radquish7

thanks for all of the help guys!!!!

Hello all, I'll be starting my PHD in Psychology this fall and was wondering if anyone had any advice on what type of laptop to get. I've narrowed it down to Macbook Pro...but not sure about all the details? how many GHz are enough? 13 or 15-inch? what is really the different between the macbooks that cost almost 2000 vs those that are closer to 1000 dollars? i am quite ignorant when it comes to technology and would appreciate any help. thank you so much!!!! -rad

if one is waitlisted at a program, whats the best way to show interest in the program in an email without creating an awkward situation? its been about 2-3 weeks since i last communicated with the school....

has anyone goten into/heard from harvard social psychology? -rad

by the way, my comment was a response to jacib, not the 2 posts after mine captiv8ted, i totally agree!

ok, so you obviously dont get it. thats the point...that class affects graduate admissions in NON CONCRETE WAYS. there have been studies in social psychology that show the effects of social class on choice...blue collar workers preferred products that allowed them to blend in with their peers whereas white collar workers preferred products that differentiated them from their peers. you see, class or (sub)culture if you will, influence our whole psychology and sense of self. that is what i was trying to say by mentioning that i didnt know how or even thought i could approach professors. social environment influences cognition. and the problem with graduate school is that because higher education has been associated and run by a fraction of society for so long (initially rich male whites), the very way it is structured leaves people out simply because it assumes a way of thinking already.

I agree, it is a hell of a lot harder, even if you have the objective criteria (GRE, GPA) necessary to be successful in graduate school (in any realm really), if you don’t have the social and cultural capital (the right social networks, and the knowledge to navigate those social networks) then it is going to be much harder for you to be successful in any institution. I for example, attended a very prestigious college because I was pushed my immigrant family to study hard and attain the right objective criteria to be successful. However, my parents position in society put me at a real disadvantage socially. Sure, I believe I have the capacity to be successful in academia, BUT its been a real struggle for me to learn the institutional ropes of academia. Things like how to reach out to professors, how to network…require a sense of entitlement that has been really hard for me to achieve and learn. (and is class specific)

congrats on your harvard acceptance, I suppose if we haven't heard back from them we should consider ourselves rejected? -rad

wow, im in exactly the same boat...I applied to Social Psych programs and am still waiting on the one school i was waitlisted at. I'm considering transitioning to sociology. what are your research interests? do you think that it is easy to transition in terms of presenting your case to graduate schools? (i have never taken one sociology course) I am also considering a social science masters...but with a more quantitative focus. i just dont want to dish out the $$$!

i'm so glad i found this thread, im from psych but we dont have anything in the psych threads like this! i really needed a place to wallow in my despair beat this: i got rejected across the board from all 13 schools i applied to, well, waitlisted at one school but im not letting myself get my hopes up.(it only makes the way down longer) now im in that horrible place of uncertainty/scrambling trying to decide what in the name of jesus im gonna do next year...job? masters? try and do more research for peanuts? i dont know about social darwinism, but this process certainly makes me think of cultural hegemony...anybody notice how the majority of grad students in the social sciences (within the ivies anyway) are white and have parents with summer homes? i feel like its so hard to prove to ad coms that you are worth their investment when you come from an underprivileged background and from parents sans social capital... -rad

Hi all, I believe I was waitlisted/accepted without funding at one of my top schools. I wanted to get some advice from you guys on self-funding the first year of the PhD. Is it considered a faux pas to fund yourself for a year through federal loans etc? Is this even possible, seeing as the program would have to agree to fund me the next 3 years? Is this something that is usually negotiable? thanks! rad

I applied to Social, and I have heard absolutley nothing!

Can someone post the link to the website with the decision? I haven't heard anything from Yale but am thinking I just haven't been emailed yet.. -rad

did anyone not get a yale rejection?

Northwestern already invited people to visitor's day...its next week