St0chastic

I'm 25 and about to start my first year of a PhD program this Fall. I too was concerned about my age, especially given that doctorates these days typically last 5-7 years, but we're definitely not the only ones who aren't starting straight out of undergrad. What helped me relax was thinking about my future in the longer term. By the time we're in our 30s, will a couple of years really make that much of a difference? Everyone has a different path through life and this path is not always linear. I know that personally I've mellowed out some in the past three years since graduating from undergrad and now have a much clearer perspective on life. I'm sure you've gained some wisdom and emotional maturity in the past few years, too, and this will surely serve you well.

Hi there! I applied to cognitive neuroscience programs last year, so my advice may not apply in your case (clinical psych programs tend to be considerably more competitive), but here are my two cents. GPA I was a bio/psych double major and had the same GPA as you (and like you, my psychology GPA was ~3.96). I thought my middle-of-the-road cumulative GPA would keep me from being accepted to top PhD programs, but it ended up not mattering too much (I was accepted at 7/8 programs). Granted, I think GPA is more important for top clinical psych programs, but a 3.71 on its own won't automatically keep you out. Word of advice: focus on getting all A's during your senior year if possible. If you have to reapply next year, this will definitely help your chances. GRE Your scores are a little low if you are gunning for a top 10 school but are otherwise within the interquartile range of many programs. IMO, if you have the time and means I would recommend retaking for a higher score. Your quant score isn't too bad for psych programs but verbal is a little low (160+ would be better). It might also be worth taking the psychology subject GRE test. While I doubt it'll make too much of a difference, a top score can help you stand out from the field. I would prioritize classwork and research over the GREs, but if you didn't study much for it the first time you took it then it shouldn't be too hard to increase your score by a few points. Research/Work It sounds like you have a lot of research experience. This is a huge plus and will help you immensely. Your work experience should also be helpful for clinical programs, especially at the interview stage. University Activities I don't know if this matters a whole lot, but it's something you could highlight in your statement of purpose to demonstrate your drive, leadership qualities, organizational abilities, etc. Given all the research and work experience you have, I think you have a very good shot. Prioritize getting stellar letters of recommendation--this is probably the single most effective thing you can do to increase your chances, and since you have worked in so many labs this should be pretty easy. Also, go ahead and start writing your statement of purpose. It doesn't need to be flashy or creative, just demonstrate that you are capable of doing high quality research by expounding on your research experience + any extracurriculars that are relevant. If you have the time to study for it adequately, retaking the GRE is also worth doing in my opinion. Finally, make sure that you apply to programs/PIs that are a good fit and apply to at least 10 schools.

Yes, all cogneuro. Clinical programs are so intensely competitive that I seriously doubt I would have been admitted to more than one (at most) had I applied to those!

Hi everyone. To those of you who are on a waitlist, could you post which schools and programs you are waitlisted for? I am currently holding onto a few offers as I consider my options, but it would be helpful for me to know who is waitlisted at these programs and whether they would attend if they receive an admissions offer.

Is there a thread where people have listed schools where they are waitlisted? I am hoping to decline programs in the next few weeks, but if I knew for sure that there is someone on the waitlist who's #1 choice is the program I would potentially decline, I might inform the schools sooner. Of course, I want to inform programs of my decision as soon as possible, but at the same time I would like a little more time to reflect on my options so that I can make the best possible choice. This is a big decision after all!

It really irks me that psychology classes on the whole are relatively easy. I double majored in biology and psychology, and the majority of my biology classes were substantially more challenging. In 90% of my psych classes, I felt like as long as I attended class and did the readings I could secure an A fairly easily. In most of my bio courses, putting in the equivalent amount of time and effort would get me a B+ or A-. It's not like biology is conceptually more difficult, it's just that biology tests tend to be more detail oriented and require extensive memorization of abstract information that is difficult to relate to one's day-to-day life (e.g., transduction cascades, cell biology and genetics more generally). I think it's ridiculous that a B+ is considered a subpar grade these days, especially in psychology classes. To counter grade inflation and the perception that some majors are easier than others, course difficulty should be normalized such that the average grade received is a C. People should be proud to get a B+ or A-, not ashamed!

Almost all APA accredited PhD programs will post average and median GRE scores for their clinical students. Some schools will even post these stats for all of their program areas: Berkeley: http://psychology.berkeley.edu/students/graduate-program/faq-gpa-gre-toefl Michigan: https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/prospective-students/graduate/program-statistics.html You might also want to check out this list which Magoosh has compiled: http://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-top-universities/ My impression is that ideally, you want to score >160 verbal, >155 quantitative, and >4.0 analytical writing to be competitive. Of course, at the most competitive programs you will want to score even more highly. If there are other aspects of your application that are stellar, you might be able to get away with a slightly lower score. In my case, I believe that my GRE scores were instrumental in getting me interviews, but I wouldn't worry about your score too much if your overall application is strong. High GPA, outstanding letters of rec, and ample research experience can make up for a middle-of-the-road score.

Much to my surprise, I received an admissions offer (before interviewing!). For cog neuro the official interview visit is next weekend if I'm not mistaken (I had to reschedule for the following week); for cognitive, the interview visit is scheduled for sometime in March. Sorry if I'm bursting anyone's bubble! It's always possible that UIUC has a wait list, and I don't know if the other areas have extended invitations.

I know someone who has already heard from UIUC's cognitive division, and I have heard from their cognitive neuroscience division.

I agree with this. If you are working with an advisor who has a good track record of alumni placement, your institution's ranking may not matter much. I wouldn't put too much stock in the NRC or US News rankings. I believe that the NRC rankings are quite old, and the US News rankings are basically determined purely on the reputation a school has rather than objective criteria. I wouldn't ignore rankings entirely, but it shouldn't be the primary factor in your decision process. All of the programs listed in your signature are reputable, so you probably don't need to worry about this.

Hello. I have heard from UIUC's cognitive neuroscience area, and I know there is at least one person on this forum who has heard from the cognitive area. I could be wrong, but it's my impression that they have sent out all of their invites.

This is what I'm planning on doing. As others have said, it's preferable to be overdressed than underdressed, but it might be a bit awkward being the only one wearing full-blown business attire. I'm also going to bring a blazer with me that I can quickly put on if things become more formal. I've been wondering this myself. I'll probably just play it safe and have business casual attire on at the airport. I can always change into something comfier later if it feels appropriate. And while it might be a little awkward to carry a coat around indoors, it will be even more awkward not having one outside in the middle of winter!

@JoePianist I think that's good advice for the majority of applicants. In retrospect, I went overboard in my preparation. However, I know a lot of psych applicants who have 3.8+ GPAs, tons of research experience, great letters of rec, etc. but have a so-so quant score that puts them at a disadvantage. As long as you're above the cutoff values it may not even matter, but in my opinion it's worth spending 50-100 hours doing focused studying/practice problem solving over the span of 4-8 weeks. It's also helpful to think of the GRE as a game rather than tedious test you have to take. Maybe I'm just a huge nerd, but I actually had a lot of fun answering practice problems. This made it very easy to motivate myself to study, and it also lessened my frustration whenever I did miss a question. Rather than viewing mistakes as a sign of failure, I took them as a learning opportunity. Gradually, I found myself missing fewer and fewer questions. I will say that there's no need to spend a lot of money on GRE prep. ETS provides a fair amount of material online, the Magoosh blog is free for everyone to use, and Khan Academy is a good free resource to brush up on algebra/geometry/probability/number properties.

I don't want to come across as a salesman, but Magoosh is pretty fantastic. The key to getting the most out of it is attempting to solve all the problems in the videos before the instructor supplies the answer (the benefit you get from this is known as test-potentiated learning). Also, they have a ton of very useful blog posts with great test strategies and loads of challenging practice problems: http://magoosh.com/gre/gre-math/ It will take quite a while to go through all of the videos, blog posts, and practice problems, but if you can carve out 2-3 hours a day for a few months to go through all of their content, not only will your score improve but you will also strengthen your mastery of foundational math topics. Don't get frustrated if you are missing a lot of their problems initially as IMO they are trickier than the ones on the actual exam. In my opinion it's much harder to get your verbal score up, but reading publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, etc. will get you used to the type of prose you'll find on the test. Improving vocabulary is something that can be done relatively easily in a few weeks and might boost your score by 3-5 points. Magoosh has an app with 1000 high-frequency GRE words. Vocabulary.com is my favorite online dictionary, and Quizlet.com allows you to make your own digital flashcards. You can also install dictionary add-ons in your browser that allow you to quickly look up the definition of a word by highlighting them. I've been using these for a few years now and have gotten into the habit of looking up every word I don't know.

Congrats! Now you can relax somewhat as you are ready for the interview visit.

To all those who have struggled with the GRE, here is what I used to prepare: --Khan Academy --Magoosh (including many of the articles and practice problems on their blog) --Manhattan 5 lb. Book of Practice Problems --All of ETS' material (Official Guide, practice books, Powerprep tests, Math Review PDF) --Various vocabulary books and apps I spent 5-6 weeks intensively studying for the GRE (in the final week, I was solving math problems 12+ hours a day). In total I probably invested well over 100 hours and maybe even more than 200 hours preparing for the exam. Fortunately, my efforts paid off. I suspect my score is the primary reason why I was able to get several interview invitations. It's unfortunate that the GRE is weighed so heavily by admissions committees, but the good news is that you CAN raise your score. Quantitative problem solving especially is possible to improve in the span of a few months. Don't lose hope!

I have a similar "chat" scheduled for Saturday and had a few Skype chats with some of my POIs. First, make sure that you can give a quick "elevator pitch" of your experience and research projects. Your POI may not even ask about this, but it's always good to have this ready in case it does come up. Second, take a few minutes to review your applications and SoP as she/he may ask you to elaborate on them. Third, review the the program website so that you are familiar with some basic information (coursework requirements, master's thesis/dissertation timeline, funding, TA duties, etc.). Finally, read one or two recent publications of your POI and look over a few more abstracts so that you have a sense of the research they are doing and the methods they use. If you have a phone chat scheduled, you could even take down some notes that you can refer to during the call in case your mind goes blank. Also, it's probably a good idea to have a few questions prepared to ask.

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that cognitive programs are less competitive than clinical even at the interview stage. While as most clinical programs will invite 4-5 times as many applicants as there are slots, with cognitive it's more like 2-3. And not everyone who is admitted will accept the offer, so the odds are maybe even a little better.

Thank you! To be completely honest, I was expecting 1-2 at most since I didn't apply to any safety schools. When you hear stories of so many uber-qualified applicants getting turned down, it's all too easy to convince yourself that you aren't up to snuff. The reality is that the admissions process is far from perfect, and there are inevitably many deserving applicants who are turned down for questionable reasons. I think I lucked out partially because I happened to do well on the GRE, partially because I maybe picked POIs that aren't as "in demand", and partially because I've cultivated close relationships with my mentors in the past two years that secured me solid letters of recommendation (or so I assume). Either way, I'm happy to have made it to this stage. I just finished interviewing at WashU (I had to reschedule my visit due to a conflict with another university) and feel that it went fairly well. In retrospect there are things I could have done better, but my overall impression of the visit was positive. The next few weeks are going to be rather hectic, though! Next week I have back-to-back-to-back visits with UCLA, UC Davis, and Northwestern. The following week I'll be going to Vanderbilt, and the weekend after that Michigan and Illinois. I'm simultaneously nervous and excited about these visits, and I'm sure I'll be utterly exhausted when all is said and done. Regardless of how things turn out, it's going to be a great learning experience.

UCSD was the one school I applied to that didn't invite me to interview. Either they have a particularly competitive applicant pool (more so than UCLA, Michigan, WashU, Illinois) or they are looking for a very specific kind of background/experience. I'm feeling pretty bad for all the clinical applicants. If I had applied to clinical programs rather than cogneuro/cognitive, I'm not sure if I would be going to any interviews! While the cognitive admissions rates are relatively low (~5-8%), for clinical they are just brutal (~1-3%). Kudos to all of you clinical folks!

Hello all! How is everyone doing so far? Has anyone been to any on-site interviews or have impending ones?

While it may give you an advantage to contact your POIs before applying, it is not strictly necessary to be invited to interview. I only contacted some of my POIs at a subset of schools I applied to and have received invites from 7/8 programs. I wouldn't sweat it too much!

Northwestern's clinical program is one of the more competitive in the country. I have a co-worker who applied there. Hopefully she received good news...

Goodness, just received a departmental interview invitation from Davis. The message makes it sound like the interviews are rather competitive. If anyone applied to both UCLA and Davis, would you mind PM'ing me what your travel plans are? The interview days are back-to-back, so I'm not sure how to handle logistics.

Wow, congrats! I'm really happy for you! Maybe I'll see you at the recruitment weekend.