FinallyAccepted

Tour date

Why are you so stressed? I'm not in your field, but your stats look pretty good. You have some unique experiences and LORs from seemingly influential people. Your GRE Quant could be higher, but I dont know how important it is for MPA programs. If you dont make it in, it would be something you could work to improve, but don't stress. If you're still considering the above schools, what are your deadlines? Don't you need to start applying?

27 when I started it.

Trade school

True. I didnt feel like I was in the wrong, just saying that everyone prefers different things. In fact a different professor at the same university last year e-mailed me back to get more info about my research. So it must be a personal thing rather than a department thing.

The problem is that everyone is different. Some POIs applauded me for contacting them before applying, but others sent a form e-mail back telling me they were accepting students and that they wouldnt engage in any further communication in order to keep admissions unbiased. Knowing all the ins and out would be great, though. Boy, "etiquette" has never mattered so much.

Man! That results page and WashU Clinical... (Like the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones.) Sorry guys, I hope you have better luck with other programs.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. Harsh.

Can you invite out the youngins so they see you as a person to spend time with outside of the department? Maybe then, they'll start inviting you.

Have you tried looking specifically at the websites of grad programs you're interested in? Many of the schools I applied to had some sort of statistics about the GPA and GRE scores of incoming students. I don't know how Canadian schools differ from US schools in terms of how cutoff scores might be different. I bought a couple of different books. One was basically a book of sample math problems (Manhattan, I think). One did a good job of explaining different concepts (Kaplan?). I just divided up how much stuff I wanted to get through by how long I had to study. Add in a couple of sample tests, since those can be good periodic checks on your progress. I bought a pack of Manhattan flashcards to help with Vocab as well as reviewing all of the different roots of words. So I used a couple of different resources and just made sure to really spread it out.

That's what I'm saying. My GPA/GRE combo is usually higher than those numbers on the results page. So that should be comforting for people who didn't do as well (less comforting for me). Those numbers are not the only thing that's important.

The GRE is definitely not the most important thing. I have pretty strong scores, but this is my second application season. So for what it's worth, SOP and research experiences will be more influential in the overall application. You can look at the scores people report on the Results Search page. They won't always be the highest scores, but they'll give an idea of what people who get interviews are scoring.

How deeply do POIs look into LOR writers? If they're going to look into it that much, shouldn't they also see that the charges were dropped? I don't know that I would be too concerned about it, especially now.

I guess it all depends how much funding they have this year. I guess I just wouldn't get too cocky, yet. Be confident, because it's great you got the interview, but make sure you approach it like you are trying to show why you'd be the best fit of the 3.

Yeah, I definitely could have had more experience. In fact, I tried to reach out to one of my POIs 40 minutes away to see if I could do anything to help her in her lab. I maintained a part-time teaching position so I could leave early enough to be available to do anything in the lab. She must have sent my contact info to her lab manager/director because I started getting mass lab e-mails. Unfortunately, the monthly lab meetings were smack dab in the middle of the school day, and when I e-mailed the lab manager multiple times about ways that I could be involved (including the most menial grunt work) without being able to attend those meetings, I never got anything back. It was frustrating. It was a gamble I took, and I'm making less money this year because of it. I applied to work with the POI this year regardless, but that was one way I was hoping to boost my application this year. Now, I'm not so sure. We'll see.

Being a Stats TA should be fine, but without something else to outweigh the quant part, it could be problematic. Having LORs to that effect should help, too. I took the GRE twice, and the second time I did it at the end of the summer after studying for the test everyday after my students were let out for the summer. It was a lot of work. Not a fun carefree summer like I'm "supposed" to have as a lowly, lazy, greedy teacher.

Ditto for Indiana-Social Psychology. Thanks so much, guys.

For those with UCSB-Social Psychology "results page" posts, would you please PM me your POIs so I can figure out if UCSB is probably a no-go for me? I appreciate it. Congrats to those who've gotten interviews there so far. Exciting!

Well, social psych is a research-oriented field, and they'll want to know that you can analyze your data. A low quant score may not cause a rejection, but it could definitely be a contributor. Find a good test prep book or tutor, because some programs may have minimum cut-offs for GRE scores. If you don't get in this year, it would be something to consider.

Thats a really late one. Out of 11 schools for me, 8 were 12/1, 2 were 12/15, and one was 1/1. Although, for all that it seems like they look at apps in December, most might as well have a submit date of January 1st.

It sucks, and it could happen to me again this year, but getting shut out is not the end of the world. I'm still standing. You decide if it's worth it to apply again. If its not worth it, then it may not be as important to you as you had originally thought. I met quite a few people last year who were in the 2nd and 3rd times of applying. You did what you could this season, and now you have to see where it got you. If you need to do more next season, you will. Its like a breakup, it's raw initially, but you'll get over it and come away with a new understanding thats affects your next relationship. I'm a "glass is half empty" kind of person, so if I'M saying stay positive, then you can do it too.

Seriously.

Yeah, then try not to get too attached.

Yeah, people skills would have to be helpful regardless of what you do after earning a PhD. Speaking to individuals and speaking to groups, too.

I don't think it should affect your chances. Because you are not the only person taking care of your daughter, an adcomm shouldn't see that as an obstacle to your finishing the program, while they might have seen it that way for a woman in the same position.