Handbook
for the Graduate Program,
Last Revised
Maintained and Updated by:
Cris Sullivan, Ph.D.
(Email: sulliv22@msu.edu)
Graduate Associate Chairperson
Julie Detwiler, Graduate Secretary
(Email: psygrad@msu.edu)
The Graduate Office
202 Psychology Building
Based on previous versions by Dr. Bob Caldwell, Dr.
Fernanda Ferreira, Dr. Hiram Fitzgerald, Dr. Antonio Nuñez,
and Dr. Lester Hyman
Quick links
Committee membership rules and course requirements, for Master’s and Ph.D.
Current list of Psychology Adjunct Professors, approved to serve on Master’s and Ph.D. committees
Forms available
for download, for Master’s and Ph.D.
Table of Contents
1.1 Structure of the Graduate Program and the Department
2 Degree
Requirements, Guidelines, and Forms
2.1.2 Take care of your financial support
paperwork
2.1.5 Set up Master’s Guidance committee
2.1.6 Write your Plan of Study
2.1.8 Write and Defend Master’s research
2.1.10 Admission to the Ph.D. program
2.1.12 Academic Standards
for Master's Program
2.2.1 Arrive at MSU (get PID etc.)
2.2.2 Take care of financial support
2.2.5 Set up Doctoral Guidance Committee and
Doctoral Dissertation Committee
2.2.6 Write your Plan of Study
2.2.7 Write your comprehensive examinations
2.2.8 Time Limits for Comprehensive Exams
2.2.9 Write Dissertation Proposal
2.2.10 Write and Defend the Dissertation
2.2.11 Get your Ph.D. and graduate
2.2.12 Time limits for Doctoral Program
2.2.13 Academic Standards
for Doctoral Program
3 Graduate
Studies Beyond the Requirements
3.1 What does it mean to be a graduate student?
3.2
Annual Evaluations - How do I know if I’m making good
progress?
3.4 Attending colloquia and other seminars and presentations
3.5 Projects beyond the requirements
3.6 Your relationship with your advisor, committee members
3.9
The Graduate Employees Union
3.10
Dealing with the Unexpected
4.2 Funds for travel and research
4.3 Financial Support (assistantships, stipends, fellowships)
5 Conducting
Research, Giving Talks, Publishing Papers
5.2 Guidelines for authorship and other forms of credit
5.3 Rules concerning the use of human subjects
5.4 Rules concerning the use of vertebrate animals (who
aren’t human)
5.5 Rules concerning the use of hazardous materials
6 Interest
Group Requirements and Guidelines
6.5 Industrial / Organizational
7 University-wide
materials and resources
Congratulations! You are a graduate student in one of the top Psychology Departments in the country. Your admission to this program is the result of a rigorous selection process. You should be proud of yourself for this achievement. The goal of your graduate training program is to turn you into a first-rate scientist, scholar, teacher, and practitioner.
The
“Graduate Program” in this Department is a Ph.D. program. This is true
even though those who enter our program without a Master’s degree are required
to obtain one. The expectation is that you will continue after the Master’s and
get your Ph.D. We therefore refer to the Master’s portion of the Graduate
Program as your “Master’s Program,” and the post-Master’s portion as the
“Doctoral Program.” Terminal Master’s are normally granted only in cases
in which the student has completed all Master’s requirements and a decision is
made not to continue in our Graduate Program.
The
Psychology Department is divided into six Interest Groups. These are:
2.
Clinical
3.
Cognitive
5.
Industrial / Organizational
Each Interest Group has a
chairperson who is chosen every couple of years by the Interest Group members.
The Department maintains an up-to-date list of Interest Group chairs and members.
These
Interest Groups run separate graduate training programs. They are described in Section
6 of this Handbook. You were admitted into one of these training
programs and therefore you have a home Interest Group. Each Interest Group has
developed its own set of guidelines for its training program. Links to these
Interest Group handbooks are included in this document in Section 6. These
Interest Group handbooks contain a great deal of very important information for
you. Any information that is not included in this Departmental Handbook is most
likely included in the Interest Group handbook for your specific program.
The
main body of this handbook describes the guidelines that are Department-wide.
The University guidebook entitled “Academic Programs” describes policies that
are – yes, you guessed it – University-wide. All University rules must be
followed and our Department has little power to override them; all Departmental
policies must be followed in addition to those; and all Interest Group
guidelines and regulations must be followed in addition to those defined by the
University and the Department.
The main body of this Handbook summarizes the Department-wide policies of our Graduate Programs. Section 6 describes the guidelines for each Interest Group. All Departmental forms that you need to fill out can be downloaded using links in the relevant sections of this Handbook or from our Forms web page. Some University forms are also available on the web). The files are in MSWord format, so you can fill them in electronically.
This
Handbook is divided into seven main sections:
The
first section describes the regulations for the Master’s Program. The information is organized chronologically,
starting with matters you need to take care of when you first arrive on campus.
The second section
describes the regulations for the Doctoral Program. This information is also
described chronologically.
For
each of these first two sections, the forms that you will need to fill out as
part of our requirements are provided as links and given in the appropriate
locations. For example, your Master’s Plan of Study Form can be
downloaded from this site.
The third section is about
graduate school beyond the requirements.
The fourth focuses on the
resources that are available to you as a graduate student in the Psychology
Department at MSU.
The fifth discusses issues
related to research, giving talks, and publishing papers.
The sixth section
describes the regulations that are specific to the different Interest Groups.
The seventh and final
section lists university-wide materials and resources. You’ll find links to the
Graduate
School, the Academic Programs Handbook, links to
information about Grievance Procedures, and so on.
Please send comments,
suggestions for changes, and problems with broken links to the Graduate
Associate Chairperson, Professor Cris Sullivan, (sulliv22@msu.edu).
Definition: You are considered to be in the Master’s
Program if you were admitted to the Graduate Program in the Department of
Psychology and you don’t have a Master’s Degree from another University. You
may also be admitted into the Master's program if you have a non-Psychology
Master's degree.
One
of your first items of business (besides minor things like finding a place to
live and so on) will be to make sure you know your Personal Identification
Number. This task might be the easiest of your graduate career: You were assigned
your PIN when you applied to MSU. Your PIN is the letter “A” followed by eight
digits. This piece of information is important—it’s who you are, as far as the
University computers are concerned.
In
addition, once you have a PIN you can get your MSU NetID as well. Your NetID allows you to do things electronically at MSU,
including access email, library resources, your student record, and so on. Your
NetID is the first part of your MSU email address something@msu.edu.
Using your NetID you can also access some server
storage space (called AFS space) which you can use to create personal web
pages.
Most
of you have been admitted with some sort of financial support. Support sources
come in five main types:
1)
Teaching assistantships eligible to
join the Graduate Employees Union (TA)
2)
Teaching assistantships not eligible
to join the Graduate Employees Union (TE)
3)
Research assistantships (RA)
4)
MSU fellowships (e.g., University
Distinguished Fellowships, University Enrichment Fellowships)
5)
External fellowships (e.g., from the
National Science Foundation)
When you were admitted to
the program, you were told whether you would be on a fellowship or some type of
assistantship.
If
you have been awarded a TA, you must decide if you want to join the Graduate
Employees Union (GEU). You will be given a card on which you indicate your
decision at the beginning of the first semester in which you are eligible to
join. DUES paying TAs (as GEU members) need only sign a GEU card ONCE (unless
you wish to change to paying fees) during your graduate careers. FEES paying
TAs need to sign a card ONCE A YEAR. TEs and RAs are
not currently required to fill out this form. VERY IMPORTANT: If you are a
TA and do not fill out a union card, you can lose your assistantship.
After
your first year in the program, you will need to meet the following criteria to
be eligible for TA support from the Department: