Psych.dsd

Mine was so similar to these - but more in the tongue tied manner! I had reserved conference room at work and was anxiously waiting for my phone interview for a program high on my list when I randomly re-checked my number one school's portal. It has changed to Admitted since I had checked it an hour earlier. I coudl not believe it, and I couldn't express words. My interview was in 5 minutes and I was without words. It was a huge confidence booster, but also, I was so flustered I completely brain farted on the interview I was called into. It did not go very well as I was so frazzled...oops. Oh well I guess!

I was at the interview day at another school! Five minutes before the first interview, I went to the restroom, and got my phone to turn it off. There was a unread email; it was the acceptance from one of my dream programs!

I wouldn't do that. They know you are interested in the program - if you weren't, you wouldn't have invested time and money in your application. Contacting your POI will only show impacience. It is hard to wait, especially when the program is one of your top choices, but I see no benefits in contacting your POI.

I wouldn't do that. They know you are interested in the program - if you weren't, you wouldn't have invested time and money in your application. Contacting your POI will only show impacience. It is hard to wait, especially when the program is one of your top choices, but I see no benefits in contacting your POI.

My undergraduate major was in business administration and I'm applying to social psychology too, in addition to marketing (CB). I took some courses in social psychology as an undergraduate and I've recently finished a research master's in a business school, but followed a behavioral sciences research track (which gave me a good background in social psych research). I am an international applicant from Brazil.
During my application, I felt that some departments are very welcoming of non-psych major applicants, while others are the complete opposite. Did you have this feeling too?
 

I agree with you. Perhaps my point was not very clear in my previous post, I didn't mean that location was more important than the program. In fact, i believe location is a minor (if relevant at all) consideration fo a PhD applicant. The department, and the research being conducted by the faculty, is a far more relevant consideration. People usually overestimate how important location is to their well-being. To me, what matters most is having a group of friends that you can rely on - especially during a PhD, when loneliness is (unfortunately) an issue. You can find that anywhere, be it in a small or big city, west/east coast or midwest, small or big department, etc.
In fact, one of the happiest times in my life was when I was an exchange student in the American midwest. There wasn't much to do in the city, but there was always someone to hang out with. Being connected to people is what really matters!
On top of that, as you said, relying on research fit when applying may maximize the chances of admission. 
 

I agree with you. Perhaps my point was not very clear in my previous post, I didn't mean that location was more important than the program. In fact, i believe location is a minor (if relevant at all) consideration fo a PhD applicant. The department, and the research being conducted by the faculty, is a far more relevant consideration. People usually overestimate how important location is to their well-being. To me, what matters most is having a group of friends that you can rely on - especially during a PhD, when loneliness is (unfortunately) an issue. You can find that anywhere, be it in a small or big city, west/east coast or midwest, small or big department, etc.
In fact, one of the happiest times in my life was when I was an exchange student in the American midwest. There wasn't much to do in the city, but there was always someone to hang out with. Being connected to people is what really matters!
On top of that, as you said, relying on research fit when applying may maximize the chances of admission. 
 

Your strategy is exactly like mine - I am only applying to programs I am very excited about, most of which are very competitive. As a Brazilian, I don't see the point in moving to another country to do a PhD in a department I am not very excited about. Although this strategy is certainly risky, it is the one that makes the most sense to me as an international applicant.
Best luck with your application!!!

Your strategy is exactly like mine - I am only applying to programs I am very excited about, most of which are very competitive. As a Brazilian, I don't see the point in moving to another country to do a PhD in a department I am not very excited about. Although this strategy is certainly risky, it is the one that makes the most sense to me as an international applicant.
Best luck with your application!!!

Agreed. I am an international student too. I only applied to the programs which are nice research fits. It is a 5-year commitment, I don't see the point of applying/going to a "safe" school, if it is just for the sake of a PhD degree. 

Since you are Cellular and Molecular Biology, I think this response I wrote on the Biology forum will help:
A couple additional answers to your questions from my own experience as an interviewee and interviewer:
1. You don't have to prepare incredibly compelling questions for graduate students and faculty, just having anything is a positive in their eyes. But if you want to get a good glimpse into what they think, there are a few questions you should try to ask if appropriate.
For graduate students, you should ask about:
Their thoughts - both positive AND negative - on the program (such as the BBS program), institution (such as Harvard), and the city (such as Cambridge/Boston) What they do outside of science/lab What opportunities are available to graduate students - this includes teaching, internships, non-traditional paths, etc. What a typical day in lab is like for them - this will vary student to student and lab to lab, but can be revealing about the culture at an institution If there is anything else they wished they had known before starting graduate school (in general or in that specific PhD program) For faculty, you should ask about:
What they believe the greatest strengths and weaknesses are of the institution The research environment at the institution - especially in regards to collaboration (a lot of PIs love to talk to about how collaborative they are/their university is) Specific questions about their research (if you have any) Their expectations for a graduate student/what an ideal graduate student is to them If there is anything that they can talk about other than the research that makes the program/institution unique. If you look at graduate school interview prep websites, there will be a lot of "recommended" questions that include asking about graduation outcomes, fellowships, time to graduation, publishing, etc. It is okay to ask questions such as these, but a lot of this information will be covered in the introduction/orientation each program gives. In my opinion, you are better suited to ask questions such as those listed above.
2. The most basic biomedical PhD interview weekend is structured over 3 or 4 days:
Thursday: Arrive + welcome dinner Friday and Saturday: Interviews, research talks and poster sessions, dinner with faculty one night and dinner with students another night, something fun in the city one day, and a student-hosted party or bar night Sunday: Departure This gives you a lot of time to learn about science, talk to current students and faculty, get a glimpse of what the city is like, and make an impression. The actual events will vary interview to interview, but this is what the majority of major research institutions do.
3. If you talk to a lot of graduate students and faculty and are truly enthusiastic to learn about a program/institution (and science in general), you will come out of a weekend with everything you need to make a good decision. You most likely won't like every interview, but you will start to internally rank them over the course of interview season. Try to go into each interview with an open mind too!
Sorry this is so lengthy - I hope it helps though!
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Some recommendations from a current student interviewer. This is just from my personal experiences interviewing and discussing with admissions committees.
1. Be prepared to answer WHY you want to do a PhD in general. If you are coming straight from undergraduate, be especially prepared to justify why you believe you are ready to enter directly into a PhD program instead of taking a year or two off.
2. Have justifications for why you applied to a specific institution and program. Being able to pinpoint specific faculty, resources, graduate outcomes, etc. all help show you are applying to a program for a particular reason and not just because it is ranked highly.
3. Be able to talk about your research clearly and concisely. If you do not know something, do not be afraid to say you do not know. I would rather have someone answer "I do not know" 10 times than try to make up an answer once. It is also helpful to be able to identify specific things you have taken away from each experience. Also, if you have multiple experiences, it is best to focus on the one you are most comfortable talking about rather than trying to give equal time to all of your research.
Above all, be enthusiastic about your own research, research in general, the program you are applying to, and pursuing a PhD. If you can talk about your research and genuinely seem excited about it, then that will come across to us and we will remember it more than if you can answer every single technical question flawlessly. It is okay if you are nervous and it is okay if you can't answer every question - it is not okay if you are just going through the motions.
4. For faculty interviews, don't worry about knowing their work inside and out. If you want, you can read a couple abstracts from their most recent papers + look at their lab websites, but anything beyond that is not expected.
5. Prepare questions! They can be general questions about graduate school, specific questions about a PIs research, etc., but do not just sit there blankly if you are asked if you have any further questions.
6. If you have a student interview in addition to faculty interviews, be forewarned that at many schools this interview will be weighted alongside your other interviews. This means you need to maintain professionalism and decorum.
7. You ARE being evaluated at all times, but 90% of the evaluation that goes into the final decision is done during the interviews. However, there are really only three things you can do that will get you immediately disqualified (and yes, I have seen each of these happen at least once): (1) Making sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks, (2) falling asleep during an interview, and (3) aggressively hitting on current students or PIs to the point of harassment. Every year, without fail, there are at least three recruits who do one of these things (usually #1 or #3) and are disqualified from consideration.
8. It is okay to drink alcohol if you are someone who likes to drink alcohol. It is okay to abstain from alcohol if you are someone who likes to abstain from alcohol. It is NOT okay to get belligerently drunk and make bigoted remarks or harass current students or other recruits. I would recommend knowing your limits and what type of drinker you are - we want you to have fun but try not to embarrass yourself. Believe it or not, we have accepted people who have gotten black out drunk and thrown up at recruitment parties, but do not put yourself into that situation.
9. Dress to impress for your interview day. A full suit is unnecessary for guys, but some nice slacks, a good button down, and a blazer will suit you well for all interviews. Gals, do not wear heels - you will seriously regret it. For the rest of the weekend, feel free to wear whatever is comfortable.
10. Have fun! All participating faculty and students go into the interview weekends trying to recruit EVERYONE. We want everyone to love our school and our program and want as many people to attend as possible. Talk to as many faculty and students as possible, be engaged, and generally look like you want to be there and you will find the biggest challenge will be deciding where you actually want to go from all of your options. Getting the interview is the hard part - we interview around 8-10% of applicants and accept around 75% of those interviewed. If you have gotten an interview, you have all the qualifications to get accepted - we just need to make sure that you look as good in person as you are on paper.

I am currently in a program and was pretty active in the Social Psych 2017 thread so I hop on here from time to time to just check in. I wanted to chime in with a bit of reassurance. It is still SUPER EARLY! I did not hear from HALF my schools until after February 1st, and did not even get my first official acceptance until mid-March. Yes, many do send out invites this week but I know in my program, many of the faculty have not even began making their "informal interview" phone calls, and another friend who is in a different program also told me the same thing. So with all that said, do not think that just because you have not heard this week that all hope is lost. I promise you, it is not! Hang in there, friends. It will be over soon and this time next year, hopefully you will all be super stressed out in grad school!