Echidna

Hi Everyone, I have my first interview next week, and I'm wondering if any of you have tips concerning how to prepare. I haven't checked last year's forum for this sort of information yet, but I haven't found anything specific to school psych through google or yahoo. I guess I'm thinking about things like, what questions should I expect, what are group interviews like, what are good questions to ask a program to get a better handle on personal fit, and so on. Hopefully someone can help.

Hey! I think it's totally do-able to get it done in your time limit. Granted, it won't be as good as one you started a month or so in advance. But that won't matter when interviews and acceptance letters start coming in In my opinion, your goals and objectives for graduate study do involve who you're working with, so I think it's good to talk about your research interests. From there, show how the profs at the universities you're applying to fit in with your own goals. It can be brief or go into a lot of detail (that's on you). But it's good to show how the program/profs tie into your interests and will help build on them. They don't have to be direct matches, just interesting pairings. If you would be happy to work with all three, show/say why all three are good fits and specifically what they're good for. Good luck!

Hey Ed_psy! Grad apps are a lot of time and effort, and that's not counting how you still have to handle school/life/work while you're cranking them out. So no worries, and you'll get it done! But what might help is that before you go visit them, make a list of programs, a draft SOP/ motivations statement for applying to grad school, and your CV. And take a printed version of those with you, and give them to your profs if they're willing to write. It makes the process easier. I even made a little document with POIs at each program and how I thought they matched up (short bullet points), and I think it helps to 1) show that you're serious 2) separate you from the other load of students asking for rec letters right now and 3) give the profs a better opportunity to write something stellar. It's getting close to the holidays though, so you might want to make your move, but also be considerate If you're applying to EdS programs, you should be more than okay. I'm not so sure about PhD apps at this point, though I know there are some still up. Good luck, and let us know what happens/if you have anymore questions!

Thanks for this, iphi!

Hi everyone! I came across this forum today (so happy to know that we're all freaking out a little bit -- and that people did last year too, and everything turned out pretty well). I'm applying to mainly phd programs in school psych. Maybe a couple of EdS (One in state and Columbia for the heck of it). Anyway, I was curious if anyone knows when it's typical to start hearing back from schools and POIs? And where all is everyone applying to? That's should be fun to hear. Hope the app process is going well for everyone! (I'm currently studying abroad, so it's been a struggle to stay afloat with work, travel, and completing apps)