Yiyu Liu

PMing you

I think I shouldn't expect anything good happen to me anymore. Maybe I should just plan to apply again next year. After a good talk with a PI from NYU, she asked the committee on weekend and they said they won't invite me for a campus interview because of the research fit. I have tons of experience with cognitive development and they still think I'm not a good fit to the program. But I applied to Duke Neuroscience program with less than two months of experience with neuroscience and was still invited for a formal campus interview. For no reason I could understand. Is the application process totally random? I applied to 14 programs and only offered formal interview invitation at one currently. Also the other interviewees at Duke all have tons of experience with neuroscience. I'll try my best but personally I don't think I stand a good chance. I know I shouldn't get upset that early but sometimes I just couldn't control this feeling. It is still 3 months before I would know whether I'll be accepted into any of these programs. I can't imagine stay stressful for another 3 months. Wish you all the best in this process guys......

I'm a psychology student without much experience with neuroscience and I just received Duke CNAP interviw invitation. But I don't know the exact interview date as I'm an international student so they said in the email that they'll try to set a few skype interviews for me in January. I found that someone has posted interview invites from MIT, which makes me feel a little freak out. Would you mind sharing what division are you applying to? Cognitive Science or Systems Neuroscience? I'm applying to cognitive science and wish there's still a chance.

Just a quick update that I received a formal interview to Duke. But I applied to Duke CNAP program (not psych) which may be different from most of you. So if you haven't hear anything from Duke yet you don't have to worry as we're probably applying to different programs.(I applied to a PI who is in both CNAP program and psych program though).

I'm applying to development psychology in C & P but I believe their pace should be similar.

Just a quick update. I talked to a PI through skype today at NYU and she said the notifications for campus interview will be sent by X'mas. Different division may have different pace but we can expect it to happen before January lol. Pretty much freak out now. Hope they'll invite me for a formal interview.

That's weird, I couldn't understand what they're trying to say and didn't know there's actually two psych departments. I'm applying to GSAS.

Thanks:) It's NYU.

Thanks and wish you the best

Today is my birthday and I got my first skype interview via email. I know it's far from an official one but still quite excited. At least there is a chance that I won't be rejected by everywhere I applied!

Submitted all 14 apps a few days ago but still haven't heard anything about interviews. Start to worry about I'll be rejected by everywhere. In addition, as an international applicant I just booked a flight to US yesterday though I'm not sure whether I'll get any interview. But I have to do so as the flight will get really expensive or even out of sell if I book it after I get any formal interviews. I really don't want to stay in US for a month and end up getting 0 interview. Hopefully it will not happen

I also believe if I'm rejected by all the programs I applied to I'll retake GRE for next cycle as I did so badly on the writing section. But personally I think your math is fine. The psych department at Indiana University posted that they only require the Math and Verbal to be above 50% and I believe IU is already a very competitive program (psychology rank 17 on US news) . I have no idea why but schools never post their cut-off scores for the AWA section, which makes me even more worried.

Maybe you should remind your recommender to check the spam box? The link is sometimes blocked.

I've submitted 10/14 of the applications and my recommenders have submitted letters for 11 schools. Starting to get bored of revising PS and filling the application forms over and over.

I guess it really depends on the program you're applying. Most of the programs I applied to indicated they prefer to accept students whose interests overlap with multiple faculties in the department.

Thanks SunnySet, I guess you're right, the best way would be just email or call the office, as different schools differ on how they will treat multiple GRE scores. I've seen a few schools indicated that they will take the highest from each section and other schools indicated they will take the most recent. There are also a few schools doesn't put these kind of information on their website. BTW, I think you have a really solid GRE score. As long as you are not applying to quant/math psychology you are fine.

Given the information you provided, I would suggest the second unless the school indicated that they will take the highest from each section (then send both). I don't think there is much difference between 72% and 80%. But you really made great improvement on AW the second time.

Thanks Loffire, I see your point. I wish I could submit a writing sample, but most of the DDL is 12.1, which is very close. I only have some unrevised manuscripts. I guess if they are not good enough, then it's best I don't submit it. The only revised work I could provide is a poster. Meanwhile, I've already asked a professor to revise my SOP, write a letter and submit if for all 14 schools. So I don't feel it is good to take his time to revise my writing sample, especially when it is not required. From my experience, professors usually don't expect a Chinese student, or a student whose mother tongue is not English to get 5 AW like native speakers. And it is unreasonable for them to expect so. If you don't have an education in US, then 4.0 will not hurt your chance at all as long as you are not applying to clinical branch. A common sense is that for international student a solid score would be 325+4. But I'm not sure about 3.5, while I know 3.5 is okay for neuroscience, I'm not sure about other branches. That's why I'm so concerned. Also, even the AW score is not my biggest concern. I'm more worried about how they will look at my verbal score (153, rank 59%) for the first time. I'm just afraid they will take an average on my first verbal score and the second.

Hi guys at this moment I feel really freak out and appreciate any thoughts from you. I'm an international student and English is not my mother tongue. I already sent two GREs, as some schools said they'll pay special attention to the highest section when evaluating multiple GRE scores. I have a very weird situation. The first time for GRE I didn't prepare at all so I got 153 V 168Q 4.0AW. Then after half a year I took it again and made a great improvement on verbal, but I only got 3.5 AW given I really had nothing to say about politic issues. I remember the topic was about president. But in my country we are not ecouraged or allowed to talk too much about president. If you say sth. bad about president or relevant policy you'll probably go to jail. I just wasn't able to finish the issue part.So the second time I got 165 V 169Q 3.5AW. Thank god I'm not applying to clinical which is truly demanding on AW. I've noticed that the average AW score for my division usually lies right above 4.0 and Verbal around 158. I know some schools will generally take the most recent score while others tend to combine the highest. I sent multiple GRE scores only because I got 4.0 on my first test. But 153 V (rank 59%) is truly awful. Either taking the most recent or combining the highest will not hurt my chance. But I'm really worried how they will see my Verbal score for the first time. Will they pay special attention to the lowest score? Will they take the average? How will they evaluate my improvement from 153 to 165? Will high Verbal and high quant somewhat compensate for my AW? I'm really worried that my GRE score will cut me off in the first round and my PI even won't have opportunity to see my app. Other information: 810 GRE psych, 28 out of 30 in the Toefl writing section, PS well written ( A prof. and a post doc helped me revise it, both of whom are native. After revising the Prof. said it was good enough ). All the programs I applied to don't require writing samples at all and I haven't got time to revise my manuscript. I submitted a poster as supplementary work for some of the programs. I'm just worried I won't even make the first round because of my GRE.

As there are already clinical, school and social psychology threads on the forum, I think it maybe helpful to start a developmental thread. We could exchange any ideas and thoughts I applied to 14 and have submitted 6, and expect to submit another 4 or 5 this weekend. I applied to Stanford, UC-Berkeley, MIT, Princeton, Indiana Bloomington, Cornell, UVA, Minnesota, Boston U, Duke, Yale, UCSD, NYU and Illinois, all PhD programs. There is really no safe schools for me so I applied to a lot. This is the first time I'm applying and really hope I could get into any of them. Where is everyone applying? Have you and your recommenders submitted?

Thanks! I've submitted another two applications this week. Still 11 to go but I'll make it

I just submitted my first application, but there are still 13 to be done. In addition, I have a senior thesis to defend next week and 15 credits this semester. I'm just too tired at this moment.

Thanks! Your advice is quite helpful!

Hello everyone, a quick question: Some of the UCs require a Personal History-to state the diversity and how you've made through the underrepresented situation. However, I have a very plain life. I lived in my country (though not US) for my whole life, my parents paid for my school and I always get very good education. If there is something to mention, I took a gap year before going to University (as I didn't get into the best University in the country the first time) and I tried to work in the labs of America during the holiday to get better research training. Or maybe striving to be excel among those talented peers has always been stressful. But still, those experience are not surprising. I'm just curious what words should someone like me put in the personal history? Appreciate any thoughts from your guys!

I agree with some previous comments that you are putting something too detailed. People won't really care about it. Say, instead of going into details of what you find, it is probably more helpful to talk about what you learned from this experience, and how this experience could help you specify your interest and succeed in your career. In addition, you are saying something like, after a couple of semesters (2 years?) you went into a lab better suited to your interest. It seems a little weird and you didn't really clarify it. Why you're interested in A but spent 2 years doing B? How did B help you in shaping your interest and skill set? Furthermore, I also agree with previous comment that it is not necessary to devote a paragraph talking about what you learned during the SPSS course. The statistics you mentioned are actually very basic, which won't make you stand out. If you really would like to talk about your statistical analysis ability, a better way is probably reflecting your statistic skills in your research accomplishments. For instance, " With the statistics I learned on XX course, I was able to analyze the data we collected in an appropriate and efficient way. " This should be informative enough. All in All, faculties care most about our competence and motivation in pursuing a PhD degree. To Specify: 1. What did you learn and what kind of skill set could you bring to their program? 2. Why did you choose to do PhD? What do you plan to accomplish while there? What is your ultimate goal after graduation? 3. How your past experience shaped your interest? These questions shouldn't be condensed in one graph, but you want to make sure each of the sentence you are writing is not irrelevant. If you find words does not address any of those questions, go ahead to drop it! English is not my native language so I won't be able to help you reword it, but these more general ideas I learned from faculty and PhD students are helpful anyway, and is exactly what I would like to share with you. I'm also applying this fall as an undergraduate student. Best luck for both of us