Oshawott

Is that the verbal or the analytic writing? AFAIK people don't really weight analytic writing as much since in grad school you'd be working with multiple authors who will edit your paper and you're asked about a topic you likely have no expertise. They'd also get a good sense of your writing ability from your LOI.

When you're looking at the base-rate acceptance, you're not looking at the profiles of those who apply and the number of people who apply. Everyone says they get a 'large number of quality applicants' which is true. But they don't really say how many aren't 'quality' either. Look at your profile. Look at the profile of students in the program. If they're similar, then its probably better than the 9% acceptance rate since you'd likely be at the top of their pool of applicants. At that point, it's not who's 'better' than the rest in terms of credentials, it's who is a better fit.

I think a caveat to this is to look at your specific POI's placement rate. Top schools have excellent placement rates because their professors have excellent placement rates. You want to be working with the faculty members who drive these effects. Not to name names, but my undergrad advisors came from an ostensibly mid-ranged school and got into a school that was of a (substantially) higher ranking. He wasn't an exception in his lab as other individuals achieved this as well. This was driven exclusively by his supervisor who had excellent placement rates and was only (temporarily) at the mid-ranked school because of what can be summed up as 'academic politics'. So yeah, there are exceptions but that's what they are, exceptions. And while aggregate-level data is informative, you will want to do additional sleuthing to make sure the trends the data is showing is applicable for the situation you are about to place yourself in. @kitcassidance: to answer your original question of what a "safe school" is for you–look at your profile. Look at the profile of your POI's students (a lot of them post CVs, so you can make guesses on what their profile looked like when they applied). Does yours seem to match theirs? Are their profiles consistently stronger or weaker than yours? That's how I'd probably calibrate what a 'safety' school is for me because a safety school for one person could just be a regular school for another. But of course, don't waste money on schools you wouldn't actually want to go to regardless of whether you consider them a 'safety' or a 'reach'.

If you're dropping anyone's names, it should be the faculty members you are interested in working with. In any case, I should have just posted this the first time but it slipped my mind until now: At least the opinion of one faculty member at a top US research university

Narrative writing is great, but what people want to know is why you chose the program and supervisor that you did. Tell them your background and your research interest. Why are you interested in the school specifically, and why this particular supervisor (if you have to choose a specific supervisor for application)? It should ideally go beyond "overlapping interest" and "top social psych program"--why is this program and this POI the best to reach your research goals? For example, are there any characteristics of the school's population / the available research pool's demographics that best suit your research? Beyond your one specific supervisor, who else do you see yourself working with? You should be able to talk about your skills and experiences throughout as that should build into your research interests. Anyone can make a narrative about themselves with enough time. What's important is to personalize your letters to each school, and the best way to do it is to actually show why "this school" is the best fit for you beyond generic platitudes.

SPSS is probably done for, so I wouldn't worry about it re: software. Lots of people are learning to use R, and on top of that, for the less code savvy among us, researchers have also created jamovi as a point-and-click version built on R, and can also produce R scripts (so helpful if you need guidance on how to learn). It has the benefit of making ready-to-publish APA-style tables (which you can also do on R). Bayesian analysis is also getting popular and JASP is also built as a user-friendly alternative to introduce people into Bayesian stats. Both of these were built by actual researchers and are not proprietary, but if you're worried about continued support in the future, learning R (and using something like R Studio as a GUI) down the line would probably be your best bet as you can do frequentist and bayesian stats on it. If you do qualitative analysis, R also has a package for that. I think the only time you might have issues is if you're doing really intense analysis using large data sets. I know the graduate student I worked with took a computer for an entire day to run reverse correlations, and I've had really simple simulations take a few hours (but that was because I was working off old school computers).

Background: Psychology, new PhD (but completed Master's, same school and faculty member). Supervisor is old and not focused on research as much, hands-off mentorship. I am presently trying to teach myself R and Bayesian analysis and just frequentist stats in general. Issue: I want to flex my skills and see if I can actually do these analyses I'm learning. The issue is that there isn't a huge repository of existing projects in my own lab I can jump on and data collection takes awhile because of ethics etc. I want to use the skills I'm learning in a real-world project. Is it appropriate to just go to other faculty members and ask them if they have projects they need help on, without any plan to formulate your own project?

I'd say find a person you want to work with and go into that field rather than trying to get caught up by arbitrary divisions Do one for biopsychology and neurobiology

The scholarship is tied to the school for Master's. You can't take your award to another school. Your proposal should be clear in terms of what you want to do, but yes be more vague about where you want to do it. The only time this wouldn't be an issue is if you were already in a MSc/MA program and applying for SSHRC in your second year.

Not to be pedantic but that doesn't solve the issue if a person wishes to apply to more than five schools outside Ontario, and depending on what you're looking for, you could actually have quite a few programs outside Ontario already. Not to mention that some Ontario schools say that they require you to apply for SSHRC as well if you're applying to their grad programs...

I literally told someone "no, I'll wait" and to put my on hold because I could just do something else while keeping them on speaker phone...they eventually just hung up on me lol

tl;dr vent: Some people in grad school are just quite awful.

I didn't go into clinical and my background was in psychology so I didn't do the subject test GRE. From other prospective clinical students I worked with in undergrad, they mentioned that one week's review of intro course work was sufficient to get them through the subject test. That said, they were psychology students and it was mostly review for them but getting a good score should be doable over a longer time span of studying.

I'm not sure if the subjects you're looking at requires it but consider taking the Psych Subject GRE to show you have basic level of knowledge in psychology. If you can talk about how your biology background can help your research in clinical psychology, I'd think it could work to your advantage.

Not to worry, I didn't interpret it as such. There's stuff in social psych that's robust, but I don't think it's good to suggest going into social psych these days without knowing about the crisis because it could be overwhelming to find out some of your "favourite" studies don't hold up. And with regards to applied research, I was reading an article talking about the paradox of doing applied research without substantial theoretical foundation so it's even worse if applied is your focus. And yes, I agree, with your latter points. The broader issues of statistical competence (e.g., actually knowing what a p-value means) aside, it's ironic when fields that draw heavily from social psych and love flashy findings (like some subfields in business) think they're immune. But then there are also fields that have the same issues stemming from misuse of statistics and think they're fine? Anyway so as to not sound like I'm condemning social psych, I do think that as a field, its great that it's confronting these issues of replicability and measurement and there's some evidence that it has been improving over the last 5 - 6 years (albeit slowly). Maybe it's saving grace is that once other fields afflicted from similar issues realize this, they can use social psych as a case study. As a side note: I personally hate reading socpsy theory papers so let's just say I was mildly pleased that I don't have to feel as bad focusing on methods and philosophy of science papers so if you're like that

I'm in social psych and I agree with what's stated here. @crystalcolours, while there are social psychologists who do applied social psychology, your best bet if your interest is applied work is I/O. I also wouldn't go into social psych if the primary reason is because you're enamored with the course content. While the replication crisis (and associated issues) aren't exclusive to social psych or even psychology, it is the hardest hit by it. Undergrad classes haven't exactly caught up to reflect these contemporary issues. Because of this, I wouldn't go into social psych because of its flashy findings without looking into these issues.

GPA-wise, you're set. Canadian schools only really look at the last two years. Good quant score, and good math skills is better for you in the long run. You definitely need research experience–not only to show you can "do" research but because you need people to write your letters of recommendations. I'd say volunteer for a whole year before even applying. I know some people who did a research-based Master's, but in Canada, those are all tied to the PhD program. My advisor told me that they essentially assess applicants to admit into the Master's based on whether they think they'll move onto the PhD. There are some American schools that offer terminal Master's programs, but I don't think they're worth it if they're not funded.

@elemosynarical Hey Oshawott, how good does an "Individual Project" PSY405 look on a resume? Different schools call them different things. If you're listing your position in your CV, calling yourself an "Independent Project Student" is fine. Alternatively, if you produced a manuscript (which most projects would as part of the credit) you can have it as a line under research contributions in your CV the same way people would have unpublished dissertations: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis (Unpublished Undergraduate Independent Project). Academic Institution, City, State [OR] Country. [link to project page]* *I would suggest seeing how open your supervisors are to pre-registering things on the OSF/making materials open access. I know a person at my current institution has their undergrads pre-register projects, and the benefits of this is that you can link to the project page on your unpublished research. I would only do this if your supervisor is okay with this because some people are not up for pre-registration/open-access. You can also submit to the CPA convention to get a more "credible" CV line. I say "credible" in that later in your grad career, you probably won't bother listing your unpublished undergrad projects in your CV, while you'll still want to list posters from major conferences. How does the Individual Project (Course code is PSY405/406) compare to the honours thesis? As far as I can tell, the honours thesis (PSY400) has a class component so its more structured in terms of when things need to be handed in. Students also have to take a theories course (I think its PSY401?) but I don't think anyone who I knew in the programs thought it was helpful. Does the Individual Project prepare psychology students well for grad school? Will grad school admissions committee look favourably upon a student who does an individual project PSY405/406 at UofT? Like the honours thesis, it depends on what you do. I've seen undergrad theses from smaller Canadian universities, and they weren't up to the level of rigor and immersion that some of the independent projects at UofT (again, because the school has the resources for it). The reason people say an honours thesis is "better" is because of general heuristics–people assume its more involved. In my independent projects, I've been involved in ethics applications, experiment programming, running participants, and analysis. Some professors let students create their own PSY405/406 projects rather than starting on an existing one, which basically puts it on the level of an honours thesis in terms of immersion. Don't get stuck on the labels. Talk about what you did in your letters of interest. I'm fairly certain the vast majority of people I interviewed with didn't realize I hadn't done a conventional honours thesis, since I recall explaining UofT's ridiculous thesis system.** **As a side note, I'd just avoid doing that and if they asked what you did your thesis on just say "oh for my senior project I did [insert description]" in case it gives the wrong impression. Given that it's a 400-level course code you're taking in your final year, calling it a "senior project" isn't lying. My second question-> With regards to the PSY405 individual project, I know I have to fill out a proposal form and submit it to the undergrad coordinator. With respect to filling out the project proposal form, am I supposed to come up with my own novel hypothesis and research ideas BEFORE I meet with my potential supervisor? Or is it better if I and my supervisor BOTH go through and write out the proposal form TOGETHER while discussing ideas with each other? It has been forever since I've done this, but I'd talk to the supervisor first and outline your interests in working with them. From that, depending on who they are and their needs, they'll either sign you up for an existing project, or be open to you developing your own project. I would ask them sooner than later as well as PI's start getting their projects in line for the following year around this time. Additionally, a PSY405/406 isn't a guarantee. You should ideally have been volunteering with people you were interested in already; there are always more volunteer spots than there are independent project spots in labs, and the limited spots goes to those who have been there first. Since PSY405/406 can be full or half year projects, you could volunteer in a lab that has a high project turnover for the first semester and do a project in the second semester.

I had asked my American supervisor about this after my interviews, because when I interviewed in the U.S., I noticed a lot of people seemed to have post-bac RA experience. His assessment of the situation was that a good number of schools didn't really offer any sort of substantive research experience outside of a thesis. Assuming the OP is in Toronto, at least 2 of the 3 universities there have strong research programs and one of those schools have a ridiculous research culture. With that said, Canadian grad schools don't necessarily need post-bac experience (though doing a thesis for one year won't necessarily cut it), and aside from lab manager positions, there aren't any common post-bac options in Canada (unless you just continue to volunteer for a year but at that point you won't necessarily be getting more hours/responsibility), and the vast majority of post-bac options in the United States are out of reach because of visa/immigration restrictions. I've seen Canadians do it, but they'd have to be better than any of the American applicants for PI's to even bother with the hassle. @lucien if you can juggle research experience early on, do it. The earlier you do it, the earlier you can start asking to be given more substantive tasks (i.e., beyond running participants) or at least be able to get positions at labs with more involved RA's. Also the benefit of doing it this early, all the big Canadian programs (and some American ones) only looks at your last two years so you learn to adjust doing school work with research responsibilities during years where your GPA will count little for your applications. That isn't to say you shouldn't aim high for grades in your early years because that affects your ability to get into some programs but it's to put into context if your grades aren't "as high" as another person who didn't volunteer.

I know a few RA's at my undergrad institution (in Toronto, so maybe that's where you are) who got positions in their first year, with one of them being hired as a work-study student over upper year students. Of course, they had very good resumes coming in with a lot of extracurriculars in high school (or were more mature students) so the lab managers were more willing to give them a chance because the primary concern they had was whether a first-year student would be able to handle adjusting to a university workload while working/volunteering for the lab. If you don't have amazing extracurriculars but want to help out, I think another thing that would help is to read the publications of the professors you want to work with, and in your application, reference these publications in your reasons why you want to work with them specifically. Most profs have their publications posted on their websites as PDF's so it shouldn't be that bad, and if you limit yourself to reading things within the next 5 years it should be more accessible (older articles had this tendency to...use obfuscating language). You should look at the professor's websites and see their instructions for applying for RA's, and set your sight towards volunteering rather than getting a paid position in your first year, since the first-year work-study student I knew was just exceptional in their credentials. Your best bet for a position is a social psychology lab as a lot of the research involves human subjects; the work itself is simple, but requires a lot of people working on them simply to run participants. I would recommend applying this early as it puts you in a good position to get paid positions if they become available, or to be accepted for independent projects for credit (which are honestly GPA boosters for the most part as long as you do work).

@elemosynarical, which college in the Faculty of Arts and Science are you in? As far as I'm aware, all the colleges also have an independent study course. For instance, St. Michael's College has SMC 481Y1 which is a full-year independent study course whose only limitations are that no other types of courses are available (which you can make an easy case for given the restrictions of the PSY405/406 courses) and that either the faculty member or the student is affiliated with the college. If you're not in SMC, there should be something equivalent in the other colleges. Depending on your clinical interests, you could also do an independent research project within the department with people whose interests align with yours despite not being Clinical Psychologists. With regards to this concern: to make things more complicated, there are hundreds and HUNDREDS of psych students at UofT, only 2-3% of them have the chance to do a thesis, because it's restricted to research specialists, only around 15-20 students are in the research specialist program, and I'm not in it That is an unfortunate situation that a lot of people find themselves in; other equivalently large universities manage to accommodate more thesis students (but have noticed that these students take advantage of independent projects less). That aside, looking into independent research projects can mitigate this. Depending on who you work with, you may actually do more meaningful work as an independent project student than other professor's thesis students (and thesis students from other schools). At the end of the day, you still graduate with a 4-year Honours Bachelor's degree. If you can talk confidently about your research experience in your LOI's, they won't even notice you didn't do a thesis (I've had a POI ask me to talk about my thesis during an interview when I didn't do one and I had more research experience than some people who did a 4th year thesis in my grad cohort). And regarding volunteering: if I were to be part of a clinical lab at a hospital or at another university, it would HAVE to be volunteering, and volunteering doesn't look as good as a research course or a work-study opportunity I actually learned more from one of my volunteer RA gigs than my actual independent projects. With that said, volunteering opens doors. These profs aren't going to hire a random undergrad when they've had reliable volunteers nor will they necessarily take on new project students when they have volunteers who want to do one as well. My initial volunteer experience resulted in two different independent projects (one in the same lab, and another in another lab) and helped me secure another RA position (the one that taught me way more things) because faculty and grad students talk to each other. If you're a good student who works hard, other faculty members and grad students you've never worked with will be more willing to work with you if they can go across the hall and ask their colleague "Oh is so and so a good student? Should I hire them? Okay." EDIT: So I looked at your post history and I want to address this comment: What I'm suggesting isn't "kissing ass". I literally just worked hard and (inadvertently) built a reputation for being reliable...so when I asked about an independent project or volunteering with other people, things just snowballed and I was given more responsibilities because I could show that I can do the work.

If you can keep up that GPA, then you should be fine on that front with regards to looking competitive (GPA-wise) for Clinical Psychology programs. I generally found my grades getting better as I progressed through university, so don't get too anxious about that; just keep up with what you're doing. With regards to research, you will need research experience and ideally a thesis. Start volunteering with professors whose research matches your interest in your third year. You will need at least two letters of recommendations. I started volunteering in my third year, took small seminar classes and could get a few good LOR's so a similar approach should work for most people. Ideally, if you end up volunteering for the same profs you took classes with, they'd be able to give you a well-rounded LOR even if they're not your thesis supervisor. 1) Tenure-track positions everywhere are scarce. I'm not sure if it's "any worse" in sociology than various areas of Psychology, but it's not an exaggeration. 2) Clinical Psychology is a "safer route" in that it allows you to do both research as an academic and practice as a clinician. 3) Financially speaking, you shouldn't be paying for your PhD (and not your Master's since you're in Canada) so neither one should accrue you any more debt. With that said, the return of investment is probably better as a Clinical Psychologist. I'm fairly certain the GRE's has accommodations for these types of issues. If you qualify, take them. With that said, the questions are formulaic–even the verbal portion. You just have to be able to identify how to best approach the questions to answer them efficiently. I suggest using Magoosh. It's cheap and actually good. The ETS also has a software program that let's you do two practice tests that get graded. If you want more practice tests, the Kaplan GRE books comes with five online tests and iirc cost $20 - 40 (I wouldn't pay for tutoring due to the cost, but you're more familiar with your learning disabilities than I am). I'd set aside a few hours every week to study during the year in your third year (and take a few practice tests throughout to track your progress), and try to take the test early in the summer after. A month before your exam, just set aside more time to study and take practice tests. The reason I suggest doing this early is if you find that your score is below a safe cut-off range then you can take it again. As for the essay writing portion, the ETS website also has all the different writing prompts available online. There are two types of essays: Issue and Argument essays. There's hundreds of essay prompts, but some of them overlap (i.e., same topic but it is either phrased as an issue or argument essay). Like the quant and verbal, the written portion is also formulaic. It's been awhile since I had to write this so I don't remember the exact details, but stuff like Magoosh and the Kaplan prep book goes into detail. A general rule of thumb is that you should aim for longer than shorter. Depending on how your program is structured, this may or may not be that hard. I had to write a lot of essays in timed exams so I was used to the time constraint.

If you're applying to Canadian grad schools, I'm pretty sure most of them converted my grades to their own scale anyway, so if both percent and letter grades appear on your transcript, you should be fine.

Why doesn't your faculty mentor apply for grants from relevant agencies?

Similar to @Jay's Brain, I hold a BSc in Psychology even though my coursework was predominantly social and cognitive, with little bio focus (to compare, a cognitive science degree at this school is consider a BA). My undergrad institute gives out an MA in psych despite being the top research institution in Canada for Psychology (and ranking top 20 globally last I checked). In my current grad institution, I am getting an MSc despite my research's focus being heavily social (though still research intensive) Honestly, for some schools it seems arbitrary and likely based on tradition. Don't get hung up on the labels of whether its called a "science" or "arts" degree given the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Look at the actual program and what it has to offer. and that's not even getting into the contentious issue of whether we can even call Psychology a science yet