VulpesZerda

I somehow missed all the notifications for my own OP! I appreciate all the insight. So far I have not talked to the students about my concerns as a whole (I'm not the lead instructor of the course). As an update, I'm also frustrated with students emailing questions that can easily be answered from the syllabus, including my office hours and location. I know this problem happens to everyone, and doesn't go away. But I just can't stand it! Especially if I receive an email that combines the etiquette issue with the syllabus issue. Just venting...

So loving grad school in my first year might just be first year optimism? I have a feeling the lovin might be here to stay for me, though! I am really happy with how it's going and I think it's for a similar reason as piglet. I'm also 23, but, I've had plenty of worse situations in life. I'm finally doing something I enjoy, I'm getting paid to go to school, I live in a really cool town with great roommates... My program is seriously amazing, and I really click with my advisor. I even have free time to enjoy my hobbies and maintain a semi-long distance relationship. I'm not that stressed, but I am productive. TAing isn't fun for me, but that's the only thing!

How much do you guys hang out with your cohort? Mine is made up of 5, and 3 of us are in the same lab. We study together quite often. I usually never study with others, but I suppose it's been going fine. We all get along pretty well, which is great. I just get worried about stuff like group-think, negative thinking, or comparing to each other/signs of competitiveness (I never never want to ever do this, but it's creeping up).

It traces my field back to its German origins. Also, you guys mind find it interesting that someone branched a tree in theology with John the Baptist and Jesus Christ at the beginning.

I'm late to the topic, but I live in a house-share with 10 bedrooms, that has been a "student house" for years. 80% of our mail isn't ours...! We have a giant paper bag full of it and we make the landlord figure it out. We get bills, summons from the courts, postcards, packages, you name it.

All submitted! It only took 2.5 months for me to hear back about grad school apps, and that was hard for me. Hopefully these 5 months aren't too much torture. Good luck, everyone! Even if we don't win, we at least have some really cool ideas for research (I'm actually so excited about mine!)

Yeah, it's easier for some people than for others. I got extremely lucky that as you go up the tree the psychologists are more and more well-known. So I really trust the accuracy! But if one of them went into industry that would ruin the whole sequence.

That happened to me, too! My current advisor's advisor was the main inspiration behind my college thesis. She said I could meet him someday (which would be like meeting a celebrity to me)

Has anyone here ever looked into their academic lineage? I found academictree.org and was so captivated by what I found! I can trace back to the founders of my sub-field, and William James (father of American psychology). I can't be the only nerd who has done this? :-) Or maybe I am just a procrastinating narcissist?

I've been waiting on revisions for over a week! I could have submitted by now if only I didn't need assurance from a bunch of other people! Gonna have flashbacks to grad school app season while waiting... though it won't be quite as bad.

I was glued to the 2015 Social thread last year. I ended up with a couple of acceptances, so I'd like to "pay it forward" by offering to PM back and forth with anyone who has questions!

I have the same question! I'm most likely going to list it, though.

Just by my judgement, I'm intrigued by the winner's list from last year relative to my sub-field of Social Psychology. More of us must have applied because the winners for Social are way out of proportion with other subfields.

Short answer to both questions: no. I viewed the Psych GRE as a cherry on top that, if high enough, could set you apart from other great students. If you don't score well, reporting it might hurt you. If you do score high enough, it probably won't do much to attenuate your regular GRE scores. If it's not required, you have to assume it doesn't matter as much to that program as other materials do. Other thoughts - if you don't have a psychology background, I would say it matters more because it helps to prove your knowledge. And my disclaimer is that I never took the Psych GRE!

I have a first draft of both statements. Any experiences folks who might want to read and rip apart a psychology proposal?

Thanks, fuzzy!

I'm TAing for the first time in a very large intro course section. The number of students in the course is double the number of students I walked with at my undergrad graduation! Since my ug was so small, we had lots of help as freshman with things such as email etiquette, managing schedules, staying healthy, etc. (yes, a little hand-holding, but ultimately helpful). I don't believe my students have this type of resource since the school is so large. Anyway, some of their emails to me are basically atrocious. Some aren't the worst thing in the world, for example calling me Mrs. [Lastname] is weird but probably done out of caution in an attempt to be polite. Some emails have no greeting, read like a text message, and have no sign-off. I have lots of other examples, lol. Has anyone ever informed students of better email etiquette? How would I even go about it? Or, should I just let them figure this out for themselves?

Hi all! Am I way too late to start my application? I hadn't thought about doing this until I received an email from a faculty member who is going to help students and run workshops this month. I wouldn't want to turn down free help, but it's September and I have nothing yet. Seems really bad. Would it be a waste of time?

Very true stuff ^ It looks like you definitely have a good chance with all your experience and your clear research interests (just curious, what are they? I'm pretty familiar with the social areas at Stanford and UConn). Just be sure to carefully select your programs - I'm sure you're trying to work on that now. Find out if professors are taking students. If they aren't, save your money and send an app somewhere where you have a better chance. It really does involve a lot of luck. You have better GRE scores than I did but you also seem to have higher ranked programs on your list.

I didn't take it. I had 158 verbal and 153 quant. Some of my programs even recommended it, but none actually required it. I really, really did not want to take it for the same reasons as you. No time, no money, and already had a psych BA to prove I know the material. (Edit: this was last year's app cycle, and I got into three programs.)

I agree 100% with isilya, and I want to thank gellert for the head's up about the Pomodoro app. I've used it this week to get lots of work done!

Thank you both for your responses! I would go as far as to say the law of diminishing returns applies to grad school work. For me personally that means 11pm is the latest I can focus before my work turns to crap quality (aka waste of time and energy). And mental well-being is important! I once worked with a grad student for a few months who was very unhealthy imo. He never slept and I could tell because he would email me several times during my 8-hour sleep, then I would see him at 8:30am back in the lab, agitated, yawning, and guzzling coffee. Maybe if TT was my goal I would think differently about all this. It's hard not to analyze these things when you study health

Reading these responses has me horrified! I'm starting a MA/PhD program next week. I was hoping to do something like 8am-6pm M-F and maybe 6 or so hours over the weekend if necessary. Some students' schedules don't quite seem healthy in my book, but I study health so that could be why.

Maybe look into Ellen Langer at Harvard. Good luck!