Rick enrolled in a master's program in psychology at U of Chicago after graduating, and has since switched gears and is in his second year of law school in Ohio. His goal is to work in a non-business application of law, either in the government as a legistlative advisor, or, perhaps, as a prosecutor/public defender.

He wrote:

I was very fortunate during my time as a psychology major to have Julie allow me to work with her on two projects, self-awareness and categorization of natural kinds (my thesis).

While, in the end, I chose not to continue in the area of primate cognition to better combine the sometimes disparate interests I have in one career area (although, I certainly seriously considered doing so at several points after graduation), my experience in the monkey labs has had a significant impact on my life. I, of course, learned several valuable academic/analytical skills from the experience and from having Julie as my undergrad. advisor, skills which I certainly have used throughout all of my graduate work. However, working with another primate species also changed the way in which I think about human cognition on a daily basis. More than anything, it has made me contemplate evolutionary questions, in fact, prompting me to take evolutionary social psychology at the University of Chicago.

I personally continue to struggle with how to combine tenants from that area of psychology with an overall understanding of human cognition and behavior. The fundamental differences and similaries among the primate species are issues that I discuss regularly with my friends, and, in fact, have direct applicability to the study of the law. In criminal law, for instance, such issues as self-awareness of behavior are always paramount, while evolutionary issues regarding homicide and rape provide for a very controversial but potentially productive debate.