lacy627

I everyone! I am attending UNL this Fall

I should also mention I have a horse and having a dog is not nearly as complicated as having my horse. I have had her for 14 years and literally have taken her everywhere I have gone. She moved from Florida -> Alabama -> Pennsylvania -> Texas -> Germany (yes, you read right) -> to Florida again... and now she is going to grad school with me. It depends on your priorities though. My horse and dog are very high priorities and I make time for them. Other girls spend their little free time at bars or at the gym and their little stipend on clothes and purses... my free time and money is all spent at the barn with my horse and dog. It is what makes me happy and sane. Nature (even if it is a horse) is STILL cheaper than therapy lol. One really good alternative are dog enrichment centers (aka dog daycare). Most of them are between $15-30 a day and you can drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the evening and they get to play all day long with other dogs. Often times the facilities have large, outdoor dog park-like areas with a pool, toys, etc. I plan on bringing my pup 2x a week so she gets all her socialization and playtime. Between daycare and the barn she will be too pooped out to notice I am gone during the day.

I was surprised by two things. First, that a program that was originally on the very bottom of my list when I first started applying ended up being my top choice after I visited them. It was the very last school I applied to and I only applied to them because I was able to apply for free. The second thing that surprised me was to see so many of my super talented friends not getting accepted (and in some cases not even interviewed) anywhere.

First time applying as a senior undergrad with the following reviews: 1) VG, VG 2) G, F 3) VG, G Outcome: Not Awarded Reviewer 1 & 3 gave very positive feedback with hardly any comments about how to improve but reviewer 2 basically hated everything about the research project (perhaps I just had a bad luck with this reviewer??). It was a learning experience and I am excited to start work on improving my application for next year! Congrats to all the winners!

I had been planing on getting a dog as a graduation present for myself for the last two years (I use to do competitive obedience and agility and really missed having a dog). Planning ahead though is key for sure. If grad. students can manage having kids you can manage a dog easily. I graduated in December and got my golden retriever puppy Summer (now 5.5 months old) and did exactly what you said... I crate trained from day one, established a regular exercise routine, and attend many obedience classes. Since I have competed for several years in obedience I do most of the training on my own but take her to classes for the sake of being socialized with other dogs/people and having that second opinion about any potential concerns I might have with the trainer. I take her for a 10-15 min bike ride in the morning after breakfast and then she is pretty tired and just sleeps in her crate while I run errands or go to work in the lab. When I have to be out of the house for an extended period of time I just take her to the dog park for an hour or so in the evening and so she can get all the crazy out. A tired dog is a well behaved dog I recently just accepted my offer into a Ph.D. program at UNL and I feel confident that Summer will be totally fine by the time I start. By the way, I also found an apartment that contains a dog park on site, so maybe you can find one too... they are becoming increasingly popular Pets are natural stress relievers and antidepressants and that is something almost every grad. student is going to need! So I think having a dog is a great idea as long as you can time manage just a little. If you get a puppy the first 4 months are the hardest so definitely make sure you have those first 2 months to devote a lot of time to him/her... else wise adopting an adult dog is better since they typically are already trained, aren't teething, and don't have as much energy.

I feel both clinical, social, and developmental psych departments are sooo much faster at processing applications than cognitive. I know that cognitive has a pretty big application pool but there are so few results for cognitive on the results page. What is going on? Is the cognitive department truly slower than the other psych departments or are those applicants interested in cognitive just not as likely to post their results?