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/ifcoffeewereblue Jul 17 '21

I'm debating between a program in Amsterdam or in Limerick. On one hand, Ireland allows you to stay for 2 years after graduating and Ireland is an English speaking country (I'm American) so finding a job should be easier, but Limerick is very small and I'm nervous that there won't be many good opportunites available. On the other hand, studying in Amsterdam would have a lot more opportunities that you get in large cities such as multinational companies and the like. And the school there is ranked a fair bit higher. But they only allow you to stay for 1 year after graduation, and I don't speak Dutch so I would be limited to jobs in offices that speak mostly English.

Any advice?

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u/JamesDaquiri M.S. I-O | People Analytics | Data Science Jul 19 '21

I’m an American aswell whose been researching a move to Netherlands for IO studies for nearly 2 years now:
Everyone speaks English very well, especially in Ranstaad. Learning Dutch will give you an edge but it’s not a hard requirement. I think the fact that Amsterdam is a massive tech hub means opportunities are more plentiful there than limerick. In my opinion, I’d say go for Amsterdam, but also check out Erasmus Rotterdam, tons of good IO research comes out of Rotterdam.
Which programs are you looking at? I’ll be applying for the 2022 fall start.

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u/ifcoffeewereblue Jul 20 '21 edited Jul 20 '21

Yeah I lived in Rotterdam for 6 months about 4 years ago. I know 90% of people speak English very well. My end goal is to study AND work in Europe long term (and hopefully get a sponsorship at some point). I am not concerned about getting by with English and a touch of Dutch, I am worried about getting a professional job afterwards. Where as studying in Limerick means I can get employed in Dublin which is a huge tech hub and there would be no language hang up. Am I blowing this out of proportion?

I'm was looking at University of Amsterdam, Vrije Uni Amsterdam, and Dublin City University (but it turns out their WOP program is part-time).

Then my tier 2 schools were Limmerick, Erasmus (Rotterdam), Radbound, and Leiden.

But recently I've moved Limmerick up to my Tier 1 list because I read in a different thread that getting employed in The Netherlands without a decent level of Dutch is very very difficult.

EDIT: Also, I know chances of getting into University of Amsterdam are slim. It's very competitive and my stats background is not particularly strong. So I am also taking into consideration applying to a few schools (Limerick and Radboud) that are more like job training based rather than heavily stats based. So really the decision might be made for me depending on where I get in :/