getfrozty

oops I thought this was a thread for people who want to take the WAIS  

The email I received came at about 9:00am today and appeared to be a mass email. It was in my junk mail though so be sure to check there!

I have an in-person interview coming up for one of my top programs (!!!) and I've done a lot of research and a lot of prep. One thing I have is a long, written/typed list of questions I have for the program, faculty, and grad students. I don't think there's any way I could keep all of these questions memorized and I don't want to forget to ask anything, so I am planning on bringing the list with me (along with one of those professional leather interview portfolio/folders). My question is: how do I refer to my list without being super awkward or breaking the flow of conversation? Is it acceptable to be explicit about the fact that I have a list of prepared questions, when they ask "do you have any questions?"

There's quite a few web resources on this topic and you can use Google to find them.
 
That being said, here's the common questions I ran into during my 7 interviews last cycle (I am now a 1st year at my top choice clinical program):
Why my lab/this program/this city/clinical psychology? If you had unlimited funding, what research topic would you want to explore?  Tell me about you/what you are passionate about. What is your long term career goal - academia, private practice, industry?  A note on this one - if you are interviewing at clinical PhD programs, most always want to hear "be an academic or work in practice ~25% of the time and be faculty 75% of the time so my research can be informed. Most clinical PhD programs, ironically, are aiming to create faculty and contributors to science, not  just clinicians. Saying you are just intereted in clinical practice can really be a bad thing to say... however, PsyDs and counseling psych programs tend (from my understanding) to appreciate this answer a bit more. All I can say, is if you are pursuing a clinical PhD, you should probably have at least a strong initial interest of going into the academy.  What are your strenghts? What are your weaknessess? Be genuine here. I told my POIs striaght up I over-committ myself (I'm a high achiever lol). I am aware of this though and didn't want it to be a problem in grad school, so in the same statement for weaknessess I talked about my reckoning with this being an issue and how I have been addressing it/plan to address it in grad school and beyond.  Tell me about your most recent research project? What are the main takeaways?  What's something interesting you just read (book or research)?   
Really there aren't too many odd-ball questions from my experience. Just be yourself, and the right program will accept you if it is where you are supposed to be. ALSO, this is supposed to be an opportunity for you to get to know the program and the current students as well, so ask lots of questions of them too! 

I called the university (WashU) on Friday and was told the faculty was currently meeting to discuss application decisions.

If anyone is wondering, I just found out from the University of Kansas that the clinical child and clinical programs will still be inviting people for interviews through the end of January. 

Can you change the settings so everyone with a link can edit?

Looks like someone just posted that they received an invite from TC today. For the person who posted the result -- could you please PM me the PI initials? Would be appreciated.

Hello everyone,
I've seen quite a bit of chatter around the timing of results, and the answers are obscure. I wanted to provide my services, and give you all some extra data. The beauty of grad cafe is that it is one of the most (if not the most) centralized data source for graduate students. Some data examples: What schools are most popular, what degrees, applicant metrics, dates of results, etc. Yet, I've yet to find someone that uses this information to help those applying.
 
Until now...
 
I used R (for those unfamiliar) to scrape the grad cafe results data related to psychology. I returned about 35000 records. There were a lot of un-tidy text strings (e.g., PhD and Ph.D.), especially in relation to program-title and institution; however, that is a project for another day. Data regarding dates and decisions did seem clean enough for me to analyze it and turn it into something nice for you all.
 
So what is it....?
Here is a PDF based on the results of all Psychology students (over 35000) since the origin of grad cafe. The first 3 tables show the 10 most common dates (by count) for getting an interview, getting accepted, and getting rejected ? .  I would do relative frequency and should've...maybe tomorrow.
Then a longitudinal line graph (which shows these decisions throughout the year)
Finally, one that focuses more on the "critical-period" when most decisions are made.
 
Conclusion
This was a piecemeal job that I should be done in R Markdown. I'll link my code at the end. Similar methods could be used to look at the "most popular" programs, probability of acceptance by degree type or program type, average GRE score for accepted candidates, and the list goes on. If anyone wants a csv of the dataset I used, please feel free to message me. I also welcome critiques and suggestions.  I wish you all the best.
 
R code here

My undergrad gpa was terrible and I also have terrible self-confidence, so I was convinced that I wouldn't receive any interviews this round.  But so far I've received 4 and they've all said that my application was strong.  I think that my redeeming factors were (a) I stated a very clear research interest and gave an example of a potential dissertation project that I could do in their lab and (b) I have very strong experience in my area of interest.  I've only been an RA for a year, but I've volunteered on a number of projects outside of my main one and gained tons of training and several 2nd author publications/posters.  So if anyone is worried about their GPA or a weak point in their app, don't give up! 

I interviewed at Fordham last year and the majority (if not all) of us were in formal interview attire, meaning pantsuit or appropriate skirt/blazer combo. In general, I like to air to the side of caution and be more formal. It was cold when I interviewed, but I wore flats because I didn't really have any boots that would look nice with my formal outfit. I hope this helps! As other people said, there are a number of factors that might be contributing to the conflicting reports, but try and see what people in Psychology are saying because other fields might be more causal. 
 
 

For everyone interested in CUNY - John Jay, I called yesterday and they said all invitations have gone out. 

Hey,  I was contacted by a PI at UMass Boston. No formal invitations have been sent out yet. I just think some PIs decided to reach out to a few students for more information. don't worry if you haven't received anything! It's still early. 
Good luck! 

Here's my perspective as someone who got into my top choice last cycle (first time I applied, straight out of undergrad):
 
This is a super awkward question and I never actually encountered this question in the 7 interviews I attended. Of course, there is a way to discuss potential projects and ideas with your perspective mentors without them directly asking if you want to come/how much you want to come. If you don't actually know, you can be honest by saying that the program is high on your list but you want to evaluate everything and sit on it before making any decisions if you were to receive a formal offer. I personally think that's how I would respond... it's not a lie, but it doesn't give them false expectations.
 
That being said, if you get an interview at your dream program (like I did), tell them directly in your interview that their program is your top choice for BLAH BLAH BLAH reasons and that you would go if they extended an offer. Faculty wind up being screwed all the time because students don't accept and they miss getting a student. So, in my case, when I said that to my mentor, I basically assured her that if she wanted to extend me an offer that I would come in a heartbeat... and I did. 
 
I know this isn't the answer you may want to hear. That is a weird predicament your POI is putting you in by asking that question. But, I hope my response may help you... 
 
Best of luck!