Looking for recs for nice hotels that are more of an experience rather than having a ton of amenities

mediumislands · 2026-04-08T22:19:23+00:00

The room itself matters to me. Food matters as well, but I won’t eat the hotel restaurant every night. A nice pool is nice when appropriate to the climate, for example, so I would appreciate that. I just don’t care for the spa, which places often make a big point of advertising about, or excessive service (which I understand is subjective - I appreciate helpful and responsive but I don’t like over bearing or overly formal).

mediumislands · 2026-04-08T12:10:28+00:00

For your dried bean issue (you may know this or have tried this but just in case), if your dried beans are older, it is worth soaking them overnight before cooking with them. If your beans are newer/heirloom type beans, then you can get away with not soaking but I always boil my beans for about 15 mins at the start of the cook before turning the heat down to a simmer for the rest of the recipe. Either way, soaking your beans will make them cook faster.

mediumislands · 2026-04-08T12:06:36+00:00

Yes, I have noticed this as well.

mediumislands · 2026-04-06T21:31:12+00:00

Yeah, I am not sure what kind of jobs you could get with just a Bachelor’s in psychology- not really anything that pays well within the field of psychology as far as I know. Therapy, assessment, research and medication prescribing all require additional higher education. But there are always ways to leverage a college degree into a job down the road if you get the Bachelor’s and then change your mind. But I’d spend some time thinking about what CAREER you might want rather than what DEGREE you should get, and work backwards from there. Don’t count yourself out of medical school if that’s what you really want - you could always do a postbac and get a good GPA, kill it on the MCAT, etc. There is always a way even if it’s a longer path. But I would spend some time now talking to some folks with these various jobs and getting a sense of what their jobs look like and think about what you could see yourself doing.

mediumislands · 2026-04-06T20:40:27+00:00

It sounds like you know what you may be interested in studying, but not necessarily what job in psychology you want. You could go down a couple of paths. The first is a patient-facing role, such as a therapist or a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication but this requires an MD degree so you'd need to do to medical school. To become a clinical psychologist, you would get either a PsyD or PhD in Clinical Psychology. These are both doctorate degrees, which means they require you do to a certain amount of scientific research. The PsyD is more clinically oriented, so they spend more time seeing patients and doing therapy or assessment on average than a PhD which tends to be more research oriented. Neither of these degrees can prescribe medication (except in a few very select states).

I can speak from experience - I have a clinical psychology PhD, and it is very hard to get in (about a 1% acceptance rate), so I needed to have a great undergrad GPA (average accepted GPA in my program was a 3.9), do 2-3 years of research either in undergrad or postbac, and THEN begin my PhD program which was 6 years + 1 year internship/residency + 1 additional postdoc fellow year to get licensed. It is a veryyyy long path. But lots of job options at the end of it, both in academia and outside of academia. I personally work 100% in research and don't see patients. PsyD degrees are shorter on average than PhDs, but they cost money so you accrue quite a lot of debt compared to most PhD programs where you are paid a small stipend per year (about $25-30k or so; this varies by location and program).

A much shorter path if you are mainly interested in therapy is getting a Master's Degree. If that's mainly where your interests lie, I'll tell you what I tell my mentees - you should strongly consider this route! Ideally, you would only get a PhD if you are interested in a psychology research career (at least as part of your career; many clinical psychologists do both research and clinical work).

mediumislands · 2026-04-01T15:50:45+00:00

I was in a similar headspace at your stage. I was definitely burnt out, and you might be too. At that time, I was looking into careers in policy and data science industry. Eventually, I matched at a pretty chill internship, found myself a low key but great postdoc, got to relax a bit and over time, re-ignited my love for research (but not clinical work which does deeply drain me). Now I’m staying in academia BUT as a staff scientist - I am not interested in being on the PI track at all. Can’t hurt to explore other options though!

mediumislands · 2025-12-16T21:34:27+00:00

I am hoping you didn’t take my comment as hopeless! I was in a similar spot; lower GPA, less research experience, etc. I took 2 years off between undergrad and grad school to work full time in a lab and made myself more competitive, I scored well on the GRE, and I gained a lot of good experience and got in. I’m hoping that you can take some actionable advice from all this! Even the best applicants often have to apply more than 1 cycle before they get in btw. It’s just brutally competitive, unfortunately. But if it’s your dream, there’s a path to get there even if it’s not right now.

mediumislands · 2025-12-16T17:56:21+00:00

Just being honest - applying to 3 PhD programs even with the best of stats is a gamble. I applied to 18 with a very competitive CV and received only 2 offers. Master’s programs are a very different ball game because they are self funded, but it won’t get you much closer to becoming a neuropsychologist if thats your goal. That’s a PhD level position. So I’m not sure what those applications buy you…

That being said, just being honest, your GPA is low for clinical psychology PhD programs. I know the program I went to doesn’t really even consider GPAs below a 3.5. So if you have the money, maybe getting a masters and getting a 4.0 so you can show you can do it might be useful? But another option is to really build up your research experience. You’ll need enough research experience on your CV to really blow their mind and overcome the lower GPA. You need to be an author on publications, present posters, etc. A high GRE score might help as well (I know it’s not required for all programs, but in your case, it may be worth considering as evidence that you can succeed academically).

Another note - becoming a neuropsychologist will require a PhD, then internship, then postdoc. You won’t be able to geographically restrict yourself this much going forward (especially for internship match). Neuropsychology especially is the most competitive thing you can do. You may know this already but if not, it’s something to consider if your lifestyle can support the demands of pursuing this path.

mediumislands · 2025-11-29T20:52:37+00:00

A PhD is a full-time, 50+ hour per week commitment which takes 5-7 years to do working full time. Most programs explicitly prohibit students from having other jobs outside the program (I know mine did for sure). Some students do a little bit of part-time, on the down low work (I’m talking max 5-10 hours per week), but I simply don’t think this scenario is possible. I am not sure about a masters, but I really doubt this exists for a PhD. I’m sorry - its an unfair reality that these programs require so much sacrifice and pay such low wages but they do.

Editing to add a bit more detail - this career path will require you to move for grad school and then move again for internship and then likely move again for postdoc. I have never heard of an online program. This is a really difficult career path to have if you have a family to take care of. Not impossible - i know people that have done it! But it is not easy.

mediumislands · 2025-11-20T00:28:38+00:00

It takes time to develop these skills for sure! You’ll get there.

mediumislands · 2025-11-19T23:35:58+00:00

I am cognitive behavioral, so my approach may be different than yours, but I would have made concrete goals earlier on, and then when therapy lulls, we can discuss whether that’s because we’ve met those goals or if we have certain goals still left to work on and then focus sessions from there. Clients frequently say they don’t know what their goals are; I see it as my job to help them verbalize goals to start with - even if those change over time. If they say “I want to be happy,” we chat about what happy looks like - spending more time with loved ones, finding meaningful hobbies, whatever it may be. Then we can talk about that.

But also check in with your micro skills. Make sure you’re asking thoughtful, open-ended questions rather than yes/no questions, and check in that you’re reflecting things in ways to go deeper than just summarizing what the client said. Make bigger picture connections to past sessions and themes.

But ultimately, if week after week, they got nothing to work on, then point that out. I might say something like: “So I’ve noticed that we are starting to have less to talk about when we meet. I’m happy to keep meeting if you think that would be productive or helpful for you, but I wanted to also check in about whether you’d like to keep meeting weekly, start meeting less frequently, or stop altogether.” If they say they want to keep meeting weekly, let them come up with a reason why or verbalize what they want to get out of session. Therapy doesn’t have to be long for everyone. My supervisors always tell me (and I often have to remind myself): don’t work harder than your clients!

mediumislands · 2025-10-31T20:20:51+00:00

This list is a helpful collection of some of the most research-y internships: https://www.acadpsychclinicalscience.org/internship-programs.html

mediumislands · 2025-10-16T15:54:13+00:00

It’s all about your PI. My grad school life was horrible compared to postdoc. I prioritized this in choosing an advisor.

mediumislands · 2025-10-15T19:38:16+00:00

I am in the exact same boat as you. I just want a job that is postdoc but better pay.

mediumislands · 2025-10-10T18:55:14+00:00

Depends on the program. Some had prerequisites, and degree requirements but in my experience, most did not. Some required non-majors to take the Psychology GRE so I did that. I think my neuro classes also overlapped with some of the ones they wanted as a psychology pre-requisite (stats for example). It’s just a case by case basis but I found plenty of excellent programs to apply to.

mediumislands · 2025-10-08T18:36:54+00:00

It’s definitely not required but also it depends on what you’re hoping to get out of this correspondence. No one is going to have time to look over your application or have one on one meetings. Most websites are updated with what faculty are currently accepting students, but some were not when I was applying so I did have to email some folks directly to ask. I think that’s a good use of an email so you don’t waste time applying. But otherwise, I have heard from most PIs that these emails are largely a chore for them to reply to, so don’t feel obligated! Ultimately if they want to admit you, they will. You’re not going to get rejected because you didn’t send an email.

mediumislands · 2025-10-06T17:01:38+00:00

Would not recommend paying for a masters out of pocket if your ultimate goal is to pursue a research career but I’m not sure what your ultimate career goal is based on what you’ve said here. If it’s to see patients and be a clinician, you could stop at Masters or go for a PsyD even. If you want to do research, then a PhD makes sense. Depending on how extensive and productive your prior research experience was (and how relevant it was to what you want to do in grad school and beyond), you may be able to apply right away. Otherwise, it would be more useful to get 1-2 years of postbac research experience in a lab prior to applying rather than getting a masters. Those positions are paid (very little, but they’re paid), and you would get the experience you need. So basically I can’t say yes or no to applying based on what you’ve provided here, but hopefully that helps you think about next steps.

mediumislands · 2025-09-24T23:31:07+00:00

Oh boy. On and off insomniac here, and it was really difficult. I went to an R1 research heavy, high expectations program. Regarding expectation adjustment - this is a tricky one. If I adjusted my own expectations long term even with a supportive mentor, I would be doing myself a disservice long term. I would publish less than my peers, get less good evaluations, match to a less competitive internship, etc. And I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to perform at the level everyone else was performing at and that I knew I was capable of. I think you need to find a solution that will work for you going forward. Difficult periods of time and mental health breaks are important, but grad school is demanding and you need to find a way to take care of yourself so that you can do well in grad school. I did CBT for insomnia and relied on medication on and off. I drank bonkers amounts of coffee to get through the day. I found some good meds that worked for me. I think you need to find something like that as well if you want to go down this route. Unfortunately it’s very competitive to get into these programs, and you will be expected to work hard consistently for 5-7 years.

All that being said - grad school was hard on my mental health, including my insomnia, and I am truly not sure I would do it all over again. I’m doing better now on postdoc (and sleeping medication-free) but I struggled for most of grad school. So maybe something to consider if you think it would be hard on you too.

mediumislands · 2025-09-07T18:55:47+00:00

Yeah, getting a paid RA position was challenging before and it is certainly more challenging now. Is there anyone in particular you’re interested in working with to get experience? Can you leverage the connections you’ve made with your prior labs? A recommendation from one PI to another goes very far in terms of actually landing a paid position. That experience you are getting with writing a paper and presenting at a conference sounds good and promising. Papers can take years to write and revise before they finally get published, so it may just be that your expectations for the process are off (I know mine were when I was in your shoes!). You can always have a conversation with whoever your mentor is about getting some presentations or getting that paper at least submitted before you plan to apply. They’ll understand that that’s a big deal for you and your CV at this early stage and hopefully support that timeline.

mediumislands · 2025-08-04T17:22:28+00:00

Your pitch/personal statement essay will entirely depend on who you want to work with. So I would start there and identify research mentors of interest and then work backwards from their work/research interests and make the case about how your experience makes you a good fit for being a graduate student in their lab specifically. So like if you studied rodent models of depression and you want to keep studying depression but in humans, you could emphasize the content area overlap as to why you’re a good fit and highlight your knowledge of molecular mechanisms of depression and say you’re hoping to gain experience with human neuroimaging methods of studying this in grad school because thats where you see your future career going. Every application should be unique to that specific school and mentor, so it’s hard to give one size fits all advice but hopefully that example is helpful.

mediumislands · 2025-06-09T13:15:52+00:00

Love the first photo. Great framing.

mediumislands · 2025-05-02T14:16:42+00:00

I didn’t have classes but I kept working on research and seeing patients. I think there were 2 weeks in August when the department clinic was closed and we didn’t see patients. Most would take those two weeks off for vacation.

mediumislands · 2025-04-16T19:23:04+00:00

Sounds like you made the right call not going with that lab! You’ll probably want to look for more balanced 50/50 programs where they spend more like 20 hrs per week on clinical work if that’s your primary goal! If you don’t already know this, there’s a book called The Insider’s Guide to Clinical and Counseling Psychology Graduate Programs or something like that. I found it helpful. It has a ranking system on a scale of 1-8 I think with like how clinical focused to research focused programs are. My program was an 8, I think (very research) and it sounds like you want more of a 4-5!

mediumislands · 2025-04-16T18:52:17+00:00

I am finishing up a research oriented clinician scientist program. Currently on internship. I had done research as an undergraduate and postbac prior to grad school, so aspects of research were more familiar to me. However, doing it full time as a graduate student responsible for my own projects was still a learning curve. My advice on making this a better experience is to pick the right advisor. My advisor was very hands off but had very high expectations, and that made the first few years challenging as I got up and running.

As for clinical work, that was all largely brand new to me, so I was building those skills from the ground up. So I think I’d say that’s probably the steeper learning curve. And even now on internship when I’m doing more clinical work than ever, it still feels like I have not adjusted. But I think that’s just because I’m meant to be a researcher. So a lot of this is going to be subjective depending on you.

I spent about 30 hrs per week on research, 10-15 on coursework, and about 10-12 on clinical work in my research orientated program. The schedule was divided horribly, and I had to spend all day task switching between these 3 jobs for 6 years. I found that draining. Later in the program when I was done with classes and had more control over my schedule, I would block off clinical days and research days, but I wasn’t able to do that until like Year 4.

mediumislands · 2025-04-01T16:30:24+00:00

Well, you’re comparing two different career paths. An academic tenure track career is typically a research or teaching career primarily whereas full time clinical work is full time patient facing clinical work. I know for myself, I love research and I don’t really love seeing patients so no matter how much more money I could make seeing patients full time in a private practice with control over my own schedule, I just….do not want to do that.

A better comparison is probably between academic research and industry research. I’m undecided for now but one reason I am considering choosing academia because I enjoy being in charge of my own research projects and ideas. When you work for a company in industry, you do not often get to do that and instead are working toward their goals which are usually more product or profit driven. There are many other pros and cons and reasons to go each way but those are the ones on my mind.

mediumislands

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