moralresearcher

Do you have a different offer with more funding? See if you can get your salary increased.

Private/Public also makes a big difference. I know UT's HDFS program runs just under 17k (9 mo), but Duke's social psych program offers 27k for the year. Both places have relatively equal cost of living.

Wake, William and Mary, Vandy. Wake and William and Mary fight over the title of best MA program in the country. If you go to one of them and don't seriously fuck up, you will likely get an offer to a top phd program. I know that most of the people who have come out of one of those programs in the last couple of years have almost all gotten into their top choice (or one of their top choice) programs. It isn't a waste of time.

You can see the people who add them to the list here.

Thanks!

UCLA (Social): January 10-12 Notre Dame (CBB/Dev/Quant): February 7-9, 2013 UBC (Social): Feb 7-10 Vanderbilt (Quant): Feb 14-16 UNC (Quant): Feb 15 UT Austin (Social): Feb 22-23 UT Austin (HDFS): Jan 24-26 Duke (Social): Jan 24-26 Phone/Skype/Conferences Notre Dame (CBB): December 7, 2012 Washington University in St. Louis (Social): December 12, 2012 Notre Dame (Dev): December 22, 2012 UNC, Chapel Hill (Social): November 1, 2012 (Unofficial chat) UT, Austin (Social): January 10, 2013 UC Berkeley (Social): January 4, 2013 UC Riverside (Social): January 7, 2013 UC Berkeley (Social): January 3, 2013 UNC (Social): December 18, 2012 Penn State (Social): January 14, 2013 University of Alabama (Social): January 18, 2013

I realize this probably makes me incredibly stupid, but I cannot seem to be able to check my status. I tried logging into the application (like for other schools, and it's saying "Access Denied-you can only submit one app per year". Can anyone help a girl out?

It used to be like that, but a few crazy people made it so that most places choose to interview first.

Nope, they still fund you for 5 years. The main point of getting an MA is that you then have 2 extra years to get published (so people coming in with an MA have 7 years of grad school instead of 5). Theoretically, you'll be almost as competitive as someone with a 2-year post doc in that situation, but you don't have to do the post doc.

It's the opposite. Also, your percentile rank is at least as, if not more important than, your actual number score.

Wake Forest (NC) and William and Mary (VA) both have funded MA programs in experimental psych. Also, ASU West's campus has a semi-funded MA program. I don't know what the whole deal is, but I think most people are at least partially funded.

For what it's worth, 4/6 of the students who are applying to PhD programs from my MA program have heard about interviews already--3 of us have official invites, one is unofficial, but zer POI said ze'd be getting the official invitation to interview weekend in January when the department sends them out. 2 of the 4 are for clinical programs, but I believe the interviews are department-wide. It's early but not unheard of that you can start hearing already, especially for schools that have interviews in January. UCLA, for example, has theirs the weekend before SPSP. I'm pretty sure they need to get that all sorted out before break. However, I also heard about interviews in mid-to-late February when I applied before, so there's quite a range, and half of the schools that I'm applying to aren't even at the deadline yet. Also, the two students that probably have the strongest apps are the two that haven't heard anything yet, fwiw.

It's pricey, but Mac is good. And I'm allergic to pretty much everything. Clinique is also good, but similarly pricey. Plus, both hold up better than most regular brands (i.e. Loreal, Revlon, etc) over the day and lead to less break-outs (although my conclusions about the breakouts are spurious because I didn't start wearing expensive make-up until after I was 20).

Also, they shouldn't be able to force a decision out of you before April 15th unless they aren't part of the Council or whatever it's called. Talk to the school where you're waitlisted.

Did you interview? If not, I'm pretty sure it's bad news you're waiting on--from what I could tell during the visit, they were only taking students who interviewed. And I do know for sure that Mary Murphy isn't taking students--she either has 2 1st years and a 2nd year or 2 2nd years and a 1st year and so will be waiting a year or two before adding anyone.

Movies: Stranger than Fiction- amazing. And the part about the "flours" is the single sweetest, most romantic things I've ever seen in a movie, plus, what's not to love about Maggie Gyllenhall? Stardust- Robert DeNiro as a cross-dressing pirate. Michelle Pfiefer as a stalker witch. Claire Danes as a star. It's amazing. 10 Things I Hate about You- "I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby." "I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you just be whelmed?" A Knight's Tale- brilliant. Hilarious. And gives me hope that I can "change my stars." Adjustment Bureau- much, much better than I was expecting. Anything by Disney/Pixar. Princess Bride- Best. Movie. Ever. Made. How this hasn't been mentioned yet is beyond me. TV Jack and Bobby- 1 season story about 2 sons of a history professor, one of whom grows up to be president. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- witty, fast-paced Aaron Sorkin series about an SNL-type late-night comedy sketch show starring Matt Perry (love!) that was unfortunately too intelligent for the average prime-time audience and only lasted one season. Castle- terribly witty crime drama about an author who follows around a hot cop in NYC to get ideas for his next crime thriller. Glee- well, duh. Big Bang Theory- makes me laugh out loud all the time.

You compute it the way you would any other. Divide the grade you got in each class by the number of credits it was. (i.e. an A in a 3 credit class & a B in a 4 credit class= (3(4.0)+ 4(3.0))/7= 3.42)

I've done a few posters, so this was my experience: The poster should be at least 36x50 inches. If they say you have a board that's 4x8 feet, don't make it that big. You'll look like a weirdo. I recommend designing it in powerpoint. I also recommend using [my advisor's name]'s patented 3-panel design. You make the poster as a single slide in powerpoint that has 3 equal-sized vertical rectangles that you then slice into 3 panels. The 3 panels can then be stacked on top of one another and rolled together to fit into a normal poster-sized case that can be put into a standard-issue roll-aboard suitcase, so you don't have to worry about this oddly sized poster holder in the airport. It probably will take you about a week to hammer everything out. It's really just a snapshot of your research and you should be able to knock out a draft in an afternoon. The poster should be formatted into bullet points. I'm not exactly sure what you're presenting, because I'm not in comm, but mine were structured as follows: Abstract (which was a paragraph), then intro, methods, results, discussion, conclusion. There was also a small box at the bottom that had contact info and acknowledgments. You should try to get some sort of image or graph of your data or something along those lines so it's not boring, but if you can't, that's ok too. The poster's title should appear at the top (in the center if you're going to be traditional, at the top left if you're doing the 3-panel design). Underneath this in smaller font should be the names of any authors in order of authorship (if you're confused about it, ask your advisor). If all authors are at the same institution, just put the name of the institution under the names. If the authors are at different places, put footnotes next to their names and then identify those people's institutions under the names. The poster can be in black and white or color. Color is prettier, but more expensive. Your call. You need to have a short (~2 minute) summary of the poster prepared. When people come to look, ask them if they want to just look or if you can answer any questions. You need to pretty much stay with your poster. If you have co-authors and they will be there, you can trade off. If it's towards the end of the session and no one is around your poster, you can leave for a short time to check out other posters. The presentation lasts as long as the session is. I'm not sure what you're presenting at, but there should be some sort of schedule. At conferences, poster sessions are about 2 hours long. If you would like, you can PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy of the poster I did for a conference in January. It was for social psych, not comm, but hopefully it'll help a little.

I would also go so far as to say that in a lot of cases, it shows a lack of willingness to prepare. At least, if I were a committee member, and I saw someone come in with a low score (meaning your percentile rank was below 50% ), I would say to my self either this person is not that qualified (see quoted text), a terrible test taker (which is not that desirable in a candidate, either), or didn't care enough to take some practice tests to ensure they'll have a respectable score and none of those are really a candidate that I want. I'm not saying that anyone below a 1200 isn't capable, but I am saying that they're less desirable than someone who can show up and perform and jump through the necessary hoops, so they'd darn well better have great letters and great research ideas and great everything else, even more so than the candidates that can jump through the hoops. The GRE is a part of the application that is largely under the control of the applicant and the score is largely a reflection of the effort s/he put into obtaining it. Sorry if that's harsh, but it's pretty true. **yes, I know that this doesn't account for people who have learning disabilities and such, but I'd say the majority of candidates don't have that issue and those that do can address it in their SOP.

Again, if you're just gonna turn it down anyway, let someone else have it sooner than later.

Definitely email the POIs before hand to see whether they're taking a new student. Include a copy of your CV. If you can, attend a conference. Extra points if you can present a poster. It's a great networking opportunity and it sets you apart from many other candidates. Remember that yes, it sucks to wait, but in the grand scheme of your life the ~6 months spent applying and waiting are like nothing. And yes, this is our career, and yes, we really want it super bad, but if you don't get in, life WILL go on. I promise. If you need to cry about a rejection, it's ok. But don't dwell. Don't bash the program or the POI on the internet. Don't be a child. Eat some Oreos, buy yourself some new shoes, and get on with your life. Don't bother retaking the GRE unless you are more than 85% sure you can raise your score by at least 100 points, otherwise it isn't worth the cash. If you're invited for an interview, familiarize yourself with articles that your POI cites often. This will enable you to speak intelligently about related topics. Have a few research ideas already prepared.

I asked my advisor this and he said that when he was on an adcom, they had this giant stack of paperwork to fill out for people they were rejecting. He wanted to do it after the first round of cuts, but that would mean having to do the giant stack of paperwork again for the next several rounds of cuts. If they wait until after pretty much everyone on the waitlist has either been accepted or cut, they only have to do the paperwork once, maybe twice. I don't know if that's how it works at other schools, but that's the way it is at my undergrad institution.

I don't see why it couldn't happen again--especially if not much has changed about your file from one year to the next. And a wait list is better than a rejection because it means you still have a chance, although to quote my grandfather, "Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." If you know the program has already sent rejections and you haven't gotten one, you're probably wait listed. If they haven't, you might be rejected outright or you might be on a list. You won't know until you know, so don't freak out about it.

Bahahaha yes. I have a thing for nerdy boys. I feel like this probably works to my advantage since I will be spending the majority of my life surrounded by nerds. And I think everyone has a desk fantasy about someone, right? And although it isn't the case of the OP, a lot of times just spending ALL YOUR FREAKING TIME with a person causes feelings to develop. The feelings are somewhat tempered when you stop spending so much time together.

If it wasn't your top choice, and you have offers from your top 2, why don't you just withdraw your application and pick one of those?