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Has anyone had issues traveling to interviews due to weather conditions? Did the school allow you to reschedule? I have an interview at a really great school tomorrow. I live some distance away, so I was supposed to drive down this afternoon, stay with a grad student the night before, and attend the interview at 8:00 a.m. the next day. However, it was predicted that the area in which I live would get a huge snow storm this afternoon. This morning, I woke up and saw the snow. I panicked and emailed the program director, telling her I would not be able to make it because of the weather, and asked if I could reschedule or interview via Skype instead. However, I still have not heard back from her. Now I'm worried that I should have just driven down anyways, despite the snow. Have I completely ruined my chances of getting in to a great school?

Thanks!

Hi everyone, I've got one last question about interview attire. For the women who have/are currently interviewing, is wearing jewelry appropriate? Or is this considered unprofessional? Thanks!

Hello! I am also waiting to hear from Rutgers. According to the results page though, no one else has heard from them either.

Thanks! I don't drink, but I am vegetarian, so this is good to know. Maybe I'll check it out!

Thanks everyone! I guess the pantsuit is the way to go then. And mallorye, good luck on your first interview! Mine is Monday. Hopefully we'll both do great :-) Also, good luck to all of my other fellow applicants!

Thanks shadowclaw!

Hi all, I've got another question about interviewing - what should one wear for an interview day (for a PhD program)? Is a pant suit appropriate? Or will I seem overdressed? Thanks! p.s. I'm sorry if this question has already been answered elsewhere. I have looked at other threads on interview attire, but it really seems to vary by field. So I figured I'd ask about attire specifically on the school psych thread.

Hi everyone, I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I was wondering if anyone knew anything about transportation to/from Lehigh University. I live in New York, and I would like to visit Lehigh next week, but I am having some trouble finding train/bus routes to the school. Thanks!

Hi everyone, For those of you who have been interviewing - would you recommend accepting the option to stay with current graduate students? Thanks!

Hi everyone, This is a silly question, but... I have a program that I'd really, really like to be admitted to, but I never contacted my POI (I know this is bad). Unfortunately, the application deadline is only six days from today. I'm assuming contacting my POI now would be really pointless, right? Even if I did, all I'd be able to say is that I'm applying to her program. Thanks!

Hi athlete2academic, Yes, I only asked this question because I had heard one comment about how the program is struggling. Although if you've heard similar things, maybe there's some truth to this? I actually decided to add this program to my list at the very last minute, since I was interested in one of the faculty member's research. I was going to submit their application tomorrow morning (yup,at the very last minute), but now I'm wondering if I should even bother.

Hello, Does anyone have any opinions about or experiences with UC Riverside's doctoral school psychology program? I have asked this question elsewhere, and one person replied, but I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts. Thanks so much!

Thanks so much to everyone who gave me advice on composing my SOP! Everything you guys said was really helpful. Also, I know my incessant questions are probably getting annoying at this point, but.... One thing that I'm still wondering about is how closely matched an applicant's research interests have to be with those of faculty (when applying to doctoral programs). I understand that it is unlikely that an applicant's research intrests will be exactly the same as the professor he/she is applying to work with. However, how close do these interests have to be? (For example, I am interested in studying a specific population within the school setting. The professor that I am applying to work with also studies this population, but she has a slightly different focus. Is this close enough?) Also, yes, ed_psy, a lot of my deadlines are january 15th too. It's good to know that I'm not alone :-) Unfortunately, some of my deadlines are even sooner (January 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 9th)! And thanks, applemiu. Once I finished freaking out, I read some other threads on letters of recommendation, and I feel significantly better now :-)

Hi everyone, Here's yet another question by a frantic applicant who decided to apply this round way too late (me): I asked three professors to write my letters of recommendation. Two of them submitted their letters already. The third professor emailed me today and told me that he had finished writing my letter. Unfortunately, he just followed this up with another email informing me that he will be out of town (starting the day after tomorrow) and will not be back until after some of my application deadlines. He also said that he will have limited acces to his email while he is away and might not be able to upload my letter of recommendation. He could have uploaded his letter before he left. However, the schools that I am applying to do not email professors (asking them to upload a letter of recommendation) until after applicants have submitted their applications. Unfortunately, there's no way that I can finish these applications in one day, so that he can upload his letter before he leaves. So what happens now? Do schools even bother looking at applications if one letter of rec. has not been submitted? I'm guessing not... Thanks so much!

Hi everyone, So I have ten days to compose a personal statement (which I'm not sure is possible, but I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot) and I'd really appreciate your help. I'm wondering if it is necessary to specify which faculty member I want to work with when composing a personal statement. The program that I am applying to only has three faculty members, and the application only asks for a "personal statement regarding goals and objectives for graduate study in school psychology." It does not ask applicants to specify who they'd like to work with. Do I still need to do so? Also, any tips for putting together a personal statement and statement of purpose in a very short amount of time? Thanks so much!

Thanks so much guys! I uploaded a blank document, and it allowed me to continue through!

Hi everyone, This is a really specific question, and I'm not sure if anyone here will be able to help, but... Does anyone know if Lehigh University's school psychology program requires you to upload a statement of purpose when applying online? I know applicants are required to complete a "research questionnaire" that asks about your research interests and your applied expereinces, but I was just wondering if applicants were also required to upload a SOP. (Note: I know that the reasonable thing to do would be to just look at the online application and see if it asks you to upload a SOP. But I can't do this because...well, it's a long story. Basically, you can't look ahead at later sections of the application until you've completed the beginning sections, and I'm still working on the first few sections of the application.) Thanks!

Hi everyone, Based on everyone's posts, it seems like a lot of people have very different ideas about how many schools one should apply to. My question is: what is an appropriate number of schools to apply to when you only have about a month? Would it be completely ridiculous if I asked my professors to send their letters to 14 different schools, if applications are due in 4-6 weeks? (Most of my deadlines are January 15th or later, but three of my apps are due in the first week of January - which is very soon!) Thanks!

Thank you! Everything everyone has said has been tremendously helpful. I think I have one final question, and then I'll stop with the slew of questions :-) I hate to create one of those "what are my chances?" posts, and I don't know if this is the place to do it, but...what do you guys think my chances are of getting into a school psych grad program? I graduated with a 3.94. I worked in a cognitive psychology lab for two years, and I am working in an I/O lab now. I have volunteered at a school for the past few years, and I am now working there as a teacher. Also, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I've been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for over a year now. On the downside... I've never presented or been published. The grad students and professors I worked with did include my name on their posters...at the very bottom, where they thanked me for assisting with data collection. Also, this is pretty embarrassing, but I did pretty poorly on the GRE. My verbal and writing scores were okay (161 on the verbal, don't remember the writing), but when it came to the math section, I got really nervous and well...it was bad. (I freaked out and spent all my time just staring at the questions, then realized I only had two minutes left and I still had more than half the section to complete. I ended up just clicking random answers for most questions.) I ended up scoring 148. So...do I have a shot at getting in - anywhere? Thanks!

Thanks for your replies! Iphi, thanks for the suggestion about the EdS. This is something I hadn't realized. Is it really that easy to switch tracks after a year? I always figured that once you were in a graduate program, you were sort of locked in. And thank you both for the heads up about the extra exam that Oregon requires! I think I'll be taking Oregon off my list because i'm not sure it's worth it to take an extra exam, especially when I'm so limited on time. Also, athlete2academic, you said to go for it, if I'm confident in the strength of my application. I honestly have no idea if I'd be a competitive applicant at all. I graduated with a pretty decent gpa, I have some research experience, and I work in a school - but that's about it. I've never been published or attended a conference, or anything. Is it unrealistic for me to be thinking about applying to graduate programs, especially so late in the application season? Okay, sorry I've asked so many questions. As you may have gathered, I'm pretty anxious about this whole process. Again, thanks for your answers/insights

Hi everyone, So i have yet another question. I only recently decided to apply to school psychology programs, and I know it's really late in the application season, but I'd like to try to apply anyway. I have found a few doctoral programs with January deadlines. I know it's a pretty bad idea to limit yourself to a small number of schools because you've missed the deadlines for most programs, but I really don't want to wait another year to apply. So I'd like to go ahead and just apply, and try to get all of my apps done in a month. What do you guys think - can this be done? Also, I have heard that "good" programs are the ones with the earliest deadlines. Is this necessarily true? Some of the schools I'm looking at (which have both January deadlines and faculty members I'd like to work with) are the University of Rhode Island, University of Oregon, Kent State, St. John's, Fordham, Rutgers, UC Riverside, Lehigh University, and SUNY Albany. Does anyone know anything about these programs? In your opinion, would they be considered "good" programs? Thanks!

Really? That is so reassuring to hear! Thank you! I'm at the point where I'm starting to think I'm not going to get in anywhere, and I'm freaking out a little, so it's nice to hear that you have still have a chance of getting in if professors don't reply to you.

Thanks for the reply, iphi! So what happens if I don't get a reply from a particular professor? Does this mean I'm probably not going to get into that program?

Hi everyone, I've got a question for students currently in school psych programs: How should one go about emailing the professors he or she is interested in working with? Do you need to read a ton of this professor's research, and then come up with your own questions about his/her work? Or is it enough to mention that you have similar research interests, and then ask the professor if he/she is taking students next year? Thanks so much!