kurumi2117

Success story here! I took the GRE twice. Had high verbal and analytical but low quant scores (32nd and 48th percentile). I have already been admitted to 5/10 programs I applied to, and most are highly ranked (top 10) within their subfield. The faculty I've spoken with said that I was competitive because I had 3 excellent and detailed letters of rec, a great SOP, and excellent ft with the program. I'd focus on those components of your application the most. Please feel free to PM me if you have other questions. Good luck!

I did, but only radio silence from them. Pretty sure their invites already went out, so I'm thinking I'm out of the game.

For what type of programs? Clinical only?

I didn't post my GREs/GPAs publicly because I feel that program fit, SOP, and letters of rec are all far more important. They certainly were in my case, at least. Plus, we are all crazy enough on here as it is without adding fuel to the fire. There really is no good quantitative way to predict whether or not you'll get in to a certain school.

In my experience, stipends for psychology programs are usually between $15,000 and $25,000 depending on the area. You have to keep cost of living in mind; generally, cost of living is lower in rural areas or areas in the midwest/south and higher in the northeast/west. Regardless of cost of living adjustment, stipends are not typically going to provide you with much more than is enough to survive.

I did and I have not heard from them.

If willing, can the people who posted acceptances for Child Psychology at University of Minnesota PM me? Thanks and good luck everyone.

I applied to HDFS. If you want to know the schools and who I've heard back from, PM me. On a similar note, does anyone have any insight into job prospects for HDFS versus Developmental Psychology?

Has anyone lived in Broadstone Vesada or Spruce Village apartments? Thoughts?

Hi all! Just wanted to introduce myself and say out of the 14 programs I am applying to, two are in the area of Child-Clinical Psychology. My interests cut across HDFS, Child-Clinical, and Developmental so I applied to a range. How is everyone surviving the waiting game? I have applied to 9/14 programs as of the 1st and I'm already losing my mind. Anyone else in the same boat as me in terms of interests? Good luck y'all!

I think that's a good strategy. I worked fast so I could spend the remaining time (I had about five-ten minutes) checking my answers. I caught a few errors on the first few questions and I believe this helped improve my score a lot.

I got a 164 the first time I took the Verbal. Honestly, I feel the best way to prepare for this section of the GRE is to read and work on retaining what you read. And I don't mean read stuff from your own field, but read things like the New York Times, The New Yorker, or Best American Short Stories. When you come across vocabulary you don't know, write the word down, learn it, and use it. Talk to other people about what you've read. This will help you with reading comprehension. Plus, it's way more entertaining than memorizing long vocabulary word lists. Even if you only have a few weeks before you retake, I still think this is a good way to study in addition to taking practice tests. You do not have to know the exact definition of every vocabulary word on the GRE to get a great score. You just need to have some familiarity with some of the words so that you can narrow down the choices. Solid test-taking strategies can also help with this; for example, on the fill-in-the-blank questions, immediately figure out the relationship between the blanks and the rest of the sentence (i.e., do the words need to be opposite or similar in meaning, both in relation to each other and to the content of the sentence?). Then you can go through the words you are familiar with and get rid of ones that obviously don't fit. From there, you can guess with a higher probability of guessing correctly. For the reading comprehension questions, being able to focus on material that doesn't immediately interest you is a great skill that you can develop by reading stuff outside of your own discipline. This will also help you generate better examples for your essays during the AW section. For that section, I think it comes down to fully understanding the prompt, knowing how to execute a five paragraph essay, and impeccable timing. I used the first five minutes to read the prompt and develop an outline of a five paragraph essay (introduction, example 1 paragraph, example 2 paragraph, example 3 paragraph, conclusion). I gave myself about four minutes to write each paragraph. If I got stuck, I dropped the 3rd example paragraph. The last five minutes I spent quickly revising and proofreading as well as adding in some "big" words and more sentence structure variety. Hope this helps!

I'd say your scores sound solid. As many on these boards have said before, good GRE scores aren't going to get you in but bad ones can keep you out. If you fall near the posted average, you are at or above the scores of many who were admitted. Just relax and work on more important parts of your application like SOP, etc. Hope that helps!

I would not include a letter with anything negative in it. I agree with previous posts; ask him if he can supply the rationale in the letter. If he says no, I would ask someone else.

Thanks so much for your opinions! If nothing else, it helps me tame my crazy at this point in the process.

Applying to programs in (Applied) Developmental Psychology and Human Development/Family Studies. I took the GRE twice about a month apart. The first time, I was very strong on Verbal (164), very poor on Quant. (148), and just alright on AW (4). I just retook it after a month of studying the Quant. and went down significantly on Verbal (159), up on Quant (152), and haven't received my score on AW but I am certain it went up at least a half point because I was well-prepared (used Score It Now) and thus, was able to write higher quality essays. My question is, which scores do I send? I was thinking of sending both sets but my Quant is so terrible on the first set. Background information: Most of the programs I'm applying to list their admitted students' GRE averages as a combined score, and I exceed that. However, I'm not certain how having a high score on one and low on the other affects my chances. There are a few more competitive programs where I only meet the minimums set by the department if you take V from one and Q/AW from the other. I feel my application is pretty strong otherwise: I am applying with a Master's degree from a less prestigious state school (GPA: 4.0) with an empirical thesis; several years of teaching (including intro. statistics), research, and volunteer experience; one poster presentation at a conference as first author; several advanced statistics courses with A grades; and a sizable and fairly prestigious scholarship. Additionally, one of my letter writers is a statistics professor with whom I have worked closely and he has offered to vouch for my statistical ability despite my low Quant. score. I am consulting with my mentors but wouldn't mind receiving some feedback in the meantime. This process is takes you over, you know? I'm sure everyone understands.

I'm applying to Developmental and HDFS programs. My interests are more in the developmental psychopathology domain.

I took the GRE twice about a month apart. The first time, I was very strong on Verbal (164), very poor on Quant. (148), and just alright on AW (4). I just retook it after a month of studying the Quant. and went down significantly on Verbal (159), up on Quant (152), and haven't received my score on AW but I'm certain it went up at least a half point because I was well-prepared (used Score It Now) and thus, was able to write higher quality essays. My question is, which scores do I send? I was thinking of sending both sets but my Quant is so terrible on the first set. However, I know my Quant. still isn't great and I was hoping my outstanding Verbal on the first would help somewhat. Ugh. Background information: Most of the programs I'm applying to list their admitted students' GRE averages as a combined score, and I exceed that. However, there are a few more competitive programs where I only meet the minimums set by the department if you take V from one and Q/AW from the other. Also, I am applying with a Master's degree from a less prestigious state school (GPA=4.0) with an empirical thesis; years of teaching, research, and volunteer experience; one poster presentation at a conference; several advanced statistics courses with A grades; and a large and prestigious scholarship. Additionally, one of my letter writers is a statistics professor I have worked closely with and he has offered to vouch for my statistical ability despite my low Quant. score. Thoughts? This month is full of crazy, isn't it? (Note: Obviously I am also consulting with my mentors about this. Just wanted some more opinions.)

Thank you for your response! I guess I should have been more clear about what I meant by "working in the community." I don't necessarily feel I need to be a licensed practioner to accomplish that goal. I just want to conduct research that is relevant to the community I am in and be able to participate in community work (for instance, serving as a board member on a county mental health collaborative, informing policy, designing/evaluating prevention/intervention programs, etc.). I have another question for you, seeing as how you got into a program. Do you think having my thesis topic be only slightly relevant to my future goals is going to hurt my chances? It obviously ties into many of my interests, but doesn't necessarily fully encompass them. Is it still helpful just to demonstrate my competence as a researcher? Thanks again!

I'm planning on applying to a mix of PhD programs in school psychology, developmental psychology, and human development and family studies for the fall 2014 application season. I was wondering if anyone could evaluate my current specs and provide suggestions for how to become a more competitive applicant. GPA: Undergraduate (major: Psychology)- cumulative= 3.25, UD= 3.97. Graduate (concentration: Developmental Psychopathology)- 3.9. Both degrees are from a small rural state university that is not competitive. I have significant coursework in advanced research methods and statistics. GRE practice tests: (I haven't studied yet) V: 158 and Q: 155 TA: 2 semesters for a special education teaching credential class, 1 semester for an upper division family studies class RA: 2 semesters in a developmental lab working on a project involving curriculum design and implementation for preschoolers. I'm also currently working on a Master's thesis examining couple relationships and child maltreatment history through a developmental/attachment theory lens. No presentations or publications, but I'm hoping by next year...? Work experience: I've worked at my university's counseling center for the last 3 years. This year, I'm also working as a GA on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a life skills curriculum for incoming freshman. Volunteer experience: two semesters as an early literacy tutor for at-risk youth. Also am semi-active on county child abuse and mental health collaborative initiatives. Broad research interest/career goals: social/emotional development, child maltreatment, diverse/underserved populations (e.g. Hispanic and LGBT youth), families and family-community connections, prevention/intervention research. I would ideally like to do research, teach, and work in the community as a career goal. My concerns: I worry that my varied experiences will make me seem all over the place or uncommitted to any one field. I also worry about my university's lack of prestige, my lower undergraduate cumulative GPA, and my lack of presentations/publications. Do I stand a chance at competitive programs with 60+ applicants for 5-8 spots? What should I try to add over the course of the next year to become more competitive? Thanks in advance!