FeelTheBern

Hi @overdetermination , Congratulations on receiving the interview! The POI called my SO yesterday evening and just told him about the program and gave a few details about the interview weekend. At the end of the phone call, he asked if he had any questions, but that was it! Before receiving the phone call, my SO had no previous interview or any previous contact with the POI who called. Hope that helps!

School Name: NYU Interview Invite Received: 1/2/16 Degree: PhDType: Cognition and PerceptionNotified via: Phone call from POIInterview Date: 2/5 or 2/19Additional Info: Phone call from POI. POI is going to send email with logistics, itinerary for interview day, and details about the program. Please PM for the name of POI. Thanks!

I was actually thinking this same thing! Not too many cognitive psychology results are posted yet, at least compared to some of the other fields! @Analyticchic would you mind sharing your POI at UDel?

My goodness, what an early acceptance!! I am also interested in which area you applied and were accepted to, thanks!

@lovemc SO applied to NYU no word on interviews yet! Are those the only two schools you applied to?

Hey @Syedahum, unfortunately I do not have any answers for you about UTSC, however, my SO is in a similar predicament. He is applying to Northeastern and their deadline is not until January 1, however, someone posted that they already received an interview invite, which really confuses me... I am not sure why a school would begin sending out invites before they have seen all of the applicants. Seems like a not so good idea?

To the person who posted the interview invite from University of Connecticut, was the invite sent from your POI or from the admissions assistant/director? General or personalized?

For those of you who check the Results Search page as much as I do, I thought that this would be a helpful thread for those who have questions about POIs, which psych area someone posted about, dates of interview weekends, etc., especially since the Results Search Page is anonymous and not much detail can be included. This was a thread last year and it seemed to be a success so I thought I would reignite it There is already a thread for Interview Invites, so please continue to use that one to post when you have received invites from your prospective schools. This should predominantly be used for inquiries to people posting on the Results Search Page! The following link will take you to the Psychology Results Search Page, meaning that just those posting about psych program results will pop up when you click it: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=psychology&t=a&o=&p=1

Congrats on the Berkeley invite! Oh wooow! You already heard from Northeastern?! The deadline for PhD applicants is not until January 1, I can't believe they are reviewing applications this early and so far ahead of the deadline! Do you mind telling me what area you applied to within the Psych department?

@AcceptanceOrBust good luck this application season! You have some great schools on your list! You are definitely not the only one to submit your applications right before the deadline. My SO was in the same boat as you this application season. In fact, he is still working on finalizing SOPs for some January 1 deadlines. Although I was a bit hesitant to wait to submit too close to the deadlines, it actually worked in his favor, as he was able to update his CV and make it even better! Additionally, as we catch small corrections or details that need to be fixed or added to his SOP, we are able to correct/add them. So, as this application process has progressed, his SOP has just continued to get better. I would say in this case, it was good to wait to submit apps until closer to the deadline, especially since applications are not reviewed until the deadline has passed anyway!

I would have to agree with @xEB0511 about getting more research experience and having academic LORs (preferably from research mentors if possible). Regarding your third point, I would be hesitant to give you any PhD programs that are considered "fall-backs". Given the competitive nature of these programs, it is hard to say what exactly the perfect candidate is, or if such a candidate even exists, however, I do think that it is fair to say that you should never expect that you will most definitely, 100% be admitted to a fully funded program, even if that program may seem less competitive than others. My advice would be to apply to schools where you believe you would be happy and excel. However, there are other factors that should also be considered like the pros and cons of applying to top tier institutions vs. lower tier ones simply so you have a better shot at acceptance. This is especially important given the current job market. During the application process my SO received the following advice from one of his LORs: "So my advice (and the advice that other professors in this department agree with) is to aim high, for top tier schools, where you are most likely to get a job when you complete the PhD. Because if you can't get in there, that will suck, but it will suck less than completing a PhD at a "safety school" and not being able to get a job when you graduate." The article below goes into detail about the importance of this. Interesting article about universities hiring for tenure-track positions: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/02/university_hiring_if_you_didn_t_get_your_ph_d_at_an_elite_university_good.html Note: I am not encouraging applying to top-tier institutions if you do not think you would be happy there. Simply saying that if you like top-tier institutions you should consider applying instead of replacing them with safety schools for acceptance sake.

Hi @natrem! I was a CLS Bangla participant for 2015 and let me tell you, it was an amazing experience, yet so different than what I went in thinking it was going to be like! To answer your question, after the first round of acceptances, you just.....wait, and wait.....and it is very excruciating! There are no additional interviews or essays, but I have heard that if you make it past the first round, your application is reviewed by a panel in DC that was chosen for your specific language, so they know their stuff, about the country and about the language. Getting past the first round is a huge success in itself as only a bit over 30% of applicants make it that far. Please feel free to ask me anything, even PM me if you would like, I am happy to answer any questions!

First interview invite guys! Did anyone else apply to the NACS program at UMD - College Park?

First interview invite from U of Maryland - College Park for the NACS program!! Personalized email from POI to schedule a phone interview this week.

When you look at the Results Search page, and someone posted an interview invite from a school that you applied to...

Thanks for the insight @dancedementia! That's good to know! I have been under a completely different impression of MSW programs for quite some time now. I think the cost of tuition for these programs and the return (salary after you receive the degree) made me think twice about the profession, even though I think I would really enjoy being a social worker. I'm just not sure that the debt aspect of it would necessarily be worth it, for me at least!

Just to add my two cents...I would advise staying away from MSW programs based on things I have recently heard about the field. In fact, I know a couple of people who are in loads of debt and are struggling to find a good job due to over-saturation. In the end, many people who graduate with an MSW find themselves stuck in jobs that they could have obtained with a Bachelor's degree. Coming from a family of lawyers, I completely understand how difficult it is to dig yourself out of law school debt. Have you thought about opening a private law practice? Several of my family members did this a bit into their careers and found the money to be better and were also able to concentrate on exactly what they wanted to do within the field. Increased job fulfillment and flexibility as well!

I agree with @SynBioGuy! I think that sometimes it is overwhelming for professors to be contacted too early in the semester a lot of times. For example, I contacted a POI in September, and he told me that I sounded like a great fit, but to contact him again in December to schedule an informal phone/Skype interview. So for some POIs this may be the perfect time!

Is anyone else getting impatient about interviews or just hearing from schools in general? I know that it is still super early, but I feel like every psychology sub field has heard something except us! Is this usually how it is? My SO has been in contact with a POI and she told him to send his application to her after it was officially submitted. She was the only POI to say this. Is this a good thing? Does it mean he may hear back sooner about acceptance/rejection? Also, @Gvh, I know you have been thru this before! When did you get your first rejection? interview? acceptance? I can't believe that I am so anxious about all of this, and some deadlines haven't even passed yet!

Thanks @Gvh! If you don't mind me asking, do you think your GRE score is what kept you from getting accepted last year? Even at the school you received an interview at?

So I am having a mini heart attack right now after finding out that apparently even if all other aspects of my application may be considered strong by the Psychology department or POI(s), it may be difficult to justify funding for me as an applicant if GRE score is low. Thus, leading to a rejection. Is this really the case? Can anyone attest to this from experience or otherwise? Quant is substantially low (below 50%), while Verbal is 92%....I am still working on submitting apps, however, after reading several posts on here claiming that GRE matters a lot for funding and could be the single-handed reason that an applicant gets denied, I am starting to worry....

Hey passenger! Thought you would be interested in this, it was posted in Results Search today by a WashU grad student: "*I am a current grad student at WashU* *This if info for 2016 applicants* For 2016 applicants, our interview weekend will be held Feb 11 and 12, 2016. Hope to see y'all there! *Note: Review of 2016 applications has NOT begun and will not begin until winter break. Nobody has been contacted, nobody has been invited. So do not worry if you haven't heard anything. This is merely a set-in-stone date for interview weekend.*" SO has also applied to WashU and NYU!

Hi all! My SO is applying to cognitive science and cognitive psychology programs. He is not big on gradcafe, but I like to monitor it to see what he is up against! We are both seniors, graduating in May, and this will be his first time applying. In total SO is applying to 12 programs (fingers crossed at least one comes through). So far we have submitted 5 apps with a December 1 deadline. The other 7 have due dates of December 10, December 15, and January 1/2. We are both very excited to be done with this stressful process, and hope that we only have to go through it once! So far we have sent apps to: University of Connecticut, University of Maryland - College Park, Washington University in St. Louis, NYU, and Ohio State University I am wishing the best of luck to everyone, and am really excited to see where this application journey takes us!

Received my flight itinerary yesterday!! I can't believe there are only a few weeks until I leave for Bangladesh! This is my first time studying abroad, so I am a little nervous about the logistics of how much cash I should bring, how much I should exchange, etc. I know that there are plenty of people on this thread with study abroad experience so I was hoping one or two of you could give me some much needed advice. Ideally, I would like to bring all of the cash I will need for the trip with me, and exchange it as often as I need to, however, I know that many people advise against this since cash can get lost or stolen and will never be returned. What would you recommend? Just pulling money from an ATM as needed or exchanging currency in person once I arrive in country? I really would rather not be charged fees for using my Bank of America card abroad as I have heard that the fees can accumulate if you are withdrawing money often, which is why cash just seems a whole lot easier. Any advice is welcome!!

Thank you for the advice MAC2809! I noticed that you mentioned specific schools like UConn and U of Pacific as offering full funding. From the research I have done so far, it looks like almost every school offers Graduate or Teaching Assistantships, which cover tuition plus a stipend. Were you referring to full-ride scholarships that those schools offered, or full assistantships? Just wondering because I am only planning on applying to schools that offer some sort of funding by means of scholarships/assistantships. Also, since you have gone through the application process, could you speak to the competitiveness of higher ed master's programs?