tha1ne

Whoops, I did not see that the OP was planning on neuropsych. I did more so mean fields like social or clinical, ones where you have something like 500 applicants to one tenure-track position. Ridiculous.

I'm in a phd program for social psych at a major university. My advice is......................DON'T DO IT D:! There's too many of us, and too few jobs to go around. Unless you are dead set, I would recommend pursuing something more marketable, like CS or engineering. My friend just graduated with a B.A. in CS from Rutgers, and got a job right out of graduating that pays 120,000 in NY. He works 50-70 hrs a week, but enjoys every minute of it.

PM me. ;P

If you're comfortable, can you PM me the school you're referring to? I'm just curious, I knew a school like that but I doubt it's the same...

I hear ya VZ, I applied to 9 schools and 6 of them have straight up stonewall jacksoned me!

No but that's pretty sweet. Congrats dude!!

I did it. Not only did I switch schools, I also transferred to a different branch of psychology. I think if you have a good reason for doing so, people won't look down on you. Just make sure you are doing things in your best professional interest!

I had a similar issue a week ago: I got into 2 schools, a top 10 program and a barely top 100 program. At the top 10, my PI was controlling, I wasn't gonna get to do research I wanted to do anytime soon, they didn't really train students in more 'experimental' methods, and the funding was crap. At the top 100 program, my PI wanted to foster my projects, she guaranteed a ton of supervision, I would get training in all methodologies, the lab publishes at roughly the same rate as the top 10 lab, and (surprisingly) the funding was twice that of the top 10 program. I turned the top 10 program down today and accepted the top 100 one. My reasoning is that I figured I would be the most productive in a place where I would be the most happy (fit in the best).

To answer your question: it totally is a crapshoot (ex. Northeastern is an R2 school but has a dismal 2.6% acceptance rate (albeit a good R2 school)), and I understand the concern, BUT there are other jobs you can get if you decide to pursue a PhD in social psych. A lot of social psych people are moving into business (and other industries) now. Here, the jobs are more plentiful, the wages are more comfortable, and if you join the faculty of a business school, you still get to conduct your own research! My motto is, if you find something you really love doing, you'll find a way to make it work. Obviously you should be smart about it and use all the resources available to you, but I believe the things you really love are also things worth pursuing.

I don't know about you, but I always say 'I love you' on the first date....which I guess explains why I'm still single D:

Any word from Michigan state?

There are ways to bring it up in an interview that sound professional. Just say something like, "Not to cause any confusion, but there's one thing I'd like to mention about my SOP..."

It's true; I just starting watching the show Suits and that firm only hires from Harvard law!

^The sarcasm is strong with this one.

Yeah. All Minnesota invites were sent out a couple days ago unfortunately