Jung&Psyched

Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, U of Southern Mississippi, and U of Louisiana at Lafayette would all be good places for you to look at!

I don't have any experience regarding UMD (I am from the DC metro area though and UMD has a good reputation); however, I would say that with your experience and solid verbal and writing scores, I would not let your quant score stop you from applying. Schools will look at your whole application and having one low score should not be a HUGE barrier unless you are applying to extremely competitive counseling psych programs. I also recommend the Magoosh app for studying for the GRE. It helped me a lot on the quant section (brought my score from the 19th percentile to the 45th) ....it gives a lot of testing strategies and tips and tricks for how to approach the quant questions. Good luck!

I applied with interested in resilience and parenting and these are a few places that had labs that may match your interests (mostly counseling psych) - Southern Mississippi, Nebraksa, Marquette, and University of Massachusetts. Good luck !

I was planning to apply to Augusta (but then got offered admission elsewhere) and thought their program sounded great! For me, having tuition covered was the most important thing. I will also point out the WCU is reeeeally rural. I've driven through that area a couple times and you are just really really out there. I'm ok with small town living, but for me it was just too secluded (but some people might like that! And the hiking around there is excellent).

During a group interview I was asked , "What is the one thing you were hoping no one would ask you today?" ? That really threw me for a loop and there was long silence haha. I finally came up being worried that I would be asked specific research design questions because I have been out of school for awhile and will need to brush up on my research design/SPSS/R skills (obviously not that exact wording haha). Maybe not the best answer to highlight my lack of recent research experience... I got waitlisted.

We have moved numerous times at this point for school (husband's undergrad and grad school and now mine) and the best thing I can recommend is get rid of as much stuff as you can so you can cram it into the smallest moving truck possible. Last time we moved the only furniture we kept was our mattress and a coffee table that my husband had hand made. Everything else we bought after arriving and pretty much got everything second hand. Check around the different rental truck company for prices, its surprising how much they vary ! We've been putting extra money aside the past couple of months in preparation for this because moving really is a blow to the budget .

Southern Mississippi

I mailed a handwritten thank you note with a small box of fudge from a local chocolate maker. Nothing crazy, but an extra gesture to say thank you for the time they put into advancing my career and education

I few masters programs that are funded that I came across while applying this year were : William and Mary, Wake Forest, Augusta State, U of Louisiana at Lafayette, U of Southern Mississippi, UNC Wilmington, and Southern Illinois at Edwardsville. I also had an awful undergrad gpa and then got some work experience and retook some courses (and got much better grades in them!) and was accepted to a few of the masters programs listed above so don't lose hope

I think going to visit will really help you decide ! I was choosing between two programs - one right outside a large city and one that is a medium sized town surrounded by a lot of very rural area and I thought there was no way I would like the town vs city. I was completely wrong. When I went to visit I was really surprised by how many restaurants and stores they had, current students shared multiple different community activities that they are involved in outside of school, and the people were just super friendly. I quickly felt much more at home at the school in the smaller town. I think visiting is the only way you will know if its the right fit!

I would explore more why you felt you got a better "feel" at Midwestern. Fit is a big part of the process and going somewhere that you feel comfortable with faculty and the environment can make a huge difference in the education you receive. Going with the best fit for YOU is what is most important. It sounds like both schools have great match rates and you have two excellent options to chose from !

I remember that Grandin Village was a good area ! Further out by like Cave Springs, Mill Mountain, and Hollins are all nice and pretty safe areas. You would also probably be in a great location to live behind the large Carilion Hospital in the woodcliff area- it would put you right by the hospital and there is a shopping area with starbucks, grocery store, pharmacy, etc nearby (When I would go to Roanoke to see friends or for work I often ended up around this area near the hospital and never felt unsafe). I would avoid nearly all of downtown and there were some rougher areas out by the mall. Also, while 26k is not a lot, I do think you will be able to get by on it. Being a fairly rural small city cost of living is pretty reasonable! If you are good with budgeting I think you will be ok!

I would be very nervous going into scenario B. If other students are warning you, that's a red flag; I imagine they would tone down their warnings a bit so "intense" may be an understatement. She also hasn't had any students graduate yet vs the other PI where you already know a lot of students go on to post docs. To me it sounds like location might be what you are really struggling with.....living somewhere you don't like really stinks....but living somewhere you love but never get to enjoy because your PI expects you to work every second of the day might be worse!

I struggled with this during interviews! I did ask for more descriptions of practicum opportunities in the community, as well as funding (like is health insurance included, is there tuition waivers for summer). Other people asked questions like what the overall environment is (competitive or collaborative), how often faculty mentors meet with students, and opportunities to take part in other research. It was tough coming up with questions though, and it feels like they ask "Do you have any questions?" about 20 times throughout interview day!!

I lived just outside Blacksburg for a few years! Roanoke is pretty up and coming. When we first moved to the area (5ish years ago) Roanoke was honestly ...kind of gross. The downtown area had a super cool farmer market on the weekends and a couple cute local shops, but then the rest of the buildings were empty. However, in the past couple years there has been a lot of improvement! A lot of cool new breweries opened (if you like beer - Chaos Mountain Brewing is probably like 20 min outside of Roanoke and was our favorite!), some new shops were going in downtown, the mall area was improving, etc. There is also FANTASTIC hiking nearby - if you like to hike definitely check out Tinker Falls and Dragons Tooth. It definitely has a small city vibe and is very easy to navigate. The area is very economically depressed and unemployment rates are very high, pretty conservative politically, and high crime in certain areas. The education you will get through Tech and Carilion is top notch! I only ever heard good things from people receiving their education through both of those institutions.