TenaciousBushLeaper

Thanks all. I actually had a big "eureka" moment (and subsequently rushed home to ssh into the university's computing cluster to work on it lol) regarding the one project that was worrying me, on my train ride home yesterday. I'm relieved I didn't tell my advisor that this might not be something I can figure out.

Due to multiple large scale projects going on right now for me, and the shear amount of learning (and the application of it) that has to take place within a relatively short amount of time, I'm wondering how do others determine what is considered to be a challenge and what is considered over kill ( maybe over kill is a bit of a loaded word ), so simply maybe "too much" given the circumstances (time, expected outcome) ? Currently I'm at the point where I see the potential that figuring this out has (the things that I'm faced with) but also wondering what if I never figure it out and I just end up spending x amount of time on it with no results to show?

Did not review the night before the GRE, in fact I stopped about a week before the GRE. I did however make sure I got the 8+ of sleep I usually need to feel...normal. And I also went for a run about an hour before the exam, not sure if there's anything to that or if just my superstition but running usually puts me in a more focused and "quick" state of mind.

I second this, I emailed a professor at Washington University in St. Louis (a few years back), and she replied with something along the lines of "expertise in my specific field is not necessary, what matters is that one has had quality research experience at the point of application". Of course, implied is "quality research experience in psychology, using tool X" where tool X is also used within the clinical program. But what exactly you do your research on, say you wanted to do fMRI work on depressed populations, then having done fMRI work on more general topics such as vision, emotion, or language for your thesis puts you in a very good position.

Before fixing the grammar, I'd say maybe try to go into a bit more detail in regards to your research experience. Maybe it's just me but I think you have too much of "why I want to get into program X" and not enough "this is why I would be a good candidate for program X". Those two may seem like the same thing but they aren't. Perhaps someone else could phrase what I've said in a more elegant manner.

I feel rather lazy right now, and so I won't answer the OP's initial questions but I just want to mention something I've realized. You don't need to be in a program that specifically states it has a quantitative psych tract to do quant work. Don't let titles limit your search! Good luck all.

Your interest seem a tad bit scatter. Within psychology, it is usually the case that if a lab does animal work, they usually don't do research on humans as well. I imagine this is so because if you're doing animal work, you now need to dedicate an entire lab to it. But now, what are you going to do with your human participants? Can't have them in the same room where you conduct your animal research can you? Anyways, in regards to cognitive neuroscience (a term you didn't mention but one that I will assume your interest fall within it's scope) if you're interested in speech / language & and how that relates to individuals with ASD, then you're probably going to want to look at labs that do neuro-imaging, that is, EEG, MEG, & fMRI. Usually these labs use one or two of the acronym tool soup i just mentioned, some even use all 3. Those are the main tools currently used for cognitive neuroscience (I should also mention TMS). If these terms seem alien to you, google them. Within the realm of cognitive neuroscience and studying ASD there are a ton of labs you can potentially look into. I myself am most familiar with cognitive neuroscience and cognitive science in general, and not "behavioral neuroscience" which at least to me seems like a term mostly used when doing animal research. I would suggest using google scholar or something similar to search for papers that peek you interest, read them, look at the universities and people associated with these papers and go from there. Also, look at the bibliography of these papers and repeat the steps above. EDIT Just wanted to add, you might want to take this time or spend an additional year beyond what you were initially planning on to get some research experience in a lab that best suits your interest. I do not say this lightly.

You're making yourself look silly, stop it.

Honestly no, not at all I'd say. Maybe they can give you a slight, very marginal up on others but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket. From my limited perspective, it's goes like this: is your GPA at a certain cut off point to show you're a good student in class ? If yes great that's something that will be more of less checked off as opposed to something that can be argued for in terms of admissions. For example I doubt professors will say "this student has a 4.0! " for someone with a 4 and weight that any different than for someone with a 3.5. Next are your GREs at the cutoff point? Read above. Now we get into the important stuff. How are your LORs? I'd say make sure you can get at least 2 very strong letters. By that I mean, letters from people you've worked for, who know you're a great student and will do their best to improve your chances as far as the LOR goes. Then, and I think these work together, what's your SOP focused on and what programs are you applying to? Is there one coherent story you're telling, does it make sense? How does it fit together with the research you've already done ? And what type of research have you done ? Lastly also very important and something we all have to come to terms with, there is A lot of variability, and a lot of things we just don't have control over. Small idiosyncrencies that play a roll in admissions so don't stress over those. Also so and I'm sure you already know but, make sure your prospective PIs are accepting students.

Suggestions for places to shop for clothes? (Men's clothes)

Someone should go run this study.

MRI image processing software: http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/ you can download functional and structural data : https://openfmri.org/ next step is to try to find a powerpoint online that walks you through the regular steps. For example, first you register, then skull strip, then motion correction, so on and so forth.

Hmmm, well considering my situation, I'm willing to give it a shot. As for my own state of mind and feeling safe or not, I've lived in Newark, NJ for several years, and while many people were robbed at gunpoint I was the lucky fellow who was never bothered (though, I like to think I also didn't do stupid things that get people robbed *cough walking around with your new phone like you're in safe suburbia cough* ). This in no way makes me impervious to being robbed, but least I know what to look out for.

Says Melville Park, though I don't know much (pretty much nothing) about the Boston area in general.

OH man, now I'm a little excited, I think I may have found a place, the guy even said he can work with me on the security deposit if I don't have enough money, and it's " VERY close to the T red line" going to check the place out tomorrow.

Will the commute from Dorchester to MIT be a pain?

Yea, I might be able to squander a little over 2k (In a desperate panic I am selling a few things), if all goes as planned, maybe about $2300. This is going to be a rough first month...

Does anyone know if all of the places around the boston area require first month, last month and a security deposit? I have to move there by the end of August and I'll only have a little over a grand...

My advice, get pdf of a typical calc book used for calc 1, and get another one of linear algebra(these pdfs are abundant online and a number of them are meant to be free). Start working through them like...right now up until the point when you have to make your decision. Once you're there evaluate how you've done. How far have you gotten into the books? Did you manage to work on problem sets every day? How was your motivation to do this? Also, I wouldn't recommend spending too much time on a trig prep, for most "early transcendentals" calc books you can do just fine with learning the trig as you go along, when and where you need it. Lastly, really evaluate your motivation to do this, you might end up doing not so well in your math courses simply because you aren't as motivated to do all of the required work, on top of the work your doing for your PhD. edit: by required work I don't just mean w/e homework is assigned (if it's even assigned). I mean that you may or may not have to do additional work, on top of that which is required to make sure you have the concepts down.

I'm not a grad student but this is the schedule of the grad student who works in the same cubicle as I do (in the same research lab). In the summer: gets here at around 9 am, leaves at 5pm, also works on Saturdays for about 4 to 5 hours. During the semester: The hours are usually longer since she usually has to teach a course, so you're looking at maybe 9am - (7:30-8pm). I'm assuming she does her reading and everything else that isn't data analysis at home since that's pretty much all I see her do here. Also comes in on weekends during the semester. Now you're thinking, can data analysis take that long? Short answer: Yes! Also, the following scenario is common: grad student: hands in results of analysis to advisor advisor: I like your ideas and what you've done, based on this, why don't you try analysis a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,..... Disclaimer: this may vary from lab to lab.

This won't help you now but in the future, if you're using Gmail, they have a feature you can use where you'll have to option to stop a message from being sent, this has to be within 5 minutes of you pressing send. Edit: it appears I was wrong, the maximum is 30 seconds to undo

They are both exactly within my field, & they are both doing the work I want to do.