TenaciousBushLeaper

How easy it is to take on more side projects than you can actually handle.

Go for Stanford. It seems you might have a better chance at actually being happy there, the weather will be so much better, it's a beautiful campus, as you said slightly more prestige, and most probably better connected. 

I obviously don't know what your conversations with this student have been like, but is it possible she isn't flirting with you?  I only ask because I've often struggled to make friends with men who didn't catch my drift of "let's be friends."  If I want to spend my personal time with someone, man or woman, I'll start with the obvious suggestion of inviting them to dinner or drinks.  "Have you seen this movie yet?"  "We should hang out when finals are done with."  It can get pretty frustrating.  One guy even told me he thought it was a date just because I wore a skirt.

^ Hah. Lots of people taking this comment way too seriously. 
 
No matter how objective you try to be in situations like this, people will try to play it off like you're favoriting the student if it becomes apparent you two are involved. Depending on your school's policies, this could very plausibly lead to a huge mess and set you back in some way. But that's already been said. I'd tell her that you need to stop things (whatever those 'things' may be, no matter how minimally intimate or flirty they are) immediately until the semester is over. 

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 ......

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! 

To find the sources you need you should learn how to use a search engine (e.g., PsychInfo or Google Scholar) efficiently. So for question two you could try searching "Money" AND "Incentive" then you can narrow where you want these words to appear (e.g., title, text, abstract). 

To write efficiently you should be constructing your essay like a upside down triangle (UNLESS you are writing a research thesis, with a  discussion and results section, in which case it should be like an hourglass). What I mean by the upside down triangle is you start broadly and than narrow in on research that supports your conclusion. Make sure you cite each and every source that you use/get ideas from and use APA formatting if this is for a psychology class. If you want to be super technical you should be including a running head and page numbers. 

Using transition words is helpful for linking ideas and allowing your essay to be less jarring to read (e.g., additionally, further, therefore, nevertheless, however, thus ext.). Your paragraphs should follow a logical flow from idea to idea and you can achieve this by having the last sentence in each paragraph link to the first sentence in the next paragraph. For example:

Although, many researchers believe that the humming bird only obtains nutrition from plant nectar, recent research has shown that they may eat a diverse range of plant material.

Someone et al, (2008) followed the migration pattern of a wide variety of bird species and determined that hummingbirds obtain most their nutrition from flower petals and stems. 

Hope this helped,
 
K.

I saw my first official acceptance email while in the middle of chewing a piece of food when I was out with my friends. I just totally stopped and stared at my phone and then shoved it in my friend's face and started pointing at it excitedly

I was skiing with my family and we were taking a lunch break. I checked my email and saw that I had received a message from my top choice grad school only 16 days after applying. The subject line was "Admission Decision". I opened it and the first words I read were "It is with great pleasure that I write this email..." after that my jaw dropped and my vision went blurry. I'm normally very talkative (emphasis on the word very), and my parents looked at me when they realized that I had stopped talking for a minute. With choked breath I said "I just got into grad school..." and my mom freaked out, my dad gave me a fist bump, and my brother slapped me on the shoulder. I was excited beyond words. And relieved, because I had gone through months of absolute stress to reach that point (which all of you have endured as well). 
 
Needless to say, it was hard to focus on skiing after that!

I got my first acceptance email while in class so I went iMessage crazy with some friends until I got out, then I called my parents. Then I went to work and got absolutely nothing done haha.

My mom printed out school logos/mascots for both places I've been accepted so far and put them on the fridge at their house. I think it's the cutest thing ever. They're starting the celebration now, I'm trying to wait until I decide on a school.

I happened to be at home for the Superbowl/my dad's birthday at the time. When I got the acceptance email, I ran around high-fiving my family and doing a ridiculous victory dance.
 
I texted my boss, who relayed the info to my coworkers. When I came into work the next day, they had balloons and snacks in the school's color scheme. The acceptance itself is really exciting, but I won't start freaking out again until the time comes to actually begin classes.

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 ......

Well, at least you're not applying to a Criminal Justice program.

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 ......

I was surprised at how many statements of interest I could write for just one school...

OH, well that changes things. but it sorta makes sense though... have you watched the Ivory Tower  documentary?  a few of the things they say are a little bit "out there" but one where they hit the nail on the head is when they make the case of the "for-profit" university model that is becoming so pervasive across North America. the crux of the issue is that unless you're part of a "brandname" university (e.g. Harvard, Standford, Yale, etc.) it makes economic sense for other universities to accept as many undergraduate students as they can as long as they come with a bag full of money to dump in the university... cue in the student debt crisis now.  

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. 

7 replies and nobody has bothered to ask for the relevant data in this situation?  
 
Pictures, man. We need to see pictures of this girl before we advise on the correct course of action.

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 

YESHHH!!! that sound that you just heard is the door of opportunity cracking open... go run through it! save yourself!

What is the rate of psychology majors working a job not in their field? If "McDonalds Manager" counts as employment for a recent psychology major grad then the rate comparisons mean nothing.

this joke makes more sense if you've watched the last movie from "The Hobbit"

I had the same realization last year when I applied to PhD programs in Social Psychology and did not end up getting into any program. Trying to quickly pull myself together, I applied to many lab manager positions in order to get more research experience. I was completely shocked when I was told, by multiple labs, that they would prefer someone with a computer science background. That concept kind of makes me laugh because my boyfriend is a computer engineer and his job prospects and earning potential are so phenomenal that I don't know WHY someone with a computer science background would even look at those jobs. Anyway, it was really shocking because that is probably the only job I can think of that should be looking specifically for people with a bachelors in Psychology and we are still worthless to them. What a waste of four years! I could have had a completely different major and been in a better position going to a career IN PSYCHOLOGY. I ended up completely re-evaluating my goals and decided to forget about social psychology because, as you said, the job pool isn't even worth it.

i think i would focus more on the statistical topics aspect of things and just tangentially mention that you also have substantive research interests and describe the ways in which you would like to apply the new methods you will learn to these other areas. that way you're conveying the idea that you're still committed to your quant knowledge as your core area of research.
 
i just fear you could face the potential risk of an advisor reading over your statement and thinking "uhm... this sounds like a social psychologist who lost her/his way. better throw it in the 'no' pile just to be sure". keep in mind that just because not many people apply to these programs does it mean they let in anybody. my program, for example, rejected all applicants for 3 consecutive years before getting in their new cohort of students even though we rarely, if ever, receive more than 10 applications per year. in the long run that's a good thing because that means advisors are seating on piles of sweet sweet unused funding waiting to be spent
 
we usually get around 5 or 6 applications from which only 1 or 2 people get an interview. on the bright side, you pretty much have the guarantee that your potential advisor will conscientiously read all of your application package for no reason other than it is not an insurmountable task. especially when you compare it with people who supervise social psych or clinical psych programs and get north of 300 applications every year.  

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.