OhSoSolipsistic

I started out with a Magoosh study plan too, but I eventually centered my quant prep on the Magoosh math videos with Mike McGarry as the narrator. His explanations are very concise and direct, and he focuses on the underlying mathematical themes that many concepts share in a way that most other test preps lack. This combo make the lessons remarkably clear and thorough. Additionally, the Magoosh layout, question history, cross references, and responsiveness to student questions are all superb, so I'd say the $149 for the full set of Magoosh lesson videos for 6 months is well worth it. Alternatively, I've heard the GreenLightTestPrep videos and ETS's Khan videos are similar in their approach - both free. Once you've decided on a set of lessons, make a flexible schedule to stay on track with room for 1-3 videos per study session (e.g., Arithmetic & Fractions module first 3 wks of March). As you watch each lesson, make flash cards/main idea cards for every concept that you don't know or forgot, and review them often. I might have gone overboard with my cards (pic below), but just the process of making them is very effective. For in-lesson questions, pause the video and solve each one - even if you're sure you already know it. At the end of each lesson, find and solve related practice questions from your other prep materials. For every incorrect answer, find exactly why you made that error(s). If you tend to make similar errors in a particular type of problem or calculation, make an index card with a sample question and solution that points out your repeated error. At the end of each module, spend at least a day on review: flip through index cards, work on more realistic and difficult practice questions, watch any lessons a second time for extra review, etc. The Magoosh blog is also helpful for further math review. You might want to structure a similar session plan for verbal if you prefer a more formal or in-depth study, but I decided to devote less energy on my verbal score so my approach was different. Whenever I was waiting on things, exercising, or couldn't sleep, I would spend 5-20 minutes answering practice questions or reviewing pre-made flashcards on my phone - basically replacing any social media time with verbal prep. I found both the Magoosh Vocab Builder and Vocab Flashcard app to be the most helpful for memorization, and the Manhattan GRE Prep app has the 5-lb book practice questions in a great mobile format. What I wish I would have done/known when I started: Even if you only have 30 min some days to spend on GRE stuff, try to devote at least 5 days a week to it. Cut out distractions and treat it like a job. I found most major test prep's practice questions helpful for different purposes. In general, Manhattan, Princeton, and Kaplan quant questions tend to be easier or equivalent to easy GRE questions, so they're better suited for learning and reviewing specific concepts. Magoosh GRE & GMAT quant questions are generally more challenging and can cause frustration when mastering concepts, but they're amazing prep for actual GRE questions once you have a firm grasp of a module. Manhattan verbal is similar to Magoosh quant: many challenging, realistic problems with high-quality explanations to solutions (particularly in reading comprehension), especially with respect to how ETS frames and structures verbal questions. Both Magoosh and Manhattan were good with sentence equivalency/completion questions, but Magoosh can be a bit too murky with sentence structure and possible solutions, and Manhattan's vocab can be too esoteric. Both critiques are minor though. Kaplan verbal seems to rely too heavily on definitions and not enough on sentence structure/context, so don't use it for anything other than vocab recall. I haven't had much experience with Princeton verbal. Good luck! ETA: for what it's worth, my verbal and quant score were 80th percentile... well, one was 79th but I can never remember which.

I'd contact the department about it ASAP. If it turns out you won't receive aid from the department, check out ASU Financial Aid - there's a lot of potential aid for grad students but deadlines are soon.

This of course varies with each program and POI, but I've heard that LORs are often a major factor when choosing between candidates who interviewed well.

- Do well on both the verbal and quant sections of the GRE. One of the best ways to counter poor undergrad grades is high GRE scores because both are supposedly objective measures of predictive grad school performance. I'd start studying for the verbal now since the vocab and reading comprehension take time to develop. - Develop strong relationships with professors with whom you do research in the next few years, and give extra effort to their research. Let them know of your desire to attend grad school and your low GPA concerns early on so they can provide guidance and assess your research skills. This will provide them with the information they need to give strong letters of recommendation. - In addition to those at Georgia Tech, find potential advisors/POIs and plan to apply to at least 4 schools where they do research. Find topics that genuinely interest you, look for researchers who work on those topics, and learn more about their specific work. Ideally, this will be centered around research that is aligned with the work you're doing now. Look up the POIs publications and commonly-cited references, learn about their grad students and their work, go to conferences to meet these POIs, etc. Get on their radar so when the time comes to accept or reject your application, you'll be more than an applicant on paper with a GPA that is less than stellar.

Talk to the people in charge of the research you assisted and let them know that you'd like to get experience with publishing, and ask if there's any data that you worked with (or more data) that could be developed into a conference proceeding/publication. They should help direct you in next steps.

Should hear back sometime next week for one of my schools. Bleurg... I can handle constant anxiety, but I've had this weird, heavy mix of dread, apathy, and bleak insomnia for the past 24 hrs. Death to weekends.

In addition to finding a tutor for your PhD work and dissertation, to get better at writing long-term: read and study the language of academic papers by well-known scholars in your field. Pick apart the writing styles, notice the succinct way in which they summarize intros and discussions, how many use direct sentences and infinitive forms of verbs (e.g., to conclude), etc. Try to mimic that writing. The process will be painfully slow at first, but it'll be worth it if you plan to write a lot in your career.

It's very likely that you emailed an officer who has very little to do with your acceptance decision. It sounds like you emailed someone at the admissions office at UCLA's graduate school, but folks in the actual Chemistry Department decide whether or not to extend an offer. If that's the case, you should be fine.

I'm actually mixed about this, at least on the funding side of things in general. I know there's quite a bit of freezing and slashing of fed funds, but I have a suspicion that we're going to see a uptick in contract work overall. Which isn't necessarily bad - for 7.5 yrs, I was contracted through a state school for research at a fed agency and it was amazing - but the downside is more overhead, less employee protections, and greater ability for management abuse. There's a ton of that going on already in a bunch of different sectors, and it'll likely just get worse. But if you're not actually working for an agency, this administration might actually push more funding to non-fed organizations depending on your specific field, sector, and domain. How that'll get spent is another story. Anyway, Grants.gov is a good source to poke around for fed stuff to monitor the status of grants over the next few months and to compare it with previous years. Mental health is divided into several different agencies depending on your specific field, and those agencies have employees who dole out the contracts and grants (some you wouldn't expect - a lot of I/O psych in FAA, and I think military). I can't remember now if other types of funding are also on that site, but contracts, cooperative agreements, etc. should be at least linked somewhere.

I doubt it, unless you're enrolling in a Education, Physical Therapy, or Nursing grad program. Those are the CSU system pages, so it'll be hard to get more official than that for fees. Your best bet would be to contact the CSU budget office at csubudgetoffice@calstate.edu or (562) 951-4560 for the most authoritative information.

Both CSU San Marcos and CSU San Diego graduate tuition fees are the same for this year, but the campus-based fees at San Marcos are about $300 more per year, resulting in $8,649 vs. $8,350 for San Diego. Next academic year will likely be similar. p.s. I have invisible boxes all around this text-box that I can't seem to get rid of and that are awkwardly taking up hella room. I apologize. And I feel like Lolly in Orange is the New Black.

Approach in-class lectures differently than student presentations, especially if you usually over-prepare to ease any public speaking anxiety. A good instructor and a high-achieving glossophobic student have different pragmatic goals, even if they cover the same content with identical slides/materials. Limit your focus on delivering a polished presentation which will likely magnify any minor mistakes and increase anxiety about how the audience is judging you. Otherwise, you'll just exhaust yourself with weekly lecture prep to try to improve a set of evaluations that isn’t really the point anymore. Instead, focus more on developing a lecturing style that fits you, your students, and course context. Allow yourself to mess up and learn to recover, explore different angles, etc. Be appropriately relational with your students - brief and informational heads-up and short discussions help avoid disengagement. Learn names when you can. Engage with students who aren’t doing well in class early on while staying firm with policies and expectations. Be aware of attribution biases - try to view a student's poor/mediocre performance as something situational/environmental instead of something lacking in either them or you. Similarly, let students know about your situational/environmental limitations within reason. If your workload is overwhelming during a particular semester, let them know that feedback/grades may be returned a little later than you would like at times. If you’re trying a new activity/assignment, let them know and get feedback.

It's better to be overly respectful instead of not respectful enough, so I tend to air on the side of formality until I get an invitation to be more casual. Most professors will state early on "call me [first name]" if they're comfortable with it. Sometimes they'll just introduce themselves with their first name, which I take as an invite to call them as such - especially if they introduce themselves individually or to a small group - but some people will continue to address them with "Professor/Dr. [Last Name]" until they get an explicit invitation. If there's any ambiguity, you can always ask.

netflixing (house of cards, again); cleaning; playing with nieces; working out; sleeping; walking dog; social media; grad cafe. Doesn't stop the incessant string of inbox/status-page/temp-inbox checks, but it does relieve some of the OCDness.

If you take meds or need other prescribed supplies that the school insurance doesn't cover, you can write to pharmaceutical companies and ask them directly for what you've been prescribed. A lot will send you meds or supplies free of charge while you're in school, depending on the company and situational need.

Are you referring to the average of students who took the GRE, or average of previously admitted students within your prospective programs? If you meant the former, it would be good to look up program cutoffs and averages by program and gauge from there. Most psych subdisciplines have a central site that lists this info (e.g., HFES). I don't think average within-program GRE scores are going to hurt your application if you have other strong materials and apply to schools with a good fit as reflected in your SOP. One situation in which GRE scores could be more important is if you have deficiencies in other quantitative areas. For example, it would be good if you had a higher than average quant score if you also have a math/stats grade on your transcript that isn't commensurate to your ability. For what it's worth: I have an MA in Psych, high grad GPA, average undergrad GPA, strong letters of rec, a lot of lab experience in my field with a few publications, and a SOP that reflects a good match. I don't know the outcome of my applications yet, and there's many other factors besides application quality and fit that influences outcome (funding, etc.), but I've been told I have a good shot.

Congrats! VS at Cal is an excellent program.

I would call or email the department to verify, but usually April 15th.

Davis is super easy to get around without a car, it's a very contained college town. You'll need a bike though. The only school I can think of that that might not be true is the med school, but then again since they moved it to Sacramento it might actually be easier without a car than before since the med center/hospitals are in Sac. I'd say San Francisco is probably easier to get around without a car too because parking and traffic are a nightmare (like NYC), but ask around if your school is anywhere else in the bay. I could see a Stanford student get around fairly easily without a car since Palo Alto's small, but not a San Jose State student.

I agree. Your time is much better spent instead finding a good fit with a potential advisor and getting related research experience.

Your scores are a bit below average, but not by much. I know for most psych subdisciplines, verbal is higher than quant and 157V is a solid score. Same for 4.5 on AWA. If quant is around the same for neuro as most subdisciplines (?), 152 is on the low end of average, but not abnormally low. Actually, I think 152 is the mean for psych, but that could be 154... anyway, all your other materials are fairly strong, so I'd say you have at least an okay shot from where you stand now.

I sincerely believe that this is some type of mutant intrinsic motivator.

That varies a lot. I know the type you're talking about and they're not hard to find, but some profs are just amazing - really well known or new, and really attentive and a good mentor. The best way to tell is getting in contact with current or recent students who the POI advised and ask them about their relationship.

One easy way to go about this right now (and without your advisor's help) is to start typing keywords into google scholar - or even type in the name of your field - and see what's out there. Some full articles won't be online, but you can at least see abstracts and references to get an idea of the work. Find major topics that you're interested in (papers/books with a lot of citations, in the thousands), and then look for recent material on those topics to narrow your search down. Start summarizing research papers you're interested in by theme/topic/author. Check the references to find similar research. Find major contributors within subtopics and google scholar them as well to find what other material they've published and with whom they've frequently collaborated. Look up specialized conferences to check out more work. Pay special attention to discussion sections, a lot will have a sentence or two on "next steps" that will be very similar to the present research. This will take time and can be overwhelming if you're relatively new to research, but it's a required skill in nearly every field. If done for an hour or so a day, you should have at least a superficial idea of what the current issues are that you're interested in within a few weeks, and discussions with your advisor about projects should be much more productive. ETA: okay, so I should actually read what OP asked, it sounds like you're further along. But a lit search on specific topics can always help re: scope and approach or topics, unless your questions to your advisor are more logistical in nature.

This is an old thread, but it comes up on google searches for combinations of "human factors programs" so I thought I'd contribute. For specifically human factors, the largest domain is tech. At least in silicon valley, human factors tech tends to be broken into software and hardware, or user experience/design and devices. Tech tends to be more focused with quicker turn around, so there's less emphasis on conducting formal experiments and heavy analysis, and a bit more on design. If you're into this, look up UX/UI - there's certificate programs if you want to explore education options. A career in this field is often lucrative and fast-paced. A lot work on projects they need to sign NDAs for - virtual reality stuff, Apple devices, etc. Another branch is human systems integration (which is still under human factors in most academic programs, but it's shifting professionally), and the largest domains are transportation, medical, and security. Obviously this still can be focused on one component, but human systems tends to be different in both application and type of work, and is a bit more government/institution-oriented. In the majority of cases, there's a heavy focus on simulation work within a larger system (e.g., pilot/crew--flight deck components--communication components--air traffic controller--ground system components), so more emphasis is placed on advanced experimental design and analysis, as well as systems engineering and, to a lesser but increasing degree, programming. This field is already fairly sizable, but still relatively obscure to those outside the profession. I've worked with a lot of recent human factors terminal MA/MS grads, and the best well-rounded program by far is CSU Long Beach - at least on the west coast. If looking into human factors at San Jose State University (which is in close connection to CSULB, and Northridge, and Purdue), also look into the Experimental Psych MA program if you think human systems is more what you're interested in.