TenaciousBushLeaper
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Posts posted by TenaciousBushLeaper
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WOW! I honestly did not imagine this thread would get so many responses. Thank you all!
As for me, I plan to apply to Quantitative Psychology programs so that is sort of my "out" and "in" . I find mathematics courses to be my favorite and the consequently the easiest once I understand what it is the math is saying. -
As a psychology major who's taken a fair share of mathematics courses, and who spends most of his time doing problem sets from different probability/statistics/analysis/algebra books as opposed to actually reading the material for my classes I often fantasize about making a what I imagine to be dramatic change over to mathematics/statistics.
I'd like to hear about stories of people who've changed over to mathematics from various disciplines, if only to romanticize about the prospect a little longer.
Any and all stories shared would be greatly appreciated! -
Balding seems to be more pronounced each passing day.....
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I'm wondering if the responses only reflect PhD offers, curious about the no's.
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I think it's great that you'll be able to start on your project before classes start. Even if it means just getting starting on reviewing all the relevant literature. I think you'll be thankful that you did once classes get going.
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YES TO ALL OF THIS! I thought I was 100% certain but now I am completely unsure of which of my top two programs to choose. Having the schools ask where else you have been accepted makes it harder too - as soon as I told each school where else I was accepted I received many long emails and requests for phone calls from differnt faculty where they told me why their school was better. ITS SO HARD TO DECIDE! and I am scared that I will make the wrong choice.
I definitely recommend contacting current students though - all the students I have talked to have been really honest and have given me great inside information that will help me in which ever school I choose. I even used info from one student about the TA assignment process to ask about how likely it was that I would get the assignment I wanted (with a popular Prof) and that assignment has been promised to me along with an office in the lab that I want.
Are any of you finding that other peoples opinions and advice are making your decision harder and not easier?
Finally, I guess we should be lucky that we are in this position to be choosing between programs - I hope that everyone who dreams of attending grad school will get to live that dream
I call for a name change, from Coach04 to FirstClass04
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Absolutely.
I've recruited some friends to a beer and pro/con list making session on Saturday. I'm too overwhelmed, I need some help.
I need this, both the friends and the alcohol.
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Oh and I hope my other comments aren't confused with any opinions but as uselesstheory mentions above learn how to see through all the tricks on the GRE.
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Take all the maths alllllll offffff themmmmmm. <----biased opinion here. But honestly, take all the math you can stomach while prioritizing stats/probability(by this I mean if you're going to take a bunch, take any stats/probability first). Also, like anything else, your performance on say the GRE will depend on how much you've practiced / your exposure to math(if this is something you're thinking about).
My honest advice is not to practice for the GRE per say, but to increase your exposure to mathematics (maybe taking a bunch of math courses is one way to do this). Make it a daily habit to solve say, 10 "word problem" math questions that involve mechanics based knowledge and problem solving skills.
Oh and I hope my other comments aren't confused with any opinions but as uselesstheory mentions above learn how to see through all the tricks on the GRE.
Here are my other opinions on some potentially useful courses: calc will improve your algebra skills, so I guess it won't hurt, & it may not be a super useful course but i think it provides great exposure to "math based thinking". ALSO, if you plan to take a probability & statistics course it will most likely involve material from calc 1 through calc 3, a simple example are problems involving cumulative distribution functions, where you'll need to know how to integrate and differentiate(things you learn in calc).
Take linear algebra, multivariate statistics is linear algebra(to an extent).
If your'e up to it, consider a course such as discrete math or a foundations on proofs(or something to this extent) course. The reason I mention these courses is because you'll learn how to define terms mathematically, you'll learn how to think through problems in a specific way. You'll learn how to interpret many types of problems which you may have had problems with beforehand. -
People aren't numbers and can't be modeled by numbers.
Hearsay! Mathematicians do it all the time.
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I wasn't trolling. If you check my first post, you'll see that I offered a genuine comment about how being a college senior and being a 1st year graduate student may seem similar now but may not once one is actually in graduate school. I have yet to see anyone take up that aspect of either my comment or the original post. It has occurred to me that this could be a disciplinary difference and perhaps the first year of psych grad school is like being a college senior. If someone could address that, I'd actually be interested now that I'm mulling it over. It would certainly be helpful to the students I talk to who are concerned that grad school will be much harder than what they've done thus far. If there's concrete evidence that, at least in psychology, taking one grad course in college and taking a full load of grad courses as a 1st year grad student is the same, I'm sure many (both here and who I advise) will be grateful and relieved by that information.
Honestly...just no. But if that's your take away point from this then so be it. I'm sure no undergrad here would say "the work i've done as a senior is the same as the grad students in my lab". HOWEVER, just because the undergrad isn't doing that same amount of work doesn't mean he/she isn't capable of it, if put in that environment(maybe they already can but just don't need to yet? hence development). If I were solely talking about the obvious advantage of experience (by this I mean being a first year grad student and having those experiences) then I would more clearly see your point but I'm not just talking about experience.
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You asked if there was a significant difference between a college senior and a 1st year grad student. My answer has been, and will be, that yes, there is (or, if there isn't, there should be). College seniors do coursework and go home. They may participate in a research project on the side or work as a RA but that is not the same as being a graduate student who is expected to be working on classes and research for 40-60 hours each week. The rigor is different. The expectations are higher. I took grad/undergrad courses in grad school and the graduate students were always expected to do more work and to do so at a higher level. Regardless of what you may think, it is different because you will be graded differently.
What I meant in my post earlier is that you seem insistent that there is no difference. If there really were no difference, then all college seniors would be encouraged or even mandated to take graduate courses before completing their bachelor's. Or, the first year of grad coursework wouldn't exist because it'd be assumed that everyone covered that with the same rigor in college. Neither of those exists currently at most US grad schools, which is why your assumption is faulty. That you insisted upon it even after I said that my experiences as a grad student directly contradicted that and after your have an advisor suggesting otherwise indicated to me a belief that you know better than everyone else. If you want to now say that's not the case, that's fine. But, you posted here to question the advice given to you by an advisor and you posed your question to other applicants, rather than other faculty where it might be better directed. I thought I was being helpful as one of the more senior members of this board who has BTDT in terms of grad school but I can now see that wasn't what you were looking for. It strikes me that perhaps you just wanted people to affirm what you've already decided about the utility of graduate courses, about your advisor's advice, and about the lack of differences between college and the first year of grad school. I wish you the best of luck in whatever path you pursue. I do hope though, that you don't tell people in whatever grad program you go to that there's no difference between being there and what you did as a college senior as people may not take kindly to hearing that.
I'd rather you not assume my opinions & then outright state them to be mine.
Maybe the problem is, it seems we have completely different opinions of what *I* mean by an undergraduate senior in this context. What you apparently know I mean and what I know I mean are two completely different things.
Also right, because there not being a significant difference in the development of a student(let's say intellectually) from senior year in this context and the first year of graduate study for that same person immediately means I'm equating the sum of activities and workload encountered in the first year graduate school to the sum of activities and workload seen in one's senior year.
& Ok, if the work I've done in my graduate courses really isn't graduate work since as you've said they're graded differently no matter what I may think, then why does it matter?
And for the record, I don't just take classes and go home, I spend at least 20 hours in my lab on a weekly basis, but I'm not going to go into detail about why I'm am or am not this or that.
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I'd be totally the same way. I took courses as an undergrad. I don't think it did me any favors trying to get into grad school. The one exception might be statistics? Anyway, I'm not sure I'd leap at the opportunity to take those grad courses either because I assume you'd have to pay for them yourself?
About the money thing, no, full time employees(which I would be) of the university get full tuition remission.
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I disagree having been an ambitious undergrad planning to go to grad school and then, a few months later, being the 1st year student sitting in multiple grad seminars. But hey, it's good to know that you already know it all, TenaciousBushLeaper. Since you do, why even ask the question?
So I'm going to act like I don't speak *this* language and just say, I'd be very afraid if I knew that I knew it all(whatever that may mean). Ok...anyways, I ask because I've sort of been pressured to take the two graduate courses I've already taken, & even though I'm graduating this May, I'm still being pressured to take more graduate courses (if I were to decide to stay at my current university as a lab tech).
Maybe most people looking in on this situation would think I'm an idiot for not immediately jumping on this opportunity, and maybe my advisor is just trying to look out for me but I'm not entirely sure I'd want that(for reasons other than me not wanting to take on graduate coursework). & You know I'd be nice to get different opinions.
Also, given your response, I'm not sure what you think the things I've said in my post imply but, just putting it out there, whatever that may be, they don't, they don't at all.
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This line made me laugh. There should definitely be development between the two. That you can't imagine it is your problem and one you should remedy. To be honest, it's something you might not see until you are a first year grad student and start looking around at undergrads.
Probe your professors about why they think it looks good to have taken graduate courses as an undergrad.
Hmmm, maybe I should have been more specific. I can't imagine such a significant difference between an undergraduate, who is a senior, who is serious and plans to pursue graduate training(towards a PhD) , and a first year grad student.
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It does help, or I should say it is almost assumed. I have taken 7 graduate courses (4 psych 3 stats) during my undergraduate career.
No school requires you to take graduate courses, but it is one of essential part of your undergraduate training if you want to get a deeper understanding of specific research topics, which will lead to develop research interests that you would pursue in your grad school.
If you've interviewed for grad school admissions already, were these courses brought up during the interview?
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Question for my fellow psychology majors, what's your take on graduate courses as an undergrad. Do you think it really helps you when applying to graduate schools? Who has taken graduate courses, and which ones? Were they strictly graduate courses or upper level undergrad/grad mix. To those already attending, or those that have had some experience or have inside knowledge of the admissions process, how heavily are graduate courses weighted or considered?
I guess I'll start: All the professors I've asked said it "looks good" on the transcript. I've taken two graduate courses which were strictly graduate courses that I had to get special permission to be in. Both were methods based courses for cognitive/behavioral neuroscience(focusing on stats, FSL, AFNI, computational modeling,fMRI).
Honestly I don't see how it would "look good" or look any better than performing well on any other relevant course. I mean I can't imagine there to be such a significant jump in the development of a student from senior year to the first year in graduate school. -
That's not what the question means. It's asking how many integers in the set {100, 101, 102, 103, ..., 499, 500} (assuming inclusive) are divisible by 11.
Is the actual wording then "The number of the integers" as opposed to "The number of inetgers" ??
- TenaciousBushLeaper and Marst
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I would like to ask for some clarification first.
This is what I got from your post; you want to look at heterosexual attitudes, dependent upon some factor(s). Which factors exactly? When you add in "as well as if there is a relationship between..." it makes me think these "as well" things would/could be factored in as covariates. What are these "various factors" you want to look at? -
Phew!
The biggest reason why I went the non-clinical route was because my GRE Q was garage and I thought it would lock me out of all clinical programs.
But have you already accepted an offer for a non-clinical program?
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The lab manager in the lab I'm completing my undergraduate studies is a dick. I get this vibe that he think's he's above me and another undergraduate in the lab. He once asked if participants(for a study) I had in mind, were documented(here legally), simply because they were non native english speakers. His account as hacked and he immediately assumed it was me. LKJDLSKFJDSLKFJLEKJF ......I enjoy the people in my lab, everyone EXCEPT for him and worse of all he might be a graduate student in the lab this coming academic year.
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I started undergrad in psychology, and will graduate two months with a BA in psychology. I've wanted to switch over to pure math for so long, which is why I've taken / still take mathematics courses just to satisfy my math itch, to which professors are always like "why are you in my class?"
If I had switched to math, it probably wouldn't have changed my trajectory for(wanting to pursue) graduate studies in either quantitative psychology, or cognitive neuroscience. -
Thanks for the info and good luck! :-)
Like wise, good luck!
UPDATE: not really much of an update but, a CV/Resume was not requested on the application yet, today I was contacted, the program asked for a CV/Resume. I'm sure I'm over thinking this but either it means, 1. they forgot to add this to their application or 2. I'm a borderline candidate and they wanted more information.
Also, question the program you mentioned, I checked out the website and it looks like they are more bio heavy(compared to some other programs), is a more bio based area, one of your areas of interest?
Venting Thread- Vent about anything.
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I have no idea what will happen after graduation. I keep telling myself if I just continue working hard something good is bound to happen. As someone who's family never made more than 26k a year in a fairly expensive state, all I really want is to be able to have my own apartment for a year or two before I head off to graduate school. While in the mean time studying and continuing to work towards my goal (PhD).