zapster

Marketing is an option as well....but again, you need to select the programs carefully - some programs are quite strong on behavioral and JDM coverage, but remember that Mkt programs are going to be very applied and narrow compared to a BehEco or CogPsych program. You could IMHO move from a BehEco / CogPsych PhD to a Mkt program faculty but not vice versa. So you need to be sure that your applied interests lie in marketing (even though there are a fair number of theoretical papers produced by MKT depts). If Mkt per se is not what you are interested in, I would not recommend looking at those programs for doing your PhD simply because they have a high JDM orientation. Look at publications from the departments in detail. Also, I forgot to mention Indiana amongst the good CogPsych programs covering this area above.

I switched from justify to left-align....IMHO the skewed inserted spaces made for a bad read. Really.

Some slump-beaters that have worked for me, can't explain why some of them work though! 1. Change the time of the day/night you work - really flip it around. For example if you are normally a late sleeper working late into the night, try sleeping early and waking at a weird 4am for a few days, or take a 3 hour nap say from 10pm to 1am and then start working - something you would not normally do. You don't need to persist with this - just do this for a few days, enough to get out of the slump. 2. Start a new mini-project, something that might be useful in the long run. Forget about your existing work to bring back the excitement of "starting" something new. Once you're excited enough - get back to reality [ ]. This way, your time-out is not really wasted. 3. Work in micro-sized bits - make a list of say half a dozen things to be done, and keep skipping around all of them. It does not even have to be concrete work - just read a bit here and there, think through what needs to be done for a certain task etc. I have no idea why this works (any theories?) but usually gets me going pretty quickly. 4. Find your "switch / triggers" - certain music/TV programs/activities somehow seem to get me into a mood for working. Many have the opposite effect - know which one is which! 5. Try to talk about your work, setup lots of meetings or find new people to discuss ideas with. "Socializing" my work or simply talking about it has been the most effective way for me to get out of vacation-mode. 6. Try fuzzy's way - this has worked well for me as well - although I have not always had the ability to completely take a few days off. 7. Perhaps the most ridiculous one - start thinking about your research and then extrapolate-fantasize it into game changing breakthroughs that will completely rock your field - quite motivating (if not a wee bit embarrassing, but what the heck!)

Read Read Read (and it can be speed reading - you do not need to get into the details of every paper) a lot of published papers in all of the fields you have mentioned (and then some), pick the papers you like the best - the ones you think - I wish I had written those - check out the profiles of the author of these papers - specifically their PhD education, rather than their current affiliation - see if a common pattern emerges across the authors whose work you are most interested in.

wicked teeth

It is almost completely impossible to predict PhD admissions, but nothing you have mentioned rules you out for these programs. An excellent GRE quant score would be a hygiene factor. Excellent LORs and the right research fit (SOP) would probably be the critical aspects for your application. Good mathematical prowess is often also used as a proxy for strong analytical abilities - perhaps this can be indirectly addressed by asking your LOR writers to talk about your analytical skills. You might want to conduct a bit more research on the type of programs you want to apply to so as to ensure your research interests match that of the department. Try writing to potential POIs well in advance, this helps a lot and gives you a much better insight of what specific departments are engaged in / looking for (as compared to what is available on their websites). If you get all these aspects right, you definitely stand a great chance in all of the above programs. Best of Luck !

Well now I did not realize you were waiting for the data....so lets see...if you plot the utility function of being asked out (for the guy) on the x-axis vs the utility function of you playing hard to get on the y-axis, you would get a curve that would need at least some 379 independent stochastic variables to explain. Ok, could not help that...but yes promise (uh..fingers crossed behind my back!), and remember, timing is important ! give it a go WV, we're rooting for you!

As he would by getting asked out....don't overthink it !

Address it head on...the next time you meet him (to discuss research, of course ), ask him stuff like what he does in free time, where he hangs out, what he does on weekends etc. Ask him out for a movie or dinner if he dose not seem to have 5 dates packed over the weekend. Best of Luck !

1. Highlight your Stats courses - these are pretty important. 2. Address the issues head-on by stating that you would be enrolling for XXXX Maths courses that you expect to complete by July14. Even if this is discounted a bit by any adcom,it shows you are aware of the requirements and they should take you seriously if the rest of your app is great 3. Ensure you max the GRE quant section as far as possible - a weak GRE quant will make it difficult for them to accept your math potential 4. If possible, take the GRE Math subject test - scoring highly here will be a big +ve, but this could be a double edged sword (in case of a poor score), so only do this if you are comfortable with studying the content. 5. Talk about any self-studies you may have done in math (if applicable). 6. Talk about any projects / papers / etc. you have worked on that may have had some element of quantitative skills / stats required.

Behavioral Economics is a very natural overlap b/w Psych and Eco, so a perfectly justified move - but note that there are various routes you can take to study the same basic area from different perspectives and with different implications for your future. Apart from Eco programs, you could also study decision making (and I am excluding OR programs with decision analysis) under some of the foll. programs with different niche areas. 1. Psych /Cognitive type programs: e.g. CMU (Behavioral Decision Research), Caltech (BNS program), UCI (CogPsych), Rochester (Brain & Cog Sci program), UCSD (CogPsych) 2. Business programs: e.g. Rady (BE focus), INSEAD (Decision Sciences), UCLA-Anderson (Strategy track has some Behavioral focus), Duke Fuqua (Dec Sciences), MIT Sloan (Focus on collective intelligence / group decision making),

I used the same basic mail with the significant tweaks on the reason for contacting the POI including briefly talking about specific areas of their research. However depending on what they mentioned on their web profiles (e.g. specifically looking for students) I would tweak the structure as well and move the contents around. I always ended with a short-form profile / achievements. As fuzzy said, avoid a very standard form mail and telling all the profs. they are your favorite! I realized the POIs within a department definitely talk wrt prospective applicants / queries received. It may also be useful to highlight why you are interested in a specific department in general that justifies why you are writing to multiple POIs within this dept.

You need to elaborate a lot more...try picking up each individual causal effect assumed by the author and examine it by analyzing what the implicit assumptions are for that to hold true, what data might be required to support such a position, and what proof might falsify such a position.

viz. organization, do not bother to be strictly chronological wrt the sections - i.e put what you think are the most relevant and most important sections upfront (remember that CV is one of the documents usually skimmed through very quickly - cannot generalize of course, but unless there is something exceptionally exciting, it does not get a very detailed read - so you do not want to lose some critical information buried right in the middle of a 3 page CV)....within each section, you could arrange either chronologically or thematically. Typically, if you have many sub-points within a section it is better to be thematic, if only a few, probably easier to read if chronological - but this is just a suggestion. You way want to devote a section on topics you have worked upon even if these have not (yet) resulted in a paper or a publication. I would keep the "flowery stuff" you mentioned right towards the end. It may also be a good idea to add a sort of appendix to your CV listing key courses taken, if that seems relevant to the application. Most importantly, be comfortable with how you think the CV reads, there are no hard and fast rules, and everyone has their own preferences...my personal observation is that any CV / SOP / writing sample that is too "standard" may easily be stereotyped, too "adventurous" may make it difficult to follow (I used to be guilty of the latter till someone brought it to my notice, thankfully a long time ago!), maintaining a nice balance is important. Best of Luck!

I have actually received communication from schools that they have not "received my scores yet" and they usually "expect postal delivery in XXX days". Also, ETS clearly talks about postal delivery time, and that sending scores outside the US take more time (which should obviously not be the case if this were an electronic process) - I have also experienced this where it took forever for my scores to be sent to a school in UK vs when the US schools received it. Having said this, it is also possible that ETS makes scores available electronically (certainly should be the norm in this day and age if you ask me!!), but some schools only accept scores sent physically?

They should - probably depends on each program, but I did exactly this with the 4 free programs you get to send the score to, and none of them had a problem.

Yes, definitely include such relevant information - you could do this in a CV, or add a sort of appendix sheet at the end of the CV, or some apps have space for "any other information" where you could include this. Additionally, you could also include it into your SOP, if you can weave it into your overall "story".

Any kind of coffee (including lots of instant coffee), at any time of the day or night, with or without milk, hot or cold.....but always without sugar or any kind of sweetener.

If you do not take up this offer, is there anything you can do in one year (research experience, publish, internship in the area etc.) that would materially increase your chances of of being admitted to one of your top choice programs?

The official score does not include #Questions answered correctly/incorrectly.

Each school / department / program has different requirements, usually very clearly outlined in their admission procedures.

Do not know enough to comment definitively, but one objective comparison would be the broader academic network you would develop in the geographic region where you do your phD. Yes global colaboration does exist, but someone in the US for example would definitely be able to develop a far more broadbased network, attend more US based conferences etc (and vice versa for Europe).

Using the postal systems / couriers to transport large boxes (they would usually do upto around 60 pound boxes I think) usually works out cheaper to using moving companies. There is also an existing thread somewhere on the forum with plenty of suggestions, may be useful........

I would avoid including any narratives that hint towards your uncertainty about what academic path to pursue. You could instead talk about how you have gradually moved towards / built up these interests over time and link in your various experiences.