Mystic_Fog

Maybe - my main area is stigmatized identities, especially concealable ones. I'm not sure of UW (or any of my programs really) either, but like you said, you never know unless you try!

It does seem like a very excellent program, as do most of the places I'm applying. But I'd never forgive myself if I didn't at least try!

I did! What I actually did for people who were already clear on their webpages that they were accepting students was say "I would like to confirm that you are still accepting students for Fall 2016 enrollment" to show that I did my homework and knew. My POI at Wash sent me a very positive response and I was glad I contacted my POI at Conn; turns out she was planning on accepting grad students but something happened (I'm not sure what) and she wasn't anymore but her page didn't reflect that. So when I emailed her, she actually told me her page was out of date and she wasn't accepting students this year anymore. Luckily, I was able to switch to a different POI, otherwise that would've been a whole app down the drain! They are all fantastic programs and I love all of them, so I'm a bit nervous because while I have some awesome/unique experiences, my objective criteria is pretty middle of the road. I guess we'll see what happens!

@jujubea I experienced the same feeling; nice to know from the perspective of someone who got it and has started!

Mine are below. I'm going for intergroup processes/conflict and social identity, emphasizing stigmatized identities.

@Need Coffee in an IV I see. That's nice to have a clean slate - my debt is not awful but not great either (around 40k by the time I graduate, give or take a grand or 2). OH yeah they can absolutely be funded - some schools have better funding than others and sometimes certain programs just get funded more. So you may be fine - just gotta get that FAFSA in.

My adviser is the same way - she's fantastic but very scattered. Well, she's faculty chair and writing a book so I can't blame her but she's definitely the one who turned stuff in last and I was realllllly worried about her for while. thought I may have to nag her. Are you going for a PhD or a masters degree? From what I've seen funding is almost always guaranteed for PhD (as in they only accept the number of people they can fund, but maybe that's a disciplinary convention) but for masters it can be harder from what I've seen. I'm a pretty solid middle ground candidate with my GPA and GRE, so I'm hoping 3 wonderful LOR's from professors in my department, a good SOP, and experience make up for it. I should do that. I HAVE been saying I'd clean my room for the last few weeks...hmmmm.

All the schools I'm applying to supply funding so that's nice! My undergrad is a small private liberal arts college about an hour away from home and for graduate school I was more concerned with research fit than anything. A SLA education has been beneficial in establishing rapport and with getting lots of experiences and funding for those experiences.

Indeed it does! Though for very different things thank goodness - there's only so much competition a hopefully grad student can take . They both look like lovely schools and I fell in love with the research everyone everywhere I'm applying is doing! It feels nice knowing that even if I only manage to get in one place, I'd be so so so happy. I hope your prospective programs are equally as wonderful! Oh I know hahahaha - I'm watching GMW on Netflix right now because why not?

I've found WAMC threads on other sites, but I guess it doesn't hurt to see what people here think my chances are! I am going for a Ph.D. in social psych. Current UG GPA: 3.30 (with an upward trend in grades overall, with Deans List honors the past 2 consecutive semesters) Current Psych GPA: 3.68 Last 2 years GPA ~ 3.6 GRE (Q/V/W): 150/162/4.5 (40%, 92%, 85%) I've presented research I did in one of my methods classes and an independent research project both OUPRC this past spring (2014 and 2015, respectively). I'll be presenting a poster at SPSP this year too. In addition to your standard stats (ANCOVA, Chi-Square, Despcriptives, Pearsons R, Linear/Multiple Regression, T-tests, Z-tests) I've also gotten additional instruction as part of an independent research project I did over the summer (MANCOVA, ANCOVA, Logistic regression). This project is what I'll be presenting at SPSP and it's also something that has resulted in a manuscript that is being submitted later this month. I've got an additional manuscript in the works as well, both manuscripts relating to my area interest. I was the recipient of a psychology grant through my university that rewards excellence (1-2 people receive it a year). I've also received 2 grants through my institution to turn unpaid experiences (the summer project I did, and an upcoming RA position I have at an R1 school). I have research experience as an RA in a lab for one of the professors (about 7 months) and as a research assistant on an as-needed basis for my adviser (spotty but time-frame wise about 1 year), as well as the independent research' I've done (about 8 months); though some of these overlap in timeframe (my non-methods class research began last fall). I've also served as a TA for psychology stats courses for the past 3 semesters and will do so again this Spring (so 4 semesters total) and was a guest lecturer for one class (1 day only) (1 year) and as a tutor for those classes and other classes as needed (2.5 years). I've also recently completed a 3 month internship where I learned and applied classroom management skills and lesson planning and am currently serving as a lab manager for a research lab at my SLA school (about 4 months in presently, but the job will go through graduation and will result in a paper or 2 as well as a likely APA conference (though this wasn't discussed in my application). The RA position at an R1 school just started this month, and will finish in May as well. I've also served as the secretary for our schools psychology club, and some other EC's as well (I'm not sure if they matter, but as a treasurer and for my greek social club and as a greek council representative, as well as assistant director of our campus' radio station and did very little volunteer work). I think all 3 of my letters were stellar; one came from my senior seminar teacher (not adviser) who I was also an RA for during her rat research, the other supervised both of my independent research projects and will take me to SPSP and was the one who took me to my other conferences, is helping me get this paper published and is the person I manage a lab for and we have a fantastic relationship. The other is my academic adviser and was my senior thesis adviser, I served as an as-needed RA for her and I'm helping her write a manuscript. I have TA'd for the last 2 as well. Thoughts?

Positivity! This is what I don't have because I'm so cynical. Thank you! A sensible approach indeed. You have no idea how much I needed this laugh! Again, thank you everybody for the positive messages and encouragement!

One of my advisers swears by knitting so I may take that up! Jessica Jones was put on the backburner to finish my apps...hmmm Overall though. I still have classes and work and I feel so empty now; I'm usually excited for classes but part of me just feels so spent - like, what's the point of going to class when my future is hanging by a thread? I know the answer, of course, classes are important and so is finishing my senior year strong, but it's just so lackluster to focus on non-relevant classes when my future is up in the air.

I did the same thing and lesson learned. Never again. You can always make it better but there comes a point where you just have to live and let live. I was wondering this to. I seem to here that GPA/GRE are commonly used as a way to sort applicants by priority, but I'm wondering how common this is (especially since there's subjective information in LOR's and the SOP that may explain things). I absolutely believe it happens but I'm curious as to how common it is and how much other things (last 2 years GPA, major GPA, trajectory of grades, additional experiences that compensate,etc) factor in. Of course, the answer is always "it depends on the school/program/how competitive the application pool is" but I do with there was some kind of general consensus to help us decipher the process. That may certainly be it; after a long talk with my adviser, it seems that schools getting 800 apps aren't necessarily getting 800 completed, good-fitting apps. Apparently, people applying to places randomly without much research ("spray and pray method") or not turning in things (such as official transcripts for schools that want it or a writing sample or an LOR) is fairly common. Yikes. I don't think the proportion of people is that great though; but rather the desire for students to get advanced degrees has gone up, especially with economic hardship, and so perfectly qualified candidates start to blend together, making it harder to stand out in a pool of 600 people just as qualified as you (especially in social psych, which is pretty competitive as I think it's one of the more common ones, save clinical).

I think it depends on the nature of your relationship. For example, 1 of my recommenders is someone I have a strictly professional relationship with, but another I have that and an additional pretty close personal one as well (FB friends, we go out to eat together sometimes in a nonprofessional manner, I babysit for her on occasion and know her family very well, etc) and my third I have a minimal interpersonal relationship ( we sometimes text, though usually about work but I always give her a hug if I haven't seen her in a while and I'm friends with her kids that go to my university). These last two I've also been in a non-academic setting with them drinking (ie., a family/friend barbecue). It also may depend on the school to. My school is a small liberal arts school, where good personal relationships are encouraged and it's not unusual to have that close relationship with your teachers. I'd think about that more than anything. Is it something they could get in trouble for or something they may not think is appropriate given the nature of your relationship? That's what will tell you.

Thanks everyone! I knew it wasn't the best thing to do but the temptation was strong! Though it is nice to not I'm not alone in the eternal torment :)

So now that my deadlines are past, my apps are sent, and the activities that have consumed me for 6 months are over, I find myself feeling a bit lost. It didn't help that I went over my application proofs and noticed little typos and agonizing over information I did or didn't include in my CV or SOP and whether or not my SOP's were effective/good enough, and whether my GRE scores would hold me back, etc. I guess I'm just wondering how everyone handles having things be out of their control now; all the months of work and preparation have culminated in applications that are now are the mercy of selection committees. How do you handle the anxiety and the not knowing?

I'm working hard to get my summer research paper submitted before the deadline; I also made a major fail in trying to create a fancy SOP that only mentioned the specific programs and POI at the very end so i'm completely redoing all of them. Ugh.

Whoops Thats a big typo. I meant NSF. The NSF is the National Science Foundation - they supply competitive funding for research projects and provide funding for grad students. They are very competitive but it can be done - when my adviser was applying to her Ph.D. program. she already knew who she would be working with and had a planned project with her adviser, so they were able to apply for funding and she got it. It can definitely be done!

To be honest, if you know who you are working with and the type of research you'll be doing already, this puts you at a huge advantage funding wise. Since you already have a project together, applying for outside funding (e.g., NHS) could be a very lucrative investment.

I'm actually doing a mix of both. I'm grouping things into themes with subheadings (which is a disciplinary convention, to be clear) and within each subheading talking about what I've done and how it's prepared me for advanced study.

I'm so glad to finally see this page started up! I'll be applying to a few programs and am a little nervous. My overall GPA is less than the average at most schools (though my last 2 years and major GPA are pretty good) and my quant GRE tanked but I have some experiences I'm hoping make up for it. It's crazy competitive out there!

You probably don't remember it, but you did this for undergrad and probably every job you've applied to. It helps for background checks, and also for establishing that you are in fact a citizen (note that non-citizens are usually required to enter a comparable number that's basically an SSN, such as an registration number or temporary SSN given to international students/workers). Depending on the school, they might not care and just get that info later, but some schools (especially if they only can fund US citizens) might take it as indication that you are international. Some apps won't let you move on to the rest of the app without it, some will. If you're really concerned I'd contact the department and ask if it will affect your application. I wouldn't be concerned about giving them your SSN though, it's the same as applying to a job (and as a grad student, that's basically what you are) and they're hardly about to be irresponsible with it.

Wow thank you both! I'll be sure to look into these!

Thank you both for your wonderful responses. I think it doesn't help that she spent the first few years of her career working for a public for-profit university. It didn't make much sense to me, but I didn't want to dismiss her words of advice. Needless to say, it was causing me serious stress about applying to grad school because I'd been hesitant to apply for waivers but I have assurance it won't matter, which is a huge relief!

I have a concern I've gotten mixed information about and I was wondering if anyone could help me out. So I'm a first generation college student and I've decided to apply to PhD programs. I'm only applying to about 5, but when i added up the cost of the app fees, I couldn't help but balk at the number. I'm sure for many people it's a reasonable number, but as someone who has completely supported themselves and their education with no support from family whatsoever since high school, it's a lot more than I have to spare. I've thought about applying for fee waivers, but the Career support center at my university cautioned against it, saying that it might lead me to be discriminated against and not admitted due to SES status. Is this a common occurrence or something I should be concerned about, or am I potentially worrying over nothing?