BeingThere

I second Elanti's suggestion of visiting both programs if you can. Other than that, I would say wait until you have an offer from Latech; this minute you don't have this choice. Not to be a downer; I'm just saying, why borrow stress? If you do get an offer from Latech, and if you can't visit either place, talk with your POIs or the Chair from both programs and ask them to tell you more in depth about the program. At that point, it's time for them to sell you. You can use that to help make your decision. You can also ask for the email or phone number of a current student or two from each program and contact them to ask them what each program is like. One other consideration: Does Auburn give you the chance to apply for internships during the summer? If so, you will be able to get applied experience that way as well.

I am applying to PhD programs this cycle, and while I have had no hint of ageism from the majority of the programs I've heard from, I did have a somewhat disturbing phone interview with a department chair of one program. She wanted to know whether I was prepared to work and study along side a bunch of twenty-somethings and wondered how I would be able to fit in and make friends with such an age difference. She also wanted to know why, at this point in my life, I was making the career change and wanting to get a PhD. These are good questions, however, they are questions that I should be trusted to ask myself and to have already answered satisfactorily for myself. It was not as if any explanation or qualification was needed; my academic credentials are stellar. This person said she, too, had been a non-traditional PhD student and she was asking me these questions because she remembered her own experiences. I tried to imagine this same conversation if she were asking me how comfortable I would be as the only woman in an all-male program or as the only minority in an all-white program, or if she questioned my decision as a woman or racial minority to pursue a PhD. It staggers the imagination. On another note, I have been accepted to a top program in my field, so I will just have to trust that doors will open somehow.

Not only is it hard to care about my (gen ed) Environmental Chemistry course, in my notes instead of writing "pH calculations" I wrote "PhD calc..." before I caught myself.

I sort of want to second what Angua said. I attend one of those small, non-research oriented universities (as an undergrad.) My institution only grants bachelors and a few master's degrees. All of the faculty have PhDs, and do some amount of research. Although, granted, they do far less than would be expected at PhD-granting R1 institution. Even though there is not the heavy focus on research, if faculty want tenure they have to be conducting research. Also there is an expectation that they will advise students on student research and therefore should be highly competent in the process and enjoy it enough to work with students. Even if the faculty don't want to do heavy research, some of these students (e.g., yours truly) do want a research career and rely on their current faculty to mentor them and to help prepare them for applying to and getting into PhD programs.

Welcome, Dannydevitofan! I did not apply to George Mason or Illinois Institute of Technology, but when I was looking into programs, I got the impression that George Mason is a very good program. The current issue of TIP (a publication put out by SIOP), George Mason has very good rankings as far as publications in top journals. IIT, not so much. I was also wondering about funding from IIT. They are vague about that in their listing on the SIOP graduate programs listing. It looks like the funding for George Mason is pretty substantial. Just some observations. Have you asked your adviser at your current school about IIT? Best of luck to you! I also am still waiting to hear from a couple of programs.

It's probably not as random as it feels, but yes, I was surprised by results. It's hard to know what the programs who accepted me saw in me, versus what the programs who waitlisted or rejected me didn't see in me. I do wonder if programs strategically make offers. That is, offering to students they think will likely accept versus students who may have picked their program as a "safety". If I put myself in programs' shoes, I would have to put more weight on the Statement of Purpose to gauge how sincere an applicant's interest is, regardless of their qualifications (given they meet minimum qualification standards.) Every student a program offers admission who doesn't accept that offer essentially doubles the work of filling that spot. And I'm sure programs want to fill every spot they can fund. If they make offers to students who will likely get better offers, they may be wasting their energy. But that's all just speculation on my part. I applied to a range of programs, from those at the top of most published rankings (take that for what it's worth), to those whose posted qualifications I easily exceeded. I got accepted to one on each extreme and everything in the middle is up in the air (waitlisted or waiting to hear - one rejection so far.) The other factor that is just impossible to predict is the pool of other applicants who are applying to the same program. This factor, coupled with program concerns about fit and likelihood of an applicant accepting their offer, are probably the determinants that make it feel -- from our end -- like a crap shoot. Am I overthinking this?

I think there are some good answers here: Maybe not names of specific programs, but those reading this thread also will see and respond to the previous thread.

According to this copy of the CGS (Council of Graduate Schools) Resolution that I received with an offer, students who have accepted an offer from a school and have left that acceptance in place past the April 15 deadline need to request a written release from the school they accepted at if they want to then accept a late offer from another school. I guess it isn't law, but it is a standard of practice and keep in mind, the school whose offer you decide post-April 15th to decline is full of future colleagues and potential collaborators. So yeah, it sounds like you can rescind your acceptance after April 15th but there is a procedure for it. And I guess this implies that by Apriil 15th you should go ahead and accept your best offer even if you are still waiting to hear from your top choice. You might be able to google a copy of the document. It's titled the Council of Graduate Schools Resolution Regarding Scholars, Fellows, Trainees and Assistants (2009) EDIT: Why, yes. Yes you can google that document.

I am not sure how dietetics and psychology woud intersect as far as looking for a grad program that incorporates both. It's an interesting idea but I think you would have to look into dietetic programs. (The American Society for Nutrition has a list of accredited dietetic programs and you would have to contact those programs to ask them how useful undergraduate study in psychology would be for dietetics - or what the prerequisites are for their programs. Here is link to that website: https://www.nutrition.org/education-and-professional-development/graduate-program-directory/) I think this particular forum mainly consists of people who are pursuing graduate degrees in psychology, so I am not sure how much direction you can get here for dietetics. However, there are other forums on this site that may be more related - maybe look under Professional Programs or Life Sciences.

I currently live in Louisville and have lived here for several years. It's a very liveable city but it's small, as cities go. Great bars, great arts scene, fantastic local music scene. At the head of the Bourbon Trail, if you're into that sort of thing. You can get anywhere in town in about 20 minutes. The bus system sucks so it's good to have a car. Apartments near U of L are usually in older buildings in the area known as Old Louisville. You will want to stay east of 6th Street and west of 2nd Street if you live in Old Louisville. Old Louisville can be a bit sketchy at night, but I used to live down there and never had any problems. The downside of Old Louisville is that they close off 4th street and parts of 3rd just about every other weekend in the spring and summer for bike races and marathons. Also, the first weekend in October is miserable down there due to the St James Art Fair, which takes up blocks and blocks from 6th Street over to 3rd Street and you will not be able to park or drive around there the whole weekend. The University has invested in building a lot of new apartments in the vicinity of the campus but they are overpriced and you can usually find something fairly decent in Old Louisville or further south along 2nd Street and Southern Parkway (a few blocks either north or south of the Watterson Expressway) for a fairly reasonable rate. Oh, and then there's the Kentucky Derby. The race track is close to the campus. Schools usually try to finish up finals before Derby weekend because the whole city goes crazy then. (Even elementary and high schools close on Oaks Day, the races held on the Friday before Derby. That's how seriously they take it down here.) Well, actually the whole month of April is full of festival events and races and ways and means to party. But everyone should go to Derby and experience the "infield" at least once. And usually once is enough. Waterfront Wednesdays are nice also during the summer. Free fairly-large-name bands down in Waterfront Park. Louisville is also not a bike-friendly city. It's gotten better but it's a far cry from bike-safe. Very few roads have bike lanes and it seems like a lot of drivers around here don't know what a bike lane is. Although, as I've said, it has steadily improved in the time I've lived here. Feel free to message me if you have specific questions and I'll do my best to field them.

Yeah, I guess calling couldn't hurt. I saw my status yesterday, but just got the email today. So who knows whether they are still going through apps. Good luck!

It's listed in Application Summary > Application Data > Decision.

For Akron, Rice, and Colorado State: apparently there is another category of applicants other than accepted, waitlisted, or rejected. They have all informed me that my application is still being "considered" but some initial offers have gone out. So if you haven't gotten an actual rejection from those programs, there may still be hope for you.

I don't know how the other areas work, but for I/O they invite the people they admit up to their Welcome Weekend (which was this last weekend) and that's it. They don't have a waitlist, so anyone in I/O not invited to the weekend can safely assume rejection. I don't know whether other areas use waitlists or draw from applicants that they did not invite to the weekend (the Welcome Weekend is for all areas of psych.) Not sure if that helps.

I'm curious about some of the property management companies. There was a post a while back about a good one, but I looked through this thread again and couldn't find it (was I dreaming?) I'm specifically curious about St. Anthony Village Apartments. They have some buildings in my price range in the Marcy Holmes area and I just want to make sure they aren't slum lords. Anyone know anything about them? Or have suggestions about good property management companies with apartment buildings around the city? Thanks!

Sorry to hear that. But, hey, looks like you've got plenty of offers to choose from. I applied to Colorado State but did not receive a rejection yet, even though I see that several people got notified today. I read on the Results board that someone who didn't even apply got a rejection email from there. Maybe they sent mine to that person.

Got a call from my POI at Rice University on Friday, but I was unable to get back with her that day. She said she wanted to ask me about my "plans for study in the coming year." Not sure if this will be an interview or what. I suppose I will find out more when I speak with her. Has anyone else heard from Rice?

After you've interviewed, and you want to send a "thank you" email, is it okay to also share more ideas about a research project discussed in the interview? Or is that considered pushy? We spoke briefly about ways to conduct a certain study, and I had some (possibly) good ideas on the way home from the interview weekend. Should I just wait and see if I'll even get a chance to work there, or is it okay to share my ideas at this point in the "thank you" email?

I spoke with my POI at Penn State in mid January and was invited out to the Visiting Weekend Feb 20-22. They said they will probably make decisions within a week or so after that. I listed the interview invite on the Results board. The search function is very particular. If you put "Penn State" it might not pull up results listed as "Pennsylvania State..."

I still have programs to visit before I could possibly make a final decision. In such an important decision I want to gather all the information I can before I make a commitment. It would also be nice to hear back from the other programs I applied to, but depending on how things shake out I may make a decision sooner rather than later. Is that vague enough? Are you on some waitlists?

Congrats, Roebuck1!

Just got an acceptance from Central Michigan University. So, looks like they are starting to send out notifications.

Hi Meen, Some differences between a PhD and a master's in I/O: 1) A PhD is a research degree and a master's is usually thought of as an applied degree. 2) A PhD program is usually more difficult to get into in that applicants need to have very good GRE scores and GPAs and some research experience in psychology, 3) Often people with PhD's in I/O go into teaching/research at the university level. PhDs may also work in applied settings in large businesses or in consulting firms, and often their position is a research position within an applied setting. With a master's you would more likely go into applied work in a consulting firm or an HR department. I do not know if there is any difference between an MS and an MA. And this brings me to my next point: go here --> www.siop.org. Here you will find information about the field, job prospects, information about graduate programs and interesting articles on various aspects of I/O. I/O is not necessarily HR, although it is strongly related. I/O can be thought of as the science behind HR. But it is so much more than that. I/O psychologists study all topics related to work, including at the organizational level beyond the purview of HR. If you want to get into a PhD program an internship in HR may be helpful but it seems that PhD programs are more interested in applicants' research experience. Hopefully, you have done some research in your undergrad career, either assisting in a lab or conducting independent projects. I don't know of any internship you can get as an undergrad that will show you what it would be like to work as an I/O psychologist. I know some consulting firms (e.g. HumRRO) do have internship positions but students already in a master's or PhD program will get those. You may be able to find an internship that is tangentially related, as HR is. Others on this forum may have more info on that. Also you can probably find more info about this on the SIOP website. If you are more interested in the HR aspects of I/O, you should also check out SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management.) Their website is probably .org, but I'm not sure. I have read that the job market for I/O is projected to have faster than average growth through 2022. Best wishes to you! I/O is a great field - at least I'm excited about it. I am definitely more into the research and the psychology aspects of it than the applied/HR aspects of the field (so I'm going to pursue a PhD.) But one of the great things about the field is its broad scope.

There's a good chance I'll be accepting an offer at University of Minnesota to start this fall. I've read the thread about affordable areas of town and suggestions on property management companies and it's all been very helpful (I hope!) I'm wondering how long the commute time (by car or by bus) would be from Calhoun Isle area / Kenwood / Lowry Hill to the campus. Also, I'm wondering how bad traffic congestion is during peak commuter hours on 94 and 35W. On a side note, I read in another forum that there aren't any good sushi restaurants in Minneapolis. Please tell me that's not true!

Thanks. Congrats again! Sounds like you've gotten all interviews and offers so far, Alecno!