pospsy

Hi my fellow grad students, my dropbox is full, and I desperately need more space for a new study. Please help me out. http://db.tt/OAaZZ7Z

You should look into NSF GRFP or Ford Fellowship. These fellowships will pay for your tuition and give you a stipend that is likely higher than what a typical program offers. You can also take them to pretty much any grad program you want.

1. It varies. Some programs don't expect first year students to do any kind of research, some do. As you can imagine, those that do expect 1st year students to do research often have less class requirement (though they often need to take "research credits" to fulfill the requirement as a full-time student). 2. Priorities of TA and RA are often given to students who received internal funding. But if you just want experience and are willing to volunteer, you can usually find one. 3. Again, it varies. Some programs require first year student to TA, Some don't. But no matter what, you should get involved in research whether or not you get an official RA position. As you are not funded, I would assume your program does not require you to teach. If that's the case, then I think officially you only need to take classes, but you probably want to do some research for you own good (whether you get a RA position or not). 4. Think. I personally think thinking is an underrated aspect of graduate life. Read a lot, but set aside time to just think and to integrate what you have learned so far. Try to read something outside of your field too! True innovation often comes across field rather than within field. Do try to have a social life, make new friends, and develop new hobbies =)

I love my program too (Social Psych PhD)! I love my advisor. He's smart, helpful, and fun. Other faculty are pretty awesome too. And we have a poker night like every other month I love the classes I am taking. I love my cohort as well as other grad students in the program. I love my undergrad RAs too! They are very motivated.

Last year awardee dropping by. I was about to go on the fastlane website to submit my annual report. Then I found out this year announcement is coming out soon. Last year, I actually didn't know it will be posted after the maintenance and slept peacefully the night before. I am still not sure why, but I checked email using my iphone in the morning while I was still in bed. I was really surprised by the email and honestly thought I was dreaming. Still can remember that moment... Anyway! Good luck to everyone!

Um...i guess it depends on the dept. For my dept., they have fundings for all the people that are nominated for fellowship, so if they don't get it, the dept can still fund them. The university fellowship here look for strong academic record (GRE/GPA) and diversity/ community service kind of thing.

That's a GREAT sign! Usually dept won't nominate people they won't accept for a fellowship because they usually have a quota for how many people they can nominate. So whether or not you get the fellowship, you have a really good chance of getting into this school.

I agree with everyone, and just want to share that I know a person who graduated from college and took 2 years off to work as a full-time RA. He had 11 publications by the time he applied to grad school. I think SOP is the most important thing because it actually shows your thought and insights, whereas for publications, I have seen people being list as authors simply because they helped proof-read the manuscript.

Hi Everyone, The tax season is coming, and I have no idea how to file tax for my GRFP fellowship. I don't even know how much tax I am supposed to pay. They did not withdraw the tax in the first place, and there are no W-# forms. Can anyone point me to some kind of resources that would shed light on this? Or Does anyone have a similar problem? Thanks.

I have heard great things about this program, but I don't think this is in any way research intensive. As the name implied, it's focused on the applied side of positive psych. And I think it's mostly online with on-campus meeting once a month, so if you don't take the initiative, it's hard to build up a good mentor-mentee relationship with the faculty. However, if you do take the initiative and do research with the faculty in addition to completing the program requirement, it can be very helpful, especially if you are applying to work with professors in the field.

I got the NSF last year, and I used the Science style because it saved me space. The default of my discipline, though, is APA style.

This is a paper that just came out this month from PSPB. They ranked social psychologists as well as social psych program based on how much impact the psychologist/ department made (i.e. how many times they were cited). Cumulative impact is pretty straight forward. It's cumulative impact. (like the one shown in Appendix A). Career-stage impact is the impact after controlling for years since phd. I think it might be helpful to those applying this year. http://psychology.utk.edu/news/top50.pdf

You already have a strong application. But I have to say the competition is crazy. I first took the GRE two years ago and got a very decent score. My undergrad advisor insisted that I needed to get above 1400 because apparently that's what strong programs look for. Another advisor of mine allowed me to peek at the profile of the shortlisted applicants of several application cycles before (with all private info deleted), and none of them has a GRE less than 1400. And he told me applicants have only gotten more and more competitive. (I studied at a public Ivy for my undergrad.) I personally think GRE has a lot to do with how much time you are willing to put into it. I took it once after I studied ~700 words, and I got a score in the 500 range. I retook it after I studied perhaps around 1800 words and got a score in the 600 range. I honestly think I can get a score very close to 800 if I studied 3000 words. And given your stellar GPA, I really think you have the ability to do greater than 600Q and 580V. I personally think if the couple of the top programs are your "dream" schools, then you should retake it.

How about Matthew Lieberman or Naomi Eisenberger at UCLA?

Yep, I heard back from my POI arranging a phone interview.