FinallyAccepted

Not that I applied at Berkeley or anything (just out of curiosity), but when you say "ones with a high rating are passed on to professors," what constitutes a high rating? All that meet a certain threshold for GRE, GPA, etc.? The top n (10, 20, 50...) applications per professor on these scores? Feeling of fit with a lab?

When I was looking around at different programs for social psych, it seemed that there were a number of universities where my SOP actually had a dual position in the psychology and business departments (i.e. Northwestern, U of Chicago). Maybe schools like that would be good for you if you're not sure exactly which route to go.

I'm sure it will depend on which area of psych people are applying for. For some of the most popular subfields, space is limited, so applying to more schools might just increase very small odds. I actually AM one of those people who applied last year, but didn't make it in. I applied to 9 last year. I applied to 11 this year. I'm applying to all social psych programs.

If it would be worth going there EVEN without that professor, maybe you rewrite your SOP for whoever IS accepting students. You could maybe mention specifically a desire to collaborate with that professor, even if he wouldn't be your primary advisor, and the other professor as your primary and why. I had a professor this year tell me she wasn't sure if she'd take a student or not. It will be based purely on whether there is an applicant who is so perfect for the lab that she can't say no. No pressure there.

Sorry, those two parts were separate. First, as a rule, I'm applying more (frequently) with less established (earlier career, only had a couple grad students so far) POIs whose research is really interesting. Second, I was responding to the two specific POIs that someone had asked about. I certainly didn't mean to offend by denying these esteemed researchers their due recognition. Oh no, Major and Gawronski are setting my sights pretty high. Although when applying to Social Psych, there's really no such thing as low sights, really.

Yeah, the PhD program search is made much more interesting when you're not the only one affected by the move.

Thanks! That's what I'm hoping for: a disappointing rookie year and an outstanding sophomore one. I do feel more confident, so we'll see. I'm not sure how the various programs feel about students who already have a masters (not that I got the masters to get out of classes, necessarily). This year, I decided to apply with more innovative, less established/well-known POIs. I'm more excited about the professors this year than last year. My fingers are definitely crossed. UT - Bertram Gawronski UCSB - Brenda Major

Who is your POI at Stony Brook?

I'm in the process of applying to: UCSB, IU, Iowa, KU, Tufts, StonyBrook, UT Austin, Oklahoma State, Miami of Ohio. Still waiting to hear back from WashU, Tulane, Northwestern & UC Boulder. VulpesZerda, are you currently an undergrad? Good luck on the GRE.

Last year (yes, I got fully rejected and am back for Round 2 this year), someone started a Social Psych specific topic within the Psych forums which was kind of nice. It ended up really handy when interview invitations started to go out, because many people had better insight than I did about when to give up on a school if you hadn't heard anything yet, advice about what questions to prepare for in interviews, etc. I'll start. I'm Shana from the midwest. My undergrad is in Social Studies ed. with a minor in Psychology ed. This is my 8th year as a high school AP Psychology teacher. Three years ago, I decided that I wanted to do something more psych research oriented and went back to get my masters which is what I now have (MS in General Psychology). I'm really interested in intergroup relations and prosocial behavior. Like I said before, I applied to 9 schools last year, and got rejected from each- so at least I've experienced that initiation. Others on GradCafe told me it wasn't that uncommon not to get in the first year. (In fact my favorite rejection was from Penn State. It was an e-mail with the subject line "PSU decline." No anticipation of opening that one.) I'm reapplying to a select few of those same schools, and going in other directions for the rest. I have't quite decided where all to apply, as I'm still contacting POIs at different schools. After last year, I cast a VERY wide net and made some changes to my qualifications. Fingers crossed that this is my year... Who else is looking to get into a Social program? Where are you looking? With which POI(s)?

Now I was not on the reviewing end of this application process at all, but my understanding was that applications are not reviewed at all until the deadline lapses, which means that in theory, it shouldn't matter when you apply as long as you do it by the deadline. Now in some cases, your LoR writers may not be informed by e-mail until you have officially applied, but even then, they've probably already written your letters so it wouldn't matter exactly when they got the e-mail to attach the letter that they've wriiten about you. The only way I could see it hurting is if something changes in the period of time between when you've applied and when the application is due. If you apply in October and win an unforeseen award in November, it's not part of your CV or your SoP or your application in general (or you get notification that something IS going to be published after all...). Now I don't see that as a huge problem, and I'll probably end up submitting this year's applications early as well, but it's something to think about. You said you heard that it may actually help? In what way might it help to get in your applications that early (because it sure would be nice if it did)? Thanks

That "5 month extended waiting game" is awful. I applied and was rejected last cycle, and I had all of my applications done by mid-October. I did it for my recommenders (one was moving soon and one was getting ready to give birth), and it was agony waiting. If only being an early bird got you THIS worm, huh?

I'll be honest, I wish the GRE factored in more. Haven't been contacted by ANY schools, but my test scores were good. Everytime I see someone on the Results Page with lower scores and lower GPA getting interviews, a little part of me dies inside. I must have just BOMBED my Personal Statement or something. I'll probably never know either. I want feedback on my applications, but I don't think I can get that...

Most recent posts are towards the top. You can see when someone last replied I each forum on the right side. If you go beyond the first page, you won't see forums that are as active.

FYI, you're responding to a post from 4 years ago. They might not still check the site.

If you posted UC-Boulder Social psych interview invite on results page, could you please PM me your POI?

Have all UC-Boulder invites for Social gone out?

Could any of the people posting info about UMass-Amherst interview invitations PM me your POI? Appreciate it.

This is the e-mail I got back from the grad person at KU. I sent an e-mail 1/17: I was told the Social will have their interviews at the end of this Month. That is all I know now. Letters will go out as soon as I get the final decisions. Thank you, Cathy O'Keefe Psychology Dept. Graduate Officer SONA Administrator

Way to go! Where at?

You could try to communicate that to the psych department, because if they require THREE letters, then technically the application is incomplete, right? Could you have asked someone else to write letters for you? I'm not really sure how to deal with a recommender who's gone rogue.

On the website, it said we could request an interview with a faculty member we're interested in if we're NOT applying for the clinical program. I e-mailed my POI and the impression I got was that she hadn't finished looking through applications yet. Since the deadline was later than for other schools, I wouldn't freak out yet about not hearing anything.