neuropsych76

I'll be biking around in grad school also I worked in a lab last summer and lived in an apartment about 2.5 miles away so I biked everyday. It wasn't too bad at all (but the school i worked at was very bike friendly). Getting groceries wasn't too bad, I just put them in my book bag! Though it would have been nice to have a car i'm sure but it's doable. Hopefully at grad school I find an apartment that has a nice bike trail to places I need to go! I never like biking on roads too much (i worked in a hospital doing neuropsych evals for head injuries, i'll always wear a helmet, that's for sure!)

around 30k undergrad debt (private school, bad high school grades so limited scholarship) but no graduate debt hopefully!

Welcome to the forum! The big difference between the new and old verisions of the GRE is that you can use a calculator on the new version of the GRE. The new math problems will be harder though. So, do you think harder problems with a calculator would be easier than not as difficult problems without a calculator? The extra time also helps. Many people spend hundreds of hours studying for the GRE

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I would not have minded it at all. I got pretty average grades compared to prospective grad students (3.7ish) but a lot of the classes where I received a B or a C the class average was even worse. grade inflation is not a problem at my school. Examples: calculus class, i got an unimpressive B but the class average was around a D with many F's. even a class like my intro writing class i got a B- and that was one of the highest grades. though i'm not sure if this will actually make all that much of a difference in grad school apps. i feel like grad schools would only take this information into account if two students were very close and needed a tie breaker.

I've tried looking around the internet and even asking my school's financial aid department but I cannot get a strait answer for this question. How exactly does deferring loans work for graduate school? I have a couple loans (most subsidized, one unsubsidized) and there is a grace period to pay them unless I get a deferment (being a full time student which I will be). But how long does this deferment last? I'll be in grad school at least 5 years. Do I not have to worry about payments or interest for 5 years? Or does it only extend my grace period? Thank you for any insight!

I wish I had a more interesting pre-grad school bucket list... i finished my thesis so really all i have planned is find an apartment and get a summer job. i'll most likely have a really lame summer before grad school. i would have loved to travel around the world but there's the money thing...

You still didn't say what particular program your looking for. UM is super competitive so you might need more research experience than 2 summers. A 4.0 is nice the most important aspects of the application are research experience and fit.

haha i'm glad i'm not the only one who was torn between different psych programs! i was still considering clinical psych as late as September/October this year and started to fill some clinical applications out but then i just exclusively focused on experimental psych. congratulations on getting into a great school though

Welcome to the forum! You'll find a wealth of information on this site just by browsing around the psych forum and application forum First off, what type of psychology program are you applying to? One of the biggest factors for admission is fit so having specific goals is important. Knowing what type of psych program you're interested in will help us give you more specific info but much of what the previous poster is helpful!

For me, I was torn between clinical psych PhD programs and experimental psych PhD programs before the application season started. I decided late that I wanted to go for the experimental PhD (so glad i made this choice) but that put me back a bit because I didn't have enough time to prepare what schools I wanted to apply for and making my applications look nice. I ended up applying to some schools that I really didn't even want to go to. So, I would have saved time and money if I was able to better prepare myself for the application process. I spent countless hours researching the grad app process but because I was focusing on two different types of programs for a while, it still set me back. Nonetheless, I was accepted into one of my top choices

Thank you for your reply I've heard that the USC shuttle system is pretty good though. Have you had any experiences with it? The whole campus area doesn't seem to be that huge (though much bigger than where I did my undergrad). I'm okay with walking distance but its more of a time issue for me. If I could bike/walk to the psychology building from my place in 10 or less minutes i'd be happy.

I'm considering using Craigslist for my search of an apartment but I'm a little wary about putting my cell phone number to create an account. Is there any way around this? anyone have trouble (spam phone calls) when they put their number in?

Thank you for the advice!! That is relieving to know that prior programming and linear algebra are not crucial for understanding matlab. I really wish I had access to matlab so I could familiarize myself with it ahead of time. But for now, learning some basic linear algebra, python, and octave seems to be my best available situation. ...unless anyone knows else some other free ways I could get a good jump start on learning matlab

I wish I learned matlab/programming before grad school also. I'm trying to teach myself some linear algebra and python to (hopefully) make learning matlab a much easier process. We'll see how it goes though...

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I wouldn't put too much weight on any one person's opinions about graduate school. But I would put even less value on the opinion of a student who admitted not learning anything during their undergrad and partying a majority of the time. Doesn't sound like the typical grad student at all so why would we care about their overly negative opinion?

I know I made the right choice.... I was lucky to be accepted into a school that was an overall great fit. But my SO already accepted a program 700 miles away from me and just found out that she was waitlisted at the same school I will be attending!!! It's a pretty awful feeling She had to accept when she did but I just wish she could have had the option to go the same school. I wish they let her know earlier!

Yeah, I guess we were lucky we had more preferable places to go. But still, i think it's not very professional. Oh well

I just defended my honors thesis and I have lost all motivation to study/do homework. It's kind of cool though because for the first time I'm experiencing college like a more prototypical college student (i.e. not spending countless hours doing homework and research but actually having some fun)

No problem. Best of luck finding a position!!

So i had an interview at school X, awhile ago. (mid March) and they said they'd let me know soon because the deadline was approaching. April 15th passed and I haven't heard anything despite multiple emails to the graduate director and assistant director. I already accepted another school but I'd be so angry if school X was where I wanted to go. At the interview, they probably dished out $500 on me during my stay. It seems a bit weird that they would blow all that money on an applicant and just never contact them again. I thought the interview went fine also. This might be common but I was just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences.

I interviewed at BC for experimental psych and I was really impressed with the program and school. I know it would be fun to go to an ivy but the rational choice is to go to BC since it has funding. You'll make out okay with a masters in counseling but not enough to take on tons of debt.

I spent most of my day relaxing because I officially accepted a couple days ago But I haven't heard back from anyone after I sent a scanned version of the form confirming my acceptance. And, of course, my school's email is having problems so I can't check if they got it. I hope that if the form doesn't get there on time, my word is good enough in the meantime