SocialPsychYear2

Just out of curiosity, who did you apply to work with at CU? I can tell you that the social program is anticipating having an interview/recruitment weekend Feb. 23-24. I don't know that it's final yet, and I don't know the status of contact with prospective students (my advisor is not accepting students, otherwise I would be more in-the-know).

I emailed a PI last year who said she was unsure if she was taking a student. I applied anyway. She didn't end up taking someone, but when they hired new faculty with similar interests to hers they emailed me to see if I was still interested. I was, it was my dream school. So I am with the new PI instead. so the point is that you never know

It took me two years to get in, so you're in good company.

Now that classes have started: reading, reading, reading.

Starting with the pre-interview e-mails and then Skype interview to get into the school, the faculty referred to themselves by first name. Now I am here, and everyone goes by first name. Other faculty in the department, including the professor I'm TAing for, whose position is one of a senior instructor but not someone I'll have for my own classes, I'm not sure about, because I haven't met her yet. I addressed her as Dr. So-and-so in an e-mail, but she didn't respond back to me to know what to call her. At another school I interviewed at, the professors never indicated that I should refer to them by first name, and grad students there didn't refer to them by first name until later into their program.

Class doesn't start until next week but I've been here since 7/20. We (my husband and I) needed to sell our house and make sure that was taken care of before moving here, so we were okay selling it early and moving me out here before he was fully finished with work, which just meant we had to spend some time apart while he transitioned from Job A to Job B. I've met many of the other students in my area including the only other first year student. Everyone has been very nice. I've been invited to happy hours with the other students to get to know everyone. The faculty have all been very friendly as well. I'm a little nervous about my TAship since I've gotten very little info on it. I'm someone who likes to know things in advance so that I can planner. I am a HUGE planner. My advisor is in his first year as a professor. He was a post-doc last year (at the same school, so he knows the other faculty really well already). So I'm definitely interested in getting to help set up the culture of our lab, but also nervous about his lack of experience advising PhD students. We've met quite a bit already, and things seem to be going pretty well so far, so I'm optimistic.

Crash Course: Psychology on YouTube may also be helpful as a review. There are 40 videos total on intro psych topics.