moralresearcher

I've been eating my feelings a lot. That rejection from Yale was most of a sleeve of Oreos, but I stepped on the scale a few days ago and realized that I've gained 5 pounds and was inching back up to the heaviest I've been (which still isn't very heavy, but 10-15 lbs more than I should weigh at my height), so I now limit my Oreo intake (hey, I still need comfort from SOMEWHERE) and try to eat apples or carrots or something instead. I recommend the sliced apples from Costco--they're pretty good. I also started a yoga class and that's helping me tone up.

I'm pretty sure there were 10,000 applicants to the GSAS, not just the psychology department. I think the psych applicants number in the hundreds, maybe 1,000, but I sincerely doubt 10,000 people applied to the department. If so, applying anywhere is practically pointless (assuming other programs have applicant pools anywhere near that high) when you consider most cohorts are 20 or less.

So I heard rumors that Yale was supposedly sending out all their decisions last week, but there have been like 2 posts on the results page lately, so I'm wondering if anyone has heard anything?

Also, average # of pubs by advisors and their respective students. Do those advisors let you take first authorship (if you deserve it)? Also, has anyone recently gotten a long-term grant? Do you want to be working on that project for the next five years or are you luke-warm or not interested in it? Also, how many grants do your advisors normally get? Age of advisors. I've heard (anecdotally) that pre-tenured advisors are usually more productive than post-tenured advisors because they have something to lose. Also, evaluate whether or not you think it might be likely for them to leave before you matriculate. Size of the lab you'll be in--will it be hard(ish) to get face time with your advisor because s/he is constantly meeting with other advisees? Will you have enough undergrad minions to help you run your studies? (I'm not entirely sure how sociology research is run, so that may be a nonissue). Also, if you are going to be studying the convenience population of students at that university (again, not really sure if sociologists typically do this), are there enough?

Interviews happen before you're officially admitted. Recruitment is for people who are already in to come check out the school.

Have you heard anything about Linda Skitka?

He said maybe, but I decided against applying because it's hard enough getting in when people are definitely taking students. I didn't need any more obstacles

Haidt isn't taking students.

hi everyone, I've noticed posts about Cornell, Yale, UIC, and WashU on the results forum recently--are those posters around anywhere? If so, who were your POIs? Thanks!

As far as I know, the difference between getting a PhD in business and in psych if you're studying the same (ish) thing, is that psych PhDs can get jobs in business schools, but business PhDs don't usually get appointments in psych departments.

Are the Cornell interview and Yale admit hanging around anywhere? Who did you apply to work with?

Yes, you would be correct. Any word from either of them? And I would not be opposed to collaborating with you someday--apparently you have interesting interests =)

Crap. Those were the people I applied to work with. Don't take it personally, but I pretty much hate you. Thanks for letting me know though.

Is the person with the K-State interview around anywhere? I was wondering who you wanted to work with.

Lucky!!!! Way to go!

I think I have decided to take some graduate stats courses and try to get a paid position in a lab (hopefully my advisor gets the grant and hires me on that). I'll probably also volunteer in another lab to get more experience and maybe do follow up studies on my thesis (depending on how the data work themselves out). Running away to a beach in Mexico also seems like a good plan.

I hope for your sake you made that abundantly clear.

This could be my entirely anecdotal and naieve experience, but I thought one of the main goals of doing a PhD was to publish, not only your dissertation (eventually) but lots of other things. Especially if you want a TT position at research school (I do) sooner rather than later. Also, you're expected to publish lots of things while teaching undergrads, because that's what you'll be doing as a professor. I think that even though a dissertation may not be top notch when it is first written to fulfill a requirement for matriculation isn't such a big deal (I've heard people say "it's good enough"), as long as you revisit things later and revise it for publication. You're faced with (somewhat of) a time crunch with your dissertation--you can only do so much data collection and so complex a study in a prescribed timeframe, whereas if you just get it done, you can come back to it, get more data, revise your methods, and have more interesting/important findings later. Again, I'm still an undergrad and have a very bright shiny view of how wonderful everything is and how much fun it is to sit in the lab and run ANOVA after ANOVA and factor analyses until my eyes hurt, so I could be totally off base here.

Good spin!

Dear Schools, (Desperate, whiney Meredith Grey voice) Pick Me. Choose Me. Love Me! Hopelessly devoted to you, moralresearcher

I don't know about this forum or facebook (I'm pretty unsearchable on their anyway), but I do know that after I emailed people asking if they were taking students, there was some unusual activity on my advisor's lab page (he has a system that tracks where the IP address originated from)--and if you google {my name}+{my university} the lab page is the first thing that comes up--I emailed people at Yale, and strangely enough that same day there were visitors from New Haven. I don't think it's coincidence.

This is hilarious. If you had sent this as an addendum to your SOP and I was a professor, I would have admitted you on the spot lol

I'm more surprised it's not also: Conservative Christian: So you want to marry a preacher? My interesting stories Realtor: So what are you studying? Me: Psychology, but I want to go to grad school to study moral decision making and social psych in general and become a professor. Realtor: You must not have gotten out much in high school. Person at my church/my dad: What do you want to study? Me: Moral decision making. I want to understand why people decide to do things they know/believe to be wrong. Person/dad: you don't need to study that--it's sin nature. But my main go to is: Person: What do you study? Me: Psychology Person: so you want to be a therapist? Me: No. I have no patience/sympathy for crazies. I want to do research. (this response precludes them asking me to psychoanalyze them/their m-i-l/their dog/whomever)

I love this idea. Pretty sure it violates FERPA though lol. I definitely plan on posting my decision and probably any acceptances (should I get in) because I have a lot of family and friends who I don't see very often (but did see at Christmas or whatever) who are abreast of the situation (and have heard me complaining about random dreams, stressing, and completely freaking out about apps) and would want to know some good news. I don't have any fb friends that are applying to grad school this year, and even if I did, none of them are in my subfield, so it's not like I'd be all "nah nah nah nah I'm better than yoooouuuu." Besides, FB's status thing asks what's on your mind, and any acceptances would DEFINITELY be on my mind.

......I'm guessing you don't have any work friends on Facebook then.