PinkFreud22

My experience with these types of visits post unofficial acceptance is that they are more casual relative to interviews. However, it is always good to dress professionally and be on your best behavior in order to make good impression. The programs tend to focus more on recruiting you and giving you information than on evaluating you. That being said, my impression with unofficial acceptances is that they only get yanked if you display socially undesirable behaviors (e. g. saying inappropriate things, drinking too much, etc.). I hope this helps. Congratulations on the unofficial acceptance!

Hope your application season is going well! UMN social psychology does acceptances without formal interviews.

In September or so email POIs to see if they have funding or space to take a new student before spending all your time and money applying to every school you listed. I found some number of POIs whom I was interested in didn't have funding or space and that saved me a lot of extra work and money long term.

Also, keep in mind that there are some national fellowships you can apply for outside of your institution. These are much more competitive and not a guarantee but are a great opportunity to not have to TA for a year so that you can focus on just doing your research.

If you don't already know yet, you should ask about your exact first year funding offer and if you get a chance to talk to students ask if they think that stipend is livable. Also, it may be helpful to ask about how your POI works with first years specifically during the transition into grad school and starting independent research. I've found that different POIs have very different views on how to mentor during this time. Congrats on the offer!

I started studying early (6-8 weeks before the first time I took the GRE) for an average of 1-2 hours/day. To study, I used Kaplan and the Princeton Review. Within that, I focused a lot on being strong in the basics (roots and formulas primarily) before trying to do practice problems. I found that being strong on my foundation skills allowed me to focus in more on complex issues when I finally did start to work on practice problems. I also did 4-5 practice tests and simulated the real testing situation the best that I could. That way when I got to the real thing it didn't seem that out of the ordinary and I could stay calm more easily. I agree with @eternallyephemeral though that as long as you fall in the range they accept it shouldn't be something that kills your application. Good luck!

From my point of view, it sounds like you have a good application. Your GREs are pretty good but if you wanted to strengthen your application that would be a good place to start. If you think the masters program is a good fit then go for it but if you think going straight into a doctoral program would feel better for you then I would hold off a year and reapply It is possible that your POIs weren't taking students, particularly because they didn't respond to your emails. Next time, I would recommend being sure that your POIs have the funding and space in their lab to take a new graduate student. That's just my two sense but I hope it helps. Best of luck with these decisions!

I heard from Maryland social psychology to schedule a phone interview for this week. I received the email late last week.

I completely agree with @CatLady4Lyfe that all programs function a little differently. Also, some professors will do things very differently than others even at the same school. From what I have experienced red tape can be a big issue at some schools. For example, your POI could've already recommended you for admission but has to wait to hear back from the dean for approval before they tell you. Or they have to do a departmental vote on students and, as you said, they're all very busy so scheduling this can become difficult. Or your POI may have submitted you for an university fellowship and are waiting to hear back about that so that they have all the financial information (whether you will be TAing, RAing, on fellowship, etc.) before telling you the good news. Any number of possibilities could delay things which just makes waiting even more excruciating for all use applicants but try to stay positive and distract yourself with other things in the mean time. Additionally, if you have any more interviews coming up, you can always ask what their timeline looks like as far as making decisions. I have personally found that most POIs understand and are very receptive to questions about decision timelines. Good luck and I hope you hear back soon!

Wake Forest sent emails earlier this week. Basically saying we are recommending you for admission and want to set up a phone conversation to give more information about the program.

I think most professors understand needing to take an unrelated job to pay the bills. I am not personally in that situation, but from everything I have heard it is viewed positively because you are still involved with and passionate about research despite needing to have another job. Also, posts like this are scary but remember a lot of factors out of the applicants control can play a role in acceptance or rejection decisions. I think the key is to stay optimistic.

If you're really worried, you can always add the question about timeline at the end of a thank you email to your POI or grad student host.

Has anyone heard from University of Maryland-College Park for social psychology?

Verbal: 164/94th percentile Quantitative: 160/78th percentile Analytical Writing: 4.5/80th percentile Two acceptances and several other interviews. Hope that helps and good luck!

I know the interviews for Purdue, U of Rochester, and Florida State social psychology have been extended already (Purdue and Rochester are this weekend and Florida State is later in February).