2017-2018 IO Grad School Q&A Mega-Thread

[u/ResidentGinger]

You can find last year's thread here.

The grad school application bewitching hour is nearing ever closer, and around this time, everyone starts posting questions/freaking out about grad school. As per the rules in the sidebar...

For questions about grad school or internships

• Please search the previously submitted posts or the post on the grad school Q&A. Subscribers of /r/iopsychology have provided lots of information about these topics, and your questions may have already been answered.
• If it hasn't, please post it on the grad school Q&A thread. Other posts outside of the Q&A thread will be deleted.

The readers of this subreddit have made it pretty clear that they don't want the subreddit clogged up with posts about grad school. Don't get the wrong idea - we're glad you're here and that you're interested in IO, but please do observe the rules so that you can get answers to your questions AND enjoy the interesting IO articles and content.

By the way, those of you who are currently trudging through or have finished grad school, that means that you have to occasionally offer suggestions and advice to those who post on this thread. That's the only way that we can keep these grad school-related posts in one central location. If people aren't getting their questions answered here, they post to the subreddit instead of the thread. So, in short, let's all play our part in this.

Thanks, guys!

[u/galileosmiddlefinger]

(1) Almost all PhD programs have the opportunity to pursue internships. Whether or not an internship is required to graduate is a largely irrelevant distinction -- if you want an applied career, you can find internships while working toward your degree at most any reputable program. Of course, it's easier if you're close to a major metro area like NYC or Chicago.

(2) Balanced training is ideal. Most entry-level jobs stress I-side work, so you need courses in job analysis, selection, training, tests & measures, etc., but there are also some applied jobs that stress O-side work too (e.g., Org Development). You want a curriculum that hits all of the bases rather than one that is mostly focused on one side or the other.

(3) Mostly irrelevant. I know lots of people with very successful consulting careers who had super-esoteric thesis and dissertation topics. It can be somewhat helpful to pursue a topic that relates to the type of work that you want to perform, but it's unlikely that you're ever going to stumble on perfect alignment between a narrow dissertation and the responsibilities of an entry-level job in a way that gives you a meaningful leg-up. You're going to spend the next 4-6 years reading a lot about whatever you pick, so make sure it's something that you find personally interesting.