Careers in School Psychology
October 14, 2013 3:01 PM Subscribe
What's it like to be a school psychologist? And should I become one?
I’m thinking about applying to graduate programs for school psychology. Right now I’m 27, with a few years experience working in a museum. My BA is in political science, but I’ve spent about 4 years total tutoring students in grades 5-8.
After waffling between different career goals, I've realized that I'd like to be in the education field in an environment where I can work with others on an individual basis, or in small groups. I’m somewhat introverted, but enjoy interacting with people, and want to avoid jobs where I'll spend the entire day in front of a computer. School psychology appeals to me because I’m interested in how the brain works, like working with kids, and think it would be fulfilling to support students' educational development. Plus, I'm pretty sure I would enjoy the research and statistics classes in grad school, although I realize I might not do much of either as a practitioner.
Because I don't actually know any school psychologists, I'm specifically wondering about the following...
-What are the best and worst parts of the job? Overall, would you recommend it as a career?
-What level of variety is there in day-to-day responsibilities?
-How much autonomy do school psychologists have?
-How much time do they spend working directly with students/teachers vs. using a computer?
-I've heard that some school psychologists are frustrated about spending too much time with rote testing of students, instead of using a range of skills to assess and interact with them. Is there some truth to this, or is it mostly exaggeration?
Finally, from a logistical perspective, how much will my lack of a psychology degree hamper my grad school applications? I’d be applying to Master’s level (not PhD) programs that are approved by the National Association of School Psychologists.
In addition to the questions above, any general advice or comments would certainly be appreciated too. Thanks!
I’m thinking about applying to graduate programs for school psychology. Right now I’m 27, with a few years experience working in a museum. My BA is in political science, but I’ve spent about 4 years total tutoring students in grades 5-8.
After waffling between different career goals, I've realized that I'd like to be in the education field in an environment where I can work with others on an individual basis, or in small groups. I’m somewhat introverted, but enjoy interacting with people, and want to avoid jobs where I'll spend the entire day in front of a computer. School psychology appeals to me because I’m interested in how the brain works, like working with kids, and think it would be fulfilling to support students' educational development. Plus, I'm pretty sure I would enjoy the research and statistics classes in grad school, although I realize I might not do much of either as a practitioner.
Because I don't actually know any school psychologists, I'm specifically wondering about the following...
-What are the best and worst parts of the job? Overall, would you recommend it as a career?
-What level of variety is there in day-to-day responsibilities?
-How much autonomy do school psychologists have?
-How much time do they spend working directly with students/teachers vs. using a computer?
-I've heard that some school psychologists are frustrated about spending too much time with rote testing of students, instead of using a range of skills to assess and interact with them. Is there some truth to this, or is it mostly exaggeration?
Finally, from a logistical perspective, how much will my lack of a psychology degree hamper my grad school applications? I’d be applying to Master’s level (not PhD) programs that are approved by the National Association of School Psychologists.
In addition to the questions above, any general advice or comments would certainly be appreciated too. Thanks!
I am a clinical psychologist in New York City. I've done some testing in the schools and encountered a number of school psychologists. They do testing all day long and it's a grind. They have too many kids to test and virtually no opportunity for any counseling. But my impression is that school psychology varies a lot according to the area and the specific schools.
posted by DMelanogaster at 3:48 PM on October 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by DMelanogaster at 3:48 PM on October 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
I have a friend who finished a school counseling (not sure if that's different from school psychology) program last year and wasn't able to get a job her first year out of grad school. She did find one this year, in an economically-depressed rural area. Worked out decently because it's actually the rural area she grew up in, but I imagine the job was slightly easier to get because there's less competition in an area like that.
posted by lunasol at 4:04 PM on October 14, 2013
posted by lunasol at 4:04 PM on October 14, 2013
My dad is a school psychologist. He does some counseling but it's a lot of testing and meetings. It's also a lot of paperwork.
Have you considered speech-language pathology (I'm an SLP)? It seems to fit your criteria and the demand is huge.
posted by christinetheslp at 4:06 PM on October 14, 2013 [5 favorites]
Have you considered speech-language pathology (I'm an SLP)? It seems to fit your criteria and the demand is huge.
posted by christinetheslp at 4:06 PM on October 14, 2013 [5 favorites]
This is the sort of job that gets cut from a school when they start slashing budgets.
This depends on your state. Some states mandate a school psych so every district has one. Obviously that could change at the state level (but the teacher's union would likely go apeshit over such a change) but districts can't go without one in those states (although they can make you go part-time, I think).
My dad is a school psychologist and he frequently recommends it as an excellent job to people with exactly your experience and preferences. Like, the first three sentences of your second paragraph are exactly what he identifies as the most positive parts of his job. To your list he would add job security (if you work in a state in which school psychs are umbrella'd under the teacher's union and are granted tenure, as my dad does) and I would add quality of life (a teacher's schedule, which means summers off as long as that doesn't change which who knows, it might). On the other hand, he talked with a friend of mine who is also thinking about school psychology and was surprised to hear about the current starting salaries for new grads; he thought they were low.
My dad has a shit ton of autonomy, but that's because he's been there a million years and has weathered many storms.
Finally, from a logistical perspective, how much will my lack of a psychology degree hamper my grad school applications? I’d be applying to Master’s level (not PhD) programs that are approved by the National Association of School Psychologists.
I think you have to have a certain number of psychology undergraduate credits, so you might have to take some classes to prep your application. Or at least that's what my desultory googling reveals whenever I think maybe I should just buck up and become a school psychologist.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 4:54 PM on October 14, 2013
This depends on your state. Some states mandate a school psych so every district has one. Obviously that could change at the state level (but the teacher's union would likely go apeshit over such a change) but districts can't go without one in those states (although they can make you go part-time, I think).
My dad is a school psychologist and he frequently recommends it as an excellent job to people with exactly your experience and preferences. Like, the first three sentences of your second paragraph are exactly what he identifies as the most positive parts of his job. To your list he would add job security (if you work in a state in which school psychs are umbrella'd under the teacher's union and are granted tenure, as my dad does) and I would add quality of life (a teacher's schedule, which means summers off as long as that doesn't change which who knows, it might). On the other hand, he talked with a friend of mine who is also thinking about school psychology and was surprised to hear about the current starting salaries for new grads; he thought they were low.
My dad has a shit ton of autonomy, but that's because he's been there a million years and has weathered many storms.
Finally, from a logistical perspective, how much will my lack of a psychology degree hamper my grad school applications? I’d be applying to Master’s level (not PhD) programs that are approved by the National Association of School Psychologists.
I think you have to have a certain number of psychology undergraduate credits, so you might have to take some classes to prep your application. Or at least that's what my desultory googling reveals whenever I think maybe I should just buck up and become a school psychologist.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 4:54 PM on October 14, 2013
I have a friend who is a second-year school psychologist in Colorado. She went to a university with a three year school psych program: two years of school, one year internship. (And willingness to move will help. She moved to Texas for grad school, and then got the internship in Colorado, where the district hired her permanently.) But she said most programs are four years long. Having a BA in political science won’t automatically disqualify you when you apply, but the downside is that once you’re in, you’d have to take a lot of psychology prerequisite classes, undergrad basically.
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Here are her answers to your questions:
--Best part of the job: Leaving the school building and knowing that you made a significant difference in a student’s life. Knowing that you’re a person they trust and can come to with their problems, especially if they don’t have many supportive or reliable adults in their life.
--Worst part: Dealing with administrators who don’t actually know what a school psychologist does. So I can be assigned anything from playground duty all the way up to being expected to provide intensive therapy when the student actually needs to be referred to a licensed psychotherapist. And then the school wants to know why I’m not doing my job.
--Day-to-day variety at work: It varies a lot. I do crisis management, targeted assessments (not the same as testing), interventions, consultations with teachers, and referrals. I contact Human Services when we need someone to investigate a possible abusive situation in the student’s home life.
--Autonomy: I’m employed by the school district rather than a specific school, so this year I was assigned to three different schools which I visit throughout the week. They include kids from preschool age through high school.
--Computer vs. counseling: Probably 25% computer/paperwork vs. 75% counseling. Most of my job in meeting with students, teachers, and parents in person.
--Testing vs. counseling: It definitely depends on the state, and in Colorado, I’ve found that I do very little testing, which can be frustrating. So research the laws of whichever state you want to work in.
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As a counterpoint to other answers, she thinks that the job market is very good and growing. Districts are legally required to have a school psychologist on hand; it’s not a position that will be eliminated in budget cuts.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions for her.
posted by book 'em dano at 5:00 PM on October 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
------------------------------------------
Here are her answers to your questions:
--Best part of the job: Leaving the school building and knowing that you made a significant difference in a student’s life. Knowing that you’re a person they trust and can come to with their problems, especially if they don’t have many supportive or reliable adults in their life.
--Worst part: Dealing with administrators who don’t actually know what a school psychologist does. So I can be assigned anything from playground duty all the way up to being expected to provide intensive therapy when the student actually needs to be referred to a licensed psychotherapist. And then the school wants to know why I’m not doing my job.
--Day-to-day variety at work: It varies a lot. I do crisis management, targeted assessments (not the same as testing), interventions, consultations with teachers, and referrals. I contact Human Services when we need someone to investigate a possible abusive situation in the student’s home life.
--Autonomy: I’m employed by the school district rather than a specific school, so this year I was assigned to three different schools which I visit throughout the week. They include kids from preschool age through high school.
--Computer vs. counseling: Probably 25% computer/paperwork vs. 75% counseling. Most of my job in meeting with students, teachers, and parents in person.
--Testing vs. counseling: It definitely depends on the state, and in Colorado, I’ve found that I do very little testing, which can be frustrating. So research the laws of whichever state you want to work in.
----------------------------------------
As a counterpoint to other answers, she thinks that the job market is very good and growing. Districts are legally required to have a school psychologist on hand; it’s not a position that will be eliminated in budget cuts.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions for her.
posted by book 'em dano at 5:00 PM on October 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
Depending on where you live, you might want to look into getting an MSW with a concentration on children & families. I know quite a few people with MA's in psych who struggled to find jobs after graduation. The MSW degree tends to be a bit more marketable, and you can choose grad school internships in schools or pediatric units or foster care agencies. I'm slightly biased because I'm a social worker and my knowledge is limited to New York and California where there seems to be more MSW jobs than MA counseling jobs, but I'd check out job postings in your area and see what the opportunities are like for MA's vs. MSW's. I would also look into occupational therapy for children. There's a huge need and the money can be quite good in private practice. It's something I wish I'd done.
posted by blackcatcuriouser at 7:20 PM on October 14, 2013
posted by blackcatcuriouser at 7:20 PM on October 14, 2013
I'd recommend an MSW as well.
I worked in a high school and those kids have problems....scary problems. Were I you, just to see, call around your school districts and actually talk to someone with that job. Ask if you can shadow him or her for the day. I don't think you'll like it.
Schools are overwhelmed with kids with IEPs. (Individual Education Plans). Everyone has a diagnosis, or needs one. You'll be testing and following up.
I had a kid in my class who, at the age of 14 couldn't read or write. Not even the alphabet. He'd sit in class every day and just smile and stare. He never caused trouble, but he never did anything either. I referred him for testing and it was a whole magillah! First he had to have his vision tested. Then we had to have a meeting with his parents (it actually ended there, because his parents didn't give a rip and wouldn't come in to talk to us about it.) Then from there, we send him for further testing....it was frustrating in the extreme.
With an MSW you can work in a variety of settings, but be aware, yes you help people, but you also will beat your head against the wall a LOT!
But for sure, actually meet and understand what a school psychologist does, before investing time and money into a degree for a job that only exists in your head.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:21 AM on October 15, 2013
I worked in a high school and those kids have problems....scary problems. Were I you, just to see, call around your school districts and actually talk to someone with that job. Ask if you can shadow him or her for the day. I don't think you'll like it.
Schools are overwhelmed with kids with IEPs. (Individual Education Plans). Everyone has a diagnosis, or needs one. You'll be testing and following up.
I had a kid in my class who, at the age of 14 couldn't read or write. Not even the alphabet. He'd sit in class every day and just smile and stare. He never caused trouble, but he never did anything either. I referred him for testing and it was a whole magillah! First he had to have his vision tested. Then we had to have a meeting with his parents (it actually ended there, because his parents didn't give a rip and wouldn't come in to talk to us about it.) Then from there, we send him for further testing....it was frustrating in the extreme.
With an MSW you can work in a variety of settings, but be aware, yes you help people, but you also will beat your head against the wall a LOT!
But for sure, actually meet and understand what a school psychologist does, before investing time and money into a degree for a job that only exists in your head.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:21 AM on October 15, 2013
I am a school psychologist in a large California city. Overall, I like it, but it does have some downsides. It's a good job - good benefits, job security, better-than-teachers pay. I think the previous commenter is uninformed. School psychologist jobs will NOT be cut because assessments are mandated by federal law. Sure, some districts may hire extra school psychologists for counseling or other support work and those jobs may be lost, but the need for assessment will always be there.
Onto your questions:
-Yes, I recommend it. Best parts are the benefits I talked about already (salary, security, benefits) plus working with kids. I'm also a very analytical person so I quite enjoy administering tests and scoring the results. Worst part is the sheer amount of paperwork and case management-type stuff that I need to do. Technically, the teachers are the case managers, but I have to do a lot of the work of calling and emailing multiple people to get information, start processes, schedule meetings, and follow up on previous tasks when teachers don't do things as quickly or as thoroughly as my department requires. Another downside is the emotional drain in the beginning. I've found that I've had to develop a bit of an emotional wall between myself and the sad cases or I'll be completely sucked in.
-Variety? Very few of my days look exactly the same, but there's not much that I do. It's just arranged differently each day depending on scheduling needs. My main job is to test students, score the tests, write reports, log the information in our online IEP system, log the physical report at our main office, and go to IEP meetings where I present my report to the parents/teachers. I spend several hours a day doing the emailing and calling to schedule all of that stuff. I work at multiple schools and I try to schedule so I'm at one school each day, but I usually end up driving around the city to 2-3 schools each day because scheduling around multiple teachers', parents', and schools' schedules is difficult. Sometimes I get invited to SST meetings if they think the student will eventually be referred to special education.
I also counsel students on a crisis basis as needed (so a teacher knocks on my door and says "I just found this student crying in the hallway, can you see her?" or "this student is screaming and saying he wants to hurt himself, get down here right now!"). If I decide, after a risk assessment, that the student is a danger to himself or others, I need to call the police to start a 5150, which means that I basically need to cancel my plans for the rest of the day and sit with the student in my office for the 6 hours it takes for the police and ambulance to finally get there.
For example, today I went to one school site for an IEP for a middle school girl who self-injures and has suicidal ideation at 9:30, which was a clusterfuck of errors and drama. I ducked out at 10:30 to quickly present my report at another meeting for a middle school boy with ADHD (I had assumed the first meeting would be done by then when I was scheduling) and then returned to the first IEP, which finally ended close to noon. I ran to my office and ate lunch while checking emails. Then I checked my mailbox and found a rating scale I had sent to a teacher 2 weeks ago. I quickly scored it and added it to that student's report. I had previously written everything but that one section because this report was due last week. Because that teacher's ratings showed significantly low adaptive functioning and my testing last month showed significantly low intellectual ability, I can now say that this middle school boy's eligibility should be changed to Intellectual Disability. Then I started working on another report for a middle school girl with a learning disability but only did about 10 minutes before I had to leave. I drove to another school for another IEP at 1:30. Then I went to the main office to log some reports and spent the rest of the day doing emails and phone calls.
Tomorrow, I have an IEP at that first school at 9:45 for that boy that I just discovered can be reclassified under Intellectual Disability and then I'm going to a third school to test a first grade student who has just been referred due to extreme emotional/behavioral challenges in class.
On Thursday, I am going to a fourth school in the morning to test a high school student with a learning disability who is having his triennial IEP and then staying at that school for an IEP for another student with auditory processing deficits at 11:15. (See how I try to schedule so that things at the same school happen on the same day?). Then I have a meeting at the main office at 3pm for a meeting to discuss the mental health services/placement for a high school student at yet another school who was just diagnosed with Psychosis NOS. His mother keeps calling me to find out why the process is taking so long so I've spent the last few days calling and emailing everyone to make sure they can attend this meeting. Once we've held this meeting and determined placement options, we can contact the mother and schedule a meeting with her and finally get this student in the appropriate placement.
My Friday is currently clear. I will either spend the day writing reports or try to run and test someone, somewhere. I have a list of all the students by IEP due date, so there are always students I can be working on.
Of course, there could be a crisis at any time and then my entire schedule is derailed.
-We have so much autonomy. ALL the autonomy. I can literally do whatever I want, whenever I want. I schedule my own time and work at multiple schools. I could conceivably stay home and work on reports all day and no one would know. No one checks in on me. The only oversight I have is the monthly count of reports logged. I'm sure if I suddenly started logging no reports, my supervisor would check in, but as long as I'm sticking within the expected range, I can do whatever I want.
-Student time vs computer time....yeeeeeah. This is honestly the only thing that concerned me about your question. I spend most of my time on the computer. Testing one student takes 2-3 hours. Writing that student's report takes 5-6 hours. Then there's all the computer time for logging reports, updating the online IEP system, and ALL the emailing to discuss cases and schedule things. I wish you could see my inbox because I get so many emails each day and almost all of them are part of 30+ email chains where we're going back and forth trying to schedule or get information, all within the deadline. I can go entire weeks without seeing any students. Or course, then I might get another week when I'm testing two kids a day all week. But overall, I probably spend an average of 6 hours a week directly with students, AT MOST. The rest of the time is writing reports and emailing/calling/paperworking.
-Psychs getting frustrated at getting pushed into the role of psychometrist is A Thing, yes. That said, I actually like this. In previous years, I have had time built into my schedule for counseling, program development, research, and team membership (SST, COST, etc). I've HAAAAATED those years. It doesn't seem like the assessment caseload is reduced so it feels like I'm doing all the normal assessment work and then the extra stuff on top of that. Also, when I'm doing just assessment (like now), I can get into a routine and things feel more automated and easy. I LIKE doing just assessment. However, we have monthly staff meetings and wanting a larger role is a common refrain among many of my coworkers.
-Lack of a psychology degree may affect you. I recommend that you see what the pre-reqs for the masters programs are and do those courses now. I had one course that I did online before I applied to my master's program. I also went to a NASP-approved school and am now an NCSP. Honestly, learn as much as you can in the program, but realize that you will learn double that in your first 6 months on the job. The real world is SOOOOO different from what I was taught in school.
Before I decided to get into school psychology, I used the alumni network at my undergrad to get into touch with some local school psychs and went in to shadow them, which might be a good idea. I can remember now that each of them was doing completely different things every day. That's the thing, each district is completely different. You will be able to find whatever you want. If you want more counseling and support work, you can definitely find that job. Once you're in your program, you will have internships at various districts and your classmates will have internships at other districts so you'll have a good sense about how districts do things. There's also a NASP mailing list on yahoo that's useful. Oh, and blogs. One of my former coworkers writes the Notes from a School Psychologist blog and that is a good snapshot into her daily life. She's since left our large, poor district and is now working in a cushy, upper class, super small district part time so her experiences are a bit different.
Some schools offer dual degrees. My program was a school psychology/MFT program. I chose it because I thought, "hey, if I end up hating school psychology, I can become an MFT." No. It was such a waste of time. I had to take a bunch of extra classes that aren't useful to me at all now. If I wanted to become an MFT, I would now need to take a year off to do a full-time, unpaid internship. Plus, I don't really like the counseling as much as I thought I would. Really consider whether the second degree option is something that you can actually see yourself using before you choose a more expensive or lengthier program for it.
And finally, this career doesn't have to be forever. Some people move onto other roles within the same general field (private practice, behaviorist, counseling, administration), some people leave for maternity leave or a sabbatical and never come back, some people change to a completely different field, and others find they love the job and stay there until retirement. If you don't like your program, you can always quit. If you finish the program and get a job but don't like it, you can quit.
Anyway, I just wrote a novel. Hopefully it helps. Feel free to memail me at any time, I'd love to help you.
posted by Nickel at 9:52 PM on October 15, 2013 [3 favorites]
Onto your questions:
-Yes, I recommend it. Best parts are the benefits I talked about already (salary, security, benefits) plus working with kids. I'm also a very analytical person so I quite enjoy administering tests and scoring the results. Worst part is the sheer amount of paperwork and case management-type stuff that I need to do. Technically, the teachers are the case managers, but I have to do a lot of the work of calling and emailing multiple people to get information, start processes, schedule meetings, and follow up on previous tasks when teachers don't do things as quickly or as thoroughly as my department requires. Another downside is the emotional drain in the beginning. I've found that I've had to develop a bit of an emotional wall between myself and the sad cases or I'll be completely sucked in.
-Variety? Very few of my days look exactly the same, but there's not much that I do. It's just arranged differently each day depending on scheduling needs. My main job is to test students, score the tests, write reports, log the information in our online IEP system, log the physical report at our main office, and go to IEP meetings where I present my report to the parents/teachers. I spend several hours a day doing the emailing and calling to schedule all of that stuff. I work at multiple schools and I try to schedule so I'm at one school each day, but I usually end up driving around the city to 2-3 schools each day because scheduling around multiple teachers', parents', and schools' schedules is difficult. Sometimes I get invited to SST meetings if they think the student will eventually be referred to special education.
I also counsel students on a crisis basis as needed (so a teacher knocks on my door and says "I just found this student crying in the hallway, can you see her?" or "this student is screaming and saying he wants to hurt himself, get down here right now!"). If I decide, after a risk assessment, that the student is a danger to himself or others, I need to call the police to start a 5150, which means that I basically need to cancel my plans for the rest of the day and sit with the student in my office for the 6 hours it takes for the police and ambulance to finally get there.
For example, today I went to one school site for an IEP for a middle school girl who self-injures and has suicidal ideation at 9:30, which was a clusterfuck of errors and drama. I ducked out at 10:30 to quickly present my report at another meeting for a middle school boy with ADHD (I had assumed the first meeting would be done by then when I was scheduling) and then returned to the first IEP, which finally ended close to noon. I ran to my office and ate lunch while checking emails. Then I checked my mailbox and found a rating scale I had sent to a teacher 2 weeks ago. I quickly scored it and added it to that student's report. I had previously written everything but that one section because this report was due last week. Because that teacher's ratings showed significantly low adaptive functioning and my testing last month showed significantly low intellectual ability, I can now say that this middle school boy's eligibility should be changed to Intellectual Disability. Then I started working on another report for a middle school girl with a learning disability but only did about 10 minutes before I had to leave. I drove to another school for another IEP at 1:30. Then I went to the main office to log some reports and spent the rest of the day doing emails and phone calls.
Tomorrow, I have an IEP at that first school at 9:45 for that boy that I just discovered can be reclassified under Intellectual Disability and then I'm going to a third school to test a first grade student who has just been referred due to extreme emotional/behavioral challenges in class.
On Thursday, I am going to a fourth school in the morning to test a high school student with a learning disability who is having his triennial IEP and then staying at that school for an IEP for another student with auditory processing deficits at 11:15. (See how I try to schedule so that things at the same school happen on the same day?). Then I have a meeting at the main office at 3pm for a meeting to discuss the mental health services/placement for a high school student at yet another school who was just diagnosed with Psychosis NOS. His mother keeps calling me to find out why the process is taking so long so I've spent the last few days calling and emailing everyone to make sure they can attend this meeting. Once we've held this meeting and determined placement options, we can contact the mother and schedule a meeting with her and finally get this student in the appropriate placement.
My Friday is currently clear. I will either spend the day writing reports or try to run and test someone, somewhere. I have a list of all the students by IEP due date, so there are always students I can be working on.
Of course, there could be a crisis at any time and then my entire schedule is derailed.
-We have so much autonomy. ALL the autonomy. I can literally do whatever I want, whenever I want. I schedule my own time and work at multiple schools. I could conceivably stay home and work on reports all day and no one would know. No one checks in on me. The only oversight I have is the monthly count of reports logged. I'm sure if I suddenly started logging no reports, my supervisor would check in, but as long as I'm sticking within the expected range, I can do whatever I want.
-Student time vs computer time....yeeeeeah. This is honestly the only thing that concerned me about your question. I spend most of my time on the computer. Testing one student takes 2-3 hours. Writing that student's report takes 5-6 hours. Then there's all the computer time for logging reports, updating the online IEP system, and ALL the emailing to discuss cases and schedule things. I wish you could see my inbox because I get so many emails each day and almost all of them are part of 30+ email chains where we're going back and forth trying to schedule or get information, all within the deadline. I can go entire weeks without seeing any students. Or course, then I might get another week when I'm testing two kids a day all week. But overall, I probably spend an average of 6 hours a week directly with students, AT MOST. The rest of the time is writing reports and emailing/calling/paperworking.
-Psychs getting frustrated at getting pushed into the role of psychometrist is A Thing, yes. That said, I actually like this. In previous years, I have had time built into my schedule for counseling, program development, research, and team membership (SST, COST, etc). I've HAAAAATED those years. It doesn't seem like the assessment caseload is reduced so it feels like I'm doing all the normal assessment work and then the extra stuff on top of that. Also, when I'm doing just assessment (like now), I can get into a routine and things feel more automated and easy. I LIKE doing just assessment. However, we have monthly staff meetings and wanting a larger role is a common refrain among many of my coworkers.
-Lack of a psychology degree may affect you. I recommend that you see what the pre-reqs for the masters programs are and do those courses now. I had one course that I did online before I applied to my master's program. I also went to a NASP-approved school and am now an NCSP. Honestly, learn as much as you can in the program, but realize that you will learn double that in your first 6 months on the job. The real world is SOOOOO different from what I was taught in school.
Before I decided to get into school psychology, I used the alumni network at my undergrad to get into touch with some local school psychs and went in to shadow them, which might be a good idea. I can remember now that each of them was doing completely different things every day. That's the thing, each district is completely different. You will be able to find whatever you want. If you want more counseling and support work, you can definitely find that job. Once you're in your program, you will have internships at various districts and your classmates will have internships at other districts so you'll have a good sense about how districts do things. There's also a NASP mailing list on yahoo that's useful. Oh, and blogs. One of my former coworkers writes the Notes from a School Psychologist blog and that is a good snapshot into her daily life. She's since left our large, poor district and is now working in a cushy, upper class, super small district part time so her experiences are a bit different.
Some schools offer dual degrees. My program was a school psychology/MFT program. I chose it because I thought, "hey, if I end up hating school psychology, I can become an MFT." No. It was such a waste of time. I had to take a bunch of extra classes that aren't useful to me at all now. If I wanted to become an MFT, I would now need to take a year off to do a full-time, unpaid internship. Plus, I don't really like the counseling as much as I thought I would. Really consider whether the second degree option is something that you can actually see yourself using before you choose a more expensive or lengthier program for it.
And finally, this career doesn't have to be forever. Some people move onto other roles within the same general field (private practice, behaviorist, counseling, administration), some people leave for maternity leave or a sabbatical and never come back, some people change to a completely different field, and others find they love the job and stay there until retirement. If you don't like your program, you can always quit. If you finish the program and get a job but don't like it, you can quit.
Anyway, I just wrote a novel. Hopefully it helps. Feel free to memail me at any time, I'd love to help you.
posted by Nickel at 9:52 PM on October 15, 2013 [3 favorites]
Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the major downsides is the amount of work you have to do at home.
For example, remember that IEP I have on Thursday? I haven't actually written that report yet. I was going to do it tomorrow afternoon, but just got an email from the teacher asking me to update my parts of the online IEP system so that she can close it out and print it before the IEP meeting. Because I have stuff going on tomorrow morning and I'm guessing tomorrow afternoon/evening will be too late for her, I'm going to write that report now. At 12:30am. I will probably only get a few hours of sleep tonight.
And this isn't a case of poor time management led to me procrastinating. No, I have literally been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get to this before now.
On the flip side, I'm probably going to leave work early tomorrow so that I can come home and crash. So the autonomy and flexibility kind of makes up for me having to write reports all night.
posted by Nickel at 12:29 AM on October 16, 2013
For example, remember that IEP I have on Thursday? I haven't actually written that report yet. I was going to do it tomorrow afternoon, but just got an email from the teacher asking me to update my parts of the online IEP system so that she can close it out and print it before the IEP meeting. Because I have stuff going on tomorrow morning and I'm guessing tomorrow afternoon/evening will be too late for her, I'm going to write that report now. At 12:30am. I will probably only get a few hours of sleep tonight.
And this isn't a case of poor time management led to me procrastinating. No, I have literally been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get to this before now.
On the flip side, I'm probably going to leave work early tomorrow so that I can come home and crash. So the autonomy and flexibility kind of makes up for me having to write reports all night.
posted by Nickel at 12:29 AM on October 16, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by brainmouse at 3:23 PM on October 14, 2013 [3 favorites]