Dondante_MMJ

If you are looking at Clinical Program there is a faculty member at the University of Montana that studies Substance Use in the LGBTQ+ communities

The University of North Carolina at Wilmington has a specific Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders Track. It also depends on what you are looking at doing within the field, i.e. personality and substance use disorders, stigma related to substance use disorders, treatment research, etc. Others that stand out as having strong substance use research are Arizona State, New Mexico, Texas Tech, Pittsburgh,Wayne State.... I hate to say it but the best way is to put some effort in and look the labs up. Just because someone is researching substance use doesn't mean that they are examining it in a way that you would be interested in. It takes reading past and current research. The best way to find that is to google the universities you are interested in and read through all of the faculty members research. It is time consuming but it can really narrow down what you are interested in doing.

The earliest I started seeing it last year was early in the summer.The majority of them had websites updated around September when applications started opening up. A lot of the schools never even updated who was accepting students. I got the best results emailing individual faculty members I was interested in working with over the summer. Some never replied but a lot of them did.

I agree with NeisserThanILook, when I received my phone acceptance I told them I would accept an offer as soon as the official letter was sent. And like the previous poster my official letter was sent through the application portal and I was never notified of it via email. I had to contact the Department Coordinator.

School: Illinois Institute of Technology Program Clinical Psych (Rehab Track) Reason: Accepted into a program with funding. Would have loved to work with my POI at IIT but the lack of funding is too much for me.

I kept all of my old stats books so I could brush up on the basic stuff. I also TAd for an undergrad stats course a year and a half after I took it. I didn't remember anything going in to it. Then after reviewing some material it was like riding a bike. It came back to me relatively quickly. If you kept any of your old books, go through them and find some problems. Try working them out, if you don't remember how to do them, reread the chapter. If you didn't keep your old books, look up problem sets online.

Haha, nothing in particular, just looking back and reading through the results. I think sometimes it is just difficult to be perceived "not good enough," for a program. Different people handle it in different ways. Some I understand and others are extremely prideful.

That worries me as well. It is pretty interesting to see Weiner's Attribution Theory at work on something as small as a result post though. I think the little things like that have taught me that I personally fit in in a much more laid back type of environment. One that of course pushes for success but isn't as cut throat competitive within the program.

Some of these comments on the results page have me wondering if I have the hubris to make it in this field.

The day after my last interview I already have a celebratory tattoo session scheduled. What perfect timing for a tax refund to come in this year!

No, it does not look bad. If you know you are going to accept an offer somewhere else don't take up the space at another university. They may be able to interview another individual. It is the same as it being taboo to hold on to more than 2 offers at once. I think going to an interview at a university you know you don't want to attend looks bad on applicants.

I may be way off here, or maybe it is just my outlook on life, but I think that where I obtain my PhD. will not determine where I end up in the long run. Maybe in the short term prestigious universities can help. My thinking is that no matter where I land my first job, if I have well thought out research that is relative to advancing knowledge and my field, obtain grants for said research, and publish, I will be able to obtain tenure track positions at great universities. I understand the it's not what you know it's who you know to a certain extent. I also understand that who I know has little to do with the work and effort I plan on putting in to my future. To me the best fitting school will be one that truly encourages growth. I would much work under someone at a "less prestigious," university that truly understands and pushes me than someone at a "higher rated," university that doesn't quite fit who I am

Awesome, thanks for the advice. I know one is at a brewery so I am not thinking that will be very formal.

Many of the schools have socials the night before. Are the guys wearing suits to the social or going more business casual? I only plan on bringing one suit to my upcoming interviews and don't want to wear two days in a row at each interview. I don't have the time to dry clean it between my interviews.

There are a million different ways to rank a school. I think if you want to be purely analytical you could assign weights to each category, the higher the weight the more important the category. Then go through and rank each school by category and do a sum, average, etc. etc. It may be my inner hippie speaking but after all my interviews I plan on sitting alone for an hour or two and really get down to how I feel about each school. Of course different categories will come into play when internally weighing a decision but I feel that within my consciousness I will know my answer. Maybe your method is somewhere between a more "concrete" approach and a more "gut" feeling approach. There is a million ways to come up with it, I believe all of us will choose the school in which we are supposed to be at. Will they all be a perfect five years, no, but they I think we will turn up where we are supposed to be in that moment.

I am worried about this as well. I have 2 full sleeves down to the wrist as well as the lower half of my right and left leg done. I plan on wearing a suit to the actual interview but am staying with a grad student one night and there is no possible way to hide all my tattoos unless I wore a onesie. I think they will be hidden throughout the formal interview process but am worried about the grad student housing. One of my interviews is in the south(where I'm from) and I'm a little worried about conservative viewpoints. But honestly I plan on getting plenty more tattoos throughout grad school so if they don't accept me for who I am then that's ok it obviously wasn't a good match. Plus, in my field of hopeful practice and research (substance use) tattoos are relatively prominent. Stay strong and help us smash the stigma of tattooed individuals!!!!!!

As part of the CUDCP Guidelines School 1 should not at all pressure you to answer prior to April 15th. IF anything I would email back and say you are considering your options (make sure to get across your excitement and gratitude) for graduate school and will have an answer in the coming weeks. It is still early on in the process, I am sure they understand.

I'm waiting on the interviews themselves! I have three scheduled for the last week of February/ First week of March. I am only waiting on two interview invites and I haven't heard anything on the boards or the results page. Montana, and Washington-Seattle. I emailed Montana and got a strange reply black they they were in the process of "finalize phone interviews and sending in person invites," which I didn't really understand. As far as Washington, I have no news on and no clue as to if they have sent out invitations yet or not.

follow this advice it is from the CUDCP: http://cudcp.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/CUDCP Policy on Graduate Program Offers and Acceptances (FULL version).pdf

I was a little worried about that as well. My scores were above average but nothing spectacular. From what I have heard and spoken to via the faculty at my current institution, the GRE scores are more of a cutoff and, as the other posters above me stated, a way to weed out applicants from 300 to 150 based on GPA and GRE. I have also heard from faculty at my current institution that in certain psychology programs they don't want someone with perfect scores, because to them that can sometimes mean a little too robotic, competitive, of an individual. I would shoot for at least above a 155 on Q and V and if not then retake it. If one has low scores I think it can be made up for my research experience, research fit, and strong LOR. I know some people can afford classes that cost over $1,000, I was not one of them. I found that for $9.99/month I could get an Amazon Kindle Unlimited pass and they had multiple books for practice on the GRE that were included for free with that subscription. I canceled it after a few months and i believe they helped me quite a bit on the test.

anyone else see the irony of this thread the past few days? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0yU0JuE1jTk

I had one last week and it was no where near as formal as I thought it was going to be. I had 3 different colored note cards One was questions for her, one was questions about the program, and one was just information about my own research experience that I may forget to put in. Smile on the phone, I was told to do this by all the faculty members in the lab I work in! I know it sounds ridiculous but it really puts a different and more positive inflection on your voice. Which leads to also dressing up. Sounds even more ridiculous but I also wore a suit for my phone interview. Helped me get into the mindset of A.) feeling like a badass, and B.) knowing something professional and important was about to happen. Relax, don't feel the need to ramble on, and be comfortable with brief moments of silence, it is OK to think about an answer and it is OK that the other person is thinking as well.

I am wondering if anyone has any information on WashU or U of Montana?

I have only had 2 phone interviews and my in person interviews are coming up soon. I think the best thing that I did for the phone interviews was set aside about 20 minutes before the interview and use it to focus on my breathing and meditate. Specifically focusing on allowing myself to present during the interview and understanding that whatever happens I will still be fed, housed, and happy. This process is important and stressful but it is definitely not the end all be all in life.

So this might have been brought up already but I am going to ask it again. I had a phone interview on Tuesday at school A in which my POI asked me if I would like to visit in person? I said yes and she stated that I would receive an email later this week with the details. Sin& C's interview day just in case it falls on the same day as A. Do y'all think it is appropriate to email my POI at school A to find out if she knows the dates of the in person interview yet since it has only been since Tuesday that I had the phone interview?