Hello,
Thank you for your interest in graduate training at the Emotion Change Lab. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions.
- Dr. Pascual-Leone
Q. Are you accepting students?
A. As the director of the lab, I consider accepting graduate students under my supervision every Fall (except the Fall of 2018, when I will be on sabbatical).
Q. What is the process for applying?
A. At our institution, students are first accepted by the department as a whole for clinical training and then are welcome to discuss their interests with me as a potential supervisor. I encourage you to indicate your interests in joining my lab in your statement of interest, as part of your application. In this way, I can give special attention to considering your candidacy if you are already shortlisted by the department.
Q. Should I send an email and additional materials to Dr. Pascual-Leone?
A. You are welcome to email me with questions that may not be on this site, and to let me know your intention to apply. The best time to send a note to me (if you wish to do so) is on the deadline date for submissions of application to our department. However, it is enough to send a few sentences of introduction and it is not useful for you to send your CV to me or to show the compatibility of your interests by email prior to the department considering your application. (FYI: Many of the students I have taken did not email me in advance of their application, and when students do it does not really help their application because they must first be shortlisted by the department before I can consider them).
Q. Is there anything special that we look for in a prospective graduate student?
A. If your application is shortlisted and you are interested in our lab we usually have a skype interview. Candidates who are passionate about studying emotion and psychotherapy or who have some related experience are encouraged. However, we do not require any specific research experience as long as students are flexible in terms of dovetailing with our existing projects.
Q. What kind of projects are being conducted right now?
A. It is difficult to say exactly what kinds of projects will be running in the Fall when you might join the lab. See our mission statement and list of publications to see the kind of work that is conducted in our lab. However, masters level students are usually offered a short menu of possible study topics to choose from, which would allow them to participate as part of a team while also running an independent project.
See the link: How the lab works. Also see the link: list of past student research.
Q. Do students publish in the lab?
A. See the links: Research articles, research chapters, conference presentations. I help students publish the work we have done together, and I often also give side-projects to students in my lab, so as to broaden their research experience. It depends on a student’s progress but typically students in my lab co-author 3 publications and several conference presentations before they graduate from the PhD program, with other publications after that.
Q. What else can students expect?
A. Process research is highly rewarding, the kinds of studies we do often directly result in students becoming better clinicians through their research observations (see more on this see Pascual-Leone & Andreescu, 2013). At the same time, this kind of research is very detailed, is hard work, and can be time-consuming. I work hard, and I expect my students to work hard. See the link: teaching philosophy. At the same time, we have always fostered a research team that loves to laugh and we usually enjoy a few get-togethers a year.
Please note, once again, that I will be on sabbatical in the Fall 2018 and Winter 2019 semesters, and will not be supervising any thesis students at that time.
Good luck with your application!