Preparing for Your First Week of Graduate School in Counseling Psychology
What do you need to know before you start your counseling psychology program? What’s the best way to be prepared? Whether you already have a background in psychology or are starting your master’s program with experience in a different field, you probably want to have an idea of what to expect and how to put your best foot forward. Here’s what I can tell you after experiencing my first week:
First of all, get organized. If you don’t already have a planner, I would highly recommend figuring out what kind of planning system works best for you. Personally, I strongly prefer a physical, paper planner that I can jot notes into whenever they spring to mind. I find writing everything out in one book gives me great peace of mind and helps prevent big and little to-do list items from slipping through the cracks. I use a Hobonichi Cousin planner which has pages for yearly, monthly, weekly and daily spreads. Passion Planners are also great for a big monthly and weekly overview. I’ll go over my planner in depth in a future post.
Also think about what note-taking style you prefer for readings and during class. I use GoodNotes 5 on my iPad pro to highlight textbook pdfs and handwrite in digital notebooks, and also type notes from my readings into Notion. You may prefer handwriting in physical notebooks, but for class notes I strongly prefer keeping digital copies which will be easier to search through later. Think about how you might like to refer back to your notes from graduate school ten years in the future. Would you rather be able to search for key words and ideas on your computer, or scramble through dog-eared notebooks that are probably tucked away in a box somewhere since the last time you moved?
Create folders on your computer for each class where you can save syllabi, papers, essays, notes and other resources. Set the folders up before school starts to save yourself the trouble later.
Find your syllabi. These will probably be posted online shortly before classes start. Some professors may be assigned to teach the class at the last minute and won’t have theirs ready until the course starts, but the sooner you can find these, the better. My graduate school uses an online learning portal called Canvas, but there are many others and I’m sure you are already used to having some kind of web portal for your classes during your undergrad. Acquaint yourself with the web portal as much as possible before the semester starts.
Tip: Besides making folders for each specific course and saving each syllabus there, you will also want to save a copy of all of your syllabi from your entire graduate degree in a separate folder. This is in case you are audited or need to move and change your licence in the future. Your school will always keep them on file, but it’s easier for you if you have an organization system in place to begin with. You may want to rename all the files using a cohesive system (something like CourseName-ProfessorName-Semester).
Once you find your syllabi, actually read them! Professors at the graduate level will assume you have read their syllabus front to back and upside down. You will be expected to already know what your assignments will be, how much they are worth and when they are due, what textbooks, course readers or assigned readings/videos will be and when they are due, who your prof and TA are, and how to get in touch if you need to.
The first class will usually not be a chill “go over the syllabus then get released early” type situation. There will probably be meeting, greeting, and possibly “check-ins” with everyone in class (and ‘grounding exercises’ or meditations before class if you go to a less conventional school like mine), but after that you will be expected to be fully prepared to hit the ground running.
That being said, if something wasn’t clear in the syllabus, or you have a question or comment about the lecture/reading material, do not be afraid to speak up! Nobody will think you are stupid for asking a question (unless your question is “Uhh.. what readings are you guys talking about?”). Get over your fear of speaking up in class early. You’re going to be doing a lot of talking in this kind of program.
Add your due dates from the syllabi into your planner for the entire term. You want to be able to look ahead and know what is due when and when your busiest weeks will be. I also write the readings due for each week on my weekly spreads and check them off as I complete them.
Do the assigned readings. You will want to have read whatever is posted for week one of your classes before the course actually starts. Order your textbooks and readers as early as possible. Take notes for yourself while you are reading. Show up prepared to discuss for the first class. Bring your original ideas related to the readings, along with questions if you have any.
If for some reason you’re not able to get the textbook or course reader in time, you can always email the professor and see if they might post the first week’s reading on your school’s web portal or email it to you directly. See if you’re able to find the reading online anywhere, and if not, perhaps you could at least find a related interview with the author or other supplemental source of information to get a vague idea of what the reading is about.
Perhaps most importantly, get to know your cohort. Create a signal group chat, slack channel, discord server or whatever messaging platform you like with your classmates and keep in touch. You never know who is going to have an extra copy of the reader, a pdf of the paper the prof mentioned in class ready to share, some helpful resource you didn’t know about, info about a cool seminar or conference coming up, or just superior notes.
In counseling psychology programs you’re going to start off practicing therapy with the people in your classes before you start meeting real patients. You’re probably going to be having breakout sessions in dyads, triads, small groups, and fishbowls in front of the class. The more you can develop friendly camaraderie and trust with these people, the better.
They’re also going to be the people who know exactly what you’re going through in your program. They’re most likely going to be quite empathetic and easy to get along with if they ended up in a counseling psychology program with you! How often do you really get the chance to make new (possibly lifelong) friends and connections as an adult? Take every advantage of the opportunity and nurture friendships with the people that you naturally click with.