PokePsych

I think you want to ask yourself to questions: 1) Am I underestimating myself (and is it my own insecurity) and 2) Do I communicate to her I need more help? An advisor cannot look into your head. And additionally, for them to be able to help, you have to be very clear on what you NEED from them. Just 'help' is too general for them to be helpful. Is it formulating a research question, analysis, outlining a paper (writing is too general), etc. Think about how you can communicate what you 'need' from them and open up about what you need. An advisor is as good as you being able to specify what you need 'advise' on - if it's not clear, they also won't be able to give you the help and support you need.

well, would also depend on what area you're in and what you want to study.

My initial thought would be is to ask whether you can work out some co-advisor situation. So have her still be your main advisor, but have someone basically 'graduate' you in your own department. This is not uncommon; I'm also working through a bit of a similar structure at the moment (but will move to my advisor's new place because I do have substantial time ahead and nothing binding me here - he just couldn't bring me this year already as he got the job pretty late etc.). Although there's a lot of folks here in general who actually spend most in their time in the education department but are officially graduating in social psych (they do interdisciplinary stuff) - so they also work with 2 people basically.

Finally had the courage to send some ideas to my advisor - he was superenthusiastic Finally feel we bonded more because of that too

sure!

You want to get that thinknig pattern under control ASAP - all I can say it will get worse during the PhD

no I think it's OK, some people make the short list quite late I'd say haha.

I'd make it about research interests. Like oh that sounds like a wonderful topic, but I'm most interested in X and am not that much into Y.

I think this also depends on department culture (and you may want to contact current grad students about that). At both my master's school and now at my PhD program everyone sorta works with everyone and gets encouraged to join multiple labs. I think it's important to have a clear idea what you want to research (e.g., I study situational/ecological influences on behavior, specifically with a focus on resource distribution) and am able to tie how this would work with specific faculty members (e.g., someone who studies morality/fairness, someone who studies ecology, someone who studies person-environment fit). So I'm not being vague but rather focus on where I see fit.

Maybe it depends on the area, but it is not uncommon for students to work with multiple people at a university. Additionally, he's not the only person on the ad comm - never harms to have more people getting to know you and be enthusiastic about you!

No. It's good to work with multiple faculty (or in most departments it is). He's actually trying to get maybe more people on board for you..

This is so true! I'd say it will also depend on fit (again, my credentials were less fancy than yours, but I got into a great great school, predominantly because of fit). With ur credentials, I'd assume it will boil down to that.

diversity is not about sad sob stories. Rather, it's about what different/novel perspectives you can add. So you could discuss how you different cultural background may provide different perspectives on psychology (i.e., cultural psych has been a big and very informative field for years now), etc. It could be unusual training in an area (e.g., my master's was highly focused on interdisciplinary perspectives from economy, biology, etc. so I got a widerange of exposure that for sure influences how I think about psychology). don't go for sad stories, go for something that could explain how you may have a different angle/perspective from others. Maybe specifci cultural pressures, etc.

I think I'd probably have ran totally different experiments if I could for my MSc thesis and pushed my advisor farrrrr more back on his ideas. But well.. I got a really high grade so whatever I think it would have just taken a lot more time to 'debate' him, which I basically also didn't hvae haha

take a break - you still have time. Fresh perspectives do wonders

would not count on it and just treat it as a nice surprise if so. I got mine mid Feb :')

Well, this is not unusual at other schools too. I need to maintain a B(+?) average to maintain my funding. So I don't think what she's saying is out of the ordinary. Just the 'try our best part' - what does that mean?! Maybe contact current grad students for more info or ask what the current situation is/what it has been like in previous years

Does it need to be published for it to count? Publication can take easily a couple of months before your manuscript gets accepted (review takes long, editors take long). Now, if you don't get accepted, add on another couple of months to repeat the cycle.

FUCK SELF-DOUBT FOR REAL. IM SO OVER MYSELF

Its a persistent rumor that each PI can only have one international student (including American) in some departments - but I wouldnt be able to tell you if this is actually true

PM Would not put it in SOP - because it will sound out of place. Rather put it on your CV if you really want to mention it. Agree with @sendmeadvice on this. I think your GRE scores are just above the unofficial cutoff point (310), but if you're in a very strong applicant pool they may indeed hurt you. If you have tons of research experience however and a great GPA you may be able to compensate. Not sure what's too ambitious. I'd only apply to schools you'd really want to be going.

Stick to what you got approved. No study is perfect. Learn from it and do it better next time. There's not been a single study that I've been involved with (which has been at least 10+ as an RA) where people did not have a 'hmm we should have done/included this' sorta feeling.

obvious pro is that you can actually try to publish it. I don't know, for us we always had to write as if it was going to be for a publication?

just send it over!

yes - also because some departments may even 'prefer' someone who can work with multiple faculty members!