vislabgirlx

I applied to the Cognitive Science program and was accepted. It's a great program! I ended up choosing another school, but UCI was a close second for me.

I took a Kaplan course (provided through the summer research program I did) and studied my butt of every. single. day. My roommates at my summer program actually used to tease me because I studied instead of going out with them, but I was able to raise my quant score from a 149 to a 159 (the first time I took the GRE, I did not study at all). I also raised my verbal score from 159ish to 163. I had a great Kaplan instructor who gave a lot of advice and made it fun to learn the material. But, in all honesty, my improvement came from at-home study. The key for me was sitting down for at least an hour every single day to study vocab flash cards and do practice quant tests. Two weeks before the test, I increased my study time to two hours a day and took practice tests once a week. I am not good at standardized math testing, so I was pretty happy with my improvement.

It's absolutely gorgeous in Washington. I'm big on outdoorsy stuff, so I am excited that I'll have so much hiking, camping, mountain climbing, etc. to do. I've been living in a big metropolitan area for the past 5 years, so it will be nice to have the mix of city and nature that Seattle offers.

Nice, I know someone who is in that program. I think she's in her second year of grad school now. She likes it! I'll be attending the University of Washington, which was my top choice from the very beginning. Very excited!

Thank you! It was a tough choice, but hopefully someone else can take those spots.

I just released an offer from UCI today.

I just released offers from UCLA and UC Santa Cruz.

Its a scholars program. These people aren't just my advisers in the way that you all have advisers. They pay my living stipend and are signing off on my honors thesis. I also get graded for my participation in the program. It's in my best interest to be cooperative and abide by the terms that I agreed to when I became a scholar. They aren't holding a gun to my head or anything, but if I accept offers without meeting with them first, I would get in trouble with the program. I could potentially get kicked out. Then, there goes my only source of income. There goes valuable connections that I've spent the last few years building (and letters I plan to use for my NSF application). It isn't worth it to me.

Before I can decline any offers, I have to meet with my adviser and the director of the research program I am a part of. If it were up to me, I would have declined at least one of my offers weeks ago. Unfortunately, my program director treats us like children, and we can hardly make any academia-related decisions without her approval. I will be declining 3 offers at some great programs next week, so hopefully some of you guys get off the waitlist. Once I officially decline, I'll come back and list the schools!

That's still really good! It suggests that they have an interest in you, specifically!

Yeah! He said that, and then told me the bit about how he only interviews people he intends on making an offer to. I think I told you about that in a PM?

@Gvh @FeelTheBern Thanks for the congrats, guys!! To answer your question @FeelTheBern, it varies. I have one school where I am the only person my POI is interviewing, and others where I'll be one of multiple interviewees. I think it's more common these days that professors invite at least 2 people, that way they can have options (and if one person denies their offer, they can potentially extend an offer to a second person). But I do love that I am the only interviewee for one of my POIs, it really takes the pressure off. I know that at this interview I won't be competing with anyone, especially since he has his own funding for me. He says that, unlike many of his colleagues, he only invites people who he intends to make offers, too. Apparently, this way of doing it is becoming less common. Most POIs invite more than one perspective.

I have a few interviews I'm still waiting to attend, but I have gotten acceptances from UC Santa Cruz (cognitive psych) and UCLA (behavioral neuro), so I have gotten some good news!

I've received 1 official offer so far, 1 unofficial offer, and 3 more interviews. Quant: 75th Verbal: 93rd AW: 80th The most important thing to note is the type of program you are applying to. You can get away with a lower quant score in some fields (such as school or social psychology) so long as it is above the cutoff. For other types of programs (like cognitive neuroscience, where the research might have a heavy computational aspect) your quant score would be more important. Regardless of the type of psych program, a high verbal and AW score are important. I applied to computational labs where math is important, but I have a really strong quantitative background (I've taken a ton of stats, as well as linear algebra and other courses from my school's math department) so my 75th percentile score wasn't viewed so harshly. I just suck at taking standardized tests.

I heard from UCI about a week ago. Their interview day is March 4th.

I have yet to get any official acceptance letters, but I've been "recommended for admission" at one university, which basically means I will be getting an admission letter any day now because recommendations are never turned down by the dean. Then, at another university my POI said that "as far as he's concerned, I'm admitted," but it won't be official until after the departmental meeting next month. Then, at the end of my most recent interview weekend I was told that I will "probably" be offered admission. What has struck me as surprising is that it seems like there will be no surprises in terms of where I get in. So far, all of the schools who intend to make an offer have either blantantly said it, or they've hinted at such. Before, I just imagined this cinematic moment where I open my email and, to my surprise, I've been admitted somewhere. But, it seems like that likely won't be the case. If I get an admission offer from any of the schools I've interviewed with thus far, it won't be a surprise (except for the program that said I'd "probably" be accepted). Of course, I'll still be overwhelmed with happiness and excitement, but not surprise. Granted, this is all specific to my experiences. I am certain there are programs that do not inform applicants of their admission status until they are admitted. I'm sure many others here will have the cinematic moment I imagined!

Well, my POI was definitely not a fit, for starters. My interactions with her led me to believe that she does not have much respect for other peoples' time. Also, I felt I was "one of many" applicants for her; she invited numerous candidates and did not know any of our names, we had to remind her. This contrasts my experiences with other POIs, where I am either the only applicant they are interviewing, or I am one of few, and the POI has a genuine interest in me as a person. And for the department as a whole, again, I got the "one of many" vibe. They invited a lot of people, and it was clear to me that the faculty members who I interviewed with had basically no idea of who I was. Again, this contrasts previous experiences where I could tell that the faculty had reviewed my application shortly before meeting me, and thus they had some general idea of who I am and what I do. So, I guess my general issue is that this particular school had no real interest in me as an individual/potential candidate. Maybe I have been spoiled by the other programs that have been really interested in me. But, at this particular interview weekend I just felt like one of many who could fill a slot, not like one person who they specifically feel is a good match for their program. For reference, this was at a very well-known, well-respected university that gets hundreds of applications, so maybe they feel less of a need to impress candidates to make them want to go there.

I attended my first interview weekend, and had a disappointing experience that has led me to remove this university from my list. I say disappointing because previously this program was my second choice, one that I would be very happy to be admitted to. Unfortunately, the interview weekend provided me with a deep understanding of what people mean when they talk about "departmental fit." I didn't really get it before; I just assumed that if a PI does research that I like and they seem nice enough personality-wise, then the university is a fit. Nope. It goes much further than that.

Hey, UW already sent their invites out. I visited campus earlier this month and met with my POI, and I was told that the different areas of the psychology department were finishing up their list of people to invite at that time. Last week I received an official invite, and since then I have been filling out the reimbursement forms and whatnot.

School Name: University of California, Irvine Date interview invite received: 1/26 Degree: PhD Program: Cognitive Sciences Notified Via: Email From: Department Interview Date: 3/2 Really surprised by this invite. I figured that if I hadn't heard anything by now, the answer was no, but I guess this program just does things a little later than others.

School Name: UC Santa Barbara Date interview invite received: 1/22 Degree: PhD Program: Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Notified Via: Email From: POI Interview Date: 2/18-2/20

I'm also finishing up my BA, and it is my first go at applications!

I agree with what artsy16 says. If it is on a paper form that you need to mail in or something, I would definitely see if you could give them the information in a more secure way just to make sure the paperwork doesn't get lost and someone ends up with your SSN. But if it's an online form, it should be fine so long as the website is secure.

School: University of California, San Diego Area: Cognitive Psych Rationalization: The usual--too many qualified applicants, etc. Comment: This was a really surprising rejection for me, since I know my POI and he made it seem like he was genuinely interested. Coping Tactics: None. I was disappointed for like 2 hours, then I reminded myself that I have a very promising interview at my top choice, and another interview for a program that is ranked higher than UCSD and far more prestigious, so I'm over it.

My POI told me that he is recommending me for admission and that if I "happen to be visiting Santa Cruz" that I should come and see the campus, so I assumed that means that they aren't doing an interview weekend. And no, he did not give any details about when decisions would be sent out, but I might email him to ask since I am curious to know, too. Good luck to you, too!