Zingerella

How to respond to a rejection letter (from https://www.socialpsychology.org/reject.htm)
 
Graduate Admissions Committee
Department of Psychology
Big Deal University
Collegeville, USA
Dear Committee Members:
Thanks for your letter of March 30. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection at this time.
This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of schools, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.
Despite your outstanding record and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my current career needs. Consequently, I will begin taking classes as a graduate student in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.
Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.
Sincerely Yours,
[Name Withheld]

I can't upvote this enough. My life for the past year and counting. 

Just got accepted by Northwestern's social psy program! So excited definitely my first choice! Love their research, the profs and the location! would love to connect to my cohort too!

Excited to move to NYC (Columbia Psych)

Hi! I've had a couple interviews and wanted to share some details that may be helpful to some. As far as dress goes, these were clinical psych phd interviews, and every single person in attendance was in a pantsuit. For women, most wore flats and a wide assortment of blouses.
One interview experience was full of more structured interview questions including:
1. Why should we pick you personally over other qualified candidates
2. What are your greatest strengths and room for improvement
3. Describe a time you had conflict at work and what you did, if anything, to resolve it
4. Describe what role you play in a team
as well as the usual questions to describe my research experiences, what I am interested in, and how I became interested in the field.
 
For the next interview day, nearly every single interview was almost entirely just a back-and-forth dialogue in which I asked most of the questions. 
Some of the few actual interview questions included:
1. What are my research experiences, and in what way do I think these tie into my mentor's research
2. What accomplishment am I most proud of
3. What do I do to cope when I am in over my head
4. What do I think would be the biggest challenge for me in graduate school
5. What would my dream project be if I did not have to worry about funding, resources, etc.
6. Why did I apply to this specific program
7. What experiences do I have with scientific writing (I do not have any publications, so they wanted to know about other experiences such as class papers)
 
 

First off, congrats on making it to the interview round!--that should already be a testament to how capable you are. Take a deep breath and acknowledge that you are entirely capable of nailing that interview!  
Personally, (1) I started by looking at my potential POI's research--really, really know their research. They will most definitely bring it up/potentially ask you which research stream you are most interested in. (2) Know the program. Download the psychology graduate handbook if there is one. Read it. Wow them if they start bringing up program specifics and you know them already--it makes you look well-informed and enthusiastic. (3) Know your application. This includes being able to talk about your specific experiences (be it research, mentoring, extracurriculars), and if you wrote a research proposal as part of your application, READ THE ARTICLES YOU CITED, they test you! (4) Know what questions you want to ask. (Check out the first couple posts of this thread--sample questions are posted). ALWAYS ask questions. 
Take a deep breath, and walk in. You got this. Show them what you've got

Most of us have been so stressed about interview invites that I didn't realize - we don't have an acceptance thread yet! Accepted folks, please post here so we can celebrate your achievements  All psychology types (clinical, counseling, I/O, social, everything in between) welcome.
School:
Concentration: (e.g. clinical, counseling, social, I/O, etc)
Type: (PhD/PsyD/EdD/something else)
Date of acceptance: 
Notified by: Mass email, email from POI, phone call, etc.

Yeah, my POI's initials are CW.
 
My POI said formal invitations will be sent later on this week! Their interview weekend is January 31st - February 2nd.

Here are some of my thoughts! I've experienced every type of interview for grad apps and hope this insight is helpful. These interviews are undeniably stressful, but as other posters mentioned, by getting an interview invite the PI(s) have determined you have the qualifications to succeed in graduate school. This next step is giving everyone involved more insight in your specific fit all more insight into your potential working relationship and your feel for the place! 
General Question Advice:
First, double checking the answers are not on the department website/lab page/etc are the way to go. There are lists floating around with some awesome questions, so I recommend searching Twitter, this website or application guides. Main topics besides the biggies about the program, culture, and climate are things like financial aspects in the program like the stipend (including summer funding), funds to support research/conference travel, and more. It felt a bit awkward asking students about these at first, but it's an important factor to consider and most students (would not ask faculty) are more than happy to share their thoughts. Asking about practicum opportunities and institutional support to everyone is important too.  I was most prepared and knowledgeable about my primary PIs research and ongoing projects, though you should expect to get at least a brief rundown when you speak with them anyway. I also prepared responses linking my past experiences/interests with the work they're doing now. Prepare, but remember there's no way to fully know everything until you're there. I had more than one PI share a research direction that I wasn't aware of on the interview date. For faculty I interviewed with besides my  POI, I was familiar with their area broadly and generated only a couple questions about their research. I prioritized asking them more questions about the program overall such as their thoughts on collaboration, training philosophy, culture of the dept and city.  Most interviews begin with asking about your background and interests, so go ahead and sharpen that spiel up and be prepared for them to ask follow-up questions, especially if your work is WAY out of their wheelhouse. For example, someone asked me to explain a key theory I used in research whereas my POI did not. Be aware of the tone/wording of your questions! It helped me to write most down, then it became a routine at different institutions.   General Interview Advice:
Breathe, and feel free to take a moment or two to THINK before you respond! It's hard to not start replying as soon as the question is asked, but it's better to pause than trailing off/not making sense. I learned this the hard way. I waited until an interview passed before ending an email filled with questions (even though this is truly a preference, either way works). That way you'll be able to hear a verbal (and likely longer) response to your highly prioritized questions (e.g., their mentorship style, research expectations, opportunities in the program) and can ask quick clarifying ones on the backend. It's especially useful if if they mention not knowing a full answer or you run out of time Emphasizing the suggestion to not be afraid to ask the same questions to different faculty, students, and other folks that you meet! I know it's sort of a "Duh!" piece of advice, but I spent way too much time trying to think of lots of witty and original questions at first. I gained the most information when I heard different perspectives because it allowed me to notice patterns in responses. For example, I asked the textbook "What are the strengths and areas of growth in the program?" question which resulted in some really insightful answers. After the interview, take 10 minutes to write a reflection with your first impressions, lingering questions, anything you think will be helpful when considering your decisions. I got this advice early on and thought it was EXTREMELY helpful to have when trying to remember a vibe of a place/how I felt in the moment. I Phone/Skype Interviews:
I agree with all things mentioned above, especially writing down questions/notes and outlining main topics! Having your CV up is also a great idea too. Test out your connection/video prior to the actual call. Even if you pick an ideal place, avoiding an awkward video angle and a spotty Wifi connection is crucial. While most PIs will be prompt starting and ending the interview, make sure there's buffer time on both ends. They're humans too, so at times they may be running late, their connection is spotty, or the most ideal - your conversation is so engaging it runs over In Person Interviews:
Interviews do vary in a lot of ways, but a common element is some sort of campus tour that in my experience is always done very quickly. For that reason, I recommend folks of all genders wear comfortable shoes that are okay for campus terrains (bricks, sidewalks, etc.) to avoid any discomfort and make sure you keep up up with the group. Be friendly and gracious to everyone you meet, including the admin staff coordinating the interviews/meals/transitions. It'll be obvious if you're saving all of your niceties for faculty and grad students in your potential lab(s), plus those admin folks are the ones who keep the department running. As noted above, it's especially important to leave a good impression with your hosts. I've seen applicants complain the entire time and it does get back. On a related note,  engage with other applicants too. A pleasant surprise for me was how cool it was to talk with other applicants, especially if they had similar interests. These are likely your future colleagues in some capacity, might as well build the relationship now. Protect your energy! Don't be afraid to take some space to gather your thoughts, your breath, and basically decompress.  I had some angelic grad student hosts who recognized how draining interviews can be and encouraged me to sit in the room with the lights off in between events to recharge. If you're feeling overwhelmed on the actual day, it's well within your right to nicely ask for a private space to regroup! A possible option is a grad student office or an upstairs bathroom. It's also okay to leave some social events relatively early. Write/record a reflection! You get so much "data" from these in person interviews that may slip through the cracks even a week later. Bullet point, write paragraphs...whatever works for you. Endorse bringing a bag filled with essentials (including snacks!) I got peckish during the day and having a granola bar saved me from some discomfort.  It's awesome how gracious, welcoming, and genuine interviewers can be. Most recognize you're under a microscope (all day, if it's in person) and are typically trying to do their best to present their institution as somewhere you can feel comfortable/thrive. As everyone said but I didn't believe until the end, you're interviewing the program too.  
 Wishing all of you the best on this ride,  I'm welcome to any PMs and follow-up questions too!

Thanks for the info! Congrats to you and good luck!

Yes, I wouldn't make any inferences based in the GPA and GRE scores. If you notice the black bars (standard errors) overlap on all of them. Good catch. What should make everyone feel better is the fact that perfect scores aren't as common in this data. 
 

Joining the pool of anxious applicants with good research experience/letters/cvs/pubs, but shitty numbers! Here's to hoping our apps don't get thrown in the garbage before they make it to our POI's hands!

Soooooo, I'm doing this thing again.  You'll notice my name is Doc2016... not so much.  I'm very back and forth about how I will do, some days I am positive I will get 3-4 offers, and other days sure I won't even get any interviews.  This is round 3 for me (previously lacking really solid research), and likely my last.  I was accepted to 1 Psy.D. program and waitlisted on 3 Ph.D.programs in those 2 years.  I turned down the Psy.D. because I decided a Ph.D. was more appropriate for my career goals.  
I've been working for over a year full time at NYU School of Medicine as a research coordinator on a federally-funded randomized control trial with target of 500 participants...  so it's a lot, and I am literally the only person managing the study, 6 interns, and 2 full-time non-research staff.  I am really hoping this experience will get me (at least closer) to the top of the stack.  Also have over 1000 clinical hours from my master's program - I originally planned to just be a master's level clinician.  Most of my schools are in NYC, and not all funded (ugh!), but my husband has a great job here.  We could move, but he likely won't find a comparable position, and the closest he'd get would have to be in a city (as opposed to a college town), hence the choices.  My interest is schizophrenia and serious mental illness.  I am applying to:
John Jay (#1), Fordham, Hofstra, Fairleigh Dickinson, St. John's, Yeshiva / Ferkauf, Adelphi, LIU Brooklyn
Indiana U - Purdue U. Indianapolis, U. Illinois Chicago, U. MD Baltimore County, U. MD College Park (reach), Temple (reach)
Not really sure why I am posting except to flush out some of the emotions that come with this process.  Wishing luck, and sanity, to everyone!  

Hope this doesn't offend you but you sound rather entitled. You specifically said "I'd just like to help with what is needed", apparently that's data entry. If you don't want to do that then maybe go back to trying the directed study with this lab, don't give up on it if no one helps you. (To be fair I don't know the context so maybe you've stuck with it for a while before finally giving in). If data entry is what you're stuck with then make it into a learning experience for yourself - qualtrics has an API which can allow you to figure out a way to programmatically perform the data entry. This would be great since then it'd drastically reduce the probability of error during entry, then having come up with your fancy new way to enter data you can show it to others and teach others in the lab, which I'm sure would def up the interest in your membership in the lab. In additional you'd have taught yourself how to program (if you don't already know), and further still - now you have a valuable skill to take into your graduate studies if that's the plan.