TenaciousBushLeaper

Maybe because that is usually something you don't find out until you visit and talk to people in person?

I wish there was a stronger eyeroll emoji

can we stop mocking people for their life choices? jeez

I'll be attending UC Davis for Biological Psychology

I'm in social psych at Western. I love our program and have really enjoyed my time here I can try to answer any specific questions you have.

This troll was impressive.

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. 

Being told how to approach *my* education is a problem for me because it's just that, *my* education. If I'm going to invest years of my life, and tens of thousands of dollars, then I have the right to expect what I want out of it. You're right though that I went into the field expecting something that is proving to be very different. The undergrad IA major at my school does not require a single quant class beyond a basic intro to stat class, and then none of the actual classes use any quant methods at all. So in my opinion it's somewhat justifiable on my end to be frustrated that the major I picked specifically because it involved virtually zero math, suddenly turns into a math degree in the grad school level.. but that is what I have to have to get a job. I feel as though I've been lied to, and conned into taking on an extra year of school and thousands of dollars in additional loan debt for a second major that isn't any more valuable than my history degree. 
 
However, I think we are looking at this in cross purposes, I'm not looking for a faculty position, and I'm not looking to work in a theory heavy field. I am not looking to ask any questions, certainly not ones I have to write a 300 page book to attempt to answer. I simply have my own thoughts and opinions about what I want to study while working to earn my "Piece of paper ©" that says I'm qualified to do X job. I honestly don't know what qualifications I need to get X job, because I don't know what X job is. I just know that as a virtual certainty all of my faculty members and my adviser say I need a grad degree, but they also aren't happy with the ones that I'm picking that align with my world view, which makes it harder to get anything moving. 
 
As for why I can't get anyone in the department to oversee my projects, I thought I had mentioned earlier that is because all undergrad projects at my school are handled through the Honors department, which I am not part of because I didn't know I needed to join my first semester and missed out, which means that if the faculty do agree to oversee my projects, they won't get paid for it, and it's much harder to get academic credit for them. I am not actually that upset with them for not wanting to take them on, but if I'm not going to get academic credit for them then I see no reason to pursue them or to ask faculty members to go out of their way to facilitate it. So if I am simply mis-remembering and didn't actually include that detail I'm sorry and I guess that explains where a lot of confusion is coming from. As far as letters go, that's as I mentioned much earlier, already become something I feel is problematic because 90% of my professors are just PhD candidates and not actual PhD's since they are all too busy doing research to actually teach. In so far as my IA degree goes, I don't think I have a single person to ask for a letter from anyway, even though I feel I get on pretty well with most of them. 

'You don't like what I like, therefore you are stupid'.  Great advice, I'll keep that in mind. 

Whew this got a little ugly...

Between this and the throwdown happening in the political science forum, wow. People are a little pissy tonight. (The poli sci one is way more entertaining... incase anybody wants to see a total meltdown haha.)

This is me but with every email that causes my phone to notify me (I use Google Inbox so only priority emails and financial ones notify my phone). Just the sound of a vibration puts me on edge and then I see it is Amazon asking me to rate some salt.

Is the actual wording then "The number of the integers" as opposed to "The number of inetgers" ?? 

Is the actual wording then "The number of the integers" as opposed to "The number of inetgers" ?? 

So, I had just finished three interviews back to back in one week with snow delays and "waitlisted" emails from two of the schools while still delayed by travel. The interview I just finished at seemed to go horrible. I felt hopeless and doomed. At one point I just sat in the airport and ugly cried for all to see. I eventually got home, and two days later I got an email from the PI late at night asking for a phone meeting tomorrow morning (actually the early morn). I thought this peculiar as it could be hopeful or maybe the PI was just nicely telling me why I was not selected for admission. I couldn't sleep at all that night. The morning arrives, and the PI actually calls 30 minutes later than agreed. I'm basically a complete mess. When the PI finally calls, she first explained why I'm a good candidate and how good the visit went with an ominously monotone voice. Suddenly, the PI excitedly offers me a position in the lab as the new grad student. I almost had a heart attack. I was speechless and realized that this was the school of my dreams and my top choice while all of my secondary choices waitlisted me. I said YES, then the PI was speechless and was not anticipating my answer so quickly. Then we both made Cady Heron screams (from Mean Girls, best movie ever). I was in shock most of the following weekend, and I've celebrated by not doing in school/job work for about five days. Now, I'm used to the idea and trying to be productive again! I can't wait to move and essentially start my new life! Good luck to all still waiting for news!

Guys, I just realized that this might be House of Card's Claire Underwood talking about her Season 2 interview......
 

(not from said interview, but this is what came up on Google and it fit, folks)

All that time, and you realized that you weren't talking with a professor.  Instead, you were talking with a processor.
 
Yeah, that's worrisome indeed.

"Quite surprised. First class master. Was in touch with the processor who seem to be interested in my proposal."
 
I don't know, but it might be worrying if a computer science student can't tell the difference between a processor and a professor.

( **giggidy) 

It's now very clear you don't understand psychology as a field, or the options before you. There is no one "conventional psychotherapy," and if by "conventional" you mean what was being done 50 years ago then I can tell you that most people in the field think it's ineffective (based on scientific evidence). If you think research is boring and that's why researchers drink coffee,    why are you even considering it? Do something else. Quite frankly I think there's a lot to say for mind-body dualism, but to say my opinion is in the minority in psychology is a severe understatement; it is laughable to most psychologists-- I would describe most people working in the field now as eliminative materialists who believe the brain is the only thing. I would agree that most people in psychology don't question the current underpinnings, but... those underpinnings are not what you think they are.
 
P.S. MD/PhD's are generally funded. Don't worry about the "more coursework" part; you need it. Still not sure about your "love of research," though, sounds more like a love of philosophy of the mind. Which, hey, that's fine but it isn't psychology and it isn't medicine.

The main reason I recommend waiting until close to the deadline is that many schools will expect you to. They may not have finalized your funding package, they may have extra university fellowships that won't be announced until a later date, etc. Part of the CGS resolution is in giving schools that extra time to put together admissions packages and schedule interviews and visits- it's mainly targeted towards allowing fair competition among schools, rather than allowing fair appraisal by students. It's there to let students wait until the middle of April to weigh the final offers from everywhere, and decide where they want to go. 
 
Similarly, I highly recommend visiting all of the schools you can that you have a significant interest in- visiting a school that might not have been your top choice can show characteristics of the school that might change your mind, as can meeting with professors and students in person. 
 
Personally, my bottom-ranked choice became my top-ranked choice, and one of my other options e-mailed me an offer for a hugely increased fellowship literally the day after I declined their offer and had accepted somewhere else. 
 
I'm of course working off of the assumption that you didn't apply to schools you would not want to attend, and accordingly, all of the schools who would accept you are valid choices. If you applied to schools that were really only there as safeties and you have no interest in attending, and no faculty you fit with, then you don't need to hold onto those, but if there was a reason you applied, or faculty you wanted to work with, I think you owe it to yourself (and them) to see if they really are the best fit. 
 
This of course goes hand-in-hand with Takeruk's very well written post, and obviously if you're 100% sure you don't want to attend somewhere, you shouldn't keep it on your list "just because".

Thank you.  This has been a message from the Still Worried Grad Applicants.

We all want in grad school and we want to save our own hide first.  Is that such a bad thing?

How is it at their expense if they've already got it?
 
Wanting something at the expense of others is realizing that the process is competitive and someone will get screwed in the end no matter what you do.  Maybe they won't get screwed next time.
 
Or maybe you didn't get burnt enough.

The "confusion" is yours. The comments you quoted were in reply to post #14, not the OP.
Moreover, had you read the entire thread carefully, you would have seen that your interpretation of the OP's situation disregard information provided by the thread's title, the OP itself, and the additional information provided in post #7.