If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the Google doc I put together to answer everyone’s registration-related questions all in one place.

tl;dr: If the class is full on WebReg, there is nothing (truly, nothing) I can personally do to let you in. The doc explains why in full detail, but I do not have anywhere close to that kind of power.

As long as you see my little profile picture pop up next to the address, your message will get to me. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the address with my first and last name or just my last name; they both go to the same place.

In case you didn’t know: Everyone at USC has a secondary email alias that also works, in addition to the random combination of letters/numbers you were initially assigned as your netID. The actual alias will likely depend on how common your name is, but if you want to investigate your secret, behind-the-scenes secondary USC email address (whatever it might look like), here are some instructions.

Fun fact: There is a retired faculty member in Keck named Leslie BernSTEIN who is very much not me, but whose name will also pop up if you start typing it into your USC Gmail. Please double-check to make sure you’re emailing either of my addresses (with the profile picture) and not her!

Funny story. In case you weren’t aware, there are some people out there who do not like college professors–especially college professors like me. (You can learn more about that whole ecosystem here and here. It is really and truly something else.)

A while back, I found myself on this crowd’s radar and got some threatening… fan mail sent to my campus mailbox. After that happened, university officials advised scrubbing my information from the department website (which, by default, automatically populates with my email address and office location) in the interest of my personal safety.

If you are affiliated with USC, my email address will pop up if you start typing my name into a new message in the university’s email client. (And check out the answer above for more details.)

Super cool! There are many different kinds of graduate programs, so your first step is figuring out which kind is a good fit for your career goals and life in general.

Doctoral programs take the longest–anywhere between four and seven years. A Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) is a research-focused degree, so if you’re interested in asking (and answering!) brand new scientific questions, this option might be for you. When you get a Ph.D., you specialize in a very specific subfield of your chosen discipline. (Those who specialize in clinical psychology receive additional training in assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic practice, but they have the same research obligations as non-clinical Ph.D. students.) After earning your Ph.D., you could apply your training to a wide variety of careers that might include teaching, research, science communication, science policy, and/or clinical practice (for those who are licensed). On the other hand, a Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology) is a practice-oriented degree that primarily prepares students to become clinicians. Another major difference is that the vast majority of Ph.D. programs (in all disciplines) are fully funded. This means, if you are admitted, you do not pay any tuition and you get a (modest) paycheck each month, usually in return for serving as a teaching assistant or working on a faculty member’s existing grant-funded research. Psy.D. programs are very rarely, if ever, funded in this way. This means, when people complete a Psy.D. degree, they are are responsible for paying full tuition and they do not receive a monthly stipend to support their cost of living.

If you’d rather not spend an extra four to seven years in school, a master’s degree (which generally takes two years) might be for you. Because a master’s degree (like a Psy.D.) is usually unfunded, just make sure that it would be vitally necessary for the career you want to pursue. Unless you are interested in becoming a practitioner (e.g., a marriage and family therapist, a clinical social worker, a school psychologist, etc.), a master’s degree in psychology (and the money it costs) is probably not worth it.

I especially advise against getting a master’s degree in preparation for admission to a Ph.D. program. Not only do they cost a ton of money, but they do not (I promise) help your application as much as other avenues that you could pursue. If you’re hoping to get more experience before you apply, I highly recommend looking for postbac research positions. They go by many names (e.g., lab manager, research assistant, project specialist, etc.), but these are full-time jobs (with salaries and benefits!) that are explicitly geared towards people who already have their bachelor’s degree (hence, postbac) and who are hoping to apply to Ph.D. programs in the future. These positions generally last for one or two years and tend to become available after the person currently holding the job has accepted their own Ph.D. admission offer, so using them as a stepping stone is the entire idea.

When it comes to getting into a Ph.D. program, research experience is the most important thing you can have, so check out the next section to learn how you can find out about these kinds of opportunities.

Psych Research List (developed by Dr. Meltem Yucel) is an incredible resource where you can access constantly-updated listings of paid summer internships (for when you’re still in college), paid postbac research positions (for after you’ve graduated), and graduate school info sessions.

To learn more about part-time research opportunities for students at your own institution, check out your department’s website. Sometimes, departments will compile their own centralized lists of faculty and graduate students who are currently looking for research assistants or share these opportunities via email blast or social media. (The USC PSYC department’s list is posted to this page, and you can get in touch with one of our department’s undergraduate advisors to get added to the listserv where they share these opportunities via email.) Other times, you might have to comb through the faculty directory and look at individual profiles or lab websites to get a sense of any openings.

If you look around a lab website and don’t see specific details for how to apply to join the lab, you can just send a short (1-2 paragraph) email to the faculty member introducing yourself, explaining that you’re interested in getting involved in research, describing why their work interests you, and letting them know that you’d be happy to work on any current or future projects that they (or their grad students) need help with. Part-time research assistantships during the academic year are generally volunteer-only (which is a whole separate conversation), but you may be able to apply for fellowship funding through your school’s undergraduate programs office or get paid via work-study funds (if included in your financial aid package).

This one’s a bit trickier, since it’s a great example of the “need training to get experience, but need experience to get training” vicious cycle. That is, there’s a real limit to the kind of clinical work you can do without being a licensed care provider, but it’s usually nice to have some kind of “experience” to show if you’re applying to a program that will lead to licensure.

Most often, I recommend that my students look into becoming a counselor with a crisis hotline or support network. There are a bunch of them out there (e.g., the Crisis Text Line, 7 Cups of Tea, the I’m Alive Crisis Network, or your local crisis center affiliated with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline), but they all provide the training that you need to be the person on the other end of the line.

If that doesn’t sound like your… cup of tea (😎), you can also sign up for a class on Mental Health First Aid or get involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

I am no longer able to write letters or serve as a professional reference for undergraduate students who just take one (or more) of my classes, and I will explain why.

Having served on many selection/review committees, I can promise that letters/references land much differently when they come from someone who can effectively advocate for you because they genuinely know you as a person (vs. someone who has just taught you in a large lecture class).

Because I teach 1000 students a year and want to ensure that anyone I recommend receives a reference that meaningfully strengthens their application, please know that I am only able to serve as a referee for graduate students directly under my teaching mentorship.

Before establishing this boundary, I was getting letter/reference requests from more students than some faculty teach in a year. I promise that this rule isn’t because any individual request is too much to ask or because there’s anything “undeserving” about the person asking. Rather, it’s simply because I—one person—cannot possibly do or be everything for everyone.

Whoever you ask for your letter(s), ask at least four weeks in advance of your earliest deadline and provide all the information you can (e.g., an annotated version of your resume that provides more details about your accomplishments, your application materials, detailed submission instructions, etc.) to make the process as easy as possible for your letter writers. For more tips on securing strong letters of recommendation from people who know you well enough to write them, check out this resource.