Psychologyandpizza

I would highly discourage sharing such a personal statement about what happened, as it may raise red flags about appropriate self disclosure. Again, people go both ways on this but I *personally* would refrain from sharing as much as you did here.

I actually did apply in my last year of my Master's program and was accepted to a program and waitlisted at two more. I chose to decline my acceptance and withdrew myself from consideration for the other two programs. I really felt burned out after completing my Master's (I made my decision in March 2018 to not accept) and am glad that I went this route. I'm currently on the job market. I'm not sure if I'll go back in the future, so I am maintaining contact with my faculty I work with and am continuing to assist in conducting research remotely (consulting on research design and statistical analyses, and manuscript writing). 
 
I think if you know it isn't the right decision at the time, that you should honor your intuition and feelings and don't go just because you feel pressured to or feel that it's what you are "supposed" to do. 

If you can’t reschedule either, do both. Last year I took a red eye with a connecting flight from the west coast to the east coast. Slept a few hours on the plane and flew in my interview outfit. Honestly I wouldn’t do it again but neither school offered an alternate day. ??‍♀️ You’ll be okay. Just drink some coffee and honestly you’ll have enough adrenaline that you’ll be just fine. 

Why wouldn’t we just all post this on the results page? Just include your PI initials if you want in the notes section. Sometimes these threads feel a bit redundant..but perhaps people would be interested in doing this. Otherwise all the information you’ve posted might be more easily accessible on the results search! 

Why wouldn’t we just all post this on the results page? Just include your PI initials if you want in the notes section. Sometimes these threads feel a bit redundant..but perhaps people would be interested in doing this. Otherwise all the information you’ve posted might be more easily accessible on the results search! 

I pretty much only work from home this year unless it’s something that I anticipate needing to print a lot for. I’ve adapted to working in short, productive bursts so that I can take a lot of breaks. Home is definitely more amenable to writing than my office is (for me personally).

Good luck at Denver! I went there for my MA

I had a similar response from a school. I committed to another interview date much earlier than I received my invite from them, asked for an alternate date or skype interview (nicely-just don’t feel like typing it all out now) and was told they couldn’t offer me that but that If I cancelled my other interview it should be early enough that the other school wouldn’t be upset. Has anyone else ever had a program suggest they cancel a different interview?? Anyways, I was forced to decline my invite because I’m not comfortable canceling with another school when a) I already rsvp’d and b)the first school was equally as high on my list as the second. 

For those who applied, Arizona State’s Counseling Psychology faculty are meeting tomorrow to determine who will be invited to interviews.  

Welp, I received an invitation today - So maybe I will see you there ( I have two other invitations for the same day so I am carefully trying to navigate that situation)! 

This gives me a lot to think about thanks for the input. I guess I have to wait for the decisions and decide based on which professor seems to be the best fit

This application season I am really seeing how people have diverging opinions on so many things. It is true - it definitely depends on the faculty and your fit together. On the flip side, at the same time I started working with the new faculty I mentioned, I was also recommended to work with another new faculty that was hired at the same time. Big mistake - she provided no guidance, didn't let her students do hardly anything in the lab, etc, which is probably part of what your faculty warned against. However, I wouldn't count out a faculty simply because they're new - I would definitely email with them and see what they have to say. Also, I'm not sure about this or if it's frowned upon but if they mention that they have a lot of mentoring/advising experience as a graduate student, you could also ask them if you could have contact information for a lower level grad student or undergraduate student that they mentored at their graduate university so that you can get a student's perspective on their mentoring style. 

I won’t be drinking either - I have Invisalign so I can only drink water when I have it in, and don’t plan to have it out other than to eat because it becomes a hassle. I don’t think that anyone would mind (plus I’m not a drinker anyways).

I honestly think it really depends on the circumstance. I was in continuous contact with my POI at one university who also happens to be the DCT, and felt that it was appropriate to email her and ask if interviews had been extended, if not yet when they would be meeting, and when their interview day would be. I prefaced this by explaining that I am currently booking flights for other interview invitations and wanted to minimize the conflict with that university because it is one of my top choices. 
In this situation, she seemed very excited to hear from me, let me know when they would be reviewing applications and when their interview day is planned for. This helped immensely because now I know that I can wait to hear from them because I should be notified a few days before I need to reply to another school about an interview that is on the same exact day. However, I chose to not email another school that I am waiting to hear from and have not seen results posted for because it didn't feel like the appropriate thing to do in that situation. 
In your situation, I would probably say to wait because (a) it doesn't sound like it is faculty you have been in contact with and (b) it doesn't sound like they have sent out invitations yet. I would probably give it another two weeks to wait and see because some schools don't host interviews until later in February. Though, I do understand the waiting game. If you still haven't heard at that point, I would suggest reaching out to the program assistant, DCT, or coordinator rather than your POI. 

I would NOT say that you do not want to destroy a potential working relationship with Professor X, I don't think you need to go into that much detail by giving names. Also, of course everyone interprets things differently, but for some reason saying that doesn't sit right with me personally. On one hand it could come off as impressive that you are thinking so far ahead, but on the other hand it could come off as going to an interview even when your heart isn't in it and wasting the department's resources (I assume they are paying for your travel and arranging housing accommodations for you) while simultaneously taking away an opportunity from another equally qualified student who may want the opportunity more than you do. Not saying that any part of the latter is true but that is how it could be interpreted. Just saying "School B is one of my top choices but I have already committed to attending an interview during the same weekend elsewhere/at School A" is sufficient.
Aside from that, if I were in your shoes, I would also go to the in-person interview at School A and the Skype interview at School B because I would not want to cut School A off my list just because I like School B more. I'm the type of person who likes to keep my options open, because who knows after visiting/meeting students and faculty whether or not I will still like School A less? 
Unfortunately, the reality is that you do miss out on certain opportunities by doing a Skype interview over going in person. No one can say with 100% certainty that the Skype would either have no effect or would hurt your chances. I will say however that I was accepted into one of my top choice schools following a Skype interview. 

This might sound dumb, but I'm speaking from experience... Watch your caffeine intake if you drink coffee/tea. A lot of places have coffee available all day, and it's easy to mindlessly drink it while you're waiting for interviews, etc. I always find that I get way more anxious if I drink a lot of caffeine while nervous. 
Make sure you get a good night's sleep, drink water, eat enough. 
Finally, don't listen to other applicants if they start competing with each other about their qualifications or interviews. If you've made it to the interview stage, you are qualified and deserve to be there. They chose you for a reason.
Good luck! 

One person asked me where I get inspiration for my research ideas from. It wasn't that tough of a question, but definitely one that I was unprepared for!
I was also asked why I applied to the kinds of programs that I applied for (basic science/very experimental), given my long-term research and career goals, which are very applied in nature. At first glance there is definitely what appears to be a total mismatch between what I eventually want to do and what I would be trained to do in my program. I luckily had a very clear idea in mind of what exactly I wanted my career trajectory to be and what skills I wanted to learn in graduate school, which allowed me to give a decent answer to the question. 

For those of you who have gone through the interview process, what are some interview questions that you wish you would have prepared for, but didn’t? I’m not interested in the generic questions because I’ve begun preparing for those. Where do you think you could have improved your interview? It would be so helpful to hear what others didn’t feel so prepared for.
 
My interviews so far will be for counseling psychology PhD programs.
 
thank you all!

For those of you who have gone through the interview process, what are some interview questions that you wish you would have prepared for, but didn’t? I’m not interested in the generic questions because I’ve begun preparing for those. Where do you think you could have improved your interview? It would be so helpful to hear what others didn’t feel so prepared for.
 
My interviews so far will be for counseling psychology PhD programs.
 
thank you all!

Definitely email. Even professors I am very close with I contact them by email when it is in regards to professional matters. It’s good to keep boundaries especially seeing as this is not a professor that you even have an established relationship with. 

Hi! 
I'm planning to apply to phd programs in clinical and/or counseling with an emphasis in gender and sexuality studies! There aren't many programs that focus on this so I've been trying to find individual profs who are somewhat related to what I'm interested in. So excited to see someone else in this field! 
 
Im also planning to apply to teachers college Columbia! Good luck! Check out UW Madison if you're at all interested in counseling psychology because they have a few you may be interested in. 

The paying to fly applicants out thing changes depending on the university. Some universities fly out all applicants because there is the potential that an applicant not being able to afford the travel costs would prevent them from entering the program, so it is their attempt to ensure all applicants are receiving equal opportunities. 
 
And some universities don't fly anyone out or fly out top candidates. I wouldn't read too much Into it and wouldn't consider it to mean you're guaranteed acceptance. Go and kick some ass in those interviews  

I am first author on two posters at MPA and will be presenting at APA in Denver as well! Super excited to see what everyone is researching!