Munashi

I'll be making a move across country to State College this summer to start Penn State in the fall! One thing I wonder, how do students get around during the winter with fresh snow on the ground? Are the buses still running or are you forced to walk/drive yourself?

I applied to two "PSU"s: Portland State (in Oregon) and Penn State. I've taken summer classes at Portland State in the past, so starting this fall I'll not only have applied to them both but attended them both. In my mind, Portland is "PSU" and Penn State is... "Penn State".

I'm afraid to live too far out of town because (confession time) I am not capable of driving in snow. I also don't have a 4 wheel drive, just a sedan-type car. That's my only concern with living more than a couple of miles from campus... >.>

When you decide for sure, you'll have to let us know! I'm trying to sort out housing, which is turning in to quite the adventure.

Thanks, roebuck! I appreciate the luck, I feel like I'm going to need it to survive (I have a terrible case of "impostor syndrome")! Lol

Who else will be joining Penn State this fall?

Hello all! I wanted to let you guys know that I have accepted the offer of admission I received from Penn State! This means I'll be releasing a couple other fully funded offers from University of Houston and from Baruch College/CUNY. If anyone out there (including you lurkers!) is wait listed at these places, I hope this helps you out. Very best of luck to all of you! I will also release any other offers I happen to receive (although I doubt any more are coming for me) and keep everyone posted about if/when I hear back from schools I hadn't heard from yet.

I just realized I may have misunderstood your question and I want to clarify something! When you say "RA jobs", do you mean research assistant/research coordinator? Or were you talking along the lines of "resident advisor"? When I answered you, I was talking about research-related work. I am guessing you are too. But it just dawned on me that "RA" can have multiple meanings, lol...

I use Geico. It's about $370/6 months or about $61/month. I have no accidents or tickets, drive an old car, but live in Los Angeles and am under 25 which drives up the price a bit.

I'm having a(n awesome) dilemma where I was admitted to my top 2 program choices. As many on here do, let's call the from program A and program B. Both are top ranked programs. Program A paid for me to visit for an interview weekend. I was expecting the whole experience to be awful and stressful, but it was actually really enjoyable. I loved the people there (other students and faculty), which is saying something because I am very introverted and often don't have that response to social situations. The adviser I would be working with is fantastic - perfect research fit, and seems like a really good personality fit. Said would-be adviser is also well-known the field and does excellent work. Would be able to live on the stipend here without debt due to low cost of living. Program B admitted me on the basis of a phone interview. The draw for program B is location. It's a place I've always dreamed of living. However, the cost of living there is astronomically high. I would have to take out a lot of debt and likely still be too "house poor" (rent) to enjoy my surroundings. Commuting would also be factor, since I'd have to live pretty far from school to even pretend to be able to afford housing. The faculty there is also excellent, but the research fit is not as perfect as A's. B has invited me to their admitted students day, but they are offering no funding for this trip. I'd also be responsible for getting myself around the city on the train (with my luggage, etc) with no reimbursement. I feel like I should visit B just to check and ensure that it isn't some magical utopia far more amazing than I ever dreamed, which was a little like my experience at A. Part of me thinks I should spend the money, give B a chance, and be "more sure" about my decision. Another part of me thinks I'll end up at A no matter what, and that visiting be would be a waste of time (off work) and money. I also have a concern that I will visit B, get wrapped up in my love of the area (my dream city), and possibly decide to attend the program for the wrong reasons. Any input is appreciated. What do you all think? Should I drop the $500-600 to visit B? Is it a waste, or would it be foolish not to? Thank you for reading.

This tidbit of information is on the website of one of the programs I applied to (PhD, I/O psychology). This program is very highly ranked and quite competitive, but... why only fund students for 3 years in a program that generally takes at least 4-5 years to complete? Are people expected to be funding themselves by the time they are more advanced students? I recognize that it would be best to chat with a current student about this, but I haven't received an offer from this place and I'm not sure if it's appropriate. I just thought I'd see what those of you on this forum thought/might know.

I noticed one of my schools has my GRE scores listed as missing. I thought this was odd, since I requested them to be sent back in October. Turns out, stupid me overlooked instructions to NOT include a department code. I did. I have paid to re-send the scores without a department code (placed the order yesterday, November 20th) but the deadline is December 1 and "all supporting materials" must be in by that date. With Thanksgiving next week, I'm scared I might be S.O.L. (S*** out of luck). I have emailed the admissions office to let them know what happened, but they are closed for the day. Is there anything else I can do? I hate to think I waste an application fee and screwed myself out of a chance at an acceptance because of such a stupid error... Blah.

The title sums it up, I'd say. When do PhD programs typically interview their applicants? I just submitted a few applications with Dec 1 deadlines (I/O psych) and I'm wondering if interviews will ALWAYS be after the holidays or if I need to prepare sooner than that. I don't believe anywhere I applied to does rolling admission.

Apologies if this thread already exists, but I didn't see one, so I thought I'd ask - who else is applying for I/O PhD programs this fall? I want to know who I can commiserate with and cheer for. Best of luck to everyone.