neuropsych76

My break is technically 4 weeks long but I'll be home for 3 weeks. I just finished my first semester and was planning on working on some research ideas/proposals but my advisor told me to relax and rest as much as I can over break haha

I agree with the above. Of course it doesn't matter that you completed your degree in two years. What does matter is that you'll have less life /research experience then most of the other people in your program. I could have graduated early but I packed my 4 years of undergrad with tons of research experience and even though i went strait to grad school, i didn't feel like i was behind there. However, it would have been nice to take some time off beforehand and do non school things

It depends on the program. It seems that clinical psychology programs almost always have a required interview but experimental programs may not. I had 3 interviews and one optional visitation day in which I was already accepted.

If they will be equally strong letters, I'd go for the research LOR's since you are applying to research oriented programs. Someone in clinical psych may be better able to answer, but that's what I'd suggest.

It's really hard to say. If you browse around the forum, you'll see many applicants asking about their chances. The general consensus is that is impossible to predict. You do have good research experience but others applying to top clinical programs will have higher GRE scores and equal to better research experience. But you could be a better fit and get in. So, just try to put your best app together and hope for the best. And no, I don't think you need 5 LOR's that's a bit overkill

I agree. I highly doubt mixing up a name would instantly dismiss your application. I might be more concerned if you emailed too many professors at that school and seemed unfocused (it might be fine, but if they were doing very different things it wouldn't look good).

Well one thing that stands out from the article is that the author talked about history and philosophy programs only. These programs are not often funded so there is a little bias here. Many students who come from wealthy families go to top undergrad schools because they can afford them. Many of these same students can go to an unfunded grad program with their families money as well. I'm not sure how big of an impact that is, but I'm sure it accounts for some part of the variance. Anyway, I think school name isn't a big of deal as what a person's undergrad provides for them. My undergrad is a pretty solid liberal arts college but very small (i graduated with about 200 other students). So not many grad schools across the US probably know about it. However, we have very very high acceptance rates to grad schools and med schools (something like 85% for med school and 6/10 of my fellow psychology majors i graduate with went strait to PhD programs). My school really focused on undergrad research and preparing for grad school. So even though it wasn't a big name, it still has good results.

Luckily, I have a helpful cohort as well. We often get together and study for tests, ect. Though I can imagine it would be tough as a first year with an unfriendly cohort/department.

I think you still have a chance. If you browsed through these forums much you'll see that grad school admissions are difficult to predict to say the least. Yes, your research experiences are a little thin, and not having any presentations does hurt somewhat (it's common for applicants to have 5 or more plus a publication or two) But it's not the end of the world. You still have an overall very good application. As long as you make it sound like you know what your getting into with your PS (why do you want a phd and work with prof X at school Y) you should have good chance of getting in somewhere. good luck!

+1 for loving grad school as well I moved from the north to the south and the weather change is awesome! my cohort gets along really well and we all hang out pretty often. i really really like my advisor. all i knew about her was her academic stuff but i never would have guessed she would be so supportive and helpful. yes, i'm super busy, but overall it's been a great time! the only thing that i don't like too much is how hard my stats class is lol

I would try to find a quant psych lab to work in to obtain research experience in that area. I'm technically getting my degree in experimental psych with a quantitative focus (albeit quantitative neuroimaging) and all I had for math was calc and stats in undergrad. A good friend of mine is getting her phd in quant psych and was a math/psych double major but I'm guessing that is more of the exception rather than the norm.

I still don't quite understand what you mean. Even if you do qualitative research, you still need a solid background in quantitative statistical analysis to conduct the results properly.

I have the same problem. I just had a 3 hour class, early Monday morning and it was pretty rough. I love the topic of the class, but the earliness and length makes it difficult to stay focused. I try to take good notes. Taking notes on my computer helps a little so I don't doodle as much. I think most people have trouble staying focused past an hour so don't feel bad!

I keep hearing that grades do not matter much, as long as you pass, no one cares about your grades, research is more important, ect. How much truth is there to this? Is anyone familiar with the process after grad school? Do people really not ask for your transcripts? I feel like if someone has a 3.4 and someone has a 3.9 then the 3.9 would look a lot more favorable (assuming the rest of the credentials are the same). I'm probably going to get the lowest GPA in my life this semester so I'm a bit worried about starting off on the wrong path. I won't be much motivated to study if I know I can be fine with a 3.0+ There was a related thread a few years back on this but I'd like to get some recent perspectives on just how important the grad school GPA is

I agree with the above. Your final goal is to have a nice and neat PS which discusses why you are a good fit for the program and why your previous experience is relevant.

It's one thing to say something like "the humanities provide less real world applications than hard sciences like physics" but it's another thing to just berate the humanities grad students for how pathetic they are. obvious troll topic but still lame.

"Academic Inbreeding" is kind of frowned upon but it's not all that uncommon. I would still apply to other places and see if you like some other schools better. Then, after you consider all your options, you can see if the school you did your BA at is really the one you want to go to.

+1 I applied to 12 schools and no one cared about it. They did like having all the information for each school in one big excel sheet though

I think briefly mentioning it is fine, especially if you say how the statistics classes helped you in psychology some way If you can someone tie it in to your research interest that would be ideal

The fields you mentioned are actually pretty similar. I think you would be able to make a standard PS that demonstrates your background and interest in social neuroscience but then you can tailor it to each school. My PS's were all the same except for one paragraph which was tailored to the particular POI(s)

I loved going to conferences as an undergrad and it really shaped my research interest for grad school. But I always was fortunate to be funded for my expenses. I would try to get some funding from your school because 1000 is very pricey for a conference. Best of luck!

I agree with Arcadian. As for the LOR, those options you mentioned should be fine. As long as the person you are asking knows you and your work well, it doesn't really matter what lab they are from.

another advantage of the Ipad for an e-reader is the blackboard app. I have to read a lot of articles for my classes but I do is touch a few buttons and it's on my ipad.

What types of programs are you looking for? Psychology phd? It's very rare to find PhD programs that do no have a GRE requirement and I would suggest not to apply to those schools. It's nice to have options but you don't want to go to a less than reputable school just because there was no GRE requirement!

Well I think you already found your answer in your question, it varies. It depends on the type of program and type of student. Generally, it is more work than undergrad because you have heavy teaching and research duties on top of coursework which may also be more difficult. Each person will give you different anecdotal evidence like in this thread: