This study was undertaken to respond to a specific inquiry from the Center for Psychological Studies of Nova Southeastern University (Florida) about the satisfaction of Master's-level and Doctoral-level students with the University's faculty and programs. The population consisted of all students enrolled in these programs in the fall term of 1999,…

This issue of Graduate Focus provides a brief status report on ethnic diversity at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). It includes an overview of relevant institutional data and notes various issues, concerns, and current activities. In graduate programs, UCLA designates as underrepresented minorities domestic students of…

The information in this report is a snapshot of the impressions of doctoral recipients at the University of California, Los Angeles, of the overall quality of mentoring, assistance with finding professional employment, and general interest in the student shown by the dissertation chair. Findings come from an analysis of an exit survey completed by…

This study compared how Taiwanese and U.S. graduate students at one U.S. university made e-mail requests to professors. Taiwanese students had received formal English education in Taiwan but none in the United States. All participants provided several e-mails containing requests to their professors. E-mail data were divided into high-imposition…

The development of effective procedures for assessing the competency of counselors-in-training is a challenge facing counselor educators. The responsibility for assessment is documented in codes of ethics and standards for all counseling professional organizations. They suggest that students be assessed at admissions, during the program, and upon…

This paper investigates the ability of portfolios to stimulate the acquisition of multicultural counseling competence within counselors-in-training. It also compares the efficacy of portfolios to case formulation, another method of competence development. Students (N=27) attending a required course on multicultural counseling at a large Midwestern…

One of the biggest challenges facing distance education programs is attrition. One potential way of reducing attrition is to foster a sense of community among students. Students who are emotionally and intellectuality invested in each other and in their program are more likely to prosper in a multi-year distance program. This paper briefly…

Value-added learning dimensions resulting from the use of an integrative model for graduate student research skill development are shared by two student researchers, who used virtual teaming in a 10-week online statistics summer course. The researchers collected original data and conducted quantitative and qualitative research. The problems…

The acquisition of culture-specific knowledge through reading and/or experience is an important component of cross-cultural counseling education. This study explores the relationship between counselor trainees' culture specific knowledge and their ability to empathize in general. It would seem reasonable to assume that those who belong to a…

If counselors and other mental health professionals are to improve service delivery to women, research must provide a thorough understanding of the facets of counseling that are most beneficial to women. To help in this endeavor, the relationship between female counselor variables and the evaluation of counseling effectiveness by female clients…

Transcription is an integral process in the qualitative analysis of language data, and is widely employed in basic and applied research across a number of disciplines and in professional practice fields. Yet methodological and theoretical issues associated with the transcription process have received scant attention in the research literature. The…

In May 1972, 2,900 copies of a survey were distributed eliciting opinions about the meaning of some qualifying adjectives and phrases commonly used in "verbal communications." These same adjective phrases are commonly used in survey research. They include phrases such as "a few,""a majority,""nearly all,"…

The transition from being a graduate student to a school psychologist is a complex task. Most school districts do not provide much support to new psychologists. The goal of the California Association of School Psychologists' New School Psychologist Support (NSPS) initiative is to direct resources targeted at new psychologists to facilitate a…

This handbook is designed for the graduate student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Any graduate program is well-served by having a clearly defined and concisely written plan, handbook, or curriculum, and this one, although it is intended for graduate students in this particular department at…

The factors that affect graduate school aspirations and attendance were studied in light of the fact that student loan borrowing has more than doubled in the past decade. Using data from two surveys conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, this study investigated the educational degree aspirations of two separate college cohorts, one…