TenaciousBushLeaper

I have, although I only applied to a program lol so I'm hoping it isn't so much of a long shot as a PhD program.

Honestly, if you can at least maintain your current GPA, then I'd say you're as strong an applicant as someone who only majored in psychology with a 3.7-4.0 gpa range. Programs will understand the difficulty of your work load. I believe the average math major gpa out of undergrad is around 3.2-3.3? Adding on to this, you have what I'd say is sufficient research experience. I've also been told by professors that they quite appreciate well rounded applicants, as opposed to say, someone whose transcript is 80%(not sure if this is even possible but just an example) psychology. The only thing that may hurt you is *fit*. Make sure to apply to programs that really interest you, listing down potential advisors whose work would fall inline with something you want to do.

So I'm a psychology major however, I really do enjoy math, (I wish I would have double majored in it, too late now that I'm graduating). Anyways, while in my upper level probability & statistics course today a fellow student stated that our professor went to the best school in the world for math and applied sciences, this school is; Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur India. Truth be told, I haven't heard of this school and it got me thinking, what are the top schools in the world for the areas of study generally associated with mathematics or "math based thinking"(physics, computer science, statistics...)? Is the school mentioned in this post "up there" on the list?

Wondering if anyone has been part of this/ currently is part of this / has applied to start in June/July ?

It says I've reached my quota for up-voting so, take this as an up-vote! I didn't get in anywhere(I've yet to apply) but reading all of your posts genuinely made me smile. Congratulations everyone!

Mind you, both of these individuals are from the same city I'm from.

When I google myself the first links that pop up are 1. someone who tried to run over a cop, 2. someone who shot at a cop ......

A professor from my university touched on this today, he said when students don't waive their rights to view their letters from their recommenders, the university blocks which ever letter(s) the student did not waive their rights on from going through to the department they applied to. The idea is the university is protecting your recommender from you, because if the recommender says something which you feel ruined your chance at graduate school you could sue the recommender. I don't know if this is true of every university but at least it is true for mine, or so I'm being told by this faculty member.

You can definitely teach yourself R, or Python or just about any other programing language for free.(Provided you at least have a computer). Although it is far easier to learn (at least I think so) when you have a concrete goal your working towards when learning these languages such as creating a specific algorithm for a database structure, you know, just an obtainable goal as opposed to "i want to know and be proficient in X language".

Soon the day is upon us where a good amount of pos-docs, and new professors know most if not all of the youtube celebrities

So a prospective POI for a quantitative program whom (I think) I have the best research fit with just emailed me saying she'd be happy to either communicate over email or talk over the phone DDDDD:

I fear this thread is getting too much attention.....more applicants will think about Quantitative Psychology programs......I WILL HAVE MORE COMPETITION....away you heathens away!

I hope this can help you, Here's my take on your situation, if I were you (assuming you would not rather do anything else career wise with your life) I'd go into it like a religious nut who will take nothing less than the literal word of the bible. So, odds are you won't make it into academia as a tenured professor, odds are you'll be underemployed. But maybe that's part of the formula for getting a tenured track position in academia? (of course there are a bunch of other factors). I don't mean to give off the "everything will work out" mentality because as I've previously said, everything is statistically likely to not work out as you'd like. If you really don't know what else you'd like to do with your career then why not take the chance? Especially considering you've been accepted into UIUC (which I think is a pretty good school). My other advice is, if you'd be willing to take that chance then immediately get rid of all your doubts and concerns, yes this is naive but those type of thoughts will most likely only hinder your progress and success as an academic, towards your academic goals. (unless you're one of those people who can turn those concerns into an extreme form of motivation) I've spoken to a few professors in tenured track positions at large research universities about job prospects as an academic. They all seemed to agree that while yes this may be a concern it's best to put those concerns away and better use your time in being the best at what you do, because while you may be concerned about your job prospects at this very moment, there is someone else, with the same goals who's working his/her ass off right now, accomplishing something that will get him/her closer to those goals.

Perhaps somehow I'll be able to coerce someone from the math department here into being an advisor lol Thanks for all the suggestions, you really are a big help! (I feel like I should pay you, & if I wasn't dirt poor, maybe I would)

The first one (at least this is what appeals to me most), "work on some theoretical result within statistics". Although to be honesty I have no idea what this would entail however, I may have two years to get his done ! Since I might end up lab manager of my current lab which is a 2 year commitment. Anyways, point being, yes I am most probably starting at below ground zero but I have two years right right? D: lol. Any suggestions?

@ Spunky, I'd like to get your input on how one who's school has no quantitative psychology faculty would go about publishing a quantitative psych paper (maybe this question is too broad but let's see)

Thank you for your insights and comments! I recently mentioned quantitative psychology to my current cog neuro advisor and he essentially said it's a dying field, and that the quantitative side of psychology is already incorporated in all the psychological disciplines. Although, to be fair, any time I bring a program / potential area of interest to him which isn't the program at my current university, specifically his lab, he sort of attempts to down play it. (I think he's trying to nudge me into applying to grad school at my current university, as a student in his lab lol ) I honestly just can't wait until I'm able to apply to quant programs, my days in undergrad go as follows, "why do I have to write so much? why am I taking graduate courses? I just want to do my probability problem sets". The programs I'm hoping to apply to are UNC - Chapel Hill, UIUC, University of Minnesota, UCLA, Michigan State University, University of Michigan, & USC. Hopefully I can get into at least one of those.

Not sure if this is what you're saying but I think I can relate since I transferred from a community college to my current university, in some subjects courses are about equal in terms of work load and difficulty however in others, they're worlds apart. (particularly in mathematics)

It's all cool, I get the same way at times.

Lol, I was conceding to your point, should have made that more clear.

If I could design an intro stats course, I wouldn't have any exams. All assignments would be more like short 1-2 page papers where students would have to work through problems to show their knowledge of the material. Students could re-do these assignments for better grades, provided they've made a significant improvement on the assignment. In a perfect world, students would discuss concepts in class (the professor/ta would lead the lecture/discussion but students would need to have mandatory discussion questions) & then during lab students would apply the concepts from the lectures. Maybe a mock up assignment would be, given a data set students would need to analyze the data based on a target goal set by the instructor. On top of accurately applying the concepts, students would need to justify the type of analysis. Why they choose analysis x over analysis y, what information does it provide, what are the drawbacks.

Maybe I ignored your comments comparing your SAT with GRE scores and the lack of improvement but not purposely, it just wasn't in mind at the time. I will admit, I'm extremely biased when it comes to arguing for the impact of 'tenacity' or effort, since in terms of SES, and what I'll call here "having a leg up in life" I'm at the very end of the line (by US standards) & I've never been 'good' at test taking.

I honestly think it has its use. Although I wouldn't say it's useful in predicting success in graduate school(I actually have no data to back this up) where I would say it's useful is in getting graduate programs top students. Now, a top student may be someone who has little difficulty on the GRE, took it once and aced it. A top student may also be someone who found it extremely difficult but despite, managed a great score. I mean starting a PhD program, it's a pretty big commitment on both parts, the incoming graduate students and the universities. If I were a university I would want something in place that may weed out people (although it may prevent people who'd do great from getting it as well) who didn't do what was necessary, whatever that may be in their case, to make sure their GRE scores wouldn't be a problem when it came to admissions decisions. This is variable however, and sometimes it could simply be the case that it just isn't worth it for person x to sacrifice n amount of something(s) just to get into graduate school but ultimately that's what I think is the purpose of this exam (or at least where I see it's use). Universities would rather be safe than sorry, they have to protect themselves, and I believe it's understandable.

Well, I don't know if it helps but the same faculty said that it was also fair game for you (the potential graduate student) to ask them about their current funding, how many people they have working on current projects going on in their labs, and if they need people on a particular project. These questions may help?