bathingintheneon

I spoke about a particular article on my Maryland interview, so when I sent my thank you email, I attached it. The PI didn't seem to mind. She actually said that she looked forward to reading it. Also, I sent a thank you email to the UW PI this morning (the interview weekend was a few days ago), and she responded and said I had been accepted! Quickest acceptance of my life, so I would definitely send an email. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain!

Just found this on UVA's FAQs: Can I call the Graduate School to see if my application is complete? No, please do not call the Graduate School to see if your application is complete. They are so busy that they will just transfer you to the department you applied that probably will not be able to tell you anything until after February 15. Does that mean that they are still reviewing apps up until Feb 15?

Have you gotten a response about the status of applications yet?

..you mistake a professor for a graduate student at dinner and ask him who he works with. And he responds "with myself." So embarrassing.

I was FINALLY rejected from UCLA a few days ago. I'm actually more relieved than upset, because the wait was torture. Now I'm just waiting on UVA. Has anyone heard anything other than rejections? At this point, I just want to know...

I agree with the above post. Most interviews with faculty members are really short (30 minutes) and usually just consist of you asking questions about the programs. I would say just read their bios online to get an idea of what they generally research. Most professors will actually tell you about their research without you even asking! You can read some papers of the professor who you applied to (but you should do that anyway), since you will need to make your case as to why you want to work with them.

I didn't hear from UCLA that I was rejected until today, and I knew that I wasn't invited to their interview weekend since it was over a week ago. I still haven't heard anything from UVA, so not sure what's going on there… I think not hearing anything can mean either rejection or wait list, but I'm not sure if there's any way to tell.

I'm in the exact same boat. I have an offer from Delaware with a great PI. The psychology department even offered me a Cognitive Scholars Award which will increase the amount of my stipend. I have finished interviews at UC Davis and UC San Diego, and I have two more interviews next week at Maryland and Washington. So far the two California schools didn't really feel right, and I'm not super excited about Maryland. Washington is really the only school that might give Delaware a run for their money. I'm thinking that as soon as I'm done with my interviews, I'll weigh my options and decide. I don't have to anyone know until April 15, but it seems silly to wait that long, especially if I know which school I want to go to. At the same time, I'm interested to see what other schools give me offers, but that's more of my competitive, "wanting to win" side showing through. At the end of the day, it probably won't matter, and going to UD is more or less a done deal at this point. Yay! I'm going to grad school!

Accepted by Delaware and wait listed by UC Davis in the same day! Way too excited about Delaware to care (too much) about Davis.

Interviewed at UC Davis on Monday. My POI there definitely had a different take on graduate school than I do. The way she sees it, graduate school is a way to receive training in an area, not necessarily to do the research I want to do. Therefore, she seems a lot less flexible in terms of conducting research that I am interested in (even another professor in the department called her inflexible). I think I would be a better fit for her lab if my research interests were broader, but since they are more narrowed, I'm not don't know how happy I would be in the program. Plus, she was saying less than nice things about another professor that I had applied to work with at a different university, which rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm seeing some rejections from UVA developmental psychology. Is it a good sign that I haven't heard anything?

We'll I hope that's a good sign that I didn't receive an email!

Since interviews are just around the corner (and may have already happened!), we can use this thread to talk about how the interview went. Better than expected? Much worse? Was your top choice uncool and your last choice amazing? Do you have an idea of where you'd like to go now? I just got back from my interview at Delaware, and it was amazing. There is so much collaboration in the department and everyone is super friendly and approachable. Plus, my PI was really excited to meet me, and he had even made a list of different research projects we could do based on my interests. I have four more interviews, but I think other schools are going to have to do a lot to "wow" me like Delaware did.

I'm in a similar boat. The professor I applied to is very established and famous in my area, but for one reason or another has never had a grad student. He said it was because 1) he is very picky and doesn't take mediocre students, and 2) when he had offered admission to students, they would turn him down for a bigger "named" private school (Harvard, Yale). I know that situation isn't ideal, but it doesn't seem like such a risk since he's not a new professor. Plus, my interview went really well, and he more or less offered me admission.

Dev psych in the psych department.

Anyone from UVA (developmental psychology or psych in general).

I know! UVA was my top choice at the beginning of this process, but they seem to be dragging their feet with the applications.

I also applied to the developmental program and haven't heard anything. Guess we'll just have to hang in there a little longer!

So I went ahead and booked my travel to California, assuming that UCLA won't extend me an invite. Has anyone heard anything from UVA? The results board has been virtually empty, and looking at previous years, it seems like I may have until the end of January to wait for an invite. They're pretty late to the game though.

I've heard back from most of the schools I've applied to, which includes the University of Delaware (Jan 30-31), UC Davis (Feb 3), UC San Diego (Feb 6-8), the University of Maryland - College Park (Feb 20-21, but I'm going on Feb 16-17), and the University of Washington (Feb 21-22). Still waiting on UCLA (according to their website, interviews are Feb 7-8), but at this point I'm assuming rejection. Doesn't matter too much to me, since I have interviews at some other great schools. I'm also waiting for UVA, but I am/was fairly confident about getting an interview there. Right now Delaware, Washington, and UVA are my top choices. The PI at Delaware really won me over on our phone interview, but I've heard only great things about UW.

Yep. So I'll probably see you there!

As someone currently applying to developmental psych programs (and doing pretty well from the looks of it!), I'd love to give you some insight on my experiences. 1. Any research experience is good research experience. I thought I wanted to go to clinical psychology programs up until I graduated last May. So in addition to conducting research in an infant language development lab, I also volunteered in two clinical psych labs (I also had a brief job at a clinical psych company before I realized I wanted to do developmental). Furthermore, I think it's great that you've had experience working with infants. From my experience, going from working with infants to working with other populations (children, adolescents, adults) is much easier. You would probably not be admitted to work in an baby lab in grad school if you had never worked in one as an undergrad. What's key for you is that you make a strong case in your personal statement for why you want to research what you want to research. Having research experience in your graduate research area is helpful, but not necessary. For example, I'm really interested in using EEG and other brain measures with infants. I have absolutely no experience in neuroscience/bio psych (either classroom or research), but I made a strong case in my personal statement for why I wanted to learn that method. 2. I wrote on Honors Thesis in developmental psychology. Luckily, what I wrote in my thesis is essentially what I want to study in graduate school. I think writing a thesis is a great exercise, regardless of if it's in developmental or social psychology. In our lab, we've even had a few pre-med students do theses (and medical schools don't really care about research experience). You will be able to attach your thesis to your application, which will show off your writing skills and your critical thinking skills. And like the above post, you will demonstrate your ability to run a research project independently (which is really important for grad programs!). On the other hand, one of our graduate students didn't write a thesis, and she got into the program (but she took a gap semester and worked as a lab coordinator, so she did have leadership experience). 3. No problem! My website is sites.duke.edu/ashleyruba. You can download my CV there. If you look at my lab's website (the link is also on my website), you'll find links to our graduate students' CVs as well. (Note: I'm not trying to brag, but I'm considered a competitive applicant, so my CV may not be above the "norm". Right now I stand a good chance of getting interviews to all/most of the schools I've applied to.) 4. I would look at my answer to question #1. Also, before I applied to graduate programs, I emailed every professor I was thinking about applying to and said "I'm interested in your work on this, because I'm also interested in researching this other thing in graduate school." At that point, professors can tell you if they're not interested in your research topic, not taking graduate students, etc. By doing this, I think I increased my success rate for getting interviews. Feel free to message me or respond to this post if you have any other questions!

Thanks everyone!

Hi! The PI just e-mailed me this morning to invite me to the interview weekend on Feb 21-22. And yes, it's the University of Washington in Seattle.

I feel the same way about developmental programs.