SeventhCircle

Yeah, that was a problem for me as well. I'd recommend finding some schools in places where you would like to go, and emailing profs with your interests and seeing if you get any good feedback. A lot of the time, profs have interests that aren't stated on their website but are willing to explore with a student.

I'd agree with everyone else: as a fellow Canadian applicant it seems like you have a decent package. Your GREs could use some work as I'd imagine that a 60 quant could only be offset by a very high score in another category. Unfortunately the consensus seems to be that unless you have a very compelling application or connections (ie. Presentations at large conferences or papers in high impact journals; well-connected supervisors that can vouch for you), the GREs are largely used during initial stages to dwindle down the application pool. I think this is especially true in the US, and in truth they matter more than profs let on. Do you have any special marketable skills? I've noticed that knowing a programming language or two gives you an edge and is especially desirable in psychology these days. Also, I think this largely goes without saying but you need to make a connection with a POI. Get them excited about you. Stroke their ego and show them that you have new, interesting ideas that will make them look good. It's as much as what you are capable of doing as what you have already done. A lot of people suggest applying to a wide range of schools--which certainly works for some people. But it may be more economical and efficient to concentrate a lot of effort on a few places. This means reading in depth and having a good understanding of their work, understanding implicit implications of the work and where the field is headed. Also, out of curiosity, why didn't you apply to any Canadian schools? The UBC name might go a lot further in Canada.

I had the exact same experience, except after an informal interview a few months ago. I really wouldn't stress it or take the non-response personally. It's more likely that while the POI appreciated your comments on the article, they weren't keen on starting a back-and-forth dialogue via email when admission decisions are pending. All in all, I think her taking the time to follow up on your conversation with more material is a good sign.

Hi everyone. Like a lot of you, I'm currently waiting to hear news from the schools I applied to. There's one thing that has been nagging me for a while but I've never been sure how to handle it, and am wondering if I've missed my opportunity to address a potential red flag in my application with my POI. Unfortunately my stats grade in my 2nd year wasn't too great and it doesn't look too good because the course descriptor says "Introduction to Research Statistics". However I feel like the transcript isn't an accurate reflection of my ability in that area, especially since I did well in another third year course that covers more advanced topics on statistics and methodology. The issue is that the third year course is more ambiguously described as "Advanced Experimental Psychology", and in hindsight I should have made this clarification in my statement of purpose. But at the time I really didn't want to focus on any negatives or feel like I was making excuses, so I ended up leaving it out. Moreover my quant GRE score was a 160, so I feel that that also attests to the fact that I don't completely suck at math, and the admissions committee is only looking at the final two years of study (although the POI said that he was interested in the entire transcript). I'm not sure whether I should bring this up with my POI for this school at this point. I've already had an informal meeting with him, and it went very well. I'm really hoping to get into this school and work with this professor, and I'm very scared that this might hurt my chances since it's a fairly competitive school to get into.