if i want to be a psychologist, what steps do i take after highschool?

Answer 1

you'll need to go to university and get a psychology degree.
After that you'll want to do your masters degree and then your PhD in clinical psychology.

Answer 2

It's a long road:
1st: decide what type of psychologist you want to be...this may change but you need to have a goal. Go and talk to and spend time with (if possible) psychologists who do what you think you want to do. There are many different types: Research in thousands of areas, counseling psychologists (many different types), industrial organization psychologits...the list goes on.

2nd: choose several universities with a strong psychology undergraduate degree program that is geared toward the area you want to head. Apply for several and choose your best option.

3rd: In school, keep your gpa up, take the GRE and do well and, most importantly (I think) volunteer or get jobs in areas that will give you experience. You can do research with psychologists at the university, work at community based clinics, in hospitals or anywhere where you will have contact with the field.

4th: Apply for graduate school. The APA published a book called "Graduate School in Psychology"

http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4270089

it lists all the programs in the county, how much they cost, how many they accept, what gpa's and gre scores you need and other helpful information. I think it also lists PsyD programs which are good (but expensive) programs if you want to do clinical work only (not research).

Lastly: apply to as many schools as you can and accept the best offer.

Hope this helps...good luck.

Answer 3

In high school, start to research colleges. Narrow down your search to a few and then browse the faculty roster. Do an online search and read about the faculty's research (they will be impressed if you can talk competently about their work). Start to take classes in behavioral sciences, biology, and statistics (if your school has it). Look into volunteering. Check with your local United Way. They usually keep a list of non-profits in need of volunteers. Beef up your application and apply to a college or university.
You have 4 years of undergraduate college. After graduation, you should get some real experience before heading onto grad school. It will prepare you in more ways than one. While you are working, begin researching graduate schools. Look at everything from the program, to costs, to the internship placement rate. Then apply to a program, call for questions and go on an interview.
When you are accepted, your first year will consist of only classes. Many schools suggest that you only focus on education and not work part-time (although I worked full-time and it was a nightmare). You will take the basic courses your first year. Before you head to your second year, consider getting your masters. Some grad schools allow you to get a terminal master's degree. Do it. Some clinical internships will only consider you if you have a master's. The second year, you will have a lighter load of classes, but will take your first practicum. This is basically a 9 month internship doing either therapy or testing. Third year, you will take a second practicum and begin studying for your comprehensive exam and writing a dissertation proposal. In the spring/summer of your third year, you will take your comprehensive exam (or comps) to assess and apply everything you learned in the past 3 years. If you pass, during your fourth year, you will start looking for clinical internships. This is a nationwide search and highly competitive. 400 students will not have an internship this year. Basically, you will apply to about 15 sites, get interviews at about 6 or 7 and then have to find the money to fly all over the country to go on interviews. You interview from November to February. End of February, on a Friday, you find out if you got an internship. You won't know where until the following Monday. If you did not place, that Monday, appic and the training directors list all the internship sites that have extra slots and you have mere minutes to prepare your application and e-mail it to the training directors (it goes very quickly). This year, over 700 students did not match and only 300 slots remained. You then have to wait and wait and wait to see if any training directors call you for an interview (hopefully, you will never get to this point).
If you get an internship, you then have to prepare for moving (if necessary). Your fifth year, you will be at an internship for 12 months, 40 hours a week, while also completing your dissertation. After you complete this internship AND your dissertation, you will graduate with a PsyD or PhD. You then have 2 choices: you can try to find a place that will let you work as an unlicensed psychologist while providing supervision or you can get a postdoc. After practicing for awhile under a licensed psychologist, you can then apply to take your licensure exam (the EPPP). The number of hours of experience required depends on your state. If you pass your EPPP, you are then technically a clinical psychologist.

Answer 4

Go to a good college and major in psychology. If you really want to be a psychologist, find out what the best schools are and try to get into one of them (for example, the University of Michigan). While you're in college, try to get an internship, for example, doing research for a professor or working for a hospital, to see if it's what you really want to do. After that, you can get a Master's degree or a PhD, depending on what you want to specialize in.

Answer 5

talk to a psychologist call several and ask for an interview at their convenience tell them its about careers and goals and you want their personal experiance to do a paper then get the twenty most important answers you want then call or send a thank you card from the dollar store they will love your interest and maybe tell you where to go and what grants and so on are out there

Answer 6

First you will need to go to college and get your associates degree. Then you will go on to get your Bachelor of Science degree. The college you are interested in can direct you as to which class you will need to take.

Answer 7

Talk to your school counselor, and they can direct you to enrolling in college, and possibly recommend to you universities that have a great psychology program.

Answer 8

Find a college, you idiott!