socialbrouhaha

I have been zen and then panicked and then back to zen again....in a matter of one day. I have heard nothing yet. It's my first time applying, is silence good or bad??? Considering some of you have heard back from UCI and UofT, I guess my chances are pretty low for them i'm okay with that, I think. It would just be nice to know that you're rejected or wait listed or accepted rather than be in purgatory. In terms of coping, I think I've just set the bar low and have come to accept that I won't get in anywhere that way if I do get in somewhere its a pleasant surprise. Haha, probably not the best coping method, but hey, it works. I guess my application wasn't that strong to garner any interviews as of yet...fingers crossed for some news soon. And I completely agree, the GRE make-or-break metric is a sham and is downright embarrassing. Don't we all value the dynamic nature of intelligence and the variability in student potential yet? How much longer will these tests be chained to application procedures? Unfortunate is the right word!

Generally I'm interested in prosocial behavior, group conformity and identity formation, primarily in how they interact with technology. Most of the programs/professors I've looked at thus far are touching pieces of my interests and there are a few that are really strong fits. I've been told to look into sociology programs for perhaps a stronger fit with the technology portion but I think the social psych lens gets at my research interests better than sociology or comm programs will. Thanks for your insight about sending emails to POIs and getting on their radar, I just wasn't sure if profs took those emails seriously since I've been told they get inundated with them and often nvr reply. Any suggestions on what to say in these emails? I've read up on their labs current projects and a few papers here and there but how much should I research the profs work before reaching out to him/her?

I can't speak to the rest of the questions but I wanted to offer my 2 cents about learning R/SAS. Do it!! If it's not going to be a terribly out of the way project for you, then I would definitely take the opportunity. I am learning (trial by fire) R right now for my job and its so amazing and powerful and it'll give you an edge in case you want to explore careers outside of academia since R is more often used for real life data than SPSS. An aside: a friend of mine went to NYU's quant program and loved it. Good luck!

Hey lovely folks. I decided rather than just sitting in terrible anxiety reading all these posts, I would share my concerns and maybe one of you has some good suggestions. So I'm basically throwing a hail mary with applications for Fall 2017. I did a MS in an applied field and worked in that field for ~2 years but since then have decided I want to go into Social Psych and that I really want to be a professor/be in academe. In the beginning of the year I decided I was going to take my time and work on my apps and get more research experience before applying Fall 2018 but then after a few long pub conversations, I decided why the heck not apply this fall. I wanted to know if a. I have a chance in hell and b. if it's wiser for me to hold off PhD applications and just apply to Social PSYC focused MA programs for the fall (reason being that i feel my research experience isn't where it needs to be for PhD programs). GPA: BA- 3.78 MS - 4.0 RESEARCH: 4 month lit review (independent study w/ professor during masters) + 3 month lit review (working remotely for a prof from my undergrad) + currently a research assistant for a non-profit (working through their data but might have an opportunity to do a project on my own) WORK EXPERIENCE: worked in academic, marketing, and non-profit industries as well as have a side hustle doing freelance content creation GRE: **this is the hail mary part tbh** taking it for the first time on November 1st (am I just a glutton for punishment with a deadly affinity for procrastination or what!? ) In terms of the app process, I have researched programs and POI but haven't reached out to anyone (should I, does it honestly matter?). I also have a 2pg draft of a SOP which I intend to finish this week and mail out to my Reference writers nxt week. Am I crazy? Should I just stick to the original plan of applying in Fall 2018 or does it not hurt to take a "test run" at applications this year? If I apply to the same programs nxt year, will they shun me because I submitted a horrendous application this year?? Or maybe I can just try MA programs (which I've heard are easier to get into) this year and take the time to work/refine my interests before applying to PhD program in 2/3 years????? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯