Continuing the List - #3 Program

UPDATE: As a reminder, #1 (Wake Forest) and #2 (Virginia Tech) were discussed before.

#3 Claremont Graduate University, MA Applied Social Psychology & Evaluation:

Applied psychology degrees (as in many other fields, such as econ) tend to be regarded as inferior to "pure" theoretical degrees by (generally "pure") psychology faculty. It appears that the majority of graduates go into industry rather than academia (especially at the masters degree level). But in my situation, an applied degree is in some ways more useful than a general psychology degree because consumer behavior is an applied discipline. Really, the main areas of study that I am currently interested in all have strong applied aspects - I am particularly interested in using social psychology theory in the context of consumer psychology, health psychology, social marketing, and/or educational psychology.

Advantages:

- school has excellent reputation; their applied psychology program is probably the best in the country (though to be fair, there aren't that many competing programs)

- would be a good terminal masters if I didn't want to get a PhD because it leads naturally to many areas of employment in government and the private sector - not as good as a masters in marketing research (e.g. Virginia Tech) but better than another general psychology degree (e.g. Wake Forest), which I at least half-suspect I would need to top off in some way (e.g. graduate statistics certificate) if I want to re-enter the research job market at a higher level

- the curriculum is excellent: half is social psychology and related fields and half is stat and evaluation coursework; it will not require taking classes like developmental or physiological psychology that are part of a general-experimental masters degree plan and that I am not very interested in and that will be of limited relevance to my future goals (academic or otherwise)

- can apply eagerly as a person ultimately interested in an applied discipline like marketing with less concern that a professor on the admission committee will disapprove (compared to general psychology programs; obviously not marketing or consumer behavior programs)

- good location for Robert: the Los Angeles area (and takes me conveniently located to west coast, where my parents can visit my sister and me easily with one trip, my dad has pointed out)

- if I fall in love with the school and program, Claremont has a PhD in applied social psychology, to which my masters degree credits would transfer; their business school only has a PhD in management (not marketing) and would not work for me, however

Disadvantages:

- need/want information on success in placing students into PhD programs since most graduates go to work directly after finishing the program

- no thesis! (of course, this could also be seen as a bonus to the extent that thesis-based masters have a way of sometimes dragging on past the two year mark; not doing a thesis would also be much less stressful if less useful as preparation for a doctoral program and dissertation requirement)

- it will cost me money because full tuition remissions are not given to masters students from what I can tell

- not a natural bridge to a (non-applied) psychology PhD program and may indeed shut me out of a "pure" social psychology PhD program

- isn't Los Angeles another place with an unpleasantly warm climate? it would be nice to move somewhere with cooler weather; also, when I visited the sister campus of Pomona College when selecting an undergrad university, it seemed pretty hazy around there

In some ways, I almost like this program better than the Wake Forest and Virginia Tech ones. Each program has serious strengths the others lack, so choosing between them is difficult. If I am accepted to all three of them, funding may be the ultimate determinant of which program I attend...that and the general financial situation as impacted by Robert's ability to get a good job nearby.

My guess, though it's limited by the paucity of available data, is that Wake Forest is the program most likely to come through with strong funding, since its masters students are the food-chain equivalent of PhD students elsewhere. V-Tech and Claremont will have actual PhD students to take resources (funding, research opportunity, etc).