isilya

It does matter to some reviewers, unfortunately. When I applied last year as an undergrad all 3 of my reviewers mentioned lack of publications being a negative for my application. And that was as an undergrad!! So it probably depends on who you get as a reviewer.

Last year I got the email notification at 2:55AM, so it coincided pretty directly with the end of maintenance.

How's the new semester starting out for everyone? I'm writing a conference paper with my undergrad PI which I'm super excited about, but I'm also feeling pretty stressed because it means I've been neglecting the projects with my advisor here :/

I know it's hard, but you need to talk to your PI about this NOW or it will become a persistent issue. Your advisor will have suggestions for where to get started for learning statistics. The earlier you address this problem, the better.

Is anyone else feeling sort of overwhelmed already? I really like what I'm doing so far but I have this nagging stress in the back of my mind that I'll move too slowly on research and fall super behind. Also, everyone in my cohort is significantly older and more experienced than me and I feel like a stupid little kid...

I believe working insane hours is not only bad for your mental and physical health, but also isn't even that productive. I've had days where I got much more done in 8 hours of productive work than days where I work for 12 hours. Being constantly tired and burned out is not a good idea for a PhD - it's a marathon, not a sprint. I haven't started my program yet, but this last year of undergrad I worked between 40-50 hours per week completing two honors theses and multiple grad classes every quarterquarter in addition to my undergrad coursework. It's all about efficiency.

Thanks for the detailed response, that was super helpful!!

Great so far!!! I moved across the country a couple weeks ago and I've been getting acquainted with the city and my labmates. I also have some new projects going that I'm very excited about!! For some reason almost everyone in my cohort isn't arriving until this week even though our orientation is already on Thursday. I'm excited to meet them all (I know a couple of them from interview weekend but for the most part I don't know anyone). Excited and scared for classes to start next Monday!!

Out of curiosity, how did you get these side data analysis jobs? That's something I'd be interested in but I have no idea where to start.

I also have a question about LORs. I'll have two good ones -- one from my undergrad thesis advisor, and one from my new PhD advisor. But I'm stuck on who I should ask for the third. My other two grad school application letter writers aren't super relevant to the research I'm doing now (plus I'm not on good terms with one of them, long story). Should I pick a different undergrad professor? A new grad school professor who doesn't know me that well? I'm torn...

Nope, not tied up at all! As far as I'm aware, the only time you have to notify a change of research plans is if your primary field completely changes, which is unlikely. Actual fellows should respond though

Get more research experience this year!!!!! That is the number one.thing you can do to improve your application. You might want to improve your Q more since you're applying to math programs, but do not prioritize that if it means doing less research.

What kind of program is this for? Seems like psych, but is this a Masters? PhD? What subfield?

Yay I'm so excited!! Earlier today I did all the boring stuff -- filling out the easy bits of the application, uploading transcripts, etc. Now time to attempt to remain calm and craft the most kickass statements possible!

Seconding Jay's Brain, most vision labs use Psychophysics Toolbox for MATLAB. Another thing that I see some people use for stim presentation is psychopy for Python. Python is pretty easy to pick up if you already know another language. R is amazing for statistical analysis, and it's the only thing I use for analyzing data. However, you should ask your advisor what they use, because if they only use, for example, SPSS, you should probably learn that instead of something else.