Graduate Students
Dr. Thakkar will be recruiting a graduate student to begin in Fall 2027.
Below is a list of questions that students frequently have about joining our lab. Please see the following links for more information for prospective students regarding the MSU Clinical Science Doctoral Program, which is in the Department of Psychology. Our Clinical Science page for prospective students also includes a section that addresses FAQs about applying to our program. If there is any more information that would help you in your application process, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Thakkar at kthakkar@msu.edu and include your CV (see information on making an academic CV below).
Thank you to Dr. Jessica Schleider, PhD, for providing the inspiration for including this set of questions, which we hope will make the application process more transparent.
Can you tell me about your lab’s current and developing research?
Our lab studies cognition, perception, and well-being in schizophrenia-spectrum conditions and psychotic-like experiences. A central goal of our work is to understand the mechanisms that contribute to psychosis and related clinical outcomes, while also identifying factors that support resilience, recovery, and quality of life.
A major area of our research focuses on visual perception. We study how people with schizophrenia-spectrum conditions and psychotic-like experiences perceive and interpret visual information, and how subtle alterations in visual processing may relate to symptoms, functioning, and subjective experience. The visual system is especially useful for this work because its neural circuits and computational principles are relatively well understood. This allows us to make specific, testable hypotheses about how changes in brain function may contribute to altered perception and, potentially, to broader cognitive and social difficulties.
A second growing area of the lab focuses on the pupil as a window into illness mechanisms and biomarker development. Pupil responses are shaped by interactions among visual, autonomic, cognitive, and neuromodulatory systems. Because pupil measures are noninvasive, scalable, and closely linked to underlying neural circuits, we are interested in whether they can help us understand mechanisms of psychosis and related conditions. We are also examining whether pupil measures may have promise as biomarkers of clinically meaningful outcomes, including illness state, symptom change, and risk for relapse.
We also have an active line of work on midlife psychosis risk in women, with a particular focus on the menopausal transition. This work examines how changes in ovarian hormones during midlife may relate to psychotic symptoms, mood symptoms, cognition, and functioning. More broadly, we are interested in why some women may experience increased vulnerability to psychosis during this period, and how this knowledge could eventually inform more tailored approaches to identification, monitoring, and intervention.
Another developing area of the lab focuses on resilience and well-being in the context of psychosis and psychotic-like experiences. Rather than focusing only on symptoms or impairment, we are interested in understanding the factors that help people maintain or improve well-being despite psychotic experiences. This includes identifying psychological, social, and contextual factors that may buffer against distress, support recovery, and promote functioning and quality of life.
Finally, some of our current work is supported by a PCORI Engagement Award, which focuses on building infrastructure for more patient-centered and community-engaged psychosis research. Through this work, we are collaborating with people with lived experience of psychosis, family members, clinicians, community organizations, and other stakeholders to shape future research priorities. The goal is to ensure that our research is not only scientifically rigorous, but also meaningful, relevant, and responsive to the needs of the communities it is intended to serve.
What sort of methods does your lab use?
We use a range of techniques including self-report data, clinical symptom ratings, behavioral experiments, eye tracking, pupillometry, and community-engaged approaches.
How do I know if I am a good fit for the MSU Clinical Neuroscience Lab?
When reviewing prospective students’ applications, I am most interested in the fit between the student and our lab. Typically, I judge an applicant’s fit by considering how well their (1) current research interests; (2) previous research experience; and (3) future training and career goals align with the lab’s ongoing research program and my training approach.
Applicants who are good fits for our lab tend to be interested in what we are interested in! See description above and check out our recent publications to see what we have been working on.
I strongly value prior research experience and consider it strongly in admissions decisions. Prior research experience either in the field of psychosis research or vision/cognitive science is particularly attractive. I also value prior experience with computer programming and/or working with adults diagnosed with schizophrenia or related conditions. Both of these things are typically part of being in our lab. As a note, however, none of these previous experiences are strictly necessary.
My mentoring style and training approach is best-suited for applicants who wish to pursue a research or academic career. Therefore, I am not the most effective mentor for applicants who are interested entirely in clinical practice careers.
I don’t have prior research experience. Can I still apply to your lab?
Given the heavy research focus of our lab and graduate program, prior research experience is essential. I recognize that many excellent students do not become involved in research during their undergraduate career for lots of reasons. If you did not gain strong research experience as an undergraduate, there are still opportunities to do so at the post-baccalaureate stage. I recommend seeking a paid or volunteer research assistant position in a lab or seeking out research opportunities within a clinical setting. You can find some useful tips for finding such a position here. We are most interested in students who have developed strong clinical research skills and who truly enjoy the research process
How many trainees are typically in your lab?
Currently, there are two graduate students in our lab, post-baccalaureate lab manager, and several undergraduate research assistants.
How do you recruit research volunteers for your studies?
Our lab recruits research volunteers through several channels. We have partnerships with clinicians and community mental health centers across Michigan to support recruitment of adults who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and bipolar disorder. We also recruit through MSU Mental Health Research Connect, or MHRC, which helps connect community members with opportunities to participate in mental health research and supports broader engagement between researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience, families, and community organizations.
Do you have existing data that I can work with?
Yes, we have datasets from several completed and on-going projects that you can work with. Often students first project uses existing data. However, I think it is crucial for students to develop and complete their own research project, as well. In this way, students acquire skills in all the aspects of the research process.
I am interested in psychosis, but I want to focus on childhood or adolescence. Should I consider your lab?
Our work focuses almost exclusively on adults, so we would encourage applicants that know they are interested only in childhood and adolescents to consider other researchers doing this type of work, as they would likely be a much better fit!
I am interested in developing and testing interventions for individuals with schizophrenia and related conditions. Should I consider your lab?
Although I recognize the critical importance of intervention research in this field, the research in our lab is really aimed at identifying cognitive and brain mechanisms. I hope that this work will lead to more targeted and effective interventions, but I do not have experience or training in intervention research.
What is Dr. Thakkar’s mentorship style?
First and foremost, everyone is different and I have worked to ensure that my mentorship style takes that into account. As a mentor, it is very important for me to develop a productive and supporting working relationship with each of my graduate students, taking into account each student’s skills, interests, and goals. In addition, I see the student-mentor relationship as inherently collaborative.
I strongly believe in training students to be independent thinkers. Thus, I encourage students in my lab to develop their own areas of research expertise, in addition to the shared expertise in lab. As part of this process, I support my students in developing independent projects as much as is possible for their developmental stage.
I believe strong communication and timely feedback are an important component of the learning process. I meet weekly with each graduate student to discuss their individual projects and training goals, and we have regular lab meetings to discuss larger, lab-wide projects and opportunities. Finally, I think writing is one of the most important skills you can develop during graduate school. Students and I work closely on manuscript preparation and other forms of scientific writing, and I provide detailed feedback on drafts.
Finally, I believe that a fit between graduate student and mentor is the key to a happy and productive graduate school experience. What makes a relationship a good fit for you is not necessarily what will make a good fit for someone else. That being said, you should think critically about what mentorship style and in what lab culture you feel like you work best and most happily in, given your own personality and circumstances. Then, feel free to ask me any and all questions. Here is a very useful article about how to pick a graduate advisor.
Can I contact your current graduate students?
Certainly! You can find their contact info here.
Are there any “screening criteria” you use to review applications?
No. I do a full review of all applications in which the applicant has expressed interest in having me as a research mentor.
Should I email Dr. Thakkar to express my interest in applying to the MSU Clinical Neuroscience Lab?
You are more than welcome to do so, but it will not impact your odds of receiving an interview invitation or an offer of admission. Because of the volume of applicants, I will not be able to meet individually with applicants.
What should I include in my personal statement?
I find it helpful when applicants include the following in their personal statements:
- A clear statement of your general research interests and how they relate to the mission and work of our lab
- A clear statement of why you are interested in working in our lab
- A statement about your career goals (even if they are approximate/might change, it is helpful to see your thinking!)
- Discussions of your independent research experience(s) and what you learned from them. In these discussions, I suggest emphasizing (1) your research questions and what you found; (2) the skills you developed from working on each project (e.g., online survey data collection; coding/running analyses; interviewing children/families; writing certain sections of a paper; submitting/presenting a poster), and (3) what your “takeaways” were from the project (e.g., new research ideas or questions your work inspired).
It is also good to include information about your life experiences or personal relationship to mental health issues if they pertain to important aspects of your identity or relate to your experience overcoming obstacles to higher education. However, your personal/lived experiences should not be the focus, and they should be clearly connected to the rest of your statement. Your research interests, experience and goals should be the emphasis.
Clinical psychology doctoral programs involve both research training and clinical training. Which is emphasized at MSU?
The Clinical Science program emphasizes rigorous training in both research and clinical practice. In our lab, clinical skills are essential for conducting good research. However, the program is a “clinical science” model with a strong emphasis on research, and students who are happiest in the program tend to be those whose career goals include research or dissemination of science more broadly.
Want to know more about “clinical science”? MSU’s program was recently accredited by PCSAS, and you can find out more on their website.
I’ve never made a CV before… What does it look like?
See the following resources:
· CV from current grad student Christophe Delay.
· Association for Psychological Science: How to write a strong
· University of Nebraska, Lincoln: Example CV
The application fees are going to create hardship for me. What can I do?
The MSU Graduate School offers fee waivers through the Big Ten Academic Alliance, McNair program, and some other programs as well. See this page for more info.
How can I learn more about the application process in general?
See the following resources:
Mitch’s Uncensored Advice for Applying to Graduate School in Clinical Psychology, by Mitch Prinstein
Getting into Clinical Psych Grad School, guide by the Council of University Directors in Clinical Psychology
Open Access Tips/Materials for Clinical Psych PhD Applications, by Mallory Dobias
A Student’s Perspective on Applying to Graduate School in (Clinical) Psychology: A Step-by-Step Guide, by Sophie Choukas-Bradley