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MyDogHasAPhD

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Posts posted by MyDogHasAPhD

  1. I am currently in a program and was pretty active in the Social Psych 2017 thread so I hop on here from time to time to just check in. I wanted to chime in with a bit of reassurance. It is still SUPER EARLY! I did not hear from HALF my schools until after February 1st, and did not even get my first official acceptance until mid-March. Yes, many do send out invites this week but I know in my program, many of the faculty have not even began making their "informal interview" phone calls, and another friend who is in a different program also told me the same thing. So with all that said, do not think that just because you have not heard this week that all hope is lost. I promise you, it is not! Hang in there, friends. It will be over soon and this time next year, hopefully you will all be super stressed out in grad school!

  2. Any good advice on how to go about wording an email rejecting an admissions offer? I am really struggling to find the right words because this was a really hard decision for me and I had a lengthy correspondence and an actual on campus visit to this university. Ultimately, I was accepted to my top choice program and the fit is a lot better but nonetheless, I still am having a hard time wording this rejection! Anyone else send a rejection email care to share how they worded it? 

  3. 2 hours ago, canessa said:

    UPDATE (a not so active update though..): So I waited another week after this and texted my grad student host and she said that some but not all decisions went out. Okay. No big deal.

    Another week passes by, someone on thegradcafe messaged me and says that the POI waitlisted them. Uhh, a little panic but still hopeful.

    Three days later, I decide to send a follow up to the POI saying that I'm interested in the program and just wanted to follow up. Five days later, here I am with no reply. Gosh this is SO disheartening.. it's been nearly 2 MONTHS since my interview. At this point I assume the worst but I at least want to hear something.. it's awful just sitting in silence for so long. It's so strange too because I thought I really had a great interview and connection with the faculty. I was hoping for at least some sort of reply to my follow up even if it didn't answer my question like "hey decisions will be out soon." Or "I've been busy! Will get back to you." 

    I just hate that I'm still clinging on to some sort of hope when it seems so unlikely. :-( 

    So I was wait listed at my top choice. Reached out to POI after being told I was first alternate on a wait list a few weeks prior because I had another, less desirable offer emerge and this university was putting some pressure on me for a decision. Three days after I sent this email  to POI at top choice, I received a reply that he wanted to discuss my application again. I have been offered admission since. Sometimes when all hope seems lost, it really isn't. I was so certain that I wan't getting in that I had told most my family and friends that I was going to the program that had first offered me admission. It ain't over til it's over.. and it isn't over for 3 more weeks really. Don't give up hope yet! 

  4. On 3/15/2017 at 7:07 PM, FluffyPancakes said:

    Thank you so much for posting this and congratulations on your top choice acceptance!  I am so happy for you.  I was starting to feel like waitlist acceptances never happen.  Even if it is not the case for me, it is just nice to hear it worked out for someone on a waitlist. :D

    Thank you so much. I was feeling that way too.. I was so shocked. Best of luck and really, don't give up hope! I have heard from a few people that usually end of March, early April is a big time for wait list offers to start coming through.

  5. 2 hours ago, Necrovex said:

    Thus people being called off the wait list begins! Congrats, man! Must be a jubilant feeling for such a random call to occur. :-D 

    Absolutely. I was not expecting this and had internally given up a bit of hope. It was a really great surprise, to say the least.

  6. 14 hours ago, Xavier Laflame said:

    Hey everyone hope your applications are going well. I have hit a few roadblocks on mine, and one of my mentors said that he once found a website listing schools that had extended their PhD application dates. Would anyone know if this website actually exists, and what it would be called?

    Try searching for postings for new PhD programs or labs on here. Sometimes newer programs extend their application deadlines to get more students applying. SPSP sometimes sends out bulletin emails when new labs are recruiting, and sometimes they have later deadlines but I don't recall seeing any past 3/1. Good luck on your hunt!

  7. 9 hours ago, psychlife4me said:

    Same thing happened to me regarding funding at one of my top choices. POI was told they would be allowed to take two...came back and was told they could only take one so it was the waitlist for me. Stay strong my friend, I will be sending you all the good vibes!! :)

    The funding struggle is real. I think programs are pro-actively freaking out due to the new administration. 

    I actually had a program tell me due to wanting to secure funding for existing students they were only taking ONE student in their social program! ONE!

  8. Hi everyone. Could use a little advice. 

    I am currently waitlisted at my top two programs and have been accepted to what we will call my #3. Happy to have an acceptance but am in a dilemma. 

    The program I am accepted to is not nearly as appealing to me as my two waitlist options. Do I sit on both waitlist options, hoping one will pan out and wait until the last minute to accept my offer at my #3? I feel bad doing this, knowing someone may really want the acceptance I have but is waitlisted. But I also feel like turning down an offer and hoping a waitlist option pans out is a real gamble. Am I being a jerk for holding on to two waitlist options eventhough I have an acceptance?

  9. 14 hours ago, almondicecream said:

    AHHHH I GOT ACCEPTED INTO TWO OF MY THREE DREAM PROGRAMS!! When I got my first acceptance a few weeks ago I just started bawling. And then I just got accepted to my other dream school, laughed because nothing this amazing happens to me ever, and then started crying again. I'm just bewildered and overwhelmed. Almost can't believe the programs I've gotten into with a 2.98 GPA, although I do feel like I've spent quite a bit of time trying make up for that. Been on this forum for four years and am glad to have finally be "graduating" from it.

    Congratulations on your hard work, persistence and determination, friend!! Amazing news.

  10. 1 hour ago, ForeverJung said:

    From what I heard from Professors, it is getting very difficult to get tenure track positions as a lot of departments are getting rid of them. He advocated that the ranking of the schools make a big difference as there are a lot of people getting their PhDs and only a few tenure track spots. By going to a top school you would have a better chance at getting a good Professor position. In my opinion however, I feel that you make your own destiny in terms of the work you accomplish in Grad School. I think it depends on who you ask.

    I agree with a lot of this. Personally, I have been looking at programs not necessarily in terms of rating, but how well prepared I am going to be for life outside of academia, as well as for tenure track positions. Given the future of tenure track jobs (or lack thereof), I have found myself wanting to prepare for the worst and looking at stats sequences and methodology courses and weighing in what preparation I would get for non-academic positions when applying to schools. Obviously tenure track academic positions are ideal, but these student loans aren't paying themselves.... oy. 

  11. 3 hours ago, Rainydays said:

    Hi, those who have attended interview weekend, could you please share any of your experiences (e.g.what is like, who you meet, what you did) and give any suggestion for it (e.g. what I should prepare)? I'm really nervous for one approaching interview, and maybe the only hope..

    By the way, is it strange that I received the interview invitation but haven't talked much with my PI yet? She haven't contacted me after I received the official interview invitation.

    Not that strange! I have an interview in a couple weeks with a PI I didn't even apply to, have zero overlapping research interest with, and haven't heard a peep from her but graduate students from her lab have contacted me so I am fairly certain it isn't a mistake. To say I am a bit at a loss is an understatement. 

  12. 25 minutes ago, thirdfromthesun said:

    Hi-- Clark sent out recruitment weekend invites a few weeks ago (I had a phone interview with my PI in the first week of January). 

    Good to know. I wish they could just inform of us of rejections once they know they don't want us! I kind of figured at this point that no news is not exactly good news. At least my intuition was not wrong. Thanks for the info!

  13. 6 minutes ago, selfservingbias said:

    Hi all, 

    This is my first time posting in this forum, though I have been [anxiously] following it for a couple of weeks. I applied to 13 programs, and have only heard from 2 so far. I am waitlisted at Penn State and City University (critical social / personality program). Radio silence on ALL other fronts. The suspense is pretty terrible! 

    I hear you, marsbars, about the ambiguity around being on the waitlist. I'm hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. 

    Has anyone heard from Clark or UNH? I heard that Clark was sending out invites last week, which leads me to believe that I have been rejected (though I haven't seen anything come up about Clark on any of the forums). 

    Thanks and best of luck to everyone! 

    Also applied to Clark and UNH. Nothing yet. You are in good company in the world of radio silence. Best of luck!

  14. 7 hours ago, socialbrouhaha said:

    I have been zen and then panicked and then back to zen again....in a matter of one day. I have heard nothing yet. It's my first time applying, is silence good or bad???

    Considering some of you have heard back from UCI and UofT, I guess my chances are pretty low for them :( i'm okay with that, I think. It would just be nice to know that you're rejected or wait listed or accepted rather than be in purgatory. In terms of coping, I think I've just set the bar low and have come to accept that I won't get in anywhere that way if I do get in somewhere its a pleasant surprise. Haha, probably not the best coping method, but hey, it works. 

    I guess my application wasn't that strong to garner any interviews as of yet...fingers crossed for some news soon. And I completely agree, the GRE make-or-break metric is a sham and is downright embarrassing. Don't we all value the dynamic nature of intelligence and the variability in student potential yet? How much longer will these tests be chained to application procedures? Unfortunate is the right word!

    I couldn't agree here more. I feel like the GRE is keeping incredibly qualified applicants out of top programs. If it was a test that showed reliable predictors of success in graduate school or at least had some correlation with attrition rates, I could give it some merit. But the stats show it is only predictive of first year graduate school success. 

    So much of making it through programs has to do with tenacity plus all the other "intelligent" people qualities. The GRE simply cannot measure that and while these program say "Oh we look at applicants holistically", clearly many are not. Many are using the GRE score as a cut off for funding and a way to do immediate mass eliminations. 

    Such a scam.

     

    Also silence isnt always a bad thing. Sometimes it can mean you didn't make the initial round of interviews and when they hold their interviews, someone may not click well so they go back to the drawing board. This is my second time through this process. The silence can make you crazy, absolutely. I don't know if I have it in me to do this a third time. Props to those who have. 

  15. 9 hours ago, thirdfromthesun said:

    It is incredibly unfortunate that some schools view the GRE as a make-or-break metric. It has been demonstrated time and time again that the GRE has limited forecasting ability in the realm of grad school success-- in fact, a recent study found that the GRE was not associated with student productivity (http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/01/student-performance-measures-don-t-perform). I'm so sorry to hear that Albany would decline a qualified applicant on the basis of just one (somewhat dubious) measure :(.

    It is incredibly disheartening. I will be coming in with a Masters, multiple pubs, and other CV "tokens" that clearly demonstrate my abilities beyond a test score. Luckily I still have some other great options floating around but this one was a top. Especially because I was wait listed before the masters degree and was told to reapply if I went ahead and got my Masters! Well... 

  16. 4 hours ago, marsbars said:

    Standardized testing as a make or break is garbage. 

    Sending positive thoughts your way ♡

    So frustrating. But I have somehow ended up snagging a few interviews with my mediocre GRE scores so hopefully not all departments place such emphasis on them. It really is so unfortunate.

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