psych face

Yeah, in terms of that, you can pretty much be assured that Americans don't write full custom letters for each school. There was a little area where I put in some specifics for this school or that, but it was generic otherwise. I think that's pretty normal.

Personally, I didn't apply to anything in Canada, but only because none of my POI's are there. However - I would love an excuse to both 1) leave the country (even though it isn't very far) and 2) live in a better environment (I'm currently sitting in one of the worst air quality cities in the country - I can taste in on my tongue sometimes - it's totally disgusting) also forgot another point- 3) the culture is different in Canada, most particularly lower crime rates and better overall attitude. There are plenty of good reasons to want to go there, unless you're addicted to the whatever of America. Also, 10-20 acceptances in 200-300, isn't really that different from the U.S. The 20 out of 200 is 10%, which is definitely better. Most of the schools I applied to are about 3%-7% acceptance.

I think the best advice you can get right now is to say anything but that. (in the statement)

I guess I'm just confused.

Sorry, didn't think of that. It wasn't intentional. That is helpful. I've always wondered about things like that. Some people make jokes like "they just sit around and roll dice or flip coins" to see who gets in. But some stories, like that one, kind of make it feel that way sometimes.

I actually got a little snarky in my statement due to the repetitive minority support statements in the applications which seemed a little reverse-discrimination to me. As a discrimination hater, I hate reverse-discrimination also, amost moreso. It's just so disgusting. I actually told a professor from Harvard about the statements and how offensive I found them and he said "I find that offensive" (he was offended by me, my offense was offensive to him) and he meant it, and I was like "Well, I'm sorry, but I'm offended by this language." Which one of us has more right to be offended I don't fucking know.

This is sort of what I was going to say. The professors at my school don't seem to mind having people working/volunteering in more than one lab. I wouldn't be afraid to just wander in and, what I call "cheat on" your mentor, and "see other people" if you know what I'm saying. Where there are a lot of research labs in a tight knit department, I've noticed this is pretty common anyway.

Just curious if anyone else wants to share their stories. I was shutout last year and was totally bummed out about it, but it gave me some time to take some extra classes and get some experience, so I believe that it was a good thing in the end.

In addition to the above, there are also a few practical concerns such as GPA scores expiring after five years (unless you recently took the test), finding current letter writers who can speak to your potential as a graduate student (required quality of the letter), and evidence that you are currently able to compete in a graduate program (current grades, etc.). That is what I would be most worried about. As a non-young applicant myself, I know that these are going to be important factors in my app.

I know I saw one application that wanted all the personal statement information in 500 characters in a space in the online form. I almost didn't bother with it, since it was so short. I hacked and sawed the hell out of my statement and got something or other suggestive of my original statement in. But 500 characters is pretty short and that's the worst I saw.

I think I applied to so many just because I never want to do it again, like what was said above. Side note Shana.teacher : I find it interesting how different school choices are even within the same emphasis - I applied to ten schools and we don't have any in common.

Why aren't these people using the survey system that utilizes the student population? I mean, that's essentially what we are, do they just not want to go through IRB or something? I'm confused.

Yes. This will be the case for every grad program of every kind. Look for the peeps you wanna know. As for your funding question, most grad programs work it out for you, but I don't know much about the education emphasis, so I can't say for sure on that one. Don't let fear of funding stop you from applying though. You can always go through FAFSA.

I am referring to your last statement there (underlined/bolded) - most people in academia would argue vehemently against that part of your assumption. I think what you mean to say, is something common to a lot of disciplines right now; creativity is what they want, but they don't want to see it in their prospective graduate students. What they want to see is someone who can knuckle down and finish a program with a strong work ethic. Creativity isn't being taught, nurtured, or respected. However, I think all the professors choosing graduate students would admit that they greatly admire, respect, and desire creativity in their students. This is somewhat contradictory. And for some of us, really f---ing annoying. I think that's more like what you meant to say.

Although, I once had a professor tell me that being arrogant was a prerequisite for graduate school. I don't know if he was joking.

From what I hear, the 'wrong' response is the one that is a lie. My professors told me that if you choose to tell them what you think they want to hear, they will eventually figure it and that won't be good for you.

I think you need to look carefully at your schools before you apply. A lot of the schools I applied to said specifically that international students had to come with full funding of their own. Check the applications carefully for that.

I had the same situation, I actually made a table of which schools asked for what so I could see later if it impacted who I heard from. One school only asked for a 600 word SOP, and another asked for 2,500 word SOP as well as 2,500 word personal statement. The thing that screwed me up pretty bad was that I tailored my materials for the schools that asked for long statements and then I had to chop them down to as small as 500 words from about 4,000 words total. That hurt. It also seemed like some schools didn't care that much about their future grad students by the way they engineered their application process.

My university is already extremely guilty of this disgusting sin and everyone who works there knows it. It's repulsive and only dwarfed by their phenomenal advertising budget/campaign to make themselves look way more prestigious than their business practices actually make them. If they cut the crap and those useless departments they could afford to give some of those well-qualified adjuncts a livable wage. But I'm guessing this is happening a lot around the country, probably getting buried in a sea of P.R. crap, like it is here. Dreams are great but for most people that's all they are anymore. I think those days are gone for now. The transparency of the class divide, and the college debt bubble, is probably going to create a lot of problems for America in the next ten years. I'm really pessimistic about it. But I'm also good at living off of ramen noodles and potatoes, so no worries. If you don't know how to live off of ramen noodles and potatoes, you should put a little thought into it. These are survival skills. Also, can be mighty yummy.

I applied across the rankings too. There's a cluster in the top ten, but then there are about 6 scattered on up through about #60. But I chose these schools based on where the people working on my very narrow topic of special interest are. I hope it helps to have variety. Some people choose that way for 'safety' schools, but I think that's a poor way to think of it. Ideally, I want to be able to honestly tell these people it would be awesome to go to school there if they brought me to an interview and asked me to my face.