Alumni

"The reason why I chose it, because it has all the components of psychology, what I wanted to learn. Everything from cultural psychology to organizational and social psychology, with a little bit of economic psychology. That was my primary motivation, rather that exploring one particular domain I could know quite a bit about the different fields of psychology. Studying psychology is a very perspective journey. It helps you to understand yourself and your surroundings better. Psychology is like a quicksand. It starts getting you inside really quickly, and it’s very easy to get distracted, because there are so many things, like clinical psychology, cultural psychology, in between there’s environmental psychology. Everything that you learn is about behavior of people and it can be very powerful if you’re in business or dealing to people in social environment."

I definitely made the right choice when I ended up with the decision to continue my studies on the master’s program “Applied Social Psychology” at the Higher School of Economics. By the moment of enrollment I had already understood that I want to bind my life with science and build an academic career, and studying on the program allowed me to obtain new and necessary skills and insights, and with no doubts fully met my expectations.
I consider it is great that all the faculty members actively carry out their own studies, publish articles in the international journals and take part in conferences, and hence constantly update the materials they present to students instead of giving the very same old lectures year by year. The environment with like-minded people around and with the opportunity to learn from the accomplished experts who are always open and ready to give a piece of advice seems to me to be the perfect one to progress and get better.
Despite I had not had any experience in data analysis nor in carrying out studies by the enrollment at the HSE, I managed to master advanced methods of data analysis over the courses of the program, whereas during the discussions held on Research Seminars I got lots of critical comments and helpful feedback regarding organization and implementation of my research projects.
Throughout the years of studying on the program I participated in a number of international conferences and schools and also got some work experience at the Center for Sociocultural Research – this experience was both exciting and extremely useful. The years spent at the HSE and the way covered allowed me to grow as a researcher significantly and as a result I got an offer to continue my studies on the PhD program at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy.
However, it is worth mentioning that the competencies acquired on the program are quite wide and can be applied outside the academia too – understanding of individual and group psychology as well as the instruments to work in a range of social situations can be useful in many different areas of life – from resolution of everyday conflicts to elaboration of personnel development trainings for international organizations.

Alexandra Sivova, who was a student of the "Applied Social Psychology" program at HSE in 2014-2015, and in 2016 graduated the double degree program, entered the top 25% of her year’s students at the Tilburg University. According to the results of her study and internship, Alexandra achieved the highest success among the first group of students who completed the double degree program.

Some students take their first steps in academic career during their studies. While a master's program student and a research intern at the International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research, Vladimir was actively involved in the lab’s international project. Already by the end of his first year of studies, Vladimir was awarded a grant for young and prospective researchers. In 2016 he finished the double degree program at Tilburg University and was accepted for PhD program at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences.