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It is the majority of my classmates' aspirations, yes. It is not necessarily mine. You have to understand that 80% of school psychs work in schools so the majority you will meet probably WILL want to do that. However, yours is totally a valid option, and one I am considering myself (pediatric neuropsychology) it may even be refreshing for some admissions committees to hear! However, I would be careful which schools you reveal that to.... Certain SP programs are just around to train academics so they may be wary of someone who has a different path. I would say generally it is a good idea to know what kind of career the schools you are applying to are training for, but that overall it should be totally fine to mention that being your career goal. I would NOT mention that you don't like working in schools, as probably the majority of your practicums will be done there. I would just say that you are intrigued by the prospect of checking out other applications of SP. Are you applying to PhD programs? Which ones?

Just wanted to say that I hope this thread takes off! Last year we had some really lovely and supportive people in our School Psych thread. Also I am a current doc student in SP and can offer advice if people want it!

They have a huge emphasis on reading and reading interventions, and also Social Justice. If those are things you are interested in, then by all means apply. I took a few classes in the department and personally hated it. Totally depends on your interests. I should mention that you have to be really, REALLY into Social Justice. I went and did my Master's at a school that had an SJ focus but Berkeley was a whole other deal. It pervaded every single discussion and I honestly suffered mental fatigue on the topic.

Good lord, no. You'll be fine!

It is useful ONLY if you live nearby and feel as though attending is not a huge hassle. As I told someone in another post a few weeks ago, 99.99% of the time attending an info session is NOT going to be the thing that gets you in. If it's convenient then sure, learn about the program, but don't spend tons of cash or whatever to try and attend one, it won't make a difference. Also I feel compelled to point out that your potential advisor may not even be at the meeting. My program only sends one prof to these things.

Yes please!

That's a good point. Last year when I interviewed was afraid that doing Skype interviews would hurt my chances, but it wasn't possible for me to make all the interview dates in-person so I did about half via Skype. I got into them all. So that should hopefully reassure OP!

Anywhere from a month to a few weeks beforehand. You can look on the results search for past interview dates for your schools.

Some schools have rules against this, and will actually throw out your application if you try. You probably want to talk to them beforehand!

No, focusing on research would be a much better use of your time.

Oh boy, it's tough... I'd say maybe 3 weeks with "Followup" in the subject line. If you still hear nothing then don't write back.

If academia is your goal then you should aim to attend the best school you get into (within reason, don't go if there's no funding, etc). I'll put it like this, since you're from California. People who get their PhD from Berkeley go teach at places like Merced. People who get their PhDs from Merced go teach at CSU. And people who attend CSU teach at.... Boise State? Now that may be an exaggeration or it may not. Basically everyone moves down a tier, and that's if they're lucky! Jobs in academia are becoming increasingly rare. Give yourself the best chance you can and go somewhere else. That being said, it would be foolish not to have a backup plan. And if you think you'd be just as happy doing something other than academia then maybe staying near home would be worth it. It depends on you and your life and goals. edit: I just saw that you said an MA program. Not really sure how you're going into academia with an MA? If you plan to go on to your PhD you can pretty much go wherever for your MA. But with your goals I would suggest PhD because 1) you need it to be a professor, and 2) you'd (probably) get funding.

I think I varied from 1.15 to 1.5 fore read-ability's sake. But single space is fine if they don't specify anything!

The easiest way to tell public vs. private is to search for the school on Wikipedia. Otherwise, "[state Name] State University" and "University of [state Name]" are usually good clues that it's public. e.g. Ohio State University, University of New Mexico.

Why don't you type your schools + concentration into the Results Search and compare your stats to the people who were accepted to those schools in other years.

You can take it as long as it is the online version. Last year I didn't even decide to apply to grad school until September 1 and I took the GRE October 14. I had taken it about a year and a half beforehand and wanted to compare the scores before I sent them to schools, so even with the extra time in the middle (to receive the scores in the mail and then have them sent to schools) I got everything in way before the deadline.

You are still overthinking this. Plus you have an MA? That's a huge boost to your application. You really need to calm down about this process and just make your application the best it can be (and judging by your personality, you will). You can email the department about your GRE if you want, but you'll probably annoy them. You could address it in your SoP but that would probably just call undue attention to it. If it helps you (and I know it won't), I didn't attend any info sessions, but got 7 interviews (out of 10) and from those 7 interviews got 7 offers. You DO NOT NEED to go to anything other than an interview. Attending the info session won't be the magic thing that gets you in. Really. It may just make you feel better about applying, but your money is worth so much more just saving for the application fee. Taking that $1000 and applying to 10 schools would have been far more beneficial. As someone who has seen behind the scenes of the admissions process for an R1 Psychology deprtment, I can tell you that coming across as too type-A in an interview (or whatever) is more likely to HARM your application than help it. So breathe. Really.

Okay, first of all take a deep breath. 49th percentile is not a big deal. In fact, even if you were 38th percentile I'd say to still go ahead and apply. But 49th? My god, you're in a tizzy over 1%? As long as the rest of your application is strong there is no way they're throwing your application out for that. That being said I would never advocate spending $1000 to go to an open house! Save your money for interviews, open houses won't get you any closer to being accepted than if you hadn't attended. Just set up a skype or phone call with someone in lieu of that.

If she is listed as an Assistant Professor and not a lecture, she should be on the tenure track. In my program Assistant Profs are not allowed to have PhD students (but can sponsor MA students). If you apply to this program I would mention her and a more established faculty member as people you would like to work with, just in case she can't take students.

Well I personally attended UBC and disliked it a LOT. So my being "hurrah" about it is despite all of that. That being said, I think UBC treats their graduate students pretty well. Definitely a lot better than they treat their undergrads. As for the stipend as long as one is willing to get a roommate you can definitely get rent in the $600 range. I got a place one bus stop away from campus for under $500 and only had one roommate. As a child of immigrants to the U.S. and one who studies immigration as her research topic, I would (GENERALLY) say that the quality of life/treatment of immigrants in Canada is better, and that I personally would move there were I to have the choice between the two countries. Just IMHO of course. You are absolutely right that if OP is dead set on working in the U.S. and only the U.S. s/he would be better off living there now. I guess that as someone who has lived in 2 of the places s/he mentioned, I know for sure which one I would pick.

Just wondering - why the USA? Canada is arguably a better place to live, especially for immigrants. I did my undergrad there (I am American) and loved it. You can't beat living in Vancouver or UBC's reputation. None of your other universities even come close and your quality of life would be much better in Vancouver. It was rated the happiest city in the world a few years ago. I definitely vote UBC. Also, all the other places you mentioned are not in big cities, if that matters to you. But the money is (obviously) better. You just have to weigh your priorities, I guess.

I would say that since this is more lie consulting work you should be ok. I know plenty of students who do things like this. As long as there's no contract with another employer and no regular paychecks/stubs I think you're fine. They're more worried that you'll be screwing the university out of a research breakthrough.