Yiyu Liu

Thanks your reply really help me a lot And one thing I'd like to ask is that I heard that someone received a skype interview from the PIs in addition to the formal on-campus interview. I wonder whether PIs will send out those informal skype interviews when they start to review the material or even earlier?

Hi everyone, I'm a Senior undergraduate student and will apply for graduate school this fall. Now I wonder how important it is to contact PIs in advance. And more specifically: 1. If I'm going to apply for 10-15 grad schools, and I may have 20-30 PIs, should I contact them all before application? 2. If I don't contact PIs in advance, will I still have a chance to get into the interview cycle? 3. If I send emails to PIs now and some just give general replys like "encourage you to apply" or even does not respond at all, does it mean I should give up that school? 4. Usually the interveiw begins a month after the application DDL. So should I contact PIs again and ask for an opportunity to skype with them? Or should I just wait for the invitation for a interview? I'm super stressful at this moment and really would like to hear from your experience. Thx!

I totally agree with the comments above. 5-6 years is a commitment and you definitely want to make your time count. I think our research interests are very similar. I'm also a development psyer and I do eye tracking. As far as I know, CUNY is not that a good option if you're super ambitious and hunt for a tenure-track job. You should really consider what kind of training you'll get for graduate study. I'm currently a third-year International student. But I committed a summer and a winter holiday in a great lab in US. That's where I learned those really advanced and cool eye tracking skills. This summer I'll goto another great lab in US to do an independent eye-tracking study. I'll not talk about those labs in detail. However, if you finally decide not to goto CUNY and would like to get more experience, feel free to PM me and I'll share the information of those labs with you.

Dear all, I'm a student majoring in psychology and I ask this for my boyfriend. We really need your help. As I just know, applying to a pure math phD seems like quite different from other majors(like psychology, haha), I mean, for most majors, research experience is quite essential for students to be accepted. However, for math, especially pure math things seems like different. Pure math is all about theories, no experiments, no models, no data. Professors do not really need RAs. Students are not academically equivalent as their professors so they even cannot fully understand the professors' research. In this situation, there seems like no way for students to get involved in any research. So is GPA and GRE subject the only two important standard for a student to get accepted? Here is our situation: My boyfriend graduated from a University that is famous for math. His GPA is not that good. But many people in our university who has similar GPA still get accepted to quite good phD programs. However, he was rejected by all the phD programs he applied to and ended up getting into a master program. We have no idea if it is his GRE verbal score that pulled him back( he got an 148 for V and 170 for Q). Now he is a master student and considering to apply for phD again the next year. Is there anything he can do other than improving his GRE score and getting As for his courses? Is it possible for him to get any research opportunities in his field(geometry)? How can he strive to stand out from a pool of applicants? We really appreciate your help!

I think it just depends on what kind of programs that you are hoping to get into. If you are thinking of getting into a clinical or I/O or social psych program, it should be helpful to take it . But if you are thinking of cognitive or neuroscience, you will have no need to take it especially when you are already a psych student. I'm a psych student whose mother language is not English. I will turn a Junior in the coming semester. I took the psych GRE subject test last year when I just turned a Sophomore. I'd say that I kind of doubt whether the sub score can really offset a low GPA since I only took psych courses for a year, prepared it for about 3 weeks after class and then I got 810 and ranked 99%. What I'm trying to say is that there is not at all any in-depth knowledge or methodologies included in this test, all you have to do is to memorize the basic facts in psychology. I'm a really discreet person so I took this test even though the programs I'm looking to says "recommend" instead of "require". But many students go to their dream programs without taking this test. If you are a discreet person like me, then go ahead for it! It should not take long for you to prepare it since English is your first language. In fact, In the 3 weeks I was preparing for it, I spent most of the time trying to memorize those terminologies in English. You'll definitely not have this kind of problem, haha. So if you take your time, you can spend only 2 weeks, or even 1 week to get a score that is higher than 90% percent when you are a psych student. If you do decide to take it, you can ask me for more advice. However, if you decide not to take it, you should also not be too worried. Usually the lack of a psych sub score will not that draw you back when you are not applying to clinical programs.

Hi JohnSgrad95, I'm a Chinese sophomore with not much researching experience and I just got a summer RA position in US. I can give you some advice based on my experience. 1) Since you' re a domestic student and you don't need to apply for J1 visa, it is not too late to start now. 2) Though you mentioned any position will do, you still need to narrow down your interest. Which field do you prefer, clinical or cognitive? I mention this because when you try reaching out for an RA position, the professor or lab manager will also evaluate your potential fit for this position. 3) As I know, most programs end at March. And I highly recommend you don't waste time on such programs since you don't have any past research experiences. I tried apply for such programs and got two interviews. But finally I got two rejection. Usually those programs have a hundred applicants from all over the world. If you don't have much experience in the relevant field--just like me, they will not likely to offer you a position. 4) I would recommend you to directly contact the professor in email, asking them if they would like to offer you a position and state that you don't need any funding. If the professor do want to take you, he will probably set an interview or require one or more letters of recommendation. In the email, you should attach your CV or resume and tell the professor you are interested in his research. For the first round, you can try send 10-15 emails. If you are lucky enough like me, you can get a position in this round. If all of the professors refused to take you, you can try another round. I know a student who sent out 100 emails and finally got an RA position and most students succeeded as long as they keep trying. You can first try professors in your own university and then try professors in other Universities. Good luck!:)

Thank you for all your help! Your advice is really to the point! I did hear someone say that the Admission Committee would consider my non-native background. But since I still have time, I should still strive for 85% percent. As for TOEFL, I took it one and a half years ago and only got 23 for speaking, so I will also retake it this fall. It is true that most of Chinese students come to US for cognitive/neuroscience degrees and I know cognitive programs are easier to get in. But as I prefer developmental psychology, I will still try apply to developmental programs. BTW I really love Berkeley. Last summer I went to Berkeley for the summer session. I took the developmental psychology there and it was just since then that I decided to choose development

Thank you so much! Though you said that you didn't have time to fully answer all my quesitions, your answer still help me a lot. You revealed to me something that had confused me for months.

Hi everyone, I'm Yiyu. now I'm a sophomore in Peking University, China. At present I'm seriously considering applying for developmental psychology Phd programs when I graduate. However, the relevant information in the forum of my country is scarce, so I come to gradcafe for help. Now my GPA is around 3.7(The best student in my department get 3.8+) and my major GPA is around 3.8. My ranking in my department is around top 20% or top 25%. Though my University is almost the best University in my country, the ranking of the psychology department is only about top 100 in the world, thus my GPA is by no means competitive enough. Last October I took the GRE psych and got an 810(rank 99%), but I guess it does not play an important role in the process of admission except for clinical programs. Last month I took the GRE general test and got Q168+V153+AW4. I know it is not a solid score so I will take it again this September. As for the researching experience, Last year I served as an RA in an social psy lab, doing some minor work such as translating the experiment materials and running experiments. Last semester, I took a course named the experiments of experimental psychology. For the course project, I cooperated with three other students and conducted a small study of our own. This summer I will go to Indiana University to be an RA in an developmental lab. Also, I'm considering starting my own research this semester. Now I have a few questions: 1 What is a relatively "safe" GRE score and GPA? Will the admission committee consider my GRE psych score in the process of making decisions? 2 What is poster and What is conference presentation? How can I get them? 3 Is the developmental program hard to get in? 4 Is publication really important in the application of developmental programs? Compared to cognitive experiments, the developmental, especially infant and child experiments is really hard to do. I mean, it really takes time to recruit young participants. 5 What should I do to make myself a more promising applicant? Thank you for your help!