Mission: Increasing Access to Academia
Prospective graduate students are expected by Universities to have extensive research experience and exceptional recommendation letters to have a chance of getting into graduate programs. Research involvement in the lab can lead to undergraduate and graduate awards, grants, posters, and publications. As departments are opting to drop GRE requirements due to COVID-19, the value placed on research experience will only increase.
Despite the importance of research experience in admissions decisions, undergraduate students can easily miss out on scholarships or valuable opportunities to be a part of the scientific community if they do not have access to this information.
Situations, where students do not have access to information that they are expected by Universities to know (such as emailing etiquette or seeking out research experience), have been referred to as the hidden curriculum of higher education (Calarco, 2020; Margolis, 2001). Although students from more privileged backgrounds or universities can still find themselves not knowing how to enter or succeed in academia, the hidden curriculum seems to affect minoritized, first-generation, and/or international students the most.
It is time for us to discuss how we disseminate information to undergraduate students. One of the main ways we share job openings, conference deadlines, or internship positions is through each society’s listserv. Psychology, for example, has over ten branches, each with unique divisions and respective societies. Then there are local and country-specific psychology societies. This long list of societies makes it very difficult for interested students to keep track of internship or other opportunities because most of these listservs require students to 1) know about the society’s existence, 2) pay the cost to be a member, and 3) keep track of all the emails.
I created this website to make Psychology more transparent and accessible.
Sincerely,
Meltem Yucel
2020
Despite the importance of research experience in admissions decisions, undergraduate students can easily miss out on scholarships or valuable opportunities to be a part of the scientific community if they do not have access to this information.
Situations, where students do not have access to information that they are expected by Universities to know (such as emailing etiquette or seeking out research experience), have been referred to as the hidden curriculum of higher education (Calarco, 2020; Margolis, 2001). Although students from more privileged backgrounds or universities can still find themselves not knowing how to enter or succeed in academia, the hidden curriculum seems to affect minoritized, first-generation, and/or international students the most.
It is time for us to discuss how we disseminate information to undergraduate students. One of the main ways we share job openings, conference deadlines, or internship positions is through each society’s listserv. Psychology, for example, has over ten branches, each with unique divisions and respective societies. Then there are local and country-specific psychology societies. This long list of societies makes it very difficult for interested students to keep track of internship or other opportunities because most of these listservs require students to 1) know about the society’s existence, 2) pay the cost to be a member, and 3) keep track of all the emails.
I created this website to make Psychology more transparent and accessible.
Sincerely,
Meltem Yucel
2020
