moralresearcher

UIC had their interview weekend 2 weekends ago.

Typically, one does this BEFORE applying. But what I said was "Dear Dr. X, My name is [moralresearcher]. I am an honors undergraduate at [undergrad institution] and I am applying to graduate programs this fall. My research experience and interests lie in XXXX. I am very interested in your work on XXXX and am wondering if you are planning to accept graduate students next year. Thank you, moralresearcher email phone number

It could be that they aren't weighing their options, it could be that they're on a waitlist at a different program. Of course they aren't going to give up their admits to program A if they're waiting for a more-desired slot in program B that applicant X is holding onto until they hear if they're off the waitlist at program C that applicant Y is holding onto until they hear back from program D and so on. It's a giant domino effect that will sort itself out in time. Just chill. Yeah, the waiting sucks, and yeah, I want to be taken off the waitlist that I'm on, but I understand that I'm not the only person involved here, so I'm being patient. In the grand scheme of life, 4 months is really not that much time.

bump for this year I just got accepted to the social/personality psychology phd program and wanted to get as much info as I can.... I'm coming from the opposite side of the country with no experience with snow or cold (the high today is 75). How bad is it? I know previous posters have talked about towing and how it's mostly kept clear on the main roads, but what about residential streets? what is the weather like when it's not winter? what are the people like? what is the overall attitude there? any and everything you can tell me would be helpful. thanks!

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I spoke to my POI at SPSP and he said that they're still "in the thick" of applications and aren't ready to send out invitations, but they do have a short list (at least a partial one, anyway).

I heard from a current grad student that ASU just met this week to discuss their short lists.... I don't think they've set a date for recruitment weekend yet.

Yes they do. My advisor has a creepy, big-brother like tracker on our lab website so he can see where the traffic comes from and he's let me know that a few of my programs have been googling me.

I did my undergrad at ASU, so if anyone has questions, feel free to ask. Yes, the summers are brutal and the first 3-4 weeks of school, you literally melt walking to class (even wearing as little clothing as is socially acceptable--and practically naked is acceptable here), but after that it's really not so bad. It's actually beautiful in October/November and March/April. You never have to worry about shoveling snow or hurricanes or tornadoes or any other scary weather. Occasionally we'll have a really bad monsoon that'll do some damage, but that only happens once every couple of years. In my opinion, it is absolutely necessary to have a car, even though Michael Crow wants to convince everyone otherwise. Frankly, the lightrail just isn't expansive enough at this point, and relying on public transportation in the summer is just awful (waiting at the bus stop/standing on a crowded bus full of hot, sweaty, sticky people is really unpleasant). There are some cool cultural-y things... One is first Fridays. On the first Friday of the month all the local art galleries downtown open up and you can take the bus for free and there are tons of street musicians and street vendors. There are also local theatres downtown and tons of bars and stuff on Mill. Scottsdale also has good night life and you're an hour max from any of the sporting arenas (~1 hour to hockey and football, ~20-30 minutes to basketball and baseball, ~20-30 minutes to most concert venues), plus Gammage auditorium gets a ton of traveling Broadway shows every year if you're into theatre. As far as hiking goes, there are several mountains pretty close to campus (South Mountain, Camelback, etc). It's also really easy to head to Sedona (~2 hours North) for the day or the weekend and they have great hiking. You can head up to Flagstaff for skiing/snowboarding (~2.5 hours north) and there's the Grand Canyon, which is great any time of the year. There's also some pretty good hiking if you go into Tucson. You can easily do any of those trips in a day or a weekend. You're also only about 6 hours (by car) away from the beach/all the amusement parks in the LA area, Vegas, and Rocky Point. You're about 10-12 hours (by car) away from Denver/Durango, which are great places to cool off in the summer, or you can go ski in the winter.

Me too.

USC, Princeton, Northwestern, UIC, UC Irvine, WashU, SUNY Albany, FSU, Brown, and Cornell

I'm going. I have a poster to present at the last session. I applied to 10 PhD programs, focusing on moral decision making. I just graduated from a state school. I have 3 posters at national conferences on my CV (1 past, 2 upcoming) and a poster from a school expo, a 3.86 GPA, and a 1310 GRE.

Is the WashU admit hanging around anywhere? Who was your POI?

It's not necessarily related, but I had a guest speaker (in a non-academic profession but one that is prestigious) come into one of my classes yesterday night (seemingly straight from work) who had a visible 1/4 sleeve tatoo and stripper heels. While she was incredibly charismatic and intelligent, those things were slightly distracting in an academic/professional setting. I'm all about self-expression, but I think there is a time and a place where you are representing more than just yourself, and in the workplace is one of those times. That's just my $.02. I normally don't really care about things like appearance a ton, but I think looking clean-cut, put together, and professional lends a lot to your credibility.

I'm certainly no paleontologist, but I did watch a lot of Friends, and Ross was a paleontologist. I doubt the portrayal was what one would call "accurate," (especially since he spent an awful lot of time talking about anthropology) but for the sake of ease, I would just say, "Yeah, like Ross."

Princeton, for purely selfish reasons. If you turn down a Cornell offer, maybe I'll get one Who was your POI, if you don't mind my asking?

Sorry guys!!! Hope you have better luck elsewhere.

I just heard that recruitment weekend is the first weekend in March.

Short answer: probably (unfortunately). Long answer: maybe. If (like other posters have said) you can generate some interest in yourself, then someone may fish you out of the reject pile, but that depends on a lot of things, like whether or not someone with higher scores also generated interest in him/herself, whether or not the graduate college automatically rejects people with scores below 1000, if the professor is willing to take someone with scores that low (several aren't, especially at PhD programs. Especially competitive PhD programs). I would say study hard and take it again (but only if you are confident that you will score over 1000--one really low score might look like a fluke, 2 looks like you can't hack it). Also, beef up your research experience and apply to a master's program first, because it is very unlikely (not impossible, but VERY unlikely) that you will get admitted to a PhD program with scores that low.

She may not know. Professors don't always tell the secretaries things like that and if she knew, she probably would have updated the online status of your app. I'd say give it a few more weeks and if you still haven't heard maybe call then.

I applied, but I haven't heard anything. I'm not too hopeful for this one because the fit was a bit of a reach. I'm assuming I'm out.

You're welcome. If it makes you feel better, my advisor was on the wait list and was offered a spot on April 14th, so you never know until you know. Good luck!

Not necessarily. My advisor had been wait listed (unknowingly) at the program where he did his PhD--they called him on April 14th and said essentially, "someone dropped out and we want you, you in?" He said yes and the rest is history. Yes, it would be better news for you if you had been getting interview requests, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't get in anywhere. Plus, there have been a bunch of "denied after interview" posts on the results page lately, so there's no guarantee about anything.

ASU has sent their invites to interview weekend already (I didn't apply there, but I'm doing my undergrad here). It is possible that you are on the wait list if you haven't heard from anyone yet, but all first-pick interviewees have been notified already. Sorry. Edit: My gossip has been amended: only one person has been notified for sure, I don't know if the others have yet or not.

Not to sound bitchy or whatever, but if you have an acceptance to a school that would be a better fit for you (because they would actually let you do the research you wanna do), then you should decline this offer so that they can give it to the person that is currently praying for you to turn them down, especially since that's what it sounds like you're going to do eventually. I understand wanting to have options, but it doesn't sound like this offer is actually an option for you, but I could be misunderstanding what you're saying. Just my $0.02.

.....it takes two people to make (and, hopefully, raise) a baby. It's never easy, especially if you're factoring in the incredibly busy/stressful life of one or more academic parents, but it is valid to say that having children at an older age (especially after the age of 35) puts them at higher risk for Down's, CF, etc. and having them younger doesn't necessarily put them at a psychological disadvantage. My parents were 21 & 22 when I was born and I'm not screwed up (or any more so than anyone whose parents were older).