Author Archives: Heather Dade

About Heather Dade

Heather Dade is the Associate Director for Meetings and Communications in APA's Center for Education in Psychology. She is the Managing Editor of gradPSYCH Blog.

Tackling Student Debt: Loan Repayment Options for Psychologists to Explore

By Megha Nagaswami, MA

You’ve worked hard to learn new skills, take classes, and gain experience for your future career in psychology. With graduation from a master’s or doctoral program in the U.S. comes new opportunities, excitement, and … worry about repaying your loans. Student loans can seem like a daunting obstacle to overcome, especially as a brand new graduate. What you may not know is that there are many federal programs designed to help support recent graduates in psychology. Keep reading to learn more about these loan repayment options!

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program benefits psychologists who work for qualified public service providers. For those who meet the employment criteria, the remaining balance of their student loan is forgiven after making 10 years of qualifying payments. Since the program began in 2007, a total of $10 billion in loans have been forgiven for 175,000 individuals. There are many eligible qualified public service providers, such as government groups and certain non-profit organizations.

Heads up! In October 2022, the Limited PSLF Waiver Opportunity expired. As of October 31, 2022, certain types of payments or loan types will no longer be counted towards PSLF repayments. However, additional changes, providing more flexibilities for PSLF eligibility, went into effect in July 2023. More information about the specific changes to PSLF policy can be found here and here.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs)

The NIH LRP is designed to help scientists with doctoral-level degrees pursue careers in research. Through the program, psychologists can have up to $50,000 of their student loans forgiven each year for two years (up to $100,000). In exchange, you must commit to at least two years of research. You can apply to the LRP as an independent researcher or a mentored researcher.

Health Resources and Services Administration Loan Repayment Programs

HRSA has a number of loan repayment programs that include behavioral health professions such psychologists. Several of them are through the National Health Service Corps, under which health service psychologists are an eligible professional.

The links below include all of the loan repayment programs for which behavioral health professions are eligible.

Learn more about managing student debt through other APA resources:


About the author: Megha Nagaswami, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a member of the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT) since 2022. Please contact Megha if you have any questions about this blog post or about the Advocacy Coordinating Team. 

Meet the 2023 JSF Winners!

One of the many incredible resources provided through the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Science Committee is access to funding to support student research. Every year, the APAGS Science Committee and Psi Chi work together to provide financial support to research-oriented graduate students in psychology programs (either in their first year or first semester of their second year) through the Junior Scientist Fellowship (JSF). This year, we are proud to announce that 16 students were awarded $1,000 in grant funding to support their psychological research endeavors from a pool of 42 applicants. Below are the recipients and their research topics.

Ann Bernhardt (Texas A&M University) plans to study the impact of ADHD and anxiety on diagnostic identification and college-level performance. Ann’s research aims to reframe anxiety as a compensatory tool to help students increase their self-efficacy and college success.

Marley Billman Miller (Auburn University) aims to assess how food insecurity influences stress levels in racial/ethnic minority women in rural populations. Findings from this study may impact our understanding of populations who experience adverse health outcomes related to food insecurity.

Rachel Brough (University of Denver) strives to continue previous research on the influence of affective and motivational states on cognitive control. Specifically, Rachel plans to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and an increased need for control.

Jonathan Doriscar (Northwestern University) will investigate the factors contributing to systemic racism and prejudice reduction. Jonathan’s work aims to bridge psychological research with societal change.

Eli Halbreich (Texas Tech University) will investigate the role of companion animals as social support for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults. Eli’s research aims to understand the relationship between companion animals, coping with stress, and physical activity.

Elizabeth Kruse (University of Rochester) plans to evaluate the degree to which people can suppress the area of the brain allocated to focus their attention. Elizabeth hopes to use this research to inform interventions for improved cognitive performance.

Brandon Martin (Kent State University aims to understand how stigma related to weight and body image in men informs our understanding of men’s health. Brandon’s research will address a gap in existing research on weight management and stigma, which has previously focused on women.

Renee McCauley (George Mason University) strives to understand how speaking with an accent impacts an applicant’s likelihood of being hired in job interviews, and how gender further informs this relationship. Renee hopes to improve our understanding of gender and accented speech as this intersection of identities has been underrepresented in the research to date.

Maggie McCracken (University of Utah) plans to further research the interaction between multisensory cues, focusing on the benefits of auditory cues when performing tasks which require the perception of distance. Maggie hopes to investigate if the presence of sound will improve the performance on distance perception tasks for people who are visually impaired.

Charlie McDonald (Binghamton University – SUNY) aims to identify the mechanism of dissociation, or the disruption of consciousness, emotions, and other cognitive functions. Charlie hopes to use virtual and augmented reality to inform the development of treatments for dissociation.

Margaret Powers (University of Louisville) aims to examine the relationship between abstract thinking skills and understanding or engaging with information about systemic racism. Margaret further aims to incorporate the results of this study into anti-racist work in explaining systemic racism to racially privileged groups.

Krutika Rathod (University of Maine) plans to continue researching the mechanisms associating substance use, specifically regarding cannabis, to socioeconomic adversity. This research will continue to advance the fund of knowledge on the social determinants of substance use in rural communities.

Joseph Slade (Oregon State University) strives to investigate the degree to which students retain information when using artificial intelligence (AI) databases, such as ChatGPT. Joseph’s study will not only focus on the depth of student engagement with course material as they use AI to complete tasks but will also investigate the impact of learning when students believe information was generated by AI versus humans.

Nikhila Udupa (Florida State University) aims to develop and validate a measure used to examine the uncontrollability of suicidal thought. Nikhila hopes to further examine the association between uncontrollability of suicidal thought and other control-related constructs.

Marie Wild (Cornell University) will examine the impact of relocating older adults to a senior living facility on their emotion regulation abilities. This research will advance our understanding of how aging impacts our emotion regulation behaviors and inform interventions aiding in the adjustment of relocation in older adults.

Alireza Zareian Jahromi (Fordham University) aims to conduct a longitudinal study to investigate the mental health outcomes of Iranian people living in the United States following sociopolitical events in Iran. This research further aims to understand the impact of emotion regulation strategies, acculturation, and perceived social support on mental health outcomes following these sociopolitical events.

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who participated in the 2023 JSF process! The APAGS Science committee and Psi Chi are committed to supporting research-oriented graduate students by promoting their work in psychological sciences. Participating in the JSF allows students to gain experience in grant writing, ultimately preparing them to apply for further funding and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Additional thanks to the APAGS reviewers for their time reviewing applications and providing valuable feedback to each applicant!

Posted by Sarah Kohnen, an APAGS Science Committee member and counseling psychology doctoral student at Chatham University. Feel free to reach out to Sarah with any questions you may have!

Join the APAGS-CSOGD Mentorship Program

By Liz Deibel

Graduate students!!!

  • Are you looking for an LGBTQIA+ psychologist, professional, or advanced graduate student to support your professional development?
  • Would you like to have a sounding board to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to sexuality and gender in the professional field of psychology?
  • Have you wanted to forge connections with other psychologists who share your commitment to working with the LGBTQIA+ community?

Professionals or advanced graduate students!!!

  • Are you interested in taking an LGBTQIA+ graduate student under your wing?
  • Are you passionate about providing support to the LGBTQIA+ student community?
  • Do you want to share your experiences and expertise to help students find their professional voice?

The American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APAGS-CSOGD) offers a yearlong mentoring program (January 2024 – January 2025) for LGBTQIA+ graduate students in psychology to be mentored by colleagues who share similar interests, experiences, and goals.

The (free!) mentorship program offers unique and individualized experiences for graduate students to gain further support, advice, and perspectives throughout their professional journey. Mentees are paired with mentors in terms of clinical interests, time commitment, and intersecting identities. Mentors can offer a sounding-board for professional questions, guidance for research or clinical paths, and encouragement throughout times of higher stress levels. 

If you are interested in becoming either a mentor or a mentee, please click one of the applications below based on your position of choice. If you have any further questions, please visit the Mentoring Program webpage or email Ritu Verma.

Mentee application

Mentor application


Writing Commentaries

By Samuel Accuff, PhD and Melanie Arenson, PhD

Many journals offer the opportunity to contribute commentaries, but many graduate students are uncertain about how to write one or think these are reserved for senior career scientists. This couldn’t be farther from the truth (see this call in Translational Issues in Psychological Science), so we wrote a blog post to demystify the process and help you get started! 

What is a commentary and why should I write one?

A commentary is a paper which discusses and expands upon a recently-published article in a peer-reviewed journal. Often commentaries are short (<1000 words), do not require additional data, and focus on a piece of the results or impacts that the original article did not discuss at length. 

So, why write one? Many of us are drawn to research to contribute knowledge and to engage in the conversation of science. Commentaries offer unique advantages relative to other article types to do just that. First, due to their brevity, they require less time. Second, a commentary is a product that emerges from the critical thinking that hopefully naturally occurs while keeping up with the literature. Third, commentaries are opportunities to collaborate with your research community on interesting and stimulating issues. We are in the era of team science, and advancement typically comes through the furnace of critical thinking and friendly, collegial debate. In short, this is an opportunity to engage with your scientific community and question the beliefs of yourself and others, in a brief format that engages you with the literature and results in a publication. What could be better?

What’s the process?

  1. Stay up to date with the current literature: Commentaries discuss recently-published articles (ideally published within 6 months, at most a year). You also want your commentary to reference the most up-to-date literature, and your future directions to be novel. To do so, it is important to stay up to date! 
  2. Think critically: Commentaries are fundamentally papers that critically examine an existing work. This is not to say they are critical in nature; in fact, they are often far from this. However, there is likely a result, application, implication, or future direction the authors did not touch, but you can!
  3. Express interest: Often, journals have a specific call for commentaries and may require that you reach out to express interest in writing one. Draft a brief summary and reach out before you write the commentary. You don’t want to write a commentary that the journal isn’t planning to review!
  4. Get writing: Connect with collaborators to determine the division of responsibilities and  timeline. Then, carve out time in your calendar and get writing!
  5. Go through review: After your commentary is submitted, it will go through a review process that may be slightly different than other articles to foster a faster publication timeline (e.g., involves fewer reviewers, often reviewed by editorial board members).

The nitty gritty – things that help, and things that can hurt

Journals only have so much space, and editors are picky about what they publish. Here are some tips and tricks to enhance your commentary, and some things to avoid. 

  1. Identify an idea that is impactful and builds beyond the scope of a previously published article. Identify a practical or theoretical implication not articulated by the authors, or illuminate a limitation/future direction for research (remember to be respectful). A restatement of the findings is not unique and likely won’t publish. Related, avoid vague statements and instead articulate reasons why your take is important. Be specific, and contribute something novel. Connect the paper to a bigger picture.
  • Avoid lengthy summaries of the study, and instead point readers to the published article. Lengthy summaries take space, and by their nature are not commenting on the existing article.
  • Commentaries often have greater flexibility in voice, with opportunities to show more personality. Use catchy phrases to create brief, memorable summaries of your main idea. That said, you are still a scientist. Do not make claims that cannot be empirically tested; stick to the evidence, and communicate a healthy dose of skepticism. 

This is your opportunity to join the conversation of science. You may have lost touch with this desire due to tests or the stress of managing your dissertation, but isn’t that why we are here? Find a topic or recently published paper and share your thoughts with a colleague. Push the limits of what the study found, and challenge the assumptions. Sit long enough to articulate that feeling you’ve been having about the field that you hold dear. You never know how your engagement might impact the direction of science!

5 Tips to Start Your Graduate School Year Off Strong

By Ashley Wojcik

The beginning of a new school year can bring about a mix of emotions. It is normal to feel excited about the start of a new chapter, but also anxious for what is ahead. Graduate school specifically invites financial, social, personal, and intellectual challenges that can be difficult to manage. In this post, we have compiled some tips for surviving and thriving in a new year of graduate school. 

  1. Communicate With Your Support System Before Starting School 

Before going into a new or stressful environment, it can be helpful to talk with your family and friends about how you are feeling and what they can expect in terms of your availability. Some people struggle to garner support from those around them in their pursuit of graduate education, so you should be prepared for those difficult conversations. Remember to be honest about why it is important for you to go back to school, what you hope to accomplish, and how they can best support you. 

  1. Prepare for a Busier Schedule 

Going back to school as a graduate student can be a different experience than your undergraduate years. In many cases, you may have already spent time working and will have to readjust to the academic lifestyle. If you have a family or children, this can be another commitment to juggle. Even if you have gone straight into graduate school, you may find that the combination of research, courses, and other responsibilities such as being a TA is a heavier load than you experienced as an undergraduate. It is important to set realistic expectations so you can be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself in advance for the late nights and busy days, while also remembering to build in some time for self-care.  

  1. Give Yourself Grace in the Beginning 

Summer breaks notoriously lead to some loss of information learned in the previous school year. This depletion only increases if you have taken more time off from school. When starting graduate school, you should be ready for an adjustment period academically. Prepare yourself to endure a learning curve in the beginning and to allow yourself time to review previous material before you can learn new concepts.  

  1. Understand That Student Life Has Changed 

If you spent time out of school, you may quickly recognize that things have changed since you were last a student. Student culture, expectations, and resources are changing all the time. Additionally, the graduate student experience is inherently different from the undergraduate, so even if you went straight into graduate school, you should prepare for those differences before you begin. For example, many people complete their graduate degrees while working or juggling other things, so the schedule may be different than you are used to. Your curriculum may be more research-based, with smaller classes, and closer connections to your professors than you were used to at the undergraduate level. 

  1. Keep an Open Mind 

Like anything else, your mind is subject to change in grad school, and you should be open-minded when going into graduate studies. Your area of focus may shift or change completely through your education, and you should be prepared for that and welcoming to it. After all, that is the benefit of a graduate education. The stress you endure is the cost of the knowledge you gain about yourself and the impact you want to have on the world.