tea_psychology_UVA

Hey! I just wanted to add that I luckily got into the Development Psychology track on 2/19! So happy!! Very excited but so anxious! To anyone who knows anything about UVA, been to UVA, etc: How is it? Is it a good school? What is your advice? Opinions? Your thoughts? Anything you know, please!! : ) Also, did anyone else hear back from UVA or get accepted? Would be very cool to know any cohorts! : ]

Hi! I guess I'm lucky to see this post! I went to the interview weekend for the University of Virginia! I had a great time! Though it was very tiring, it has its good ups. But I'll give a pretty good summary. Campus: The middle of the UVA campus is very college-typical, but the outskirts start to blend into the city of Charlottesville around it! It's not too rural, and not too suburb. Definitely a mix of both as you walk around UVA. School size: the campus big school, but not too enormous in that you have to drive everywhere. There are great food places on the outskirts. The psychology building is nice and fair: a big building, but a typical university college building. Overall, the nature parts of the campus are very pretty! And the buildings are revered to be beautifully historic. EVERYONE in the psychology department is always getting together and eating food. It was very nice to be treated so nicely by graduate students! They escorted you everywhere, and even to your interviews with different professors. Also, we were fed for every meal...it was quite an unexpected treat! I asked if there usually was this much food, and the graduate students said that yes, there tends to be a lot. Haha. The culture is very close-knit. Graduate students are open, and professors are very open and inviting in work. Everyone is willing enough to answer questions. The helpful and happy atmosphere was definitely felt among them. Thursday - Though technically interviews were not supposed to begin until Friday, a lot of the Developmental and Cognitive students as well as some other prospective students in different fields arrived early on Thursday, so we basically got a whole schedule improvised and thrown onto us. We, attended an actual UVA lecture in the morning, then joined graduate students/prospectives for a small presentation brunch to see a professor present (like I said before, there was so much food provision, and this was even a regular weekly thing apparently at UVA for every subfield). I learned that each field, at least most of them, had weekly food/discussion meetings. After lunch, we were brought to 30-minute interview sessions with some professors. They weren't as much interviews as they were informal conversations. This either went really great with prospectives who were very good with speaking with professors and enjoyed having conversations and the benefits of them, or awkwardly: since you did not know the professor or their work at all, some prospectives said they found it hard to keep a convo. I personally found this to be great to know their work and to talk with professors to get the benefit from it! Almost all prospectives stayed with a graduate student at night for their stay. On Thursday night, each field had a dinner at a professor's house. A lot of downtime to just talk to or meet professors. Then after, prospectives were invited to a weekly bar hangout/happy hour for graduate students. Definitely not expected! And I definitely felt out of place, especially as a prospective! But this was a time for prospectives to get to know graduate students more in their field, or even others! And surprisingly, I was able to talk to new graduate students I hadn't met before, so that was nice and surprising. I expected to be intimidated, but mostly every grad student was willing to talk to you if you wanted to. Like I said, free food....and drinks!!! It was definitely worth it! But yes...it would have been weird to drink a lot around graduate students. But if you did, I am sure nobody would care and your reputation for being selected as a student wouldn't be hurt in one bit (maybe if there were professors, haha). Friday - This was the formal interview day. The morning was bagels, and the dean explained how funding was higher since the program was changed from 6 years completion to now to 5 years (around maybe 2 years ago, this change was made). So yay! Also, the interviews were doubled. Instead of just a few professors, I talked with 7-8. It was a LOT. Maybe it's because my field of Developmental was larger than others, but yes. It was a lot of conversations, talkings, chit-chat, filler talk, etc. And then of course, on this day, you finally meet for the interview with your P.I. You got a full hour talk scheduled with your P.I. Totally the make-it or-break-it interview! And of course, perhaps a little bit more nerve-wracking than talking with the other professors, obviously. But personally, I think I did well : ) I genuinely liked my PI and she was extremely easy to talk to. Even with your PI, perhaps it was just mine, but there were only like 3-4 "formal interview" questions the whole way. So it was laid back too! Though I did know: for every professor you talked to, they probably most DEFINITELY had a say in recommendation on whether you would get accepted or not. Also, the graduate students working under the PI you are applying for DEFINITELY asked me a lot of questions the whole 2 days...and I realized only after, "Doh...those were interview questions! aHHH!!!" It was kinda like they are the minions of your PI to scope you and see if you are a good fit....haha! But they are so friendly, so it wasn't at all in a targeting way in the slightest. Lunch was nice: we went to the "downtown" area of UVA called The Corner. Lots of nice stores and restaurants. Great food! The food cuisine is VERY diverse. Had no qualms. Friday Night - After a rare 2-hour break (since we were so busy!), we were then invited to the Friday party that combined ALL professors and grad students and prospectives. It was so loud, I just stuck in conversation with some of the prospectives in my area to talk to (I made very nice friends with them!) and 1-2 grad students in my field as well. Reason being, I personally felt it was too loud to try and meet new people and make new friends, so I stuck with my old ones. Haha. Totally relaxed! Amazing pasta. Anyways, that's my summary of the interview! Just overall summaries: Positives: You really felt the willingness of the professors and graduate students wanting to help you. There's a happy atmosphere, which is what I kept on describing the feeling I felt. Of course, the real life of a PH.D. student is not all fun and games, but for a PhD atmosphere, if I had to choose one, I would feel very satisfied with this program's atmosphere. Especially with such helpful professors. The campus can seem like your typical campus and it sorta is. But nuances, such as the very historic architecture, the "blend" into the town around it, etc. give it a nice different feel, so it's not too difficult. In terms of negatives, I can see is that the campus isn't fit for everyone; I'd say it's very suburban but a bit more rural,"empty" since it's considered southern. Being a big city guy myself, it would definitely take a bit to get used to. Though the campus is big, it's separated into smaller sections so you may definitely feel like your area of the campus is very small if you are usually always in one area. In terms of the stereotype of "pretentious, arrogant students", during my interview, I did not see the stereotypical "stuck-up" individual that UVA has been stereotyped to have! Then again, I didn't meet that many people outside of graduate and faculty, haha. Anyways, that's my summary! I enjoyed the faculty and students a lot and I was sad to say goodbye to some of the other prospectives, because I made such good friends with them! It was definitely bittersweet in a way.