Handbook
for the Graduate Program,
Last Revised
Maintained and Updated by:
Cris Sullivan, Ph.D.
(Email: sulliv22@msu.edu)
Graduate Program Director
Julie Detwiler, Graduate Program Administrator
(Email: psygrad@msu.edu)
The Graduate Office
262A 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.
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)
4.5 Professional Development Resources
4.5.1. Graduate Student Orientation
4.5.2. Teaching of Psychology Course
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
6.2 Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience_
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 Program Groups. These are:
2.
Clinical
3.
Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience
Each Program Group has a chairperson who is chosen every couple of years by the Program Group members. The Department maintains a list of Program Group chairs and members.
These
Program 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 Program Group. Each Program Group has
developed its own set of guidelines for its training program. Links to these
Program Group handbooks are included in this document in Section 6. These
Program 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 Program 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 Program 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 Program 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 Program 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
Programs Director, 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:
The Chair of the Department determines if you meet these criteria and
can waive them in extraordinary circumstances. After determining an eligible
pool of applicants and the availability of resources, the Chair will then
inform you about your support for the next academic year.
To
avoid any unpleasant surprises, it is important for you to stay in touch with
your advisor, your committee, and your Program Group as a whole. Make sure you
know whether you are considered to be making good progress, and don’t be shy
about asking what sort of support you can expect to have for the upcoming
academic year. Every year, your advisor and the Program Group to which he/she
belongs should provide you with a written letter evaluating your progress in
the Graduate Program.
The
level of support for the 2009-2010 Academic Year, for TAs, TEs and RAs is $1,580 (Level 1 and 2) $1,653 (Level 3) each month of the 9-month academic year. These amounts are
higher than the University-mandated minimums. A 9-credit per semester tuition
waiver is included. Other benefits are included as well, including health
insurance. Students must be registered for a minimum of 6 credits to be
eligible for this support. The same is true for some fellowships. Click here for
more information about Graduate Assistantships.
Summer
TA support is normally not provided by the Department unless the student
actually teaches a summer course. Students receive summer support in the form
of a research assistantship if they have made such an agreement for support
with their advisor or as part of a fellowship. Summer stipends include a four
credit tuition waiver. You are required to enroll in 3 credits to hold a
summer assistantship. Typically, those will be research credits – PSY 890 or
PSY 899.
Department Policies
Regarding Graduate Assistantships:
1. Satisfactory academic progress and
demonstrated ability to perform the specific graduate assistantship assignments
are the major criteria for assigning initial and continuing support to
students. A student receiving an assistantship must be enrolled for a minimum
number of credits that depend upon the terms of the assistantship. For Master's
students, the minimum enrollment with a half-time assistantship is 6 credits and
the maximum is 12 credits. For doctoral students, the minimum enrollment with a
half-time assistantship is 3 and the maximum is 12. If you have any questions
about this, we suggest that you check with the Graduate Office (262A Psychology)
when you receive your appointment to be certain you do not enroll for fewer
credits than necessary or more than allowed.
2. The Psychology Department can offer a
maximum of eight (8) semesters of Teaching Assistant (TA) support for its
graduate students. This does not include any semesters in which a student is
supported as a Research Assistant (RA). Any TA support in excess of this
maximum must be approved by the Department Chair. Graduate student support of
any sort is not guaranteed and is dependent on the availability of funds and
the performance of the graduate student. This policy does put financial
pressure on students who take more than 4 years to complete their work.
Students and faculty, on the students' behalf, are urged to seek funds to help
relieve the increased financial pressure.
Teaching
Assistantships serve three important functions in our graduate program:
·
they help you learn about effective
university-level teaching,
·
they assist the undergraduate mission
of the Department, and
·
they are a source of financial
support.
We
believe that the training benefit of the TA diminishes with each successive
experience and is of minimal benefit after 8 semesters. Our graduate program is
structured such that students making satisfactory academic progress toward the
completion of their Ph.D. work should normally have most, if not all, of their
graduate work completed with four years of TA assistance plus any additional RA
support that many students receive.
3. Graduate assistantships are compensated at
three levels by University regulation.
The minimum requirements for appointment are:
Level
1 -- graduate student, Bachelor's degree and less than one year's experience as
a graduate assistant
Level
2 -- graduate student, Master's degree (30 credits or equivalent) and/or two
semesters' experience as a graduate assistant
Level
3 -- graduate student, Master's degree (or equivalent) and six semesters'
experience as a Teaching Assistant (Note: Experience as a RA or as a TE does
not count towards the experience total for Level 3).
4. Accepting TA support carries the obligation to meet your responsibilities. Please do not schedule vacations or trips during the semester you are employed. If you have to be away during the semester, you must give reasonable advanced notice to your supervisor (usually the course instructor) so that appropriate coverage can be arranged.
5. International students must demonstrate adequate English Language proficiency by meeting University minimum requirements to be assigned as a TA in the Psychology Department. These requirements are described in the Academic Programs document.
6. Graduate TAs are evaluated, in writing, at
the end of each semester they are employed as a TA. This evaluation is
completed by the instructor of the class. If you are teaching your own section
of a class you will be evaluated by the Chairperson of your Program Group.
It
is important to talk to your advisor and the other faculty and grad students in
your Program group about the best courses to take for your Master’s. Your Plan
of Study is the formal document describing the courses etc. that you plan to
take as part of your Master’s Program. This section focuses on a few procedural
matters.
First, go to http://www.msu.edu/current/index.html and
click on “Courses and Schedules” to see what is being offered and by whom.
Enrollment in courses is done either over the web or by telephone.
Second, some courses have prerequisites or other sorts of
restrictions placed on them that will make it impossible for you to enroll
electronically. To get an override, contact the relevant faculty member
and ask him/her to email the Graduate Secretary. The email message should give
your name and PID, the course and semester for which the override is requested,
and it should state that the faculty member permits you to enroll. This email
message must come from the faculty member, not from the student who wants the
override.
Third, all students will receive a billing
statement from the University verifying enrollment schedule and tuition
expenses. Tuition waivers, student
loans, and graduate office scholarships will be reflected on the billing
statement. If there is an amount due, be sure to submit payment by the due date
or your enrollment will be canceled. You will have to initiate the enrollment
procedure again and be subject to a late enrollment fee. The billing receipt is to be returned to the
appropriate office even if there is no amount due.
More
information about enrollment and registration procedures can be found at http://www.esp.msu.edu/.
To
obtain a Master’s degree you must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of
coursework and research credits. There are two types of Master’s programs
in the Department: “Plan A” and “Plan B”. Graduate students in a Plan A
Master’s program (Clinical, Organizational, Ecological, and Social/Personality students) write a formal Master’s thesis. Graduate students
in the Behavioral Neuroscience and Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience Psychology Graduate
Programs do a Plan B Master’s. Other students outside of these Program Groups may do a Plan B
Master’s if the advisor and Program Group decide it is appropriate. All
graduate students pursuing a Plan A Master’s must have a minimum of 4 and a
maximum of 8 credits of PSY 899 (Thesis Research), and no more than 3 credits
of PSY 890 (Special Problems). Students in the Plan B program cannot sign up
for PSY 899, and must have a minimum of PSY 890 credits as decided by their
programs.
The
Department requires that all students take (and pass) PSY 815, “Quantitative
Research Design and Analysis in Psychology”, or its equivalent. Most Program
Groups require a second quantitative course as well at the Master’s level.
Finally,
another restriction you should be aware of is that no more than 6 of your 30
credits may come from courses at the 400 level.
The
rest of your credits will be made up of courses that are recommended to you by
your advisor and committee, and/or that are required by your Program Group.
DF-Deferred grades: The
required work must be completed and a grade reported within 6 months with the
option of a single six-month extension.
If the required work is not completed within the time limit, the DF will
become U-Unfinished and will be changed to
DF/U under the numerical and Pass-No Grade (P-N) grading systems, and to
DF/NC under the Credit-No Credit (CR-NC) system. This rule does not apply to graduate thesis
or dissertation work.
During the summer before
you arrive on campus, you will be assigned a "Temporary
Advisor." In the same letter
informing you of your Temporary Advisor, you will receive information about
what courses to enroll for during your first year. These courses have been
chosen by your advisor, so if you have any questions about them, check with
your advisor. Your Temporary Advisor may become your Advisor when you choose
your Master's Committee, but this is not necessary. Some of you might already
know who you want as your advisor—he or she is the person who contacted you
during the admissions process, who might be supporting you on a research grant,
or who has simply said “I will be your advisor when you get here.” Make sure
you meet with this person as soon as possible after you arrive in
Other
students opt not to stay with their Temporary Advisor, but choose someone else
once they are on campus. You can talk to the other graduate students to get
ideas. Try to work with an advisor who has scientific interests that are close
to yours. Try to work with someone who is not overwhelmed with other
commitments and will therefore give you the time you need.
You
should make sure you have a formal meeting with your advisor within a month of
your arrival on campus. During this meeting, you should (1) discuss courses you
should take in your first year, (2) talk about who will be on your guidance
committee, and (3) begin to explore research ideas.
Your
Master’s Guidance Committee has several functions. They help you with your
Master's Plan of Study and also supervise your Master's research. You only have
one Master's committee, although it is sometimes referred to as the Master's
Plan of Study committee or the Master's thesis committee. Whatever you call it,
the University only recognizes the Master's Guidance committee.
You
have an advisor, so you have one committee member for your Master’s Guidance
Committee. Normally, the advisor is also the committee chair. In general, your
Chair will come from your Program Group.
How
many members do you need? The minimum is three, including your advisor. Here
are the restrictions on committee membership:
·
Chair of your Guidance Committee must
be a Psychology Department faculty member
·
2 of the 3 must be regular members of
the Psychology Department
·
Only 1 of the 3 committee members may be either Emeritus or a regular faculty member from outside the Psychology Department
Definitions:
Regular faculty member: someone who has a tenure-track or tenured
appointment at MSU.
Emeritus faculty: Faculty who have retired from the University but
maintain a courtesy appointment.
You
may have more than 3 members if you wish, in which case you are permitted to
have more than 1 adjunct member, more than 1 Emeritus member, and so on.
However, the regular committee members must out-number the others. Your
committee is reviewed and approved by the department's Graduate Program Director. In rare cases, the Graduate Programs Director can add one
appropriate member to a guidance committee.
Keep
in mind that your Guidance Committee is there to look out for your academic and
training interests. Their input will also help you design a scientifically
sound project that has a reasonable likelihood of working out. Therefore, you
should ask people to serve on your committee who have useful expertise and who
will be available to meet with you and give you advice.
Once
you choose your committee, you should not make changes lightly. Inevitably,
there will be difficult (and sometimes, emotional) times in the research
process. These times are typical and expectable and do not lead to changes in
committee membership. However, should it become necessary for you to change the
membership of your committee, you must file "The Master's Plan of Study
Amendment Form" with the Graduate Office (room 262A). This form is
available to download from the forms page.
It is occasionally
appropriate for a student to want a fixed-term (non-tenure-stream) faculty member from MSU,
OR a regular faculty member from another University, to serve on their committee. In this case,
you need to seek approval from the Graduate Programs Director.
Your Plan of Study is an extremely important document, so
make sure you put a lot of thought into preparing it. Work on it with your
advisor and, possibly, your committee members as well. The Plan of Study
contains information about
You must make sure you put
down the appropriate numbers of PSY 890 and PSY 899 credits, because the
You
submit your plan of study to the Graduate Programs Director for your
departmental file. The plan of study must be signed by all members of your Plan
of Study committee and is not official until it has received departmental
approval. The Plan of Study must be filed before the end of your second
semester as a graduate student for you to remain eligible for fall
registration.
Your Plan of Study (including the
composition of your committee) may be amended with a Master’s
Plan of Study Amendment Form. As you can see from the
form, before it is official it must be signed by you, the Chair of your
Guidance Committee, and the Graduate Programs Director.
Your Master’s Proposal is a formal description of your
Master's research. It will be somewhat different for Plan A and Plan B
students. For students in a Plan A program, the proposal describes the project
you will conduct for your Master’s thesis. It normally includes an
Introduction, Methods, Analyses, and Hypotheses/Predictions sections for each
of the experiments / studies you will be conducting; and complete References.
Put a lot of thought into your proposal; it will be the core of your Master’s
thesis write-up, so the more work you do now, the less you’ll have to do later.
Also, be explicit, clear, and complete, so your Guidance Committee can really
understand what you want to do and can then give you proper advice. The
ultimate goal is for you to prepare a thesis proposal that leads eventually to
a publishable article. For students in a Plan B program, the requirements for
the proposal are laid out in the Program Group Requirements and Guidelines documents.
You can reach these documents and read the requirements specific to your
Program group by following the appropriate links at the end of this handbook.
The timeline for you to defend your proposal is contained in
your Program group Requirements and Guidelines document.
Your Master’s proposal defense will probably be your first
formal meeting, so it’s worthwhile setting up good habits from the beginning.
Here are tips for setting up committee meetings:
Be particularly careful when setting up meetings for the
summer. Most faculty are on 9-month appointments, so they are under no
obligation to meet during the other 3 months. Most will be cooperative, but
many faculty travel for pleasure and for research during the summer, and they
often leave for extended periods. Therefore, you should check early with your
committee members to make sure they are willing to meet in the summer, and to
find out when they will be available.
Once your proposal is accepted by your committee, have them
fill out either the Plan A Master’s Proposal
Approval Form or the Plan
B Master’s Project Approval Form . This form and an
electronic (i.e., disk or computer file) copy of your proposal needs to be
filed with the Department's Graduate Office as soon as possible after your
proposal is accepted.
There will come a point in the Master’s Program when you and your advisor decide your master’s project is complete. You will then write up the study according to the guidelines that are appropriate given your area of work. As stated above, set up a defense meeting, giving committee members appropriate lead time. The format for Plan B projects is described in the Program Group Requirements and Guidelines. For Plan A students, the guidelines concerning formatting of the thesis are on the web.
All Master’s degree candidates must be enrolled during the semester in which they orally defend their thesis or research project. Although you must be enrolled, it is not necessary that you be enrolled in PSY 890 or PSY 899.
After your defense, your committee will evaluate your research and your defense of it and decide upon a grade. This grade will be applied to all of your previously deferred PSY 890 or PSY 899 credits. Usually, you will have some revisions to do, no matter what grade is assigned. Plan A students should bring a copy of the Report on MA Level Achievements Form for Plan A Master's students form to the meeting. If you have done a Plan B Master’s you should bring a copy of the Master's Plan B Completion Form to the meeting. Once completed and signed by your committee, each of these forms should be returned to the Graduate Programs Administrator in the department's Graduate Office.
All Master’s degree candidates must be enrolled during the semester in which they orally defend their thesis or research project. It is not necessary that you be enrolled in PSY 890 or PSY 899 credits per se. When you register for classes for the semester you plan on receiving your degree, you must complete an application for graduation. This begins the procedure by which the various offices involved will be notified of your intention to graduate. Check the university calendar for specific deadlines to be eligible for each semester's graduation.
After all signatures have
been obtained on the necessary forms, file them with the Graduate Programs Administrator in
the Departmental Graduate Office (room 262A
Your Master's Guidance committee reviews all of your work and makes a recommendation to your Program Group on your admission to the Ph.D. program. Your Program Group chair signs off on the Master's completion forms to make a recommendation on your admission to the Ph.D. program to the Graduate Programs Director of the department.
Keep in mind that admission to the Ph.D. program is not automatic. Students are not recommended for the Ph.D. for a variety of reasons. The written feedback you have received from your advisor and Program Group as well as your general conversations with your committee should serve to keep you well-informed about your progress in the program.
Occasionally, a student will be admitted into the Doctoral program with Provisional status. Provisional status is offered to students of promise who have some remediable inadequacy of qualification. A student who is admitted to provisional status will be eligible for change to regular status when specific written conditions for transfer to regular status have been met.
There are two types of time limits: extremely highly recommended, and official.
Extremely Highly Recommended: You should complete all requirements for the Master’s degree within two years of the start of your Master’s program, and three at the very latest.
The
Definition: You are considered to be in the Ph.D. program
if you were admitted to the Graduate Program in the Department of Psychology
and you have a Master’s Degree (from MSU or some other institution) that is
accepted by the Program Group that admitted you.
It
is important to talk to your advisor and the other faculty and grad students in
your Program group about the best courses to take for your Ph.D. Your Plan of
Study (see below) is the formal document describing the courses etc. that you
plan to take as part of your Ph.D. program. This section focuses on a few
procedural matters.
First, go to the Schedule of Courses to see what is being
offered and by whom. Enrollment in courses is done either over the web or by
telephone.
Second, some courses have prerequisites or other sorts of
restrictions placed on them that will make it impossible for you to enroll
electronically. To get an override, contact the relevant faculty member
and ask him/her to email the Graduate Secretary. The email message should give
your name and PID, the course and semester for which the override is requested,
and it should state that the faculty member permits you to enroll. This email
message must come from the faculty member, not from the student who wants the
override.
Third, all students will receive a billing
statement from the University verifying enrollment schedule and tuition
expenses. Tuition waivers, student
loans, and graduate office scholarships will be reflected on the billing
statement. If there is an amount due, be sure to submit payment by the due date
or your enrollment will be canceled. You will have to initiate the enrollment
procedure again and be subject to a late enrollment fee. The billing receipt is to be returned to the
appropriate office even if there is no amount due. However it will also indicate the minimum
amount due if the student chooses the deferred payment option.
More
information about enrollment and registration procedures can be found at https://webenroll.msu.edu/Enrl/FAQ.asp.
There
are few specific course requirements for the Ph.D. Most of them will be
determined by you and your committee and will be described in your Doctoral
Plan of Study. There are just two requirements beyond the level of Program
group requirements:
1)
You must complete PSY 815 (or
equivalent). This is a departmental requirement.
2)
You must complete a minimum of 24
credit hours of PSY 999. (You receive credit for those 999s when the Ph.D.
is awarded.) This is a University requirement.
Some
students who begin their Graduate Program at the Master’s level in our
Department find that they have completed all their coursework before beginning
the Doctoral Program. Those students would only have to take PSY 999 credits,
but keep in mind that you must sign up for 6 credits every semester to maintain
official full-time student status (exception below).
Full time status for
doctoral students is defined as a minimum of 1 credit for those students who:
1) Have successfully completed all comprehensive
examinations and are actively engaged in dissertation research: or
2) Are doing department-approved off-campus fieldwork
related to preparation of their dissertation.
DF-Deferred grades: The
required work must be completed and a grade reported within 6 months with the
option of a single six-month extension.
If the required work is not completed within the time limit, the DF will
become U-Unfinished and will be changed to
DF/U under the numerical and Pass-No Grade (P-N) grading systems, and to
DF/NC under the Credit-No Credit (CR-NC) system. This rule does not apply to graduate thesis
or dissertation work.
The existence of these two committees is one of the most
confusing things about our Graduate Program.
When you first begin your Doctoral program, you will create a
Doctoral Guidance Committee. The Doctoral Guidance Committee must
consist of four MSU faculty, at least three of whom are regular members of the Psychology Department. The chairperson of the
committee must be a member of the student’s Program Group. No more than one of
the four faculty may be Emeritus, or from outside the Psychology
Department.
The Doctoral Guidance Committee is an extremely important
group. They work with you to develop your Plan of Study (that’s why it’s
sometimes referred to as your Plan of Study committee), and they sign off on
it. They are also the committee that designs, administers, and evaluates your
comprehensive exams. They have a say in all aspects of your doctoral program,
including your research area and any internship placements required by your
program.
Our Department uses the term “Dissertation Committee”
to refer to the committee that supervises the dissertation itself and signs off
on the proposal and final product. Often, the Dissertation Committee is made up
of the same people as the original Guidance Committee. But some students in
some Program Groups prefer to change their committee makeup, in part to take
advantage of different faculty members’ expertise. Thus, the Dissertation
Committee might be the same as the original Guidance Committee, or it might be
different. If the Dissertation Committee is different, you must submit a form
to Amend your Doctoral Plan of Study.
The regulations concerning who may serve on Doctoral Dissertation Committees are essentially the same as those for the Doctoral Guidance / Plan of Study Committee: It must be composed of at least four faculty, at least three of whom are regular Department members. No more than one of the four may be adjunct in Psychology. An adjunct faculty member may co-chair a dissertation along with a regular member of the Department. The chair of your dissertation must come from the Program Group to which you were admitted. Also, the Graduate Associate Chair of the Psychology Department has the discretion to add a committee member to any Doctoral Committee.
Keep in mind that the University uses only the term “Doctoral
Guidance Committee.” The name “Doctoral Dissertation Committee” is purely
internal terminology; the University continues to view this committee as your
Doctoral Guidance Committee.
The
If you do not have a Dissertation Committee member
from outside of Psychology, the Graduate Associate Dean will appoint a Dean’s
Representative to attend your oral defense of the dissertation. You will be
asked to make suggestions about who might be an appropriate faculty member to
serve as the Dean's Representative and you must do so at least three weeks
before the scheduled date for the oral defense of the dissertation. See section
2.2.10.
Finally, it is a
University regulation that you cannot change committee members within 60 days
before the date of the oral defense. Before that time, should you need to
change the membership of your committee, you must file "The Amendment
of a Doctoral Plan of Study Form" with the Graduate Office. This form
is available to download from the forms page.
Your Doctoral Plan of Study is an extremely
important document, so make sure you put a lot of thought into preparing it.
Work on it with your advisor and, possibly, your committee members as well. The
Plan of Study contains information about:
You must make sure you put
down a minimum of twenty-four (24) credits from PSY 999. If you list
more than the minimum number of PSY 999 credits, the
The
Plan of Study must be signed by all members of your doctoral Guidance committee
and is not official until it has received both departmental and college
approval. The Doctoral Plan of Study form must be filed with the Graduate
Associate Chairperson before the end of your second semester as a doctoral
student for you to remain eligible for registration.
The
Doctoral Plan of Study may be amended with the
Amendment of a Doctoral Plan of Study Form. Before the
amendments are official, the form must be signed by you, the Chair of your
Guidance Committee, and the Graduate Programs Director.
One of the main items on your agenda as a Doctoral student is to pass your comprehensive exams. The goal of these exams is to allow you to demonstrate both the breadth and depth of your knowledge of psychology. The format, structure, and content are determined almost entirely by your Program Group and your Guidance Committee, so consult Section 6 for important information.
The
· The names of the examiners should be typed on the MICHIGAN
STATE UNIVERSITY Record of Comprehensive Examinations form, and each examiner should sign under his or her
typed name.
·
The student must be enrolled for at
least one credit the semester in which the exams are passed.
·
Copies of all written comprehensive
exams must be turned into the Department's Graduate Office. The University
requires the Department to keep written comprehensive exams on file for at
least three years. The Psychology Department will accept electronic (i.e., disk
or computer file) copies of these exams.
For
students who were enrolled in the Spring and are taking their comprehensive
exams during the immediate Summer semester, the department can request a waiver
of the requirement that the student be enrolled for at least one credit the
semester of the comprehensive exam. These requests are to be directed to the
·
All Comprehensive Exams must be
passed WITHIN FIVE YEARS from the
time when a student begins the first class at MSU that appears on his or her
Doctoral Plan of Study.
·
Requests for time extensions
o Requests for time extensions should be made by the
chair of the student’s committee and endorsed by the Graduate Associate Chair.
o Requests should be made for a specific time period,
normally no longer than one year. Make the request for an extension through (specific
semester, year).
o In the rare case where a request is being made for
an extension for more than one year, a specific time frame for the completion
of all remaining requirements should be attached.
o When a time extension is approved for a Ph.D.
candidate, the student is required to retake the comprehensive examinations.
If the student believes there is justification for not requiring a retake of
the exams, he or she must request this exception in writing as part of the
request for the time extension.
o All requests approved at the College level will be
forwarded to the
You must pass your Comprehensive Exams before you can schedule your meeting to defend your dissertation.
You’re now at perhaps the most important stage in your graduate career: You’re ready to write your dissertation! The first step is to write a dissertation proposal. It normally includes an Introduction, Methods, Analyses, and Hypotheses / Predictions sections for each of the experiments / studies you will be conducting; and complete References. Put a lot of thought into your proposal; it will be the core of your dissertation write-up, so the more work you do now, the less you’ll have to do later. Also, be explicit, clear, and complete, so your Guidance Committee can really understand what you want to do and can then give you proper advice. The ultimate goal is for you to prepare a dissertation proposal that leads eventually to an article that will be published in one of the major scientific journals in your field.
Your Guidance Committee approves your Dissertation proposal at your proposal defense meeting. Take a copy of the Doctoral Level Approval of Dissertation Proposal form, so it can be filled out at the meeting. This form, along with an electronic (i.e., disk or computer file) copy of the accepted dissertation proposal should be filed with the Graduate Secretary as soon as possible after your proposal has been accepted.
Students in the Clinical Program Group must have an approved dissertation proposal on file before they may apply for predoctoral internships.
Once
your proposal is defended, your major task is to complete the research, write
it up in the form of a dissertation, and defend it. The structure and content
of the dissertation is one of the most critical matters that will be decided
between you and your advisor, with input from your Guidance Committee. There is
a dissertation support group on campus http://writing.msu.edu/ntp/, which you
might find a helpful resource as you go through the various stages of writing
your dissertation. The formatting guide for dissertations is helpful as well (http://www.msu.edu/user/gradschl/format.htm).
The
Those who do not appoint a Dean’s Representative for the Dissertation Committee from the beginning must do so before the scheduled exam date. At least 3 weeks prior to the exam, submit an approved draft of your dissertation to the Graduate Associate Dean of Social Science, Rm. 221Berkey Hall, along with the necessary form indicating the date, time, and place of the defense. The Dean’s office will let you know who will serve as the Dean’s representative. The Dean also reserves the right to postpone the oral defense if sufficient notice is not given. It is getting increasingly difficult for the Dean to find available faculty to serve as Dean's Reps during the summer. If you think that you might be holding a summer defense of your dissertation, it is even more strongly suggested that you have an outside member appointed to your committee from the onset.
The Department of Psychology strongly encourages all dissertation committees and doctoral students to arrange for a public presentation of the dissertation as part of, or in addition to, the oral defense. The Ph.D. Notification of Final Oral Examination form should be filled out to allow the presentation to be advertised. In cases where a public presentation is not made, a public invitation to attend the oral examination will be made. Announcements and scheduling of rooms must be made three weeks prior to the oral defense. When scheduling rooms for the oral defense, be sure adequate seating is available to accommodate public attendance.
Most
importantly, remember that your
dissertation is an extremely significant piece of work; many have
revolutionized entire scientific fields. Write a dissertation you will be proud
of for the rest of your life.
To
graduate in a particular semester, Ph.D. students should have a copy of their
dissertation ready for their committee by the middle of the semester. Time is
needed for the College to assign the Dean’s Representative and a student must
allow for possible revisions before the oral defense. The completed
dissertation must be physically present in the
At
the end of your oral examination, the following forms must be completed and
returned to the office of the Graduate Programs Director:
1. "Action on Dissertation at Final Oral Examination". This form requires the signature of the chairperson of your dissertation committee.
2. " Record of Dissertation and Oral Examination, Requirements
for Doctoral Degree Candidates". This form requires the signature
of all members of your dissertation committee, including the Dean's
representative.
3. "Ph.D. Placement Report". This is your statement on job or educational plans after receiving your degree.
Submit
an unbound original copy of your dissertation to the
There are two types of time limits: extremely highly recommended, and official.
Extremely Highly Recommended: You should complete all requirements for the Ph.D. within two years of starting the Doctoral Program, and three at the latest.
The
The new publishing agreement for
thesis/dissertations with ProQuest now provides an
“Open Access Publishing Option” as an alternative to the traditional publishing
option available to students. The Open Access option gives ProQuest
the authorization to make the electronic version of the document accessible to
all via the internet, including the selling of the document by commercial
retailers and the accessibility to the work via search engines. A student
selecting the Open Access option will not be eligible to receive royalties.
There are pros and cons to selecting this new option. For more information,
visit: http://proquest.com/products_umi/dissertations/epoa.shtml
This
section is about not just meeting requirements but also doing the things that
will make you successful. In addition to what is described here, take a look at
Psychgrad.Org:
it’s a wonderful site for information about how to succeed in graduate school.
A
Graduate Student is someone who is educated and trained as the new generation
of scientists, scholars, and practitioners. It is no exaggeration to say that
our fields move forward to the extent that you are trained well. Therefore, you
should think about the requirements of your program as means to an end. The end
is for you to become the best scientist, teacher, practitioner, and overall
scholar. The means are things like theses, research projects, comprehensive
exams, committees, assistantship tasks, and so on. Keep focused on your
fundamental goals, and try not to get sidetracked by minor problems and
distractions!
From
the perspective of this fundamental goal it is important to think about
graduate school beyond the requirements. This section highlights some of these
other issues.
It is critical that you know where you stand
with your advisor, your Program Group, and the Department as a
whole. Consistent with the Graduate Rights and Responsibilities Document
(GSRR), graduate students have a right to receive periodic evaluations to
assess their progress, performance, and professional potential. Each
graduate student in the Department will receive written feedback
every year by faculty members qualified to provide such feedback (usually the
student's advisor) regarding progress toward degree, what
is expected in the short run (i.e., the next year), and what is
expected in the long run (i.e., the years that remain in the
student's graduate career). A copy of this letter is filed with the
Graduate Office. If a determination is made that a
graduate student's progress or performance is
unsatisfactory, he/she will be notified in writing and a copy of
that notice will be placed in the student's academic file. If a
determination is made that a graduate student's status in the program is
in jeopardy, he/she will be notified in writing and provided
with specific steps that must be taken within a specific timeframe to
improve his/her standing. If the graduate student does not meet
these requirements to the satisfaction of the majority of the Program group
faculty, he/she will be dismissed from the program. In lieu of
dismissal, faculty may also choose to suspend a graduate student from the
program until specific requirements are met.
The different Program Groups perform
evaluations on different schedules, so graduate students are encouraged to
check with their advisor about the schedule for these
letters. If a graduate student disagrees with any part of the
letter, or any action taken by his/her Program Group, the
student may submit a written response to the Psychology Department
Graduate Office and this response will be filed along with the
evaluation letter. A graduate student may also request a meeting with
the Graduate Programs Director of the Department (who also serves as the
Director of the Graduate Program) to discuss any problems with the
evaluation letter or process. Students who believe they have been wrongly
suspended, terminated or placed on probation can also request that the
Associate Chair convene the Psychology Department Graduate Student Grievance Committee
to review the case. The Grievance Committee’s recommendation is considered the
final determination of the Department.
In addition, you should always feel free to ask
your advisor and your committee members how they think you’re doing. This sort
of informal feedback can often be extremely useful. And certainly if you have
any concerns, you should make sure to have a candid conversation with your
advisor, and any other faculty members you trust.
Another way to assess how you’re doing is to look
at the more senior graduate students in your program, especially the ones who
are generally thought of as successful (one usually knows who those people
are). Consider what they do and what milestones they’ve reached, and then think
about your own progress. This standard is obviously not flawless, but it’s one
possibly relevant piece of information.
Perhaps the most important indicator of your
progress is whether you are in a position to get a good job after graduate
school—however you define “good.” For an academic position, for instance,
you’ll likely find that you need 2-5 publications in journals that are
respected in your field, a few conference presentations, and strong letters of
recommendation from your advisor and at least a couple of other people who know
your work. Those of you being trained in more practice-oriented fields will
need to demonstrate competence in important practice areas. You should consult
with your advisor and others in your Program Group to learn what the
appropriate amount of experience is given your area of work. More generally,
ask your advisor and other people whose opinion you respect what a strong vita
looks like in your particular field, and then aim to develop such a vita while
you’re in grad school.
****For
your information, below is what can be found in the
2.4.8 Evaluation. Graduate
students have a right to periodic evaluation as a measure of their academic
progress, performance, and professional potential. Evaluation of graduate
students shall be made only by persons who are qualified to make that
evaluation. Written descriptions of unit/program methods of evaluation and the
general rationale employed shall be provided to graduate students and the
faculty. Written evaluations shall be communicated to the graduate student at
least once a year, and a copy of such evaluations shall be placed in the
graduate student's file. (See also Section
2.5.2.4)
2.4.8.1 When determination is made that a graduate
student's progress or performance is unsatisfactory, the student shall be
notified.
2.4.8.2 If a graduate student's status in a program is in
jeopardy, the graduate student shall be informed in writing, and a copy of the
notice shall be placed in the student's file.
2.4.9 Terminations and Withdrawals.
Each department/school and college shall establish criteria for the termination
or withdrawal of graduate students enrolled in its graduate programs. Such
criteria shall be published and made available to graduate students at the time
they first begin their graduate programs. Should a decision to terminate a
graduate student be made, the affected graduate student shall be notified in
writing. All information regarding the decision is to be held in strict
confidence between the student and faculty with responsibility for the student;
release may be only with the written consent of the graduate student involved
unless the decision becomes the substance for a grievance procedure, in which
case such information shall be released to the grievance committee. The same
privacy is to be accorded the reasons for a graduate student's temporary or
permanent withdrawal from the University.
Should
a decision to terminate be held in abeyance, pending completion of the
stipulated conditions, these conditions must be communicated in writing to the
student.
Students
may take a leave if they need to. We HIGHLY recommend that you consult
with your advisor and your committee before beginning the leave. You and
your advisor should prepare a memo to the Graduate Programs Director
requesting the leave. This memo should address the following points in writing:
--the
beginning date of the leave
--any
conditions and/or expectations about when and under what conditions you will
return
--expectations
about classes
--any reassignment of assistantship duties
--whether
you will resume ongoing research projects or begin new ones upon your return.
In general, be as detailed
and explicit as possible. Once you and your advisor have prepared the memo,
sign it and bring it to the Graduate office. (Again, keep a copy for your
records.) If the department approves your leave, the Graduate Program Director
will sign it too and then the memo will be put in your file.
The University and College do not formally recognize a leave of absence status. The category exists entirely at the level of the Psychology Department. There are a couple of University rules you need to be aware of, however. If you are not registered for two semesters in a row, then you must complete an application for readmission. (This is just a form; it is not the full application that you filled out for admission, and there is no fee.) Second, your program clock keeps ticking, and so all time limits continue to be in force. You may apply for a time limits waiver, and under the circumstances it is likely to be granted. These are points that should be addressed in the memo referred to above: the number of semesters you expect to be gone, the conditions for readmission if you are gone more than two semesters, and your mutual understanding about extensions of time limits.
It
is important that you become a broadly educated scholar in Psychology.
Therefore, you should attend talks, presentations, colloquia, and so on, even
if they are outside your area. The department website lists upcoming events
for all Program Groups and for the Department as a whole.
You
also should attend any job talks—presentations given by people who are
interviewing for faculty or postdoctoral positions in the Department. You can
learn a great deal about how to prepare (or how not to prepare) a job talk
yourself. You might find the information useful should you ultimately be
required to give such a presentation yourself for some position that you have
applied for. It’s a particularly good idea to attend the job talk together with
your advisor and then have a one-on-one discussion about the strengths and
weaknesses of the presentation.
Your Program group may also hold regular meetings (often called "brown bag" meetings) to present and discuss research and other professional matters. Attendance at these meetings is critically important for your training and the vitality of the Program group. Make sure you understand any Program group policies about attendance at brown bag presentations.
Your
master's thesis and dissertation are certainly two important research products
that provide you with important credentials. However, a successful graduate
student should consider them only a small part of the process in developing
himself or herself academically and professionally. It is critical that you are
involved on a variety of projects, varying the type and extent of your
involvement on each so you get the most out of each experience. For research
projects, consider not just studies on which you take the lead, but also
studies on which you serve as a second-author or as some other type of
supporting role. Being involved in a wide variety of projects not only expands
your knowledge and skills in many directions, but it also increases the chances
of having a number of quality publications and presentations by the time you're
ready to apply for jobs. At the same time, don't spread yourself too thin that
you can't be meaningfully involved in any project. In sum, make sure you're involved in research
beyond just what is required for the degrees.
Section
3.4 above highlights the importance of attending talks and colloquia. It is
important that you gain some experience giving oral presentations yourself. All
of the Program Groups have regular brown bags and colloquium series, and those
can provide you with a forum in which to practice your speaking skills, present
research, and get feedback from your fellow students and from the faculty, and
so on.
Your
advisor is the most significant person in your life as a graduate student. Make
sure the two of you have a cordial relationship based on mutual respect. Be
sure you meet on some regular basis, perhaps one that the two of you formalize
when you develop your Plans of Study. Your advisor is your best source for
information about your science, and he or she is best able to advise you about
what you need to do to be competitive in your relevant job market. Your advisor
also likely knows about sources of funding you might be able to tap into,
conferences etc. that you should attend, experiences you should gain, and
journals you should aim to publish in.
Your
committee is an extension of the advisor, in many cases. You should see your
committee as a resource. They are there to help guide you in your graduate
career, along with your advisor. Put a lot of thought into choosing the people
for your committees. They should be knowledgeable in your field, reasonably
accessible, and good scholars.
It
is a good idea to start keeping a vita from your very first day in
The
related enterprises of scholarship and research are built upon honesty and
integrity. Without these, we could not progress or even survive as a field of
inquiry. When you become a graduate student in Psychology, you make an implicit
promise to your classmates, your faculty, and your profession to conduct
yourself in a scrupulously honest and upright way. If you fail to keep this
promise, the consequences to yourself and everyone you work with are very
serious.
Academic integrity
stands for many things. Obviously, it means you don't cheat on tests and exams,
you don't plagiarize your papers, and you don't falsify your data or
misrepresent your research findings. These are the points we can all agree on.
Failure to follow these guidelines leads to dire consequences for those
involved. However, academic integrity refers to much more. Academic integrity
is more than just a set of rules - it is a way of life, a state of mind. It
means that we must always think about the consequences of our choices, for
ourselves, our Department, and our University. Academic dishonesty is not
simply a personal failure. It is a failure of the mentoring system and a failure
of the evaluation system. It is a failure that tarnishes us all.
As
a field, Psychology has a Code
of Ethics that we are governed by. Please familiarize yourself with
this code. The University also has a statement on Integrity of Scholarship and
Grades. These are important starting points for your continual exploration
of this topic. It is appropriate for you to have ongoing discussions with your
advisor about integrity issues as they become relevant. Many situations are
ambiguous. Actions can often be interpreted in several ways. Many behaviors can
generate disagreements among well-meaning people. Often the only way to resolve
these ambiguities is conversation and discussion with colleagues.
If
you have questions about ethical concerns, start by initiating conversation
with your advisor. If this is not possible, there are other resources in the
Department and in the University to help you resolve these issues. The Chair
and Graduate Associate Chair of the Psychology Department are good places to
start or continue these conversations. They invite you to come to them with
problems you can't resolve with your advisor.
Ethical
Violations. We expect you to
adhere to the high ethical principles of our profession and University as you
conduct your research, scholarship, and professional activities. If you violate
these principles, you will face sanctions proportional to the gravity of your
infraction. Disciplinary action for ethical violations can include dismissal
from your graduate program. Because of the bed-rock importance of ethical
comportment, violators may not get a second chance. It is critically important
for you to be aware of the ethical landscape as you travel through your
graduate program. We encourage you to read the documents referenced above and
to engage your faculty and fellow students in discussions of ethics in
Psychology, before problems arise. It is often in these discussions that
you will learn to avoid ethical problems.
If
you are accused of inappropriate behavior, the University has established a
judicial structure and process for hearing and adjudicating alleged violations.
The first step in this process is informal and should begin with the two
parties trying to resolve the problem in an appropriate way. If this fails, you
should go to the Chairperson of the Department and enlist his/her help in
resolving the problem. If all departmental resources to resolve the problem
have been exhausted, you can request a formal hearing from the
These
same procedures can be used to resolve conflicts between faculty and graduate
students that do not involve issues of academic integrity. The Office of the Ombudsman is
also available to you to help you resolve conflicts with faculty or University
administrators.
If
you are a teaching assistant, you are eligible to join the Graduate Employee
Union. The current contact
between the GEU and the University lays out the rights and responsibilities you
have as a member of this union. Please make yourself familiar with this
document.
If
you are not a member of the GEU, your rights and responsibilities as a graduate
student are contained in the document "Graduate Student's
Rights and Responsibilities."
A. If your advisor leaves the University before you are finished with your degree, you should discuss your options for finishing your degree requirements with your advisor. In some cases it may make sense to change advisors. In other cases, you may be able to arrange to finish your degree with your current advisor in a long-distance relationship. Please contact the Graduate Programs Director to help you work through any problems the untimely departure of your advisor may cause.
B. If your advisor should die or otherwise becomes unable to continue as your advisor, your options depend on where you are in the process. If you are close to the beginning of your program, it probably makes sense to simply find another advisor. If you are close to finishing, you should contact the Graduate Programs Director to explore possible arrangements.
C. If you are unable to continue to work with your advisor because of personal difficulties in the relationship, contact the Graduate Programs Director for help and information.
D. In any of the scenarios listed above, you will have to file an amendment to your Plan of Study indicating the change you are making. This form is available from the forms download page.
The Graduate Office keeps two files for
you throughout your graduate school career. Your Academic File contains
each of the forms you submit to note the achievement of important milestones in
your training. For example, you file will include your Master's Plan of Study
Form, the forms at the end of your Master's program, your Doctoral Plan of
Study, your Comprehensive Exam Report, the form approving your Dissertation
Proposal and the Dissertation and Oral Examination Form. Any form that you
submit to the Graduate office will be placed in your Academic File. Copies of
your annual evaluation letters and written responses from you (if you provide
them) will also go into this file. You have the right to review the material in
your Academic File. To do so, simply make a request to the Graduate Secretary.
The second file is your Personnel File
which contains the records of your employment. Appointment forms and
evaluations of your performance as a Teaching Assistant are stored in your Personnel
File. You also have the right to review this file. Again, simply make a request
to the Graduate Secretary. According to the GEU contract this request must be
in writing and you are limited to three viewings a year.
As described
earlier, the University provided you with an email account and
access to AFS space. The latter can be used for creation of personal web pages
etc.
There are funds to support
student research and travel to present this research at conferences.
Whenever possible, a
student who is presenting either a talk or a poster at a conference should
attempt to get their travel expenses covered by outside money. Once during your
graduate career at MSU, you may apply for a $400 travel grant from the
If you are unable to secure this or other funding, you can apply to the
Department for a $600.00 Graduate Office Fellowship. To apply for these funds,
which the Department tries to make available annually, copy the conference
program page on which your name appears and submit it along with your request
to the Psychology Graduate Office (Julie Detwiler). Julie will initiate the
award. If there is no program listing your contribution, a short one or two
sentence confirmation of your involvement in a conference program from your
major Professor will also suffice. If you have support for travel from other
sources, please do not apply for these awards as well.
The Council of Graduate
Students (COGS) has limited funds available to defray travel expenses. Click here for more information.
In addition to whatever
funds you obtain from your advisor and Program Group, the
In addition to funding
available from the
Students are encouraged to apply to sources outside
of MSU for funds to support themselves in the graduate program and to support
their research. Applying for and winning these awards provides many benefits
for you. Being able to list these awards on your vita is impressive to
potential employers. You get experience in the grant award process – experience
that will pay many benefits in your career. And you get financial support that
does not come with teaching responsibilities. Often this external support
provides more money than you would get from being a TA. However, occasionally
these outside grants and fellowships do not completely match what you would
have received with a departmentally offered Teaching Assistantship. To address
this issue, the department has established the following policy: if your total
external award (i.e., stipend, benefits, discretionary funds, tuition waiver,
etc.) does not equal the total TA support package offered by the department
(i.e., stipend, health benefits, and tuition waiver), the department will make
up the difference. In this case, you should provide the data involving the
amount and conditions of your stipend to the Associate Chair's office and we
will make the appropriate adjustments in your total stipend package. Your
external grant may well be configured differently (e.g., more stipend but fewer
benefits) than the typical TA package. If this is the case, you may have to use
some of your excess stipend or discretionary funds to cover the missing
benefits.
Receipt of externally funded fellowships by
students who have written their own grant applications and worth at least
$20,000 (direct costs) now makes the students eligible for in-state tuition
rate. The in-state tuition rate applies only to the semesters during which the
student is supported by the fellowship. This policy applies only to grants
funded through a competitive process by a
The National Science Foundation offers Graduate
Fellowships. This part of the
NSF website contains all their information about support for graduate students.
The National Institutes of Health also welcome applications from graduate
students. These are called Individual Predoctoral
National Research Service Awards (NRSAs) for M.D./Ph.D. Fellowships.
The Graduate School’s website contains important information about funding
opportunities.
There are several foundations and other private
organizations that offer graduate fellowships. For example, The
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships in Humanistic Studies offers support that most of our students can apply
for.
Note: This section will be expanded as more
information on external funding sources for graduate students becomes
available. If you are aware of sources that could be listed here, please send
the information to the
Graduate Programs Director.
Every fall the department offers a Graduate Student Orientation which is mandatory
for incoming graduate students and voluntary for returning students who may just want additional information
about their rights and responsibilities. The Graduate Program Director (Associate Chair) will notify students
of the time and place for this orientation each year
.
Students are to enroll in PSY 890: Teaching of Psychology before teaching for the first
time. This course provides grounding in the key elements of effective instruction for classroom learning. The
course is a practical presentation of the processes and issues involved in the teaching of Psychology. The course
consists of six formal sessions on a variety of topics. The topics range from specific teaching tasks (e.g., how
to create a syllabus) to more general teaching issues such as teaching ethics. While the course is mandatory for
students planning to teach their own course, it is highly recommended to all Psychology graduate students.
The
The American Psychological
Association’s Publication Manual can be purchased from the APA
directly, from Amazon and other online booksellers, and from most university
bookstores. The entire contents are not available electronically. However, you
can sometimes find helpful information about specific APA style questions on
the web. Just be careful to make sure the information refers to the most recent
edition of the Manual. We are currently using the fifth edition.
According to the APA
Publication Guide, “authorship is reserved for persons who make primary
contribution to and hold primary responsibility for the data, concepts, and
interpretation of results for a published work. Authorship encompasses not just
the actual writing but also making substantial scientific contributions to a
study” (p. 4).
The Guide also recommends
that collaborators discuss early on who the authors will be, and in what order
they will be listed. Do not make someone an author without consulting him or
her; authorship is a responsibility as well as a right, and so people should
assent to such a role.
All research with human
beings must be reviewed and approved by the Social Science/Behavioral/Education
Institutional Review Board (SIRB) at
All research with
non-human vertebrate animals must be reviewed and approved by the All
University Committee on Animal Use and Care. For complete details about the
application procedure, please see the website for AUCAUC,
the All University Committee on Animal Use and Care.
If your research involves
the use of any radioactive, biological, or chemical material that can be
hazardous, you must comply with the University regulations governing this area.
Please consult with the web page for the Office of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Safety (ORCBS)
for more details.
If you travel abroad to
conduct any of your research please:
a. Check with the MSU
Travel Clinic! They will let you know of any health risks or
immunizations.
http://www.travelclinic.msu.edu/
b. Check the
International Studies and Programs website for issues related to safety around
the world. http://keywords.msu.edu/viewpathfinder.asp?id=31
c. Apply for assistance
with travel funding via the
they will also provide a
MEDEX emergency card.
To maintain the modularity
of this Handbook, the sections for each Program Group are contained in the
links below.
Note: there is also a
section for Developmental,
but that Program Group no longer exists in this Department. The information is
only for students admitted in 1999 or earlier.
Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities
Guidelines for Integrity in Research and Creative Activities
MSU/Graduate
Employees Union (GEU) Contract
Guidelines for Graduate Student Advising and Mentoring
Relationships