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It really depends on the year - how many profs have the funding to take new students, what the applicant pool looks like, etc. Typically we do take ~50% of the interviewees, but that cohort size can vary a lot. Last year we interviewed 14 and accepted 9, but my year they interviewed 19 or 20. 13 sounds reasonable for this year though since last year's cohort was pretty large!

Just giving you guys a heads up, from a current grad - UCLA Social Psych should be finishing up their interview invites this week or early next!

For your main post question - no, you don't need a pub. That being said, social psych is murderously competitive. Oregon had like a 5% acceptance rate last year. So pubs aren't a requirement, but in this environment anything that can give you a leg up and prove that you're a hard working, passionate, insightful student is valuable. I didn't have any publications, but I did have research experience in a new technology that my PI was starting to use and no other applicant had that experience. I wasn't accepted anywhere else, and only got two other phone interviews. The best way to up your chances is to have valuable research experience, interests that closely align with the professor, and great writing skills to communicate all that. Even then, you also need a healthy dose of good luck. Upping your other stats helps a bit with that luck.

Well I'm starting my PhD this fall at UCLA, so it better be legitimate In all seriousness, though, UCLA is a fantastic place to get your degree. It is competitive though, like all psych PhD programs in the US. Unfortunately, these days PhD is almost the only option to get after a bachelors in psych (there are a few masters programs, but not many and they cost soooo much), so competitive will likely be what you have to deal with across the board.

Hi all, Officially going to UCLA in the fall! I had a couple questions about housing, which I don't think have been covered yet in this topic: Is there a significant difference between Weyburn Terrace and the Hilgard Apartments? Website says Hilgard is a little closer to my department and is a bit bigger on average than Weyburn, is that accurate? What's the social differences between the two? I can imagine Hilgard might not be as community oriented since it's smaller... Do both have parking? Then after the first year, I plan on moving off-campus to somewhere bigger, either the south graduate apartments or somewhere else. Does anyone have experience with those apartments and can talk about their quality? Thanks!

I love the Salton Sea! So eerie and beautiful. It's a great exploration and photography spot. Have fun!

Haha I actually stumbled across a blog that did exactly this while I was researching grad school and how to apply. I forget the author's name but it was a pretty successful Bio professor, and he posted his normal credentials (BS and PhD institutions, conference presentations, grant awards, journals of publication, etc.) and then below he posted all his academic "failures" - schools, grants, and journals who rejected him. He went on to say how this wasn't a picture of failing though, but an illistration of how much of a crapshoot academia can be sometimes, and how the journey always has new doors to open even when some close. It was also nice to see that really successful people are sometimes rejected too

Oh man I only went to one, but it was so fun and convinced me to love my already top choice program. All the grad students were uber cool and passionate and freaking smart people - one couple even invited us over to their house after interview day for pizza and beer. And my two POIs (they're a married couple so the students interviewing for both their labs hung out all weekend) had us over to their house twice. The first night was takeout Persian food and we literally sat around the dinner table talking about movies and tv for two hours. The next time was brunch on the last day when they invited the whole department over. There were also lab tours, taking us out to lunch, a big sushi dinner with all the grad students, and a "research blitz" where all the professors tried to talk about their research in 10 minutes or less and failed horribly at making the time contraint so all the other professors and grad students were throwing jokes at them. It felt so much like a family, I can't wait to join them in the fall!

That probably depends on your program. Some emphasize the ability to take classes or collaborate outside of the department (there's your opportunity to learn CS at the school), and some don't. But also, if you're self motivated, there are sooooo many online classes for teaching coding like coursera, udacity, and coding-specific websites. There's almost too many resources.

Ugh man I tried Python NLP for a project a few years ago. Frustrating, but maybe in 10 years or so it'll be reliable... You're not lazy at all, and I'm super impressed you're only now starting to burn out. I start data collection next week, and then have to kick it into high gear in terms of getting our analysis software to work since right now the new version of matlab screwed it up. Im worried about it all building up at the end because of problems there. And even though I only have that plus two courses (thesis counts as a full course here), I also have four music ensembles I'm dedicated to and a TA position. On paper the schedule may look easier, but this stuff takes just as much time as a full course load haha

Matlab and R are useful to learn for science. Lots of imaging and analysis software rests on Matlab, and the Quant Psych thread indicated that the field is moving to R for statistical analysis. On top of that, learning object-oriented languages like Python and Java and maybe C/C++ may not come in handy directly for your career, but they certainly teach you general programming skills that Teach you to think about other coding projects and to learn new languages faster. (Plus it's nice to code your own calculator that carries across uncertainty values, haha). So for coding, really just pick a language and start working on it and you'll only increase your coding skills. Then the next year pick a second, and so on.

Haha we all have to start somehow! I hate math. Or rather, I hate my experience of it because I've never been good at it. But psych stats and quantitative analysis for brain studies is really exciting to me because of what I can learn. I'm also motivated to be someone who actually understands the analysis they're doing (no "double dipping" in data or anything like that) because I love this subject and I want to truly know it and teach it. So that level of motivation has helped me improve my quant skills greatly.

Congrats on your improvement and acceptance!

There have also been big cuts in funding from the U.S. government for social science in the last couple years (30% proposed reduction for NSF next year, the buggers) and a steady increase in application. Even the grad student I work with now says the undergrads my age are having a much harder time getting in than her cohort did, anywhere.

I just don't know if I believe that one, since it's the only report of an interview. I'll wait a bit longer before I give up.