So there have been some exciting developments as of late! Firstly, I was offered a different research assistantship that was actually for the psychology department (as opposed to the sociology department) and it involves children! The project was too great an opportunity to turn down, so I dropped the sociology position that I had already accepted and switched to this psych. one. I am still volunteering to help with the editing of the manuscript on the sociology project-- so this will give me even more to put on my resume for PhD programs (working on two different research projects in grad school). What is neat is that my professor is going to help me get together a presentation for the New England Psychological Association's conference that is here in MA. I am going to analyze some of the qualitative data that I never got to use for my initial senior thesis presentations and then submit that one to the conference (the deadline is sept. 23rd). Then we (the prof. I am the RA for) are going to get something together to present at the Eastern Psychological Association's conference in NYC. The deadline for submission for that is in November.

I was also called (the next day after I found out I was offered the psych. research assistantship) by a practicum placement! They want to meet this saturday! So I will hopefully have a practicum site all set up. I know someone from the same program did their practicum there last year. It is called the Pyramid Builders Association and they work with kids, adolescents, and adults (I specified that I wanted to work with kids/adolescents).

As for PhD programs, the deadlines are approaching for application submission (most by December). My offical list of schools is now:
University of Maine,
University of Denver,
University of Northern Illinois,
Temple University (in Phillidelphia, and fun story? The prof I am working for graduated from Temple!), University of Rochester,

A couple of PsyD programs (doctorate of psychology) have been added to my list as backup because they are easier to get into... the main difference between a PhD and a PsyD is that PhD is more research focused while PsyD focuses on practice. The PsyD programs that I am thinking I will apply to are: Rutgers University (New Jersey),
and University of Hartford  (Connecticut).

I was toying with the idea of applying to Baylor's PsyD program, but I really don't want to live in Texas and the school isnt THAT much easier to get into than PhD programs anyway. I'm definitely going to start saving up money to be able to apply to all of these places! Plus I need to save money to present at the conference in MA (because it is my senior thesis from undergrad and has nothing to do with my research assistantship, it won't be funded by the school-- so I have to pay for my own poster which can get up to $100 to print!). If only money seriously grew on trees! Speaking of which, my friends and I arre planning to go apple picking this fall! And pumpkin picking too!

In other news, after I met with the psych. professor, I discovered a psych. book give-away table (awesome!) and am now the owner of three new psych. textbooks: "case studies in abnormal behaviors", "human sexuality", and "abnormal psychology". These are in REALLY good shape! And they are the instructor's review copies! The "case studies.." book has a 2013 copyright, and the other two are 2008 and 2013 respectively! I wonder why they were given away??