cognpsy

Hey there! I graduated from the Wake Forest master's program last spring (2017), and all of the students that seriously applied (meaning more than one school) from my cohort (and previous cohorts) were accepted into their top choice schools (NYU, WVU, UHawaii, Michigan, Oregon, Iowa State, UNC, UVA, Illinois UC, Vanderbilt, UFlorida, Alabama, with offers from numerous other prestigious programs). I am sorry to hear that the previous poster did not have a good experience at Wake Forest, but I would be happy to provide you with my perspective after spending two years at Wake. To be honest, attrition in ALL graduate programs is quite high (people enter, and then decide a few years in that they are not cut out for the PhD life), and this program is not immune. It is true that not all students from this program decide that they want to continue with graduate school, but of those students that graduate from the program and decide that they would like to continue with a Doctorate degree, there is an excellent placement rate into PhD programs (and in some cases, MD and JD programs). For students that may not be ready for PhD level work right out of undergrad, WFU provides students with an excellent opportunity to build up their CVs, get some valuable research experience, and hone their knowledge in the field through intensive coursework and stats training. Courses included Social, Development, Cognitive, Neuro, Personality, a Univariate stats course (t-test; ANOVA; Chi-square...), Multivariate stats course (correlation; regression; mediation; moderation; logistic; factor analysis; path analysis), and they recently added a course introducing R programming, considering how valuable knowing that stats package can be. WFU will not bump your GRE scores or guarantee you admission into a PhD program, but it will strengthen your application by giving you top-notch experimental research experience under the advisement of a great mentor. I had a wonderful time at WFU, and I would encourage you to consider it if you are on the fence. The stipend is not huge, but the fact that they are able to offer free tuition and a stipend on top of it can be a huge selling point. The previous poster is right that single bedroom housing can be expensive ($700-1000/month), but I was able to find a two-bedroom apartment for $450/person per month including utiliites. You cannot live like a prince or princess on the money, but it is definitely possible to survive under reasonable budgeting, especially since you do not need to take out $50k loans to pay for the tuition. I equate it to being paid 60K per year, but knowing that the majority of the money does not go into your pocket--it goes to the university! I would be happy to provide you with more details about the program if you are interested. Good luck deciding and with the rest of your grad process!!

Great forum! I have been following it closely all application season. Has anyone heard from Colorado State's cog program? It is the last school I am waiting to hear back from before making a final decision.