SocialConstruction

There's never a simple answer! But thank you both for the replies.

What are an applicant's odds for acceptance when a program offers to pay for airfare and hotel stay during interview weekend? Do people often get rejected post-interview from that kind of offer? I would imagine that a program is pretty interested in an applicant if they're willing to spend money, but perhaps this is naive?

I've heard it isn't too big of a deal, so long as all materials you're personally responsible for are in on time. Also, if it is an issue, I imagine it's your advisor's issue, not yours... Do you have a straggler?

Just throwing this out there -- I am a really active undergraduate student from the University of Akron and I know many of the faculty and graduate students in our I/O program really well. If anyone has any questions about people, research activity, life in Akron, etc, feel free to message me! Best of luck to all the I/O applicants!

Congrats and good luck!

Hahahah, thankfully I had the sense to leave morally objectionable activities out of it... But thanks for the input -- I'm becoming increasingly neurotic as this process unfolds.

I'M DONE APPLYING! Finally. Best of luck to everyone finishing up apps out there, the end is in sight! Side note -- do not look back through previously submitted SOPs. I've already found two typos (how in the heck did I miss those?!).

I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on this story (particularly thoughts from previously successful applicants). A professor at UCLA recently responded to an email I sent them back in August to say, "so sorry I forgot about this, I AM looking for a student for the next year, so why don't you tell me more about your interests?" So I did. The next day, they wrote me back suggesting we speak on the phone, to which I excitedly responded with my availability for the coming week. Then, nothing... It's been two weeks since I responded to their email. I'm wondering what I should think about all this? My friends have just told me not to worry, because the end of the semester is a busy time. But I'm concerned this means they are no longer interested. Has anyone else had an experience like this? The strange thing was, this happened before I had submitted my application. Most other professors have told me they don't engage in a lot of communication with applicants prior to the submission deadlines.

Good luck! Initial contact is always so exhilarating.

Are you applying to the University of Akron's Counseling Ph.D. program, per chance? It happens to be my undergraduate institution, and I'd be more than happy to connect you with a graduate student, if you want any information on the program!

I'm interested in working with Nick Rule. He does really cool research on people's abilities to accurately guess others' social attributes (sexual orientation, career success, etc.).

It sounds like you're doing great! I wouldn't mind the blip in the phone interview -- it still sounds like you've got a great connection going. And you're applying to Toronto! Me too! Who's your POI there?

I agree with Lisa; you'd be super competitive in US MA programs (the GRE score is great!). And you can actually check admissions criteria for Canadian schools using the APA's Graduate Study in Psychology, 2014. The last section of the book covers Canadian schools exclusively, and usually provides you with info on median GRE scores of applicants, etc. The link to the book is here, should you want to find it: http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4270098.aspx

In line with everyone else's responses, your research experience sounds excellent. I've also heard from my advisors and graduate student mentors that self-directed research can be more impressive than simply helping out in a lab. Regardless, you've got both so you should be a stellar candidate to I/O programs.

I'm inclined to think that you just need an analytical score above the institutional cutoffs where you're applying. Like Adil said, I'd ask them point blank. And truthfully, your quant and verbal scores are wonderful -- especially for I/O. And if you think about it, you'll have ample opportunity to demonstrate your writing ability in your personal statement and SOP.

Thanks for the suggestions and support! I'll do my best to handle it delicately -- and it's great to hear someone else made it past the nontraditional history barrier.

For preliminary emails, how much information is "too much?" I generally say "Hi," write two or three lines about my interests (framed in a way that fits with each POI), and conclude with, "let me know if you'll be reviewing applications this year! I would love to explore the possibility of working together." This has worked with some POIs (but not all), and I can't decide whether there is a better approach to writing the first email (e.g., citing a particular publication I found interesting). Thoughts?

Hey Fellow Social Applicants! I thought I would start a thread to share information regarding the scary process of applying to social psychology programs! Hopefully those of us interested in this domain can use this thread to keep each other encouraged, to compare notes, and to discuss interests and POI's. I'll start by saying I've narrowed my list of schools to 9 final Ph.D. programs, and am in the process of contacting my POI's currently, with limited success (4 have replied with generic, "thanks for you interest! I look forward to your application" emails, one has not responded) and I plan to touch base with the rest by the end of next week... Where is everyone else in the process?

Hi everyone! I'm a prospective Social Psychology applicant with a complicated back story (I failed out of a previous institution a few years ago and transferred to a new one). My GPA at my current university is high (3.96), my GRE scores went better than I could have hoped [V: 166 (96th); Q: 159 (75th); A: 6 (99th)], and I have plenty of research experience. My interests all relate to sexual prejudice, gender expression, and how masculinity culture can be alienating to queer identified individuals. At some point I also hope to explore intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation, so that a fuller picture of diversity can be developed in the discrimination literature. Jazzed about applying, but also a little concerned that academics won't relate to my story. We'll see what happens...