Ilspflouz

Hi everyone, just wanted to share that I did end up getting into MSU's Masters program. For anyone waiting, you should be hearing soon! Not sure about funding, but hey still good news. :-)

Good to know I am not the only one. Haha. It is 4/10 and I still haven't heard anything. Idk what to do at this point.

Hello everyone, I have been rejected from 7/10 schools. I have yet to hear back from 3 final schools. I emailed the admissions department hoping to get an update at all three schools and have heard back from one. They said my status is still "pending," that they were reviewing apps, and that I should hear back by the end of April or early May with a decision. Since it is almost April and I have heard nothing, I had assumed I was already rejected from these schools and that contacting them would just give me a final confirmation so I could move on with my life. I never thought it was even possible schools are still reviewing apps at the moment. The app deadlines for these programs were in December/early January. I know that the interview weekends for all 3 schools have passed, and the results page shows people have already been admitted. The problem is I have been admitted by an MA program I am interested in that wants to know by 4/15/15 if I will be enrolling. Obviously it is a long shot to get into a PhD program at the moment. However a small part of me says "what if I get randomly accepted by a PhD program after I've already accepted at the MA?" What would I do then? Is that even possible? I keep reading all the "it's not over until it's over" comments on here and basically I don't know what to do now. Is it wrong of me to assume I have been rejected by these three schools? Should I be waiting for confirmation before accepting the MA? What do I do if I don't get confirmation before 4/15? Any help is appreciated. Thanks everyone.

Agree. I know multiple people who got in to multiple places with a high GPA but low GRE (read as ~75% verbal, ~44% quant). I also know multiple people who got into multiple places with a high GRE and low GPA (lowest I know is a 3.3). So as long as you have high levels of one (GPA/GRE) to counteract for low levels of the other and the experience to back up that you are a good candidate, you can totally get accepted! However, You have to be able to get the adcom to even look at your app, and without a high-ish GRE score+GPA that won't happen. One of my advisers told me that GPA+GRE must hit a certain cutoff. If you have a moderate-low GPA, you really need a GRE score that is high in both areas to counteract it. The opposite also appears to be true (moderate-low GRE scores = need high GPA). However, if both are mediocre, or one is low and one is mediocre, there is a really good chance your application will be overlooked or tossed out and the rest of your application (experience, letters, etc) won't matter. There are plenty of people that have high levels of EVERYTHING. Case in point, my application: Research/Applied Experience: High (I have ~5 years of experience that is either research or working directly with the population I want to study, 3 conference presentations) GPA: Moderate (3.5 overall, 3.6 major) GRE: Moderate-Low (311 Combined -- 160 Verbal (84%), 151 Quant (44%), Writing=4.5=56%) Outcome: Rejected from 10 PhD programs with varying levels of difficulty (top 50-top 100), got 1 phone interview. Conclusion: If I had a higher GPA, or a higher GRE - I probably would have had better outcomes. Don't make the same mistakes I did and hope that one part of your application that isn't GPA/GRE will hopefully make up for another. In my case I had hoped experience would make up for my GRE score, and I thought my GPA was fine. But I didn't take what I wrote above into consideration. Good luck everyone.

Undergrad Institution: Big State School, Moderate Reputation in Psychology (Ranked in top 50 psych grad schools in the US) Major(s): Psychology, no minor GPA in Major: 3.67 Overall GPA: 3.50 Position in Class: Graduated Cum Laude Type of Student: Domestic applicant, female GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 151 V: 160 W: 4.5 Research Experience: About 5 years research experience = 3 RA positions (at undergrad school) + 2 lab manager positions (at undergrad school) + 1 data processing/analyst position (at top 10 ranked US psych grad school), 2 poster presentations (regional conferences), 1 symposium presentation (regional conference) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Won award for 1 poster presentation Pertinent Activities or Jobs: undergrad TA, 1.5 years intern at clinical psych outpatient clinic, 2 years conducting intake assessments at substance abuse/DV clinic Special Bonus Points: 1 recommender does research similar to my interests, pretty well known Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Only had 2 PhD recommenders, then 2 MSW recommenders Applying to Where: 4 Community Psychology (NC State, Portland State, DePaul, Virginia) 3 Clinical-Community Psych (Bowling Green, GA State, Illinois@Urbana) 2 Psych-Law (Nebraska, CUNY) 1 Psych&Public Policy (Georgetown) 3 MA Programs (MSU, Wayne State) Outcome: 1 Phone Interview with Illinois@Urbana, then rejected at all PhD programs, accepted at all MA programs. Hoped experience+high verbal GRE would make up for low quant GRE&OK GPA....guess not. Conclusion: If you have a moderate-low GPA, you really need a GRE score that is high in both areas to counteract it. The opposite also appears to be true (moderate-low GRE scores = need high GPA). I know multiple people who got in to multiple places with a high GPA but low GRE (read as ~75% verbal, ~44% quant). I also know multiple people who got into multiple places with a high GRE and low GPA (lowest I know is a 3.3). So as long as you have high levels of one (GPA/GRE) to counteract for low levels of the other and the experience to back up that you are a good candidate, you can totally get accepted! However, if both are mediocre, or one is low and one is mediocre, there is a really good chance your application will be overlooked or tossed out -- because there are plenty of people that have high levels of EVERYTHING. Good luck everyone.

So the graduate secretary got back to me. Apparently the adcom still hasn't even made any recommendations to the director. She said it will likely be early to mid April before I hear anything. I have no idea what to think at this point. Is taking this long common for CJ MA programs?

Thanks for the replies everyone! I will be contacting the director if I do not hear back by the end of tomorrow from the secretary. Anyone think it is irrational for me to be assuming the worst since I haven't heard from them and April is looming? u\rising_star-- There is no funding connected to the MA that wants an answer ASAP. There is possible funding attached to the CJ MA that won't get back to me. That's another aspect that is making this more tricky. :-/

34K? Holy crap how awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a totally failed attempt at applying to forensic psych PhD programs this year, some my advisers suggested I look into CJ programs instead because they felt CJ was more in line with my interests. So to learn about programs in criminal justice, I met with the admissions director of a CJ graduate program I am interested in. At the end of our meeting, he told me that he would consider my application for this school's MA program if I could get it to him the next day even though the deadline had passed. I threw an app together, contacted my recommenders, and crossed my fingers. He told me that it shouldn't be long until I heard back since they had already started their review of apps, and that I would also be considered for funding. That was over a month ago, and I have not heard anything more from that program. The issue is -- earlier this year, I applied to some other MA programs, and I was offered admission. There is one other program in particular I am interested in, but it is not in CJ. This other program contacted me this week and stated they would like an answer ASAP about if I am attending their program. I don't know what to do because I think if I didn't get into the program I mentioned above that I would attend this program that is asking me for a decision. I have emailed the graduate secretary at the CJ program to see if I could get an idea of where my app was in the admissions process but with no response. What the heck should I tell this other program? Frankly, I had assumed originally that the CJ director would not have offered to look at my app if he wasn't seriously considering accepting me. But now that it has been awhile I am not sure what to think anymore. Any advice/input is appreciated. Thanks!

I went to MSU for undergrad and then lived there as an employee from 2012-2014. I go back and visit often, and I am starting a graduate program there in the summer. I've lived at, visited, or toured most of the places mentioned on this thread fairly recently. I've also lived in Lansing and Okemos in addition to East Lansing. So If you have any questions, feel free to PM me/ask here! I am not quite sure where to start as there is so much information that could be given. I think really it comes down to what you are looking for. If your budget is about $700, you should be able to afford a one bedroom near campus. The cheapest 1 bedroom I lived in was at Brookport Apartments, was $525 and included heat, but was kind of shitty (most of the kitchen cabinets had almost rotted through). So you can find pretty well priced housing, but the typical 1 bedroom apartments I have seen around MSU are 600+. This may or may not include utilities, and unfortunately the majority of the places I have lived at in East Lansing had atrocious insulation and therefore huge heating bills. My boyfriend lived in a nicer one bedroom at Hull apartments last year(read "nicer" as: old but it had a dishwasher so nice in my book, haha) and he paid $640 a month. But with uitilities it was ~800 a month. So my advice would therefore be to try to find somewhere that includes heat. What is your number one concern/things you are looking for? I'm asking because there are so many options that what you want in housing probably influences where I'd tell you to look for it. Depending what city you live in (East Lansing, Okemos, or Lansing) & what area of that city you are in, the atmosphere can really be quite different. Also, do you plan on driving to campus or want to live close enough to walk/take the bus? Parking on MSU's campus is never free, and it is hard for graduate students to get parking permits. There is however, a pretty great bus transit system that goes all over the Lansing/East Lansing/Okemos area. Graduate student housing can be great, but it can also be expensive and the buildings are pretty old. My friend, who is a graduate student at MSU and is from Chicago, actually compared them to "the projects." Haha. But I know other people that live there and like it. Also, sidenote: I know 2900 place has been mentioned on this thread, and I lived there for about 2 years so I suppose I will add my two-cents about them. From what I saw, it was kind of a get what you pay for situation there. When I lived there you could get updated or non-updated apartments, but the updated ones were more expensive. The non-updated one I lived in was honestly one of the worst places I have ever lived -- we had cockroaches numerous times, people peed in the stairwells (someone pooped there twice also...I still don't understand this), the locks on the front and back door to the building were broken, the upper deck of the parking structure was crumbling, and our heating bill was 100+ dollars from Dec-March. When I left those apartments in 2013 a new management company was beginning to update a lot of stuff about the building, so the situation might be a lot better now for most people. The updated apartments I toured/visited on the other hand, seemed relatively nice. And the previous poster really is telling the truth -- it is a high-rise style so the office is just in the lobby and the people who work there are really helpful/nice. The location is also pretty close to campus, and the prices aren't as high as some of the other apartments in the area.

I currently live in Ann Arbor and have for about a year. Ann Arbor is known as being one of the most liberal cities in Michigan, and being very "alternative-lifestyle" friendly. I'm straight and this is my perspective so I suppose it could be skewed, but I would say that Ann Arbor does seem pretty gay friendly. I see gay couples walking around hand in hand here often during the summer and no one seems to bat an eye. The queer acquaintances I have talked here have openly stated they love living in AA. I know of two gay bars for certain in AA, but there could be more. Ferndale (about 40 mins away) is also very gay friendly and even has a pride week complete with a parade and everything every year. I have only ever lived in Michigan so I can't speak with how AA compares with the rest of the country, but I would definitely say it is one of the most (if not the most) gay-friendly cities in the entire state. There's also a ton of stuff to do here for fun, and it is very close to the airport. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Hi everyone, So long story short -- This week I went to meet with the director of admissions for an MA program in my field of interest just to learn about the program. Even though it is way past the deadline, at the end of our meeting after learning about me he randomly offered to consider my application materials for Fall 2015 if I got them to him within 2 days. I somehow got everything together super fast and my app is complete as of this morning. Now, I'm stuck wondering how long it will be before I hear back from the program. The website says to expect to get a decision 6-8 weeks past the deadline, but that deadline was Feb 1st. There is the possibility that this degree could be funded, which I am very anxious to hear about. Has anyone been in this situation before? If so how long did it take the program to get back to you? Do you think it would it be safe to assume I have a good shot at getting in and getting funding? Would it rude of me to ask the program how long it will be before I should expect an answer? I am just still kind of in shock that he even offered to review my materials so I don't really know how to react or what to think. More importantly -- I am also wondering what to do/think because prior to this experience I had started applying for jobs for the coming year and interviewing. Aaaand of course I just got offered a job for the coming year this week as well. The employer wants a final decision by the second week of March so I have no idea what to do if I haven't heard back from the program by then. If I don't get in, I really would need to take this job. Any feedback is helpful! Thanks for reading. :-)

Thanks so much for all the replies. TXInstrument, Congrats on your acceptances!!! If you want to talk feel free to PM me, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences between psych&CJ. It is starting to sound more and more like CJ/Crim is the way to go for me. I found a report from the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminal Justice and Criminology that quotes some employment figures for graduates. Can anyone comment on if they think this is a reputable organization/these numbers are trustworthy? It can be found here: http://www.adpccj.com/documents/2014survey.pdf. I have a meeting with the director of MSU's CJ program tomorrow, and your replies have all given me a lot of ideas for questions. So thanks again. :-)

I am like OP and really interested in this as I try to decide whether to apply to Crim or Psych. I've looked around a lot, but the only numbers I have really seen pertaining specifically to Crim PhD programs are from the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Here is a link to their 2014 report: http://www.adpccj.com/documents/2014survey.pdf. Page 16 of this report seems to have a blurb on employment after graduation from doctoral programs. It seems to indicate that ~88% of the recent crim graduates they interviewed from 2012-2013 (n=141) had job placements in tenure-track academia or government agency positions. If you assume the other 12% of graduates classified as "other" are also employed, then 100% of the graduates interviewed had jobs. You can compare this to the social psych job placement numbers from the APA's 2009 doctorate employment survey (http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/?tab=4), broken down by psych subfield. From the APA report see this table: http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/table-2.pdf, and this table: http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/table-4.pdf. Of the social psych graduates interviewed (N=71), 53 were employed full time and 10 were post-docs. Hope this helps! :-) I know the sample sizes are quite different, but these reports provided the best comparisons I have been able to find so far.

Thanks a ton! Your information is much appreciated.

I really do appreciate your replies - you have been so, so helpful. Good stuff! :-) By research and applied work, I mean being able to work directly inside the CJ system, and being able to also collect data/run studies at the same time. From my understanding being a university prof sounds like the easiest way for me to do both. That way I would have the resources/flexibility to both consult with CJ agencies (I'm thinking like work with courts on things like best practice methods for offender rehabilitation/risk assessment/violence prevention programs, etc) and also secure funding for research. I think in an ideal world it would be fantastic to collect data from the agencies I was working with - kind of like "let me collect data on what you are doing here and if it works and I'll come help you accomplish what you want to." But, I understand that isn't always how it works. Plus I like teaching, so that's another reason I think that I would like being a prof. But I also don't know how well I would be able to handle the politics. My experience with forensic psych has been the same. The majority of the forensic psych faculty I have met just seem to be evaluating the mental health of offenders/competence to stand trial...which is not what I want to do at all. From what you are describing, CJ really does sound like a much better fit for me. It sounds like depending where you end up you could have the flexibility to do a ton of different things in a CJ PhD program. Would you say that is accurate? In terms of program ranking, are you just talking the way that US News/World Report ranks CJ/Crim programs? Or is there another system that ranks programs? In other words, where should I look to figure out what the best programs in CJ are? Last question, I've heard Criminology is more about developing theory, while CJ is more "action-oriented". Do you think that is accurate? Again, thank you SO MUCH for your insight.

I'm sorry. This rejection really really sucks. I haven't heard from a single program except one and it was killing me for awhile! Onto other options I guess. Blargh. Unfortunately I didn't apply to Vanderbilt so I can't help you much there.

Hey jdownton! Thanks so much, this info was REALLY helpful. I am in the same boat with not being interested in clinical psych, but that seems to be where the most people doing "forensic" work are....which doesn't excite me too much. I have been mainly looking into Community Psych/Prevention Research programs previously. Also, this (^^^^) is probably the most helpful thing I've heard from everyone I've talked to about grad programs so far. So thank you for that. Narrowing down to specific careers is tricky. I've basically narrowed down what my research interests are by trying a bunch of stuff and figuring out what I hated. But I definitely don't have three more years to spend doing that in CJ to figure out career options. Haha. At the moment all I know is that I think that I would be happy doing anything as long as I could both conduct research and applied work at the same time. Any suggestions on how to narrow this down further, or is completing an MA my best bet? I have a contact at MSU's CJ program, and am hoping I can meet with some faculty there soon, so hopefully that will help! Can I ask if you have any insight into how competitive the job market is for people with CJ PhD's? Also, how dificult is it to secure funding for MA/PhD degrees?

Hi everyone, I am considering pursuing a PhD in criminal justice, but am in need of some advice/guidance. To sum it up: I graduated with a BS in psychology in 2012, and planned on going to graduate school for psych. However, my research interests are all justice-oriented topics (e.g. issues like violence prevention, risk assessment, interventions to reduce recidivism, etc). As a result, one of my advisers has suggested I look into CJ programs in addition to/instead of psych programs. I have heard that criminological theory is focused on punishment and deterrance, rather than prevention/intervention (which is what I am interested in). Can anyone here comment if this is true? If so, does this mean I would primarily receive training in punishment/deterrance strategies/theory in CJ? Or does this depend on the school/your advisor? Most psych PhD programs are set up with a mentorship model (e.g. you have one primary research advisor during your program), is this also true for CJ? Also, I am interested in working directly with police departments and courts to help them create/provide more effective services for perpetrators and victims of crime. Would a graduate program in CJ/Crim allow me to do this? Or is it less action oriented and more theoretical? What are some differences between CJ/Crim programs? It seems like the programs I have seen are both CJ and Crim combined? Lastly, will it be a big problem that my background is in psychology rather than CJ if I do decide to apply to CJ PhD programs? Would it be worth my time to do an MA program instead, or do most CJ PhD programs have you complete an MA on the way to completing a PhD? What is the funding like for MA/PhD programs? I had 2 social science research methods courses in undergrad, in addition to another general introductory statistics course. I had a 3.5 undergrad GPA & currently have ~4.5 years of research experience. 1 of the research labs I was involved in worked with a juvenile court, and I currently work for an organization that archives CJ data. I also have ~3.5 years of applied positions. 1 working directly with justice-involved youth and another working with adult offenders. Additionally, I have 3 conference presentations that all deal with issues in juvenile justice. I apologize for all the questions/ignorance. I just would like to gain as much information as possible! Thanks in advance for any replies.

Thanks everyone. You've given me a lot to think about.

Thanks for the feedback psychface! You've been very helpful.

Hey all, Probably PhD reject here, and considering doing an MA in psychology. I've been browsing threads for awhile and saw that some of you have already completed Psych MA programs. I've been googling, but have found it hard to find psychology master's programs that are not from for profit universities. Anyone willing to share where you obtained your degree from and what you thought about the program/your ability to do research there? Also does anyone have an idea about if the school you get a master's from will matter much to PhD admissions committees? Or does it just matter if you do well in the program/are able to publish? Any feedback helps! Thanks everyone.

I second this. Pizza/netflix//all the other things I am using to fry my brain while waiting seem to be having little effect on making time go by faster. Plus I work in front of a computer all day so I spend way too much time on this site. Eek. Hopefully the fact that we've all heard from one school means good news for our application prospects! I had a phone interview with UIUC's clinical/community psych program a bit ago & saw some acceptances on the results page today so I'm starting to freak a little. Any chance anyone has info on DePaul/UVA/Portland State's Comm Psych program, BGSU's Clinical-Comm Psych program, or Georgetown's Human Development and Public Policy program they'd consider passing along or can point me to where they've seen any?

Hi MyDogHasAPhD. I applied to the PsyPI program at NC State also but it was kind of a question mark if my POI was accepting so I don't anticipate hearing back. Congrats on the interview though!

Oh wow congratulations, that's fantastic! Did you apply to the clinical program there? If you are talking about UMD College Park, I am jealous because that campus is gorgeous. How many schools did you apply to?