adran6

Thank you for all of your candid responses and valuable information. I know that my application certainly has areas that may raise questions to neuroscience programs but I am hoping that my strengths will outshine my weaknesses. The general consensus seems to be that I should be worried most about my lack of upper level science courses and I will make sure to contact these programs and ask how they feel about students applying with a deficit in this area. I appreciate the feedback and the support. After some consideration, I am planning to continue with my applications to the programs listed above and see what happens. I can always apply next year if it does not work out. Thank you again and I wish the best of luck to you all in your endeavors.

I have posted this three times because I have yet to receive any feedback. I guess I may not get any. I just assumed that in a community of people who are going through the same process that I am, I would get something more than 'ask someone else.' I have spoken to many people about my profile and I have gotten some sage advice but I wanted to talk to peers and those who have recently been through this process. I am going to keep my hopes up and believe that there is someone out there who could at least give me some feedback, as you have not. Keep in mind that there are people on this site who have concerns and worries and would like to receive support, not criticism for looking for it.

My major concerns (there are a lot) are my GRE, the fact that I am a psychology major applying to Neuroscience programs embedded in biology departments, I come from a lower ranked liberal arts college and I had a rocky start to college (3 schools, 2 different majors), the fact that my research experience is so varied and not necessarily what I want to do in graduate school, and I have not taken upper division science courses. I'm pretty unsure of where I stand as an applicant so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am interested in a few areas but they all revolve around neuroimaging. I am interested in studying language processes, especially language switching in bilinguals, and memory processes. I also am very interested in conducting neuroimaging research on clinical populations suffereing from alzheimers, parkinson, huntingtons, etc. The reason I am choosing programs that are in biology departments is that the neuroscience programs in the psych departments are too shallow and are not as concerned with the neural and molecular underpinnings of cognition and behavior. Although I do not have much biology coursework, I still want my work to be open to molecular and cellular aspects of cognitive neuroscience. Undergrad Institution: lower ranked private liberal arts college Major(s): Psychology Minor(s): GPA in Major: 4.0 Overall GPA: 3.42 (rocky start in other school. GPA at current school for past 2.5 years is 3.88) Position in Class: top 10% Type of Student: Domestic male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 156 (64%) V: 157 (74%) W: 5.0 (93%) B: not taking any subject test Research Experience: 2.5 years as sole research assistant in a cognitive neuroscience lab studying language processing, language switching in bilingualism, number processing (manuscript in progress), list searching techniques, historical accounts of word and number usage through time. I pretty much did everything from programming all of the experiments to running the participants to analyzing the data. 2 years in a clinical/social psychology lab (only undergraduate) studying ego resilience and cumulative life adversity's affect on negative and positive information processing as well as perceived social support in traumatic incidences. I programmed several protocols and analyzed data. I was even asked to be the lab coordinator but I had to decline due to time restraints. 1 summer in an animal behavior lab studying vocalization patterns, behaviors, and mate selection in mating gray tree frogs. I had the abysmal job of treading through a pond every night collecting frogs and testing them in a sound chamber the next morning. 2 semesters of Experimental Psychology where I carried out my own research project examining the relationship between preferred music and cognitive performance as well as mood. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Psi Chi member. Alpha Chi member and Secretary for my schools chapter. Dean's List every semester. Going to graduate summa cum laude. Member of my schools research society, The Society of Fellows. 1 paper in review, 2nd author. 2 papers currently being written, 2nd author on both. Oral presentation at colleges research society annual meeting Poster accepted to present at the International Convention of Psychological Sciences in Amsterdam in March 2015. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research assistant in 2 different psychology labs simultaneously. Research assistant in animal behavior lab. TA for statistics and tutor for mostly all cognitive and biological psychology classes. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: These aren't necessarily accomplishments but the only relevant courses I have taken outside of psychology courses are Bio 1 and 2, Chem 1 and 2, Calc 1 and 2, and Statistics. I have taken a cognitive psychology course as well as a biological psychology course. As you can see, I have no upper division science courses. Will this be a problem? Special Bonus Points: My letters of recommendation will be amazingly good as I have cultivated very close and personal relationships with the faculty in the psychology department. I can also program in python and C++ and I am proficient with SPSS. Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I have been to three different colleges studying 5 different things and my first two years at the first two colleges (1 being a community college) were not so hot. I got a 3.27 studying computer science at the community college and a 2.7 studying computer science at a big state school. I have a 3.9 GPA at my current school studying Psychology for the past 2.5 years. I know there is some stuff that I did not include here but I am in the lab and my cravings to post on here have finally gotten the best of me. Applying to Where: I am unsure if too many of these schools are reaches. Any feedback on this list would be much appreciated. UC Davis Neuroscience PhD UC Berkeley Neuroscience PhD UCLA Neuroscience PhD USC Neuroscience PhD UC San Diego Neuroscience PhD UC Irvine Neurobiology and Behavior PhD University of Colorado at Boulder Cognitive Neuroscience PhD University of Iowa Neuroscience PhD University of Illinois Neuroscience PhD Penn State University Neuroscience PhD Columbia University Neurobiology and Behavior PhD (needs to stay on list due to SO pending job offer in NYC) NYU Neural Science PhD (needs to stay on list due to SO pending job offer in NYC) UNC Chapel Hill Neuroscience PhD Duke Neurobiology PhD I know that I am freaking out and I may stand a better chance than I give myself credit for but I am very unaware of the competition for these programs. Again, any and all feedback is appreciated. Thank you for reading the long post.

Thank you! And the best of luck to you as well! I know I have lucked out by being able to match so well. The land of neuroimaging is seemingly endless.

I totally understand your concerns but I have researched these programs and their faculty endlessly. I'm rather obsessive about it to be honest. Given the breadth of my undergraduate research I have a few different interests in graduate study but all concerning brain imaging. From studying memory and language processes to imaging neurogical and psychiatric disorders. These schools have extensive programs in these areas.

Thank you for the reassuring words, I appreciate it. Half of me is not worried at all for this upcoming application season and the other half is freaking out and thinking that I don't have a shot. It is hard for me to gauge my competitiveness since I come from a school that is very business and finance based and the psychology students all want to be counselors. I don't have a lot of peers with the same goals in which to compare myself too. I also realize that my GRE scores are terrible and although I am taking it again, I am not expecting a much higher score at all. My shaky start to college also worries me. I am overall concerned that I will not be viewed holistically and that is exactly what I need. Considering the numbers, I am not too impressive, I just hope that they see the research and teaching experience before chucking my app in the trash. I want to make sure that my school list is appropriate as well. I know I have some really good schools on that list but I also made sure to include more realistic schools.

I'm pretty unsure of where I stand as an applicant so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Undergrad Institution: lower ranked private liberal arts college Major(s): Psychology Minor(s): GPA in Major: 4.0 Overall GPA: 3.42 Position in Class: top 10% Type of Student: Domestic male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Taking it again next week Q: 153 (52%) (despite tutoring statisctics and getting an A in calc 1 and 2, I cannot do high school math) V: 158 (78%) W: 4.5 (80%) B: not taking any subject test Research Experience: 2.5 years as sole research assistant in a cognitive neuroscience lab. I pretty much did everything from programming all of the experiments to running the participants to analyzing the data. Studied bilingualism, word and number representation. This lab I pretty much ran, just motivating the PI to get work done. 2 years in a graduate student only clinical/social psychology lab studying ego resilience and cumulative life adversity's affect on negative and positive information processing. I programmed several protocols and analyzed data. I was even asked to be the lab coordinator but I had to decline due to time restraints. 1 summer in an animal behavior lab studying vocalization patterns and behaviors in mating gray tree frogs. I had the abysmal job of treading through a pond every night collecting frogs and testing them in a sound chamber the next morning. 2 semesters of Experimental Psychology where I carried out my own research project examining the relationship between preferred music and cognitive performance as well as mood. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Psi Chi member. Alpha Chi member and Secretary for my schools chapter. Dean's List every semester. Going to graduate summa cum laude. Member of my schools research society, The Society of Fellows. 1 paper in review, 2nd author. 4 papers currently being written, 2nd author on all. Oral presentation at colleges research society annual meeting Poster accepted to present at the International Convention of Psychological Sciences in Amsterdam in March 2015. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research assistant in 2 different psychology labs simultaneously. Research assistant in animal behavior lab. TA for statistics and tutor for mostly all cognitive and biological psychology classes. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I am a music writer and producer but that is nothing they will find out about in the application process. Special Bonus Points: My letters of recommendation will be amazingly good as I have cultivated very close and personal relationships with the faculty in the psychology department. They refer to me as a colleague, peer, and my nickname is superman. They often seek my consultation on experimental design and development. I can also program in python and C++ and I am proficient with SPSS. Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I have been to three different colleges studying 5 different things and my first two years at the first two colleges (1 being a community college) were not so hot. I got a 3.27 studying computer science at the community college and a 2.7 studying computer science at a big state school. I have a 3.9 GPA at my current school studying Psychology for the past 2.5 years. I know there is some stuff that I did not include here but I am in the lab and my cravings to post on here have finally gotten the best of me. Applying to Where: I know it's a lot of schools but I want my PhD and I'm not messing around. Any feedback on this list would be much appreciated. UC Davis Neuroscience PhD UC Berkeley Neuroscience PhD UCLA Neuroscience PhD USC Neuroscience PhD UC San Diego Neuroscience PhD UC Irvine Neurobiology and Behavior PhD University of Colorado at Boulder Cognitive Neuroscience PhD University of Iowa Neuroscience PhD University of Illinois Neuroscience PhD Penn State University Neuroscience PhD Columbia University Neurobiology and Behavior PhD (needs to stay on list due to SO pending job offer in NYC) NYU Neural Science PhD (needs to stay on list due to SO pending job offer in NYC) UNC Chapel Hill Neuroscience PhD Duke Neurobiology PhD