pavlovianlove

@SeventhCircleI didn't apply to any Canadian schools only because I didn't find professors that do research on topics that interest me and that are in universities in cities that I would like to live in. I seriously comtemplated applying to University of Winnipeg as there are a couple of profs with interesting research there, but I'm not sure I'd survive the winter long enough to get my degree.

Yeah, I thought about emailing profs for feedback, but when is an appropriate time? I imagine this month is a busy time for profs interviewing and admitting students. I read somewhere on this forum that after April 15th is ideal, but what do you guys think? I didn't do independent research in the sense that I came up the the hypothesis I wanted to test and crafted the experiment, but in my forth year I was responsible for overseeing the progress of a grad student's research program. I ran experimental sessions, made sure we had the supplies, trained 2 other RAs to follow the protocol and I got to talk about the results at the undergrad research conference. Unfortunately there was no spot for me to write an honours thesis or start my own research project, but at least in this project I was very involved, meeting with the grad student and the prof on a regular basis. And I also got into the details of what this (and other) research projects taught me in my SOP.

Hi all, I applied to 4 social psychology programs this cycle, and was denied acceptance at all of them. One of them with a skype interview (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) and three without interview (NYU, Virginia and USC). I am seriously considering applying next year, so I am looking for ways to strenghten my application for better results. I am an international student, graduated from a good Canadian school, UBC, with a 3.7/4.0 GPA. Have been involved in research since my second year, worked at three different labs from where I'm sure I got great LORs. I also have one publication at my school's Psych Undergrad Journal (not sure if this counts too much, but it's on my CV) and one presentation at the Psych Undergrad Research Conference. My GRE scores are 80 percentile on Writing, 81% on Verbal and 60% on Quant. I am not Canadian, by the way, and I currently live in South America but would definitely fly over to participate in interview weekends if invited. I contacted most of my POI's by email in October to let them know of my interest in their research and to increase my chances of being remembered when their would be going through application files. None of them emailed me back though, which I guess is understandable as profs are very busy. I realize my GRE scores are not that great, but I was banking on the fact that I had carefully selected POIs that fit well with my interests. NYU especially, I believe my interests aligned perfectly with my POI's lab, so I was dissapointed that I didn't hear back from them. Could anyone give feedback on where I could improve my application? I was accepted to a Research Masters at VU University Amsterdam, which I considering attending if they offer me a scholarship. Unfortunately they don't decide on scholarship recipients until April. This masters takes 2 years, but would it later increase my chances of getting into the graduate programs I tried this year? Would staying put and retaking the GRE be a better idea? Do I need more research experience?

Got good and bad news today. Good because I saw an email from a POI from the University of Illinois at Chicago telling me I was "one of the few applications that stood out" to her and she wanted to set up a Skype interview. Bad because the email was from 13 days ago, Dec 22. I stopped checking my email on Dec 20 because I assumed schools generally do not send out invites this early and because I wanted to regain my sanity by staying away from electronic communication for 10 days. Then I got the email on the 22 asking for an interview between then and Jan 1st. Replied the email to get an automatic response stating that POI is travelling until the 8th. I can't describe how confused and mad at myself I feel right now. Anyone have any idea how bad this looks? Ignoring an email for a Skype interview for 13 days? Does this hurt my chances?

Got good and bad news today. Good because I saw an email from a POI from UIC telling me I was "one of the few applications that stood out" to her and she wanted to set up a Skype interview. Bad because the email was from 13 days ago, Dec 22. I stopped checking my email on Dec 20 because I assumed schools do not send out invites this early and because I wanted to regain my sanity by staying away from electronic communication for 10 days. Then I got the email on the 22 asking for an interview between then and Jan 1st. Replied the email to get an automatic response stating that POI is travelling until the 8th. I can't describe how confused and mad at myself I feel right now. Anyone have any idea how bad this looks? Ignoring an email for a Skype interview for 13 days? Does this hurt my chances?

Thanks for the input! Yeah, I actually took 2 classes in stats, the one I did badly was precisely the honors stats class. I'm not an honors student, but they allow students with good standing to take that if they ask. I guess getting a very good score on the quantitative portion of the GRE should help too. But I'm also thinking of retaking that honors class in the summer if I can find it in other colleges nearby.

Hi everyone! I'm in my last semester as an undergrad at UBC and I'll apply to a few social psych programs in the US next fall. I have a fairly good GPA (82% or 3.8 on a 4.3 scale - I know, Canada has a weird grading system), lots of experience with research in psychology (3 labs, 1 year at each, including a Directed Study in one of them). Still have to take the GRE in the following months, but I'll do my best to study for the quant part and memorize those archaic words ETS likes to spring on us. I have two questions that hopefully you guys can help me with. 1) Is the scaling/grading system in Canada more strict than in the US? In other words, is it harder to keep a high undergrad GPA in Canada than in the US (esp UBC)? If yes, do the people in charge of admission take that into account? 2) Despite having a good GPA, I really slipped up and got a bad grade in an Advanced Stats course, like a B- borderline C+. I know many if not all PhD programs in Psych have a reasonable emphasis on statistics grades when considering applicants. So I wonder how much that grade would hurt my application, and if there is any suggestion as to what I could do to compensate for that. Thank you all and good luck with your applications!