I am junior at Franklin College in Indiana. I have been preparing myself for three years in hopes of graduate study in sports psychology. I have been involved in and have been successful in many sport areas including all-state honors in high school football, baseball, and wrestling. I play college baseball at Franklin (academic all conference), and I played football my freshman year before tearing my ACL and having surgery. I am pursuing a major in psychology with an accum. GPA over 3.7 and I am also pursuing a minor in fitness with many related biology and sociology courses. I am currently doing an internship with a student relations specialist at the high school level and gaining valuable counseling knowledge. Last summer I completed an internship with the director of graduate programs in sport psychology at Ball State University where I was fortunate enough to learn a great deal about the profession. With all of this experience and preparation, I am wondering if I am on the right track? Am I doing what I need to be doing to enter a graduate school in sports psychology (hopefully with a graduate assistant position)? I have the Directory of Graduate Schools in Sports Psychology. This directory has proven very valuable, but I was wondering if anyone had information on the reputation of graduate schools. The basic information in the directory helps, but I would like to know which schools are considered "better" than others and in what areas are these schools considered better. ANY information regarding my undergraduate preparation thus far or the ranking of graduate schools is greatly appreciated.

-- Jamie Johnson (johnsoj1@franklincoll.edu), January 27, 1998

Answers

I think rather than reputation you should think carefully about the specific training and skill base you would want to get from your graduate training and try to match the program to your needs. For example, the skill sets you would develop at a school like Purdue (Sport Science Program) would be very different from the ones you might get at our program at the Arizona Schol of Professional Psychology. Also, keep in mind, more recent programs like ours may not yet be included in the directory. Frank Gardner, Ph.D.

-- Frank L Gardner (gardconsul@AOL.COM), July 13, 1998.