How can I get research experience outside the college setting?

Is it possible to get into a doctoral program without research experience?

• I have a degree in engineering and applying to psychology programs. I have project experience, good GPA but no direct research work. I have done social science research for nearly a year in an industry setting but no lab work.

• Answer:

  In  my experience applying to PhD programs in business schools (and having  been admitted to a few of the top ones) is that there are, typically,  two profiles of PhD admitted students: 1) Young (22-25), just finished undergrad or master's, no research experience, very high GPA 2) Not so young (>25), with some years of research experience, and maybe GPA not as good I  fall in the second category, but both profiles are attractive to most  schools, even though they tend to have a clear bias towards one of them. Every  school you attempt to apply to will probably have a section in their  web page with statistics regarding their average age of admission,  average research experience... You can see their preferences there. You  should apply to the top schools in the field you want to be in, and to  some not-so-top that clearly show a preference for the first profile. I know that the procedure is not exactly the same for business and engineering schools but it has many similarities.