alexis

-duplicate-

I know I'm just chiming in here, but I can probably direct you to someone at OU or tell you what I know. I'm not attending that program, but I've been working on a handbook chapter with my professor and the editor is Dr. Mumford (she went to OU for her PhD in I/O and he was her advisor). I've learned a lot about the program from my professor (who I think is awesome, and she clearly got great research training there. She just won a prestigious award for a publication on leadership that resulted from her dissertation, and she's very early in her career). They have a really strong program and I've heard good things. I can also share some other tidbits, let me know and I can PM you.

Since I've accepted the fact that I can't not think about PhD applications, I've started planning for next year's round of apps. Been researching a ton of schools (going from 3 schools/5 programs to a preliminary list of about 21 schools/programs) and getting excited about the prospects for next round. Granted, I don't know for sure if I'm out for this round yet, but by thinking about next year, I've kind of accepted it if things don't work out this time.

I attended the University of Nottingham for a semester, and have been to Manchester (but admittedly haven't spent a lot of time there, so perhaps I'm biased), but I definitely prefer Nottingham as a city. The campus is gorgeous, and the school does have a good reputation. I'm not sure if anyone in the US would really know the difference between the two unless they were fairly familiar with UK unis. But I enjoyed Nottingham myself, it's a good mix of a beautiful, large campus, but adjacent to a busy city with plenty of things to do. I am somewhat familiar with the visa process since my husband (who is from the UK) was looking for jobs here. I don't know anything about engineering management, but she would need to have specialized skills to have the employer be willing to sponsor an H-1B visa for her. On an F-2 visa (which I assume is because you will be an international student studying in the US with an F-1 visa), she wouldn't be able to work, and from my experience it is very, very difficult to get that H-1B visa. I don't think whether she attends Nottingham or Manchester will have any bearing on that; it's going to depend on having a unique skill set and an urgent need from an employer. They basically need to have a shortage of qualified Americans for the position before they will sponsor a foreigner. For now, my advice would be for your girlfriend (or future wife, if she'll be able to get an F-1 visa?) to go to whichever school/program she likes best and thinks she'll be happiest at.

You totally nailed what it feels like. As if someone inserted a drug in my veins whenever I think about the whole thing...and not a good drug. I think the only thing that keeps me sane and not feeling like a total failure so far is my professors' faith in my capability to be accepted to PhD programs. It's nice to have someone outside of yourself rooting for you (not including family and friends, since they aren't really knowledgeable about PhD admissions). It makes you feel like less of a crazy person for going after this thing. Of course, it is a small condolence after getting rejections, but at this stage, you take what you can get. And jaxzwolf--I just saw your reply after I posted this--wow, we sound like exactly the same person. *Sigh* I prefer to commiserate with people who are equally as miserable. Is that weird? Somehow it makes me feel better.

I've mentioned my experience in a couple of other threads, but long story short: did a year and a half long distance over the Atlantic, was very happy (though of course I missed him), he moved to the US to be with me, we got married, have been married for over 3 years, and remain very, very happy. Oh, and webcams = the way to do a long distance relationship (in addition to trying to see each other whenever you can). Don't let the naysayers tell you long distance doesn't work. It's up to you both as a couple. It CAN and DOES work for many of us.

I got my second rejection today (although I was already about 99% sure I would be rejected, way too competitive and not the best fit, I nearly didn't apply there, so...not a huge loss). On top of my first rejection though, I'm starting to get depressed about the whole thing. First: waiting sucks. Second: getting rejections, no acceptances, and waiting some more REALLY sucks.

Very cool. My school is presenting at SIOP this year on a study I'm currently a lab supervisor on (but unfortunately I won't be there)...I hope over the years we can start inching up that list

The waiting is killer, I don't know what it is, but once things hit February, I started to get super nervous/anxious. I called my one b-school program where I haven't heard anything from and they don't have many results on gradcafe. The deadline was Jan 15, and apparently they are meeting over the next 2 weeks and will then contact their top choices and send out interview invites, so it's looking to be the end of February. The other business school I'm waiting to hear from typically informs sometime in February; last year it was late Feb, so I'm trying to tell myself I just need to wait about 3 more weeks.

Went from being a history major to a field in business (though I will have a master's in HR). Did I mention I started out as a math major in undergrad?

When I logged in, where it gives you the summary, and says "submitted," below that the word "Decision" appeared in bold. However, it took a few hours (appeared at midnight) until a link was posted at the bottom of the page, where you could actually click and see the decision. It was all on the main page; I didn't have to go and click "check your application" or anything.

The way I received my first rejection was by checking my status on applyyourself...I never got an email notifying me of my change in status. (I did, however, get something in the mail a few days later. Great. Thanks for letting me know twice.) So every time I log on, I feel a little antsy, because if the decision is available and I haven't gotten an email, the answer probably isn't a good one.

Yup, I have one rejection, no admits. I've moved past it more quickly than I thought I would. Hopefully it will be the same for you. I've just written that program off in my mind (and removed any trace of it, including my internet bookmarks)--and think, okay, now I'm competing at 4 programs. I definitely sucks to get a rejection and then have a long wait to hear anything else. Gives you a lot of time to think about your plan B...

OB is organizational behavior (or organizational psychology, they are basically the same thing).

I'm currently getting my master's in human resource development, and I would recommend this route as a possible option (if you can find one with a good organizational behavior focus)...I'm currently a lab supervisor in our OB lab, and I've found it to be fantastic prep to do a PhD in the area. Quite a few of our classes have a psychology focus (and are actually housed in the psych department), so you get both the organizational and psych aspect in our curriculum. Personality isn't a huge part of the courses, though we do cover that in our organizational psychology class. If students were interested in that kind of research though, we have faculty who would be happy to advise them; there are a lot of opportunities to do independent research, and one professor who has done work with personality tests used as a basis for selection in hiring. (Okay, now I'm sounding like an advertisement for my program, and I do highly recommend it if you're interested, they also offer funded positions, but I guess my point was that HR programs can offer more than you might expect. )

I appreciate much of the great advice and support on here, I also appreciate socialpsych, since she (or he?) is in my field and really offered some great insights. P.S. I think fuzzylogician is female...I think there was a discussion on here awhile ago about how it's hard to tell genders and we do assign them based on our impressions...that would make for an interesting study!

On the advice of fuzzylogician and others, I did this with my SOP (my reasons were a bit different, it was because they updated the website with some new research after I submitted my SOP but before the deadline, and I wanted to include some new information in my "fit" paragraph). The admissions office was super nice about it, let me email them my new document, and they replaced that version of the SOP in my file.

I'm trying my best not to think about it. Although I got over my first rejection surprisingly fast (perhaps because I realized I wouldn't have been happy at that program anyway), I'm more seriously realizing the possibility that I might not get in anywhere. I feel like on the forum, there are the "cool kids" who've been accepted somewhere and the "not popular at getting picked for dodgeball kids." I am avoiding the cool kids (though congrats to those who have gotten acceptances and yada yada). I hope we ALL cross over to the cool kids side...but in the meantime...it's hard to be optimistic.

http://science-profe...al-writing.html The comments are interesting too.

Dear All Schools, Please accept me ASAP because I am awesome and the waiting sucks. Love, Me

Agreed- from what I understand, a 2:1 would be translated to about a 3.5. Closer to 3.0 is way off. I could see that maybe if it was a really low 2:1, but definitely not a high 2:1. I'm kind of surprised you have to get your transcript converted, I thought US universities were generally familiar with the British grading system, and since everything is already in English, it just really isn't necessary. UK schools also usually send an explanation for international students which explains their grading. Maybe you can try using another company and send those to your programs as well? Although it sounds like an expensive process, which is unfortunate. I never had to convert my UK transcripts so unfortunately I don't know much about it. It just seems really weird to me that the faculty will see your transcript, see that you got, say, a 68 in a course, and have NO IDEA what that means and actually think that is a 3.0.

I guess overall...I was just wondering, I'm starting to feel like my chances at psych programs aren't as good as the business schools, and I was curious what your experience was. So what you said makes me feel a little better (more optimistic)

socialpsych, did you have better luck with acceptances to business programs or social psych programs?

The reason I need to stop looking on here because seeing people at some of my programs get interviews is seriously depressing--so thinking about applications is just getting me down these days, since I'm starting to worry about across-the-board rejections.

Totally doable. My now husband, then boyfriend, did a year and a half long-distance when I was in the US and he was in England. (Though we did see each other every 2-3 months; longest we went was 4 months.) Agree with solairne and others. Biggest advice to anyone doing long distance: USE WEBCAMS. Seriously. Skype, MSN, whatever. We felt extremely close and connected despite the distance. Being able to SEE someone when you talk to them makes all the difference. The phone is bad; webcams, good. Set a time up every night (or whenever works for you) to chat. I know quite a few couples who have done this and I swear it is the best way to do long distance.