leagueGirl

Thank you so much for your advice, Mowgli & JoePianist! It's very nice to know that I'm not alone in this :-) Please let me know if you happened to think of other ways of relieving stress, I will do the same too! What I am doing right now is trying to take the perspective of this event being an opportunity for me to evaluate their program as well, rather than me being the only one evaluated. I think that helps a little... Good luck with your interviews!

I'm feeling quite overwhelmed by stress about this coming interview weekend... Will be flying to San Francisco for the first time... Will wearing suit be too hot? What about at night? Will be hosted by a grad student for two nights, interviews go on from Friday morning till Saturday night... I could only imagine this to be quite overwhelming for introverts like myself... So any advice for relieving stress before and during the interviews other than taking deep breaths? Thanks! Any advice is appreciated.

I am curious about what people wore to interview weekends! I know that women tend to have more options/ways to dress formal other than wearing suits, so I'm just wondering what I should wear... If it helps, I live in illinois (currently freezing) and will be flying to Cali for an interview weekend. Any suggestions for what to wear? Would long sleeve shirts be too warm? And what hand carry bags did people bring? Thanks, any comment is appreciated

Thanks for all your replies! Would anyone care to elaborate on why they place more importance on school/program ranking than on research interests or vice versa? (Other than that all the programs you applied to have same research topics -- lets assume they are somewhat different: e.g., social psych vs developmental psych) And for ranking, lets say its top 1 vs top 4 in the nation in their respective fields. All comments are appreciated!

I'm curious how people would rank the following factors in terms of importance in their decisions about PhD programs: - research interest - weather - cost of living - school overall ranking - school program ranking - having worked with (AND LOVING) your advisor prior to application - professor status (e.g., well-known or not) - distance from home Please feel free to add anything not on the above list and, if you don't mind, your intended major