TXInstrument11

I used this. Scored around the 80th percentile as well. However, I also read a general psych textbook and thought it helped more. Princeton Review's practice test greatly overestimated my percentile- placing me at 99%, and I thought it focused way too much on psychodynamic theories. Other prep courses were pretty much o the money, though they were M&V.

Right or wrong, the Replication Movement is causing a lot of academics to tank in popularity. Just because they're right doesn't make it any less political. Edit: I am part of the Replication Movement so I largely support the mission of people like Gelman, and his confrontational approach is probably what's needed to create change (Cohen, Meehl, & others have been talking about this for ages to no avail, after all), but this is still politics - just between scientists.

I'm currently in a PhD program, and I was forwarded a blog post that I would have found useful as an applicant. It's by a prominent "replication guru", Andrew Gelman. I am not here to take sides in the replication debate, merely to pass along information that may help you more fully appreciate importance of politics in academia. Gelman's condemnation of a professor's former students is demonstrative. http://andrewgelman.com/2016/09/21/what-has-happened-down-here-is-the-winds-have-changed/ While reading this, some troubling rumors I heard about a few departments I applied to suddenly made a lot more sense, as did offhand negative comments I hear routinely from professors in this department. For better or for worse, the popularity of your adviser matters a lot - and arguably more than ever in the current climate. At my undergrad institution, a practical "no-name" with few power player professors, I only heard whispers of these things from a few select people. If I had better understood the intensity and commonness of these academic cat fights, I might have taken better care in choosing departments to apply to, and I think now that I might have had a better chance of acceptance if I had gone that route by dodging departments that appear to be falling apart at the seams. For more examples, check out the feud between Uri Simonsohn and a fellow "replication guru", Greg Francis to see how ugly the mudslinging can get.

Hm. Yes, I forgot about that. I suppose my job would have to be cash then so it would fly under the radar - babysitting, lawn mowing, private tutoring?

If I can't manage to secure an outside fellowship, my budget is going to be extremely tight. I was considering picking up a campus job for the spring or summer. Does anyone have experience doing something like this?

WrellieHm. Good tip! Thank you. I will have to look into him. My first year stats courses don't have him, but perhaps I will have classes with him later. I am not I/O though.

What are your GRE scores? It may be more cost effective to improve those if they are especially low. EDIT: nevermind, sorry for not reading down to the bottom of your post to see that you plan on retaking the GRE. I still maintain though that this is an important consideration before you start throwing money down on application fees. Your GRE x GPA combination matter much more than they should in this hyper-competitive environment. Good grades can't cushion the GRE as well as they could in the past. Is there a professor who sits on admissions at your school who would be willing to talk to you about this? I don't personally know much about how clinical works, though social/personality also has very low admit rates. It may be better to opt for a terminal master's. I considered it too before I was lucky enough to get my acceptance. While it seems like a huge risk financially to put down thousands for the master's, that may be what is necessary. It doesn't make anyone a failure to go that route either. Many of my POIs, even the young ones, had to get the terminal master's degree. Would PsyD be an option for you?

Wow, it looks like I'm pretty alone in getting a class ring. This is awkward.....

I'm not usually one for pomp and circumstance and all that ritualistic tradition crap, but I caved and bought a class ring. I'm the first one in my family to finish college and I won't be able to walk in the ceremony because I'm moving for grad school, so I need some kind of memento. As long as it doesn't seem in bad taste to other people, I may opt for a class ring for grad too. It's not really about showing off the reputation of the school to me (and my undergrad doesn't have much at that), but more about pride in where I came from and connecting with other graduates from my school. I didn't bother with high school though and have absolutely no plans to buy a ring. I went ahead and threw that in there too just to see the relative popularity of HS vs college rings. Though I can't imagine why a high schooler would be on here so early, I kept the options the same. Maybe there are a few serious go-getters out there who will be able to use them.

Thanks for the perspective and feedback! I was hoping you or another quant person might chime in on this. I have heard of poor analysis (and sometimes outright fraud) in data going unnoticed for years in psych until someone with a more technical background takes a look. Case in point - http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/19/mathematics-of-happiness-debunked-nick-brown I hear things like this and I think, "Well, damn, what if I was duped by that? If somebody more qualified than me said the math on an unfamiliar technique was good, would I ask questions? Would I even know what to ask?" It's scenarios like this that make me worried about taking the average stats courses offered in psych and just sticking with that. The idea even that I could do everything ethically right, analyze the data to the best of my ability, and still royally screw up scares me. Sure, mistakes happen, but this was a bad one that was far from obvious ---- only because other psychologists did not have the technical skill to spot the BS. Ultimately though, I think you all are right - I need to have a long conversation with my adviser and maybe some other people in my field on this before I leap.

I can minor in it. I didn't know about this kind of degree being viable for statisticians. Thanks Another grad student in the program said something similar. I initially considered taking stats through the math department because it looked like I was stuck with the bad apple for one of our first stats classes in the department, but managed to slip in when someone dropped the alternate professor's class. And yeah, you're probably right. I have contacted my adviser, but they have been busy. Yes, I think that would probably be the best course of action for seeing if I'm still capable of it. I was thinking about working in some hours per day/week to work entirely on math in order to do this and have researched a few free resources to learn calc. I suppose I am worried about being able to understand calc well enough to apply to data analysis. I wasn't sure if I could self-teach some of these things later on. It does sound as if the broad education from the math department might make it harder though. I suppose it depends on how well they tailor it to education and psychology students. The head of the program is actually from education, but it's technically under the stats department.

Rereading my post, I did come off as cocky and should have phrased some of what I said differently. I was basing it off of the people I know in STEM majors that I knew in HS. They always think they're hot shit and I know I understood the math better and got better grades in high school than they did. I would be very surprised if they suddenly became math prodigies come uni.

I aced precalculus/trig and qualified for calc. I just didn't take it because I was going to a humanities major at the time and didn't think it was worth the effort. Most people do not take calc in high school. You need advanced placement or dual enrollment for it and that's not 50+% of the school population, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. An MS in stats gets me something tangible that sets me apart from other people, either as a researcher or on the job market. Also, this stats master's is designed for PhD students. I'm not signing up for it on top of my requirements. Instead, I would be subbing in additional stats classes to cover the typical psych MS and the "minor" requirements, which I was going to put into stats anyway.

I've simply emailed folks (whoever the article lists as contact or 1st author) and haven't had to provide much information at all. Between my honors thesis and my UG research lab, I've done this about 4-5 times. Just use your edu address and the tell them about your topic. Maybe it's different for the dissertation though?

So, I'm thinking about grabbing up a master's through the stats department at my school instead of the regular psych MS built into my PhD. My thinking is, it will be good for me as a researcher because I will have more methods at my disposal, allowing for more varied experimental design and greater independence (less need for data analysis help from other faculty). It also may also give me a competitive hiring edge later on. BUT the rub is that I have practically zero advanced math right now, necessitating a slow crawl through several calculus classes taught by grad students. If I magically secured an override now, it would take me Fall & Spring for Calc I and II, and then an additional Summer & Fall for Calc III and the other prereqs. That means 4 semesters for only the damn prereqs! Realistically, I would bone up on my trig now and then take Calc I in the Spring, so 5 additional semesters before even starting the MS. Math isn't a great love for me, but I do pretty well in it - maybe even better than the average STEM student on aptitude. So, it's doable, just difficult and time-consuming. I am squeamish about adding an extra year and limiting all of my electives to stats, but maybe it's worth it. In the grand scheme of things, one year isn't that much time and if I shouldn't be penalized by my program according to the handbook. NOTE: my tuition is covered and, as far as I know, does not have a year cap.