The Experimental Psychology M.A. program at Western Kentucky University is a 2-year, 48-hour program designed to prepare individuals for continuation in a Ph.D. program and/or for positions where strong research and methodological skills are needed. The program offers research opportunities in a number of areas including cognition, perception, neuroscience, child development, aging, social psychology, sports psychology, and educational psychology. One of our strengths as a program is that we admit a limited number of students each year. This allows our faculty to devote more time to each student and to provide the degree of guidance that is appropriate for each student. Elective options within the curriculum allow students to design a program that best fits their interests.

Many students use our program to strengthen their quantitative skills and acquire research experience in order to be more competitive when applying to Ph.D. programs in experimental, developmental, and clinical psychology. Some students use the program to develop skills that can be used in applied settings and have found employment upon graduation.

Strong quantitative and research skills are particularly important for students who intend to pursue a doctoral degree. A survey of graduate school selection committees showed that research experience was rated as the most important criterion for admission into a doctoral program after the three primary selection criteria of GRE scores, undergraduate grade point average, and letters of recommendation (Keith-Spiegel, Tabachnick, & Spiegel, 1994). The survey also indicated that research experience was equally important for experimental and clinical doctoral programs.

The success of our graduates is based on three components of our program:

	1. Students are actively involved in research throughout the program. Each semester, students are enrolled in either a research practicum course (PSY 662) or thesis research (PSY 599). This research-oriented curriculum allows students to gain valuable research experience and provides them with opportunities to collaborate on paper presentations and journal publications.
	2. Class sizes are relatively small. Small class sizes allow faculty members to spend more time with individual students both in the classroom and in one-on-one advisement. Because faculty members know individual students so well, they are able to write detailed letters of recommendation for them. These letters are one of the top three selection criteria for Ph.D. programs.
	3. Faculty members are active professionally. The members of our faculty have active research programs, they present their research at national and international professional meetings, and they publish in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, several are ad hoc reviewers or are on the editorial boards for professional journals. Thus, faculty members have a large network of colleagues that aids them in placing students into Ph.D. programs or professional jobs.

References:
Keith-Spiegel, P., Tabachnick, B.G. & Spiegel, G.B. (1994). When demand exceeds supply: Second-order criteria used by graduate school selection committees. Teaching of Psychology, 21, 79-81.