SocialConstruction

A genuine congratulations to you! However, I think this is a good opportunity to point out that it is not proper etiquette to hold onto more than one offer at a time. Many of us, including myself, are put on multiple waitlists and if people are holding onto multiple offers, this just holds up the whole process for everyone else. If you do have more than one offer, PLEASE do not wait more than one week to make a decision! Your decision affects many other people. Again, congratulations though!

So by your logic I should feel blessed with a third rated surgeon who failed anatomy but got into medical school because it is a "game". Also obviously I want a loser "psychologist" who "game" into grad school and somehow become licensed and I am suppose to trust that person with my mental health. Right.....

if you get rejected by that many places maybe you are not a very good student and would make a terrible psychologist. Please consider another career.

I saw this on the History subforum and thought it seemed like a good idea.  This should be more clear than the general Psych Fall 2014 applicants thread, and also allows for completely anonymous disclosure (unless you want to include your username).
 
This will be helpful, I hope, for future psychology applicants to see what past students have been offered funding-wise at various schools and departments (and subfields) when choosing where to apply.
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AleHkppLmYnIdDdlaTBEcXQzM1Z6RTM0enJJdVJLZnc#gid=0

This isn't law, or an MBA, where rankings trump all. What I consider a Top 10 (I'm in a very specific area of Quant) is going to be a heck of a lot different than a Clinical Psych applicant studying, oh Borderline Personality Disorder, for example; that student's rankings will differ from the person studying bulimia; and so on. This is going to sound overly casual, but it's true: I'm sure there are some great folks over at Harvard that do some really neat things, but their research interests do not match mine, so their ranking by some news agency means absolutely nothing to me.
 
Two words: research fit. Look at some of the term papers you've written for class this past year; make a note of who you cite over and over again; figure out where those folks teach; apply there. That's a good starting place.

Your career, if you plan to do research, will be on a much better path if you work with someone well-known in your field who supports and advocates for you than if you work at a "top 10 school" without that. Figure out your subfield first, then figure out the people within your subfield who you want to work with. Go from there.

I MADE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE! Finally admitted, and I can finally breathe easy. 
 
Best of luck to all other applicants!

I'm in the same boat as you. I have an excellent GPA and (what I thought were) competitive GRE scores, and I see people getting interviews and acceptances. The unfortunate thing is that I contacted all of my POIs beforehand to see if they would be accepting students and all said, "yes! please apply!" 
 
Of course there are various factors to why some, and not others, are chosen, so I completely agree that feedback would really help. 
 
If I don't get in anywhere, maybe I'll turn into this weird irrational stalker that visits the universities to which they applied, finds the POIs, and asks them, "remember me?!" To which they reply "no," on account that they've only seen an application  
 
I guess what we can learn from the deranged lunatic from the previous paragraph is that although the applications have no actual face, it certainly feels like a slap in the face at times. 
 
Disclaimer: I'm on a lot of meds (flu). 

Hi all,
 
I'm new to this site. This is my 3rd round of PhD applications and I can't believe I hadn't heard about this site until this week! I especially appreciate the comments earlier in this thread about how very few people understand how selective these programs are. My first time applying, right out of undergrad, I wish I had the knowledge I do now! I'm currently finishing up my Master's in Social Psychology and am so lucky to have gotten a PhD acceptance right before Christmas.
 
What I know: Michigan State accepted me in December without an interview (!) and their visit weekend is Feb 20-21, U of Arizona and WashU first did Skype interviews and then extended invitations for their interview weekends. I haven't heard from U Oregon, but I'm guessing that means no-go based on the results list, and U Illinois U-C doesn't seem to have started contacting people.
 
Having done this whole process 3 times now, I'm happy to give whatever advice I can! Good luck everyone!

Congrats!!! Hope you're celebrating tonight!

I'd say it's still worth it to introduce yourself. After all, they may be a collaborator, a source of advice (e.g., reading recommendations), etc.; better to maintain bridges than to burn them or let them deteriorate on their own, I guess. I introduced myself to a few professors from my second choice program -- I ended up not attending -- just a couple days after they conditionally accepted me. It was awkward at first, but it was nice to make face time with professors whose work I admire, program decisions aside.

Third time really is the charm... after being rejected the last two cycles I applied, I just received an offer from one of my top choices. So excited!

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!

Does anyone have any info on social psychology for CU-Boulder? I saw a mass rejection of clinical yesterday, a couple interview invites for unspecified "Psychology" in December, and one invite for Social Psych yesterday.

I'd love info if anyone is privy to it. Reply or message me.

Thanks!



(Is PhD-obsessing a disorder in the DSM yet...?)

Wouldn't it be great if there were a way to PM the people who post on the results search and have them stay anonymous?  I feel like no one ever gets PMs when requesting POI names, probably because people are concerned about their privacy.  But damn, the UNC one is killing me!  

Yes, it happens.  I was interviewed by phone for one program, in person for another, and had a "chat" with one other POI last year, but the rest of my acceptances were all done without an interview.  In at least one of those cases, there was some discussion between my POI and one of my recommenders about whether I was likely to accept, but nothing resembling an interview for me.
 
Edited to add: Oh, I forgot -- there was one other school where I declined the interview.

Seems like almost all of the interview weekends are Feb 7-9 or around then.  Anyone else concerned about how they're going to schedule multiple interviews?

I heard from my POI at UCLA today and I've been soft accepted. I'm so happy I think I might explode a little.
(Quant department BTW)

Aren't we all.

It can also happen if programs accept the organizational research showing that unstructured interviews have no predictive power beyond the written record. Also, it's more common in Canada. My old program doesn't do interviews.

HAH. Crossing "MY" fingers.

I'm not sure about other universities or programs, but I was invited to an interview last application season where the university paid for the flight and the accommodation as well as food and activities and such. My POI at that university invited me and one other potential student. After the interview weekend, we both were offered a spot at that university. 
I'd say that it's always a good sign if the university is offering to pay your way there- it seemed to me that the individuals invited were primarily there for sanity checks and so that the university could, in fact, recruit us. 
Hopefully this info is useful. Best of luck, and congrats!

To me, the question "Why is the research you're interested in important" is not the same as "Why are you interested in the research topic?". Depending on the situation, it could mean "Why should X pay for this research?" but to me, it really means "How does your work fit in with current human knowledge about this topic?". I think if you answer this last question, then all of the above (why would anyone care? why should people pay for it? etc. is also included). Think of it as if you were going to write this up as a scientific paper. In the introduction, you generally want to state the problem, discuss current knowledge and show how your work/project contributes to the current body of knowledge. 
 
So even though the interviewers probably know exactly why, it could be a test to see if you understand the "big picture" of your research problem!

I initially planned on using this waiting period to get back to the gym and start being healthy again... then Sporcle happened.

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?