[Fall 2015 Applicant Thread]

HOLY SMOKES, I JUST RECEIVED MY FIRST INTERVIEW INVITE!!! (University of Arizona - Clinical Psychology program)

[How the heck do you end an SOP]

"The End"   But seriously, I just ended mine by reiterating my unique strengths that I can offer to the school's program and that I would be honored to be a graduate student in their department. 

[Standing out in a crowd]

There's a difference between being curt and not responding. One professor was curt but I know that is her way of communicating through information from some of my contacts--she's just very busy and efficient, but she did indicate that she would be willing to take students. However, I decided not to apply to two programs after not hearing back at all. I sent out a brief email basically asking whether they were accepting students, a line about my recent work, and letting them know they can contact me for any other info (CV, transcript, poster reprints). I mean, why would I apply if I don't know if they're accepting students? or if they can't bother to let me know that they are/aren't? With application fees as high as $110, I'm not committing that kind of money to a program when I don't know that I'll even be considered.

 

Yes, this is exactly what I'm saying about the importance of POI's responding to emails from prospective students. Why would I waste my time, energy, and money applying for a program and mentor who never bother to contact me back, even with just a pre-prepared cut-and-paste response? I am totally understanding that professors are extremely busy, and in the very least, I would find a generic, pre-prepared response still acceptable. Although, I will admit that I give top-priority to programs and mentors who took the time to actually write a positive and personal response -- that tells me that these people are interested in me as an applicant, which gives me an incentive to really pursue them. 

 

I don't think the way a potential mentor responds to an email should affect your opinion of them. I say this because I applied for PhD programs in 2011 and emailed someone from Catholic University about accepting students for the Fall of 2012. He responded weeks later and in an extremely curt manner. I thought, "What a jerk!". Well, I didn't get accepted to their PhD program then, but I did get my MA from there and that same professor was my mentor. And I loved him! Absolutely love him. Dropping a school from my list because of that would have changed the whole course of my career. Now I'm applying to work with him again as a PhD student. I don't know, I think emails are tricky. And it's not worth putting that much weight on them. You're not going to get accepted because you sent an email or didn't send an email. I mean..come on. 

 

In my original post, I never said that an applicant would be guaranteed an acceptance letter if they sent or didn't send an initial email to their POI's. I only said that I personally felt it was important for me in my own application process. I feel cultivating some sort of connection with someone that I hope to invest the next 5-6 years with is extremely important in how I approach the application process.

[Standing out in a crowd]

Personally, I felt contacting POI's and receiving a response from them (even if it was a polite, generic form response) was very important to my application process of choosing the programs and POI's I would ultimately apply for. During the summer, I had my heart set on a certain mentor at a program whose research was truly fascinating to me. I emailed her back in September with a brief message expressing my interest. After a month, I never heard back, so I emailed her again in October. To this day, she still has yet to respond. I also emailed my back-up POI at this same program to express my interest, but she never replied either. To me, not hearing back from both professors at the same program was a HUGE red flag for me, so I had to drop this program from my application list.

 

Meanwhile, I received very friendly, personal, and prompt responses from POI's at other programs that I was initially unsure of applying to, and it was this interaction and attention to potential students that persuaded me to strongly pursue these programs. 

[Fall 2015 Applicants - What Programs Did You Apply For?]

With most programs' deadlines now past, I'm curious to know which schools did everyone apply for? This year, I applied to joint MA/Ph.D tracks in Clinical Psychology, with most of my POI's concentrating on the biological factors of cognition and emotions.

 

Here's my list (in no particular order)
 

1. University of Florida
2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
3. Georgia State University 
4. University of Louisville
5. University of Arizona
6. University of North Carolina - Greensboro
7. University of Pennsylvania

Good luck to everyone on getting accepted to your dream program! :-)

[Waiting Game--how do you deal with the waiting anxiety?]

I'm too busy working at my hectic Toys "R" Us seasonal job to worry about applications for long. I'm making money, interacting with several good people, AND keeping my mind off graduate school application notifications :-)

[SOP length for UPenn and Brown?]

I'm applying to UPenn's clinical program, and I'm keeping my SOP at the standard 2-pages (12-font, Times New Roman, single-spaced), as suggested by clinical psychology grad students at my undergraduate program.

[SOP mistakes: what to avoid]

Guys, any thoughts on what I should be focusing on in a 500 word SOP?? It's so short! And it's for Cambridge in the UK. Any differences I should be keeping in mind...?

 

The way I approached my rough draft SOP was to ignore the word limit and type my essay using the general guidelines from sites people have suggested on this forum. I also made sure to include the most important strengths about myself. After that, I went back and cut away any extraneous materials (e.g. needlessly lengthy introductory phrases; passages that repeat main ideas I had mentioned earlier in the essay). If my essay still was over the word limit, I would go through the process again and concentrate on how I can isolate the most important main ideas in a more succinct and shorter way. 

 

Also about choosing faculty members for your grad program, you'll just have to do your research into each processor in the program whose interests match yours. It might be a bit late in the game to contact these professors, though, especially from a prestigious university like Cambridge. What kind of program are you applying for?

[Grad Applications - Does it matter which order I send application materials?]

Does anybody know if it matters which order you send application materials in general? I can't find any specific information on any of the schools' application guidelines. I needed to send official transcripts to Clinical Psychology programs before submitting my online applications, because I was working on my personal statement essays until the last minute. I'm wondering how these schools keep track of materials they receive in the mail if a person hasn't even submitted their application yet 

 

Thanks!