Pretty_Penny

For those that received a decision, do you know if it was listed anywhere in your Wolverine Access? I feel like I might be wasting my time checking that haha.

Congrats!!

I still haven't heard anything back from Michigan either way. I find this confusing as it seems both acceptances and rejections have gone out. Starting to think maybe they forgot about me?

Looks like acceptances went out on the 24th via phone since a third person posted that in the results section. Anyways, I emailed the student affairs office asking for an update on what decisions have been made and got a really nice response: "The acceptance/rejection letters will be sent out within the next couple of days. You will receive a hard copy (via mail) and an electronic copy through email. You should be notified by the end of the week. If you have any questions please let me know." Nice to get an answer back so quickly. Though I'm pretty sure the result, at least I'll have official confirmation soon.

Hi! So I never got a response from the please PM me you POI thread... For the two people who put in the results that you were accepted to Michigan's Developmental Psych Ph.D. program can you PM your POI and details of the contact if you feel comfortable? Based on the timetable it looks like acceptances went out the twenty-fourth, but any information would be helpful at this point. Thanks so much!

Can the person who just posted they were accepted to Michigan's Developmental Psych program PM me their POI and details of the contact? That's two people now who were accepted there so I'm assuming I'm no longer under consideration but it would just be good to have some information. Thanks!

I second this!

I feel like no one in my family gets this... Which makes sense as my parents never went to college. Today my grandma was visiting and I got a call from School X, which I had to take to talk to them about travel plans for their interview weekend. As I'm thanking them and saying bye my grandma says, "Was that School Y??"... NO GRANDMA IT WAS SCHOOL X, KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN. Hahaha I'm willing to be open with my schools about the other places I'm applying, but I'm hoping the lady didn't hear, as it seems rather rude. But what can I do? My grandma is in her 70s and everyone's main concern is that I'm going to move too far away.

Hey Jillionaire, I had a phone interview with my POI at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. My POI informed me the board was going to meet Monday (yesterday) and should know shortly after that (I'm assuming that means they'll know who they are inviting to interview weekend.) Hope this helps!

In that case, would saying I am not married to studying self-esteem hurt my chances with the other POI? I explained I originally looked at self-esteem because low self-esteem affects other aspects of adjustment and that looking at adjustment was my overall goal. I feel then that could interpreted poorly in terms of the other POI. That POI hasn't shown any interest so I am not sure. Overall I just feel like I really messed this one up.

Just venting. I can't help but feel my phone interview this afternoon was a disaster. I applied to work with two different POIs at this school, with one interested in self-esteem and the other in pubertal development and adjustment. My main interests are self-esteem and adjustment in adolescents. The POI I interviewed with (the one who studies pubertal development and adjustment) asked a lot about my research proposal, which was related to self-esteem, what gaps I found while writing my proposal, what other factors could relate to self-esteem, etc. I thought I was doing pretty well until she said "well I don't study self-esteem." Obviously I know that, but I was just answering her questions based on my past work... So I had to backtrack and explain that. I assured her that I am not married to self-esteem, and wanted to study self-esteem based on the idea that low self-esteem contributes to maladaptive adjustment and looking at adjustment is my overall goal. While this is true, I'm not sure I made my intentions clear. And this is compounded by the fact that I talked a lot about self-esteem in my statement of purpose because that is the research interest of the other POI. Ahhh. This just feels like such a mess. I feel like she didn't think I knew much about her research either even though I pointed out several similarities between my interests and her own...

Today I received an email inviting me to Penn State's interview weekend, Feb. 8-9.

I think you're right. I spoke with her today and got more info on what my visit will consist of-I am definitely excited! However, also received a rejection from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign so that is slightly disappointing!

Do you all think I should take the opportunity of her calling me back to give her the number I didn't know off the top of my head and to elaborate about the reported sample size? The grad student I currently work with suggested I could do that if I wanted, though she thinks my POI was asking more out of interest than quizzing me...

I believe I had an informal sort of phone interview with my POI at the University of Maryland on Sunday. And I just received an email from my POI at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor about scheduling a phone interview this week.

Thanks, everyone! I was panicking because I didn't have any time to prepare. She also asked about specific numbers from my thesis and I didn't know one correlation off the top of my head, and told her a slightly different sample size (which obviously I know but I was so flustered I gave her the sample size after pairwise deletion rather than the beginning sample size we decided to report-since my study was longitudinal). I wish I could correct those, but I think I did fairly well for having no warning... The whole situation left me really worked up for the rest of the day, but I took it as a good sign she invited me to their visitation day. Thanks for helping calm my nerves!

So on Sunday afternoon I was sitting at home watching football with my family. I missed a call on my phone and thought nothing of it because I didn't recognize the number. The person didn't leave a message and I assumed if it was important enough they would call back. Well they did and it turned out to be one of my POIs! She asked if she could ask me some questions and I agreed. I think I did a decent job considering it was totally out of the blue. At the end she asked if I would be interesting in visiting and said she would call me back later in the week with info about when the visiting date will be and to answer any questions I have. My questions are... Was that my interview? I think she wanted to catch me unaware, but I thought these things were usually scheduled ahead of time. And is it a good sign she asked me if I wanted to come visit? I mean she could very well have just thanked me and hung up. Probably reading too much into it though. Thanks!

Thanks for your responses! I think your're right. I'm having one more faculty member read it and then I will see what I can do. Most schools want a statement of purpose rather than a personal statement so it really doesn't affect many of my applications.

Hi all! I have read the Kiss of Death article in regard to the personal statement and know that you shouldn't talk about anything too personal... but what if your research interests are directly tied to something personal? For example, I was in an abusive relationship that left me with pretty low self-esteem. Now, that isn't the main topic of my personal statement by any means, but it did influence the variables I chose to examine for my senior honors thesis (as I looked at two variables to see whether they were predictors of self-esteem, whether they interacted, etc.) Also, I want to keep up this study of adjustment to adverse situations and self-esteem in grad school. Now I myself no longer have any problems, but it did inspire me toward a certain line of research, if only to inspire me to look at adjustment/resilience and predictors of self-esteem. It's hard to talk about my interests without at least acknowledging the situation. The faculty members I have had read my PS think I handled the topic tactfully... but that is just their reaction. Opinions?

I suppose two of my LORs could comment on my research, the PI of a developmental lab I have worked in since 2011 and my Psychology 225 Professor, as we were required to carry out and write up an experiment for that class. I really have only worked in a lab under the guidance of one professor, but she is considered an expert in the field.. I know my quantative score is less than fantastic. Math (though not statistics) has never been my strong point. I have been in touch with every professor I plan to apply to and they have all encouraged me to apply. I didn't discuss my GRE scores with any of them, however. Based on the averages for each school it tends to fall right around average to a bit below.

Hi all! Looking for some feedback on where I stand in applying to Developmental Psych Ph.D. programs. Here are some facts: Will graduate in May of 2013 with a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish, and Honors in the Psych Major Undergraduate GPA of 3.916 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (3.917 Psych) GRE: Verbal-166 (96%), Quantitative-154 (60%) so 320 total; AW-4.5 Psych GRE scores come out Monday Research experience in the Developmental field since January 2011 Finishing my Senior Honors Thesis for which I had a $3000 grant Member of Psi Chi (Initiation Chair), Phi Kappa Phi, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and Phi Beta Kappa Rec Letters from three faculty members at UW-Madison First generation college student I am applying to: Penn State University, the University of Maryland-College Park, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Northern Illinois University, Loyola University of Chicago, Northwestern University (Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thanks in advance for your help!