Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

June 5, 2023

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

When Tong Lin was applying to graduate school for psychology, advisers at her alma mater of Centre College in Kentucky suggested she consider Brandeis. Why? Because even with its high level of research activity and status as an R1 University, Brandeis’ smaller classes and accessible faculty ensure that its students benefit from an extensive support system.

Tong made the decision to attend Brandeis. Today, she holds a master’s degree in Psychology and has just completed her third year as a doctoral student in the department. Throughout her graduate studies, Tong has successfully combined fields and disciplines that are not typically intertwined. Her research, which focuses on multi-modal approaches to emotion perception, has been influenced by her time working with faculty members, conducting lab research, and collaborating with colleagues outside of her own department.

During her master’s studies, Tong focused on social psychology, considering how emotions structure social interactions. She then worked for one year in Professor Angela Gutchess’ lab learning more about cognitive approaches to psychology. Tong credits Professor Gutchess, as well as Professors Gutsell and Sekuler with enabling her to experience research in a range of settings. Each of their methodological approaches and content foci supported her learning and helped her develop skills ranging from statistics to doing professional presentations for diverse audiences.

Using grants from the Sprout and I-Corps programs, Tong was also able to collaborate with colleagues outside of her department. Partnering with graduate and undergraduate students in Computer Science, Tong linked her studies in psychology with technological innovation in order to gather additional data for her research.

Tong encourages current and prospective students to get exposure to a wide variety of research topics and approaches and to engage with the social environment at Brandeis. She has found it very easy to get to know people outside of her department and especially enjoyed events co-sponsored by the Psychology and Computer Science Departments, which helped her meet a broader range of students. After Tong completes her doctoral studies, she looks forward to pursuing professional opportunities in either academia or industry.