Why I Want To Attend College

During the entirety of my educational career, starting in elementary school, it was continually said to me that going to college increases your earning potential. With this in mind, I was certainly going to attend college, but I never seriously thought about it as a way to increase my knowledge and skill in a field I was interested in. Unfortunately, my family wasn’t exactly supportive. I’m the first person in my family to attend college and have been required to be financially self-supporting due to my family’s financial background. I relocated to South Dakota from Florida to begin my new adventure. My only emotional support came from my grandmother who passed away just three weeks before I began my first semester. This took a toll on me that required quite a bit of time to recover from. My grades suffered greatly as I struggled to overcome the loss of my closest family member while facing new challenges college and South Dakota presented. Despite this I continued on the path I had chosen and kept pursuing my education.

My first major choice was in business administration, then realized I’m not very skilled in accounting which was a required course.

I decided if I was going to invest the amount of time and money I was in to college, I should do it for something I’m interested and skilled in and not for the paycheck. I then switched to a psychology major, but was still unsure about what I should do with my degree.

My junior year I finally figured out what I wanted to do; I wanted to use my knowledge of psychology to help the criminal justice system which is notoriously in conflict with the field. This is when I added a criminal justice major to my academic profile. After doing some research, I discovered that many people who choose careers at the intersection of psychology and law hold advanced degrees. With this in mind I began getting more serious about college. My grades and attendance improved as I started thinking about my new goal of graduate

school.

When thinking about what I would do with my graduate degree I decided a career in forensic psychology or academia would fit my ambitions perfectly. In the field of forensic psychology I could serve as an expert witness to explain how someone’s psychology affected their behavior or I could help the court determine the competency or sanity of someone. In academia, courses at the University of South Dakota focusing on the intricacies of psychology and law are limited to only a few. Using my knowledge after an advanced degree I am excited about helping other students on their path to careers in the field by expanding course options at their university.

In regards to research, I’m interested in studying problems that occur when psychology and law conflict. Taking that into consideration, there are a few professors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who I am interested in doing research under. There is one who matches my interests the closest and that would be Brian Bornstein. Jury decision making, the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and effects of expert witness are topics I would be directly interacting and dealing within a potential career. Researching and learning more about these subjects would benefit not only myself, but the psychology-law community as well. The next best fit would be professor Eve Brank. Her research on how the law interacts with family and personal decision making is a prime example of how law and psychology comes into conflict. Better understanding these situations could lead to a more understanding and efficient legal system. The next professor I believe would be a good selection for research would be Richard Wiener. His publications appear to focus on how past experiences and memory affect future behavior. We are our memories and experiences, therefore this type of intersection is pertinent to understanding how psychology can interact with the law.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln provides a unique program of a doctorate in Clinical Psychology in conjunction with a Masters of Legal Studies, which is an exciting opportunity to learn more about how law and psychology influence each other. I look forward to learning and researching with experienced faculty who are the best fit for me.