VulpesZerda

Hi, just wondering if anyone knows of a list of 1-year MPH programs? I am considering applying to an NCI post-doc fellowship that requires accepted applicants to complete an MPH in the first year (if they don't already have one) and it has to be done in 12 months or less. NCI provided a short list on their website (Dartmouth, Columbia, for example), but I am hoping to peruse all possibilities. The ASPPH search tool didn't have a filter for this so I thought to ask here.

That's awesome, I just Googled and it looks great! I have Judith Beck's books so I should probably start by opening those back up. I'm actually in health behavior research within psychology, but not so much the clinical side of things. Although with the new NIH guidelines, I think most of my projects would be considered clinical trials, even if just measuring how much sunscreen people use. Anyway, I love this area of work except when it applies to myself In case anyone was wondering, also, when I successfully lost the weight I was using My Fitness Pal over a year's time. The research shows that self-regulation methods like food diaries can be one important piece of the weight loss puzzle for many people. At first I thought I wouldn't have time for it, but after you enter the foods you normally eat just once it becomes very easy to log them again using shortcuts, only taking a few seconds.

My weight was never something I thought about until grad school. Like others, a change in lifestyle seemed to occur (poor diet from new stress, no longer playing sports or working on my feet). I was a healthy weight at the start, but during year one I rapidly gained 30 pounds. Second year I worked on losing the 30, successfully, and I had a best friend's wedding to help motivate me. Now third year I'm back into unhealthy eating habits. These habits and my cognitive gymnastics to justify them are so ingrained at this point, I think I might consider CBT to help maintain my weight and re-learn my relationship with food.

Great, thanks everyone, very insightful!

Thanks everyone! Tea should be a good alternative for the amount of caffeine I'm losing by quitting DC - I'm definitely not going to take caffeine pills - I have always been fine going to work through the morning on just water and I will gladly continue that. Flavored water is another great idea, especially making it myself sounds nice. I basically want to avoid consuming high amounts of artificial sweeteners which I have been really in the habit of using (even in tea). Also, I'm not exactly sure how much DC I was drinking because we were buying it in 2-liter bottles instead of cans to save money, but I was going through maybe 2 of those a week myself, to answer that question. Glad I'm not the only one, thanks all!

I've never been a coffee drinker, and I do not drink alcohol. Through undergrad I just drank water and the occasional tea or soda (diet because I was counting calories). Now three years into grad school, though, I'm realizing how bad my Diet Coke habit has gotten (particularly in the last year) and I now drink a lot of it every day. I know everyone has their vices, but this one has gotten out of control for me lately. I don't even think I drink it for the caffeine because there isn't a whole lot and I don't have it in the morning (yet). Since I want to change this for a number of reasons, does anyone have tips for cutting back, or does anyone relate? I think I'm going to try getting back into tea. I post this on gradcafe because I firmly believe that grad school has everything to do with this - I make terrible health choices under stress!

Thanks fuzzy! I had this idea after seeing a job ad that failed to mention that the college is religious. I found out upon Googling the college. I do get the sense that it varies a lot.

Since I'm not religious at all, I understand that a religiously affiliated college may not be the best fit for me for a faculty position. However, I am curious if some religious colleges may not ask about religion or require faculty to affiliate? I went to a Catholic college but was not a practicing Catholic - this worked out fine because there were negligible religious coursework requirements and nothing felt forced. So I'm wondering if a non-religious faculty member could manage this as well in a similar fashion? I am curious particularly about Catholic colleges since there are many in the northeast where I want to live.

Thanks, @fuzzylogician. Lots of good advice as always!

Thanks, all! @lewin, my research has a health focus so I do go to APS and SPSP but also Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) is my big one. A small, national, health issue-specific conference rejected me for a talk but accepted the abstract for a poster, so that was my recent attempt. EPA is a good idea for next time, thanks!

Hi psychology folks! I haven't posted much since I was an applicant. I am now a 3rd year student in a PhD program. I have a question that seems silly: I have recently realized that in certain fields, like humanities and perhaps some social sciences, at some point in a career, posters may not be considered useful on a CV, like they may be in the sciences. Where does psychology fall on this spectrum? I have 6 posters from undergrad and now 9 from graduate school, almost all first-authored, yet no symposia or podium talks. Am I totally messing up here? All of the conferences from grad school are national, and one conference in particular has been known to be fairly selective with abstracts, but I know that overall it is not that difficult to get a poster accepted. So while I am happy with my experiences at these conferences, I am still wondering how posters are generally perceived in psychology, and if my CV looks bad with too many posters relative to publications (1 relevant one) and other conference activity (none)?

Thank you, @fuzzylogician & @Nichi! Great insights. I will definitely check with my advisor at some point, too.

I'm currently finishing my 2nd year in a PhD program. Most people take 5 years to finish. Though, I have seen people get out in 4, and on my department area website it outlines successful finish in 4, not 5. I am in a good position to finish in 4, but does that mean I should? I like my department and advisor, but I'm dying to get out of the geographic area. I'd have funding through the 5th year, but cost of living does not match up with what TAs are paid and it's been rough financially. Since it could be advantageous to hang around a little extra time and recieve guidance from my advisor about postdocs and grants, and maybe finish up some projects, would it make sense to make it a goal to defend the dissertation in, say, January of 5th year? Has anyone done this? Yes, maybe thinking too far ahead. But that's just how I tend to do things! TIA for any thoughts you may have.

That is strange that they would give you G/G with no real reason. This whole process can be so confusing. Congrats on the HM!

My third reviewer was also not my biggest fan, and definitely did not read as thoroughly as the other two. It is frustrating to see I'm not the only one who had at least one reviewer completely missing things I made easy for them to see. It also isn't helpful that there is no consistency between my reviewers, so there is no main improvement I could make based on their comments. Finally, all of my comments focused on the research proposal, when I was told all along that "NSF funds the person" so I thought they might address my personal statement a little bit?! I proposed a series of studies, I think there were 4 or 5 in total, so I could be thorough. I went overboard on the Broader Impacts (in psychology, not hard to do) Reviewer 3: "This is a promising applicant; the application would be stronger with additional studies and with broader implications articulated."

Congrats to all you guys in here! No dice for me. VG/VG, VG/E, VG/VG. Definitely some comments that don't quite make sense sprinkled in there, like saying I need more research experience when I have 3 pubs and I did an REU with an expert in my topic. Overall I'm glad I tried.

I hope it's tonight! This is by far the longest I've ever waited for a decision on something. I got accepted to my grad program in January after applying in December! That did not properly prepare me for this torture! Good luck everyone

Winter is basically starting to kill me and my motivation. I'm really off my game and almost feel like I'm still in winter break mode. I hope I shake this soon before I forget something important or bomb an exam. At least I can see if my happy light helps in the next few weeks. If anyone feels this post, especially if you're new to the north, buy one! Edit: what really put me over the edge was a required seminar about getting a job after graduation. I had a lot of racing thoughts about how I'm too lazy for academia, and I feel more nervous about the future than I normally do!

Recently a package showed up at my house for a previous tenant. This person is in my program and their office is around the corner from mine so I brought it in the next day. Small town lol

I didn't want to come off as uptight at all. I am genuinely concerned for my students' chances of finding job with this particular skill lacking. After rapport is established I definitely like to ditch the greeting/sign-off as well. Maybe I wasn't being clear about how bad the emails can get, for example: (no subject) Hey where is the final???

I've gotten a lot of "Hey"s. My aunt is a high school teacher and she told me she has received "What's up" as a greeting.

Before applying, I personally did not have long conversations with any POIs. I emailed about five, and had great responses from 3 or 4, with one of them asking me to follow up about lab space later on. After applying, the program/POI I am attending now emailed me a few times back and forth with questions which felt like an interview but I'm not sure what to call it. A few weeks later I got a phone call with the acceptance. I've heard of people being accepted without emailing POIs as well, so you never know!

I like your attitude! I feel the same way and I hope it leads to success. I just started the semi-long distance thing. I'm hoping my SO moves down here for at least the last half of my program. And hopefully there are job opportunities back home, I would like that, too...

Maybe it's because of my field and its acute awareness of the gender issue (http://www.interruptions.net/literature/Smith-Lovin-AmerSocRev89.pdf), but I've noticed one of my professors actually shuts down the white males in my seminar sometimes! I think he realizes that the longer we don't get the chance to talk, the less likely we will ever try.

Haha, perfect! Thank you for this, TakeruK :-)