Jump to content

sc9an

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    57

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by sc9an

  1. sc9an
    I was a business and psychology double major for my undergrad and went through business internship/job hunting for almost four semesters. I would say during those days my thought process, some of the questions I asked myself, were quite similar to those OP listed. Eventually it comes down to keep trying something I think could increase my chance or achieve my goals resist taking it personal and recognize that there are many environmental factors in the process besides what I was doing, and while I put in my efforts, my strategies are also subject to re-evaluation and re-focus have some reliable sources of support from other people. I think the thoughts posted in the other replies above are all great and applicable. In the end the results of the application will certainly neither doom us nor guarantee us anything. With consistent motivation (maybe also some reasonable up and down), reflection and adjustment, something would emerge eventually I think.
  2. sc9an
    No that's fine. I am just not sure if I have enough questions to ask them, and I am worried that if I don't ask enough questions they might take it as a negative signal, but it's true asking questions about the program could help to understand it better. I will prepare for this more
  3. sc9an
    That's great! I wondered is it typical to have the candidate lead half of the interview with questions? I.e., is it possible that the fit of the candidates is evaluated through the questions they asked as well?
  4. sc9an
    I guess a convenient way to get some perspectives is to look into the gradcafe result page. There is a column indicating if each of the applicants is from an international university. It's more useful to filter by your choice of programs.
  5. sc9an
    lol right I didn't know about your offer until someone told me to take a look, and I've probably spent too much time on forums :p. Congrats again! I am sure the funding would work out eventually.
  6. sc9an
    Just heard from a friend that U of Minnesota Ed Psyc's Quantitative Methods rolled out an offer to someone. Pretty quick move.
  7. sc9an
    @wnk4242 Oh that's nice. I wish there is still a museum to see the setup of those experiments. Places at DC are mostly closed during the holiday, but those museums you mentioned are appealing choices to me as well. I guess NY has more fun places that are still open this week.
  8. sc9an
    I am now at the DC area getting myself a break. I've been getting stuck on reading paper for some days and so started a novel to refresh my mind a bit lol.
  9. sc9an
    This is good to know! It never occurred to me that the interview might rely on the candidate's questions to a remarkable extent. Thanks.
  10. sc9an
    Yeah I have Davis just now as well! I hope my flight won't go over their budget. Looking forward to it!
  11. sc9an
    Same application season with you so I could not bring much insights, but I think taking the train is an option to consider. I've done driving from Virginia to Chicago in a day before, and it was certainly exhausting. I would have considered train if I knew Amtrak has a line between Chicago and central Virginia. Christmas eve/New Year is typically a shopping time in cities there. Not sure where you are at specifically and you might have known this, but department stores and malls tend to have good holiday decoration, so feel free to look around those places if possible. Feeling you and sending my regards.
  12. sc9an
    Yeah the anxiety is definitely around...the gradcafe result page has a few quantitative programs sending out interviews around the middle/end of December last year, so it is harder for me around these days not to think about it, but the result page records might not always be predictive of the next year. The way I see it, the ladder of competitiveness in the schools' we applied should allow for an acceptable chance in getting at least one offer? Still I'd certainly hope to avoid too much mind-wandering.
  13. sc9an
    I think the top priority in your resignation process is to minimize the cost incurred on the company. If the decision has been made to leave the job for the program (congrats btw), the only thing left to think about is how to deliver this message to your managers and facilitate the transition as smoothly as possible - for example, letting them know about your plan and time frame now - instead of during summer 2018 - and showing willingness to arrange the rest of your work time according to their need, could both demonstrate your respect of their investment and avoid disruption such as having to quit during the middle of a project. With your cooperation and a convincing reason it should not be hard for them to perceive your appreciation, especially as it looks like a research-related company where you might not be the first case to do these. Regarding navigating the actual conversation with your manager, I think some other websites like quora, LinkedIn and Vault.com should have some helpful posts.
  14. sc9an
    Right I thought the norm is to have tuition waiver and stipend for PhD-track students. The limit of funding on admission professors mentioned, on the other hand, could be seen as a universal concern every graduate applicant is more or less facing...In this sense your nervousness is shared by all of us. The OSU application portal was indeed a bit taxing, but I also heard these same sentences from the UCLA admission office. Interestingly I have not run into much discussion on interviews under the psychology tab of this forum. I guess the SoP is a good source of preparation to start with, but otherwise to me it would be more efficient to prepare after the invitation comes lol.
  15. sc9an
    I have an international friend who did Chemistry undergraduate in US and went on to have a job in an international cosmetic firm at NYC. Like Takeru said almost three years of guaranteed OPT period after graduation is quite sufficient for many junior positions, and the work visa application after the OPT period is not super costly. Recognizing this, many firms do consider international students, and even smaller firms could do on a case by case level. So definitely it is worth a shot!
  16. sc9an
    Right it was quite some effort to navigate those application platforms. OSU's portal also seems to take days to update itself...I might get a story book to read, taking a break from the quantitative world when there is still time...Hope this December goes well.
  17. sc9an
    @Quant_Psych_2018 Yeah I also need to wrap up the ASU application after my recommendation letter comes in. My research interests as described in the SoPs were around Bayesian methods and longitudinal modeling. These are big topics so I could customize a bit towards the professors' interests. I guess this area does not leave us with many choices lol. We will see how it goes. I am trying to see how to keep myself engaged in the waiting stage with lab's work or other things, hopefully to fend off that feeling of uncertainty a bit!
  18. sc9an
    Looking out for the arrival of my last recommendation letter now! About to go to the waiting period. Let's hope we are experienced enough this time to cope with the feeling of uncertainty.
  19. sc9an
    Finally joining this thread! Almost the ddl now. Hope it goes well for everyone. I am a commerce and psychology double major as an undergraduate. Currently a lab RA in my school. Program of Interest: PhD Quantitative Psychology Schools I'm Applying to: UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Arizona State, UC-Davis, U of Washington Worried About: lack of publications, GPA(3.5-3.6 range for cumulative, 3.81 for Psyc), lack of heavily quantitative coursework ( such as linear algebra and real analysis, but I am trying to make up with online courses and quantitative projects from commerce classes and internship), third LoR from my finance thesis adviser and finally the tax bill on tuition waiver... Not Worried About: relevant research experience (currently a lab RA in the related area). GRE
  20. sc9an
    I think the way schools evaluate the background and life experience parts of the application is very much dependent on the way candidates present them. In my opinion life (professional) experiences could be referred to by the applicant as either proof of capability and dedication to the specific field of interests, or rationales and motivations for the applicant to pursuing the field of interests. It could be fair to assume that your industry experiences are so developed it has to be accounted for in your application (statement of purpose and interviews mostly), but as long as you are able to tell a story of how your professional experiences have prepared, prompted and/or contributed to your decision to re-enter academia, that would be equally convincing as other applications. It might be even more convincing because I am sure this is a well thought-out decision. I remember seeing a NYC-based psychology graduate student who once worked in private equity. Nilam Ram, a professor in quantitative psychology, used to work as a currency trader. I guess their applications had to stretch as well
  21. sc9an
    From what I learned schools might use the statistics (GPA, GRE) as a first-round blind ranking of all the candidates. I am not sure if these numbers would matter again later in the process, but in any case they are unlikely the most important components of your application. Look up graduate application preparation tips, and you would find many reliable sources saying that your SoP and rec letters play an indispensable role in presenting your image and competitiveness. These are your opportunities to highlight your unique strength and could compensate for a weaker statistics. Plus, 3.85 is definitely hard not to impress the committee. (That means no class below A- I guess?) So I would say you certainly should apply, and the attention should be paid more to 1. how to build a coherent stories and present your strengths in the statement and 2. what portfolio of schools you should apply to mitigate the risk. I am not familiar with your field, but the raw materials you could use in your stories from your past experience seems quite relevant and helpful to me, and the schools you are thinking of seem reasonable as well. Maybe other friends could comment more on that. In a word, the odds are not bad for a master application in my opinion, so I would not doubt the decision to apply if I were you. A well-formulated strategy in SoP writing and school choice would be the more important issue now.
  22. sc9an

    Thank you

    sc9an replied to samman1994's topic in The Lobby

    I remembered looking up on a question about filling in the application forms and seeing OP's post on the same issue. That was certainly handy and helpful. I second Trombonist's word, paying the attitude forward would be the right thing to do!
  23. sc9an
    The comment section of this opinion piece from our fellow has some interesting thoughts. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/house-tax-bill-graduate-students.html In the worst case the universities would have to rethink their economic structures, which first pass large bills to its graduate students , then waive it and create balances on their book journal entry in order to justify the collection of more national grants. This used to be fine, but possibly not anymore. It is hard to fathom that schools would allow this tax incurred by its own financial architecture to pass through to the students. But who knows..thinking in this way students are on the passive position all along. Less wonder students have tended to be on the edge of progressive movements... Edited to put in the article link.
  24. sc9an
    I would say it depends. 1. If there is a good match of research interests, professors might be glad to know about, particularly in specialized areas (like ours). I think in science fields such as engineering and biology this would be quite useful. 2. I think some professors' web pages could more or less tell how much they welcome emails from prospective students.
  25. sc9an
    Much appreciated your input! @spunky Your opinions should be able to help people viewing this thread with positioning the application. I managed to get in touch with my current lab and participated post-baccalaureate after realizing that it has to be this way in order to verse myself with the field..Glad to see that it is an agreeable phenomenon in your lab as well. It is interesting that you mentioned employment prospect and the "statistical crisis" in psychology as catalyst to the growth of the quant psyc area. I would second by saying that this area reconciles the enthusiasm in social science (psychology) research and the concern about finding opportunities afterwards. It is unclear to me if people purely attracted to the data science industry trend would view this area as an equivalent option as some more pragmatic programs like MS in data science or Statistics. Regarding the search for more cogent methodology in applied research, I guess it would mean more involvement for the quant people in others' applied research projects? In my experience at least, these applied experience could be the trigger of searching for and developing new methodology ideas, and that's why I liked OP's substantive project experience. But again, many thanks for sharing these thoughts here.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

  I accept