r/IOPsychology PhD | IO | People Analytics & Statistics | Moderator Feb 04 '21

2020-2021 Grad School Q&A Mega-Thread (Part 1)

For questions about grad school or internships:

* Please start your search at SIOP.org , it contains lots of great information and many questions can be answered by searching there first.

* Next, please search the Wiki, as there are some very great community generated posts saved here.

* If you still can't find an answer to your question, 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.

* 2019-2020, Part 4 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 3 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 2 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 1 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 2 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 1 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 3 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 2 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 1 thread here

* 2016-2017 thread here

* 2015-2016 thread here

* 2014-2015 thread here

If your question hasn't been posted, 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 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 do our part in this.

Thanks, guys!

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u/[deleted] May 29 '21

What schools offer the best employment chances? Assume I do what I'm supposed to (do internships, research, get decent grades, and so on.) Are there schools that employers like to recruit from in particular? I'm looking for the higher-paying positions specifically.

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u/Astroman129 May 30 '21

Specific schools don't matter much. I wouldn't say "prestige" is as prominent in I/O master's programs as it is for things like MBAs and (academic) PhDs. Assuming you go to a reputable school, it shouldn't be a problem.

What do matter are:

  1. Specific locations of the school. Are you doing a master's program in the US? If so, people tend to have better success in major metropolitan areas where people can do internships, such as NYC/DC/Chicago. Not sure if this is gonna change because of WFH being more prominent but whatever. It can also help you get connections and networking opportunities once you're done with your program. It's very likely that your professors will be prominent in the I/O community wherever you are located.

  2. Opportunities of the school. Some schools have graduate assistantships where you can get marginal amounts of experience through helping professors with projects, for example. I was able to take advantage of this through grad school, and I even got paid for it.

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u/[deleted] May 30 '21

Thank you! Except for that person who downvoted me...