program at Columbia is a PhD student Which basically is responsible for our entire cohort, which is like 50 of us Which is a lot, but if you want to be a teacher, it's a really good You know kind of training to set you up to be a professor where you have classes of like 20 to 50 kids All that being said With those two options you kind of have to decide whether you want to go to the PhD route or the side D route Side D programs usually aren't funded So you're probably paying 40,000 a year to go to school to get your degree But hopefully because you'll be out faster, maybe like two or three years faster than the PhD track You'll have more time to earn that money back So for me, I'm actually going to be applying for both PhD programs and side D programs And I want to see kind of like where the cookie crumbles. I think my priority right now Is Actually, I might not have one So to be clear, I do have a top choice for PhD programs and then I also have a top choice for side D programs But I'm kind of I don't really have a preference for a PhD over a side D I like that, you know, the PhD you get paid But I also like that this side D you save a lot of time and it's more focused on what I want to do Which is therapy. We'll see what happens there But my advice to you as we're just now getting started is August 26th And if you're in school, schools will be starting up again But our goal for episode one is to finish our CV So I'm gonna walk you guys that process too But before that, I'm like, is there something else I want to say? You need to kind of decide what programs you want to apply to I kind of based my criteria off of location So like, do I have family nearby? Do I have friends nearby? Instead of a place I can see myself living for four years at minimum Then also price, so how expensive is the program Which basically is side D versus PhD And then like potential scholarships and stipends Everything that the programs have available Then what's very important for PhDs that you actually don't have to consider for side Ds Is your PI, a PI is a primary investigator A PI, a primary investigator is basically who you're applying to If you're applying to PhD programs This is very different from side D programs Side D programs are a little bit more traditional And what you're applying to get into that school So while you do so want to do your research on the faculty And identify someone you want to work with They are more open to just accept more students Because they're not going to have that one-on-one mentor relationship It's more of a school relationship than what you're studying To learn information and they're kind of like putting you out into the world Versus PhDs, this is a huge, huge difference When you apply for PhD programs You're applying to work with a particular professor So that's going to be your primary investigator or your PI So you want to see who is taking on students in the PhD program And kind of map if your interests and their interests align And if you want to work with them for the next four years This is actually a very different way of kind of applying to schools If you, I mean, you probably have to apply to undergrad And maybe a master's program if you did It's very interesting because like if your professor moves So let's say you apply to work with Dr. Walker at the University of Illinois If Dr. Walker leaves the University of Illinois and maybe goes to the University of Chicago Guess what? You, as you're still studying your PhD under them Are now going to be attending the University of Chicago So if your PI moves, you also move with your PI So it really doesn't matter what university you go to Even though it does, you know, on a piece of paper Ultimately when you're applying to PhD programs You're looking to apply for a person So that's why it's a lot more competitive to get to PhD programs Because one person can only mentor so many people So like they can't have like, you know, 20 personal mentor ease All starting their first year at the same time So usually a professor will take maybe one or two Maybe three new mentors on Which is why acceptance rates for PhD programs are not hot It'll be like 300 people apply, 15 people get in Because there's only like five professors that are taking applicants And like they can only handle three new people So yeah, that's why I'm also applying to study programs So I kind of want to show you guys my dashboard Maybe I'll record this part of my phone So basically I have 14 schools on my list I'm currently going to apply to I honestly, by the time September rolls around Because I was doing this work over the summer I don't know if every PI or every university that I was interested in If they're going to be like accepting new students So that's something I'm going to solidify in September And I highly recommend applying to like at least 10 schools If you're able to afford it There is still going to be an application fee which sucks And I've been seeing them around like 50 to 65 dollars Some schools do have application waivers Just something to take into account Like 14 I think is a little bit too many I'm like quick math, like 800 dollars Look, I don't want to pay that much So I'm hoping to be around 600 I also want to talk to you guys about CCs So let me pull up mine now It's not looking too great So as you guys know I had an entire career before this In which I worked in tech And while I really loved it I just knew in my heart that like This was my calling This is something I always wanted to do And I just wasn't feeling like super fulfilled in my job So I am definitely going to leverage That still I'm going to leverage my yoga experience And my professional experience To hopefully make me more of a unique candidate For doctoral programs But also something that you should really take into account Why is it not here? Oh my god What the hell? Oh my god Okay so all of the work that I put into my doctoral CV Is now gone Great Well I'm happy we're doing this together Because now I know that I need to redo some of this But some of the things that you should have On your CV that's different Than like a regular resume is one You want to call out all the research experience you have So for me that kind of just means Moving them out of my professional experience And then creating a new subsection for like Research experience Another thing you want to make sure you include Is any publications you may have I have none But I'm working in some labs So hopefully I can get something by the time December rolls around What most of the applications are due Another section you want to have Is like conferences and presentations So any conference in which you have like a poster Or you gave a talk Definitely want to include that there This like please do not be frantic Because truthfully like I just kind of fell into Like the whole like clinical psychology world Like basically a year ago And I don't have all this experience It's what I'm trying to say Like I don't have any presentations right now I don't have any publications right now So hopefully by the time December comes around We can get some together If you don't have any don't fret Like honestly just put your best foot forward A lot of people have to pay to PHE programs Exciting programs more than one time But it just helps you know Like this is what the admissions committee is looking for And then if you have any teaching experience Or leadership experience I might kind of lump that into one You can kind of put like leadership positions in your lab Or tutoring experience that you might have Or like you know whatever teaching experience you had One of the people in my peer group Mentioned that they put like camp counselor And they're like teaching and leadership experience Because it literally had the name counselor in it And that would be really cool You can also have like volunteer experience too And then any honors and awards that you might have It might not seem like a huge deal to you Like oh I got the scholarship when I went to undergrad Because like everyone who applies gets the scholarship But you definitely still want to put it on your PHD Or a site application Because that is something that they're looking for And it just helps you stand out After all that's been said Like a typical professional where it's made Is about one page A CV my lab is very very long So you honestly just want to put as much information as possible At our stage If you're in the same boat as me I'll probably be between two and three pages long But now I have to redo like my whole CV Because clearly I didn't save it I don't know why that happened I feel a little bit like a little house on the prairie With like my pigtails and like my little stroke dress But I don't know I think it's really cute I also wanted to show you my hair this morning But literally I checked the humidity and it's 85 degrees So I was like oh no I'm gonna waste my time Which also pro tip for my natural girlies Like before you do your hair Check the humidity Because if anything over 50 Just do a protective style Put your hair away Because anything you do to it It's just gonna poof up Wow so off track Anyway I want to thank you guys so much for watching I plan on doing these videos on like a monthly basis Just to kind of hold me accountable For you know applying to doctoral programs this winter And I also hope they help you Please please please let me know in the comments If there's anything I missed that you're looking for Or any questions that you had about the PhD process Or this ID application progress process I'm honestly doing it for my first time now And my family like my dad has a master's degree Or an MBA in business But my mom like just has her undergrad degree And did like a technical school So I don't have a lot of resources of people Who like went through this process So I've really been leaning on the internet And I'm so happy to share anything that I've learned I've done like a lot of group chats with friends And I'm in like this little cohort Of people applying to PhDs now And we've been all helping each other So if there's any way that I can help you Please let me know in the comments below I definitely want to see more people of color In the mental health space And more people of color getting advanced degrees So we're all in this together Please subscribe if you haven't already My goal is to get to 1000 by the end of the year And as I'm recording this we're at 779 So I'm going to love you and leave you And I will see you in the next video Bye