pheonixx

Give an enthusiastic thank you but tell them you still have other interviews and will let them know as soon as possible. I had an offer early Feb but still had 6 interviews throughout Feb-early March. It was a great school but I couldn't make a decision without even visiting my other schools. I gave the first school periodic updates and ended up accepting early April.

Get yourself into some therapy! A lot of graduate students experience some depression and anxiety and grad school definitely doesn't make it better. Having someone to talk to can help! Good luck

I kind of feel the same way. I had interviews at some of the best psychology programs in the country but ended up as a first alternate at many of them. So close, yet so far. I accepted at a decent program, not my top choice by any means, but a program that really, really wanted me. I decided to make the best of things and hit the ground running. I've been here for a month and I'm on track to get three pubs out this year. It might not be a top school but I'm going to use my time effectively and be as productive as possible so I can get a great internship, post doc, etc. I guess I'd rather be a top student at a decent school than get lost in the mix.

Do a lit search! Get on google scholar or PsychInfo and search for the topics that interest you. Look at some of the papers that have been published over the last few years to find to some names. You can use the reference lists to find even more people. After you have some names, get back on google and see where they're located. The internet is magical. ASD is widely researched, I'm sure you'll find something.

I'd be wary about your age. It looks like you're pursuing clinical psychology and that means you'll probably start seeing clients in your second year. Age and maturity is big factor in clinical psych since you're responsible for other's well-being. Readiness and maturity definitely comes up during interviews and I can imagine your age being counted against you. Student who come out of undergrad in my program have to fight a little harder to prove they're ready for grad school and most of them are 22 years old. However, it's not an absolute no. Get some great letters of rec that demonstrate you ability and readiness for grad school and I think that can go a long way. If you do get interviews, make sure you plan out an answer addressing your age since someone's probably going to ask, especially if you look young.

I don't want to be a research assistant for the rest of my life.

I had the same experience, lots of people taking different tests at the same time. They did give me a massive pair of headphones though that helped drown out outside noise (like proctors talking).

This process is crazy enough without analyzing every move! Try to relax! I'm the exact same way though so I guess I don't take my own advice.

I went to Michigan State for undergrad and stayed there for two years postgrad doing research. Feel free to PM me with questions! You can post them here but I might not see them. Go Green!

I don't rank the quality of schools from outside sources (e.g. US News). This really isn't a valid method of ranking psychology PhD programs because you're really applying to work with a professor and not to a program. Plenty of my schools are not in the top 25 but the professor is one of the best in their specific field so it's a great option for me. I could go to a top 5 school but if I don't have a mentor that researches my interests, it's a terrible option for me.

I asked my mentor which people she would recommend. This got me about 10 schools (with multiple POIs at each). I looked through a few relevant articles and found a couple more. Then I looked through some schools at locations where I would love to live and saw if there were any professors that did research in my very specific area. Ended up with 14 schools and a good mix of top and middle tier programs.

"So you're applying to a psychology PhD program? How many years is that, like 2 or 3?" "Uh 5 years, plus an internship, plus a 2 year postdoc" "Oh that's a lot! Well at least you'll be making bank when you're done!" "Wellll, not exactly..."

"I haven't received any emails in an hour - wtf, is my email broken??" *tries to hold back desire to ask friend to email me just to see if it's still working. Yep, that actually happened. I am not proud. "I don't want to work in the basement office because I don't get cell phone service. What if someone calllllls?"

I took the Kaplan course before my second GRE retry and raised my verbal by 100 points and my quant by 140 (old scale obviously). Totally worth it for me. However, I also studied harder this time around unrelated to the Kaplan course and really focused on my vocab. I started studying at the end of April and took the test in July so ~2.5 months of studying. Some people can do great without a course so it's really up to you. I did a bunch of work for my parents for months and they ended up paying for the course. There's no way I would have been able to pay for the course myself.

I'm kicking it in a suit for the interviews. I have some business casual wear/nice jeans for dinners and just hanging out.