TheDude

Everything is in as of yesterday. Now the doubts and nutty thoughts have arisen. "Shit, I should reread my personal statements again and again to make sure I didn't make a stupid mistake!" "Maybe I need to check my email again....10 minutes later?" --> This is urged on with periodic rushes of hope as I have my email situated in a desktop toolbar on my mac. Everything the a new email appears I get a peaceful....ping. "I should really do something productive...screw it you worked your ass off since August." "READ something other than a scholarly article." "Call a friend...naw they don't want to hear me fret about this stuff." "Man, I should really have addressed my statement of purpose to more people at that school." "Now seems like a good time to day dream about where I want to end up and consequently research rents, cool things to do, good restaurants. Shoot, maybe that is a terrible idea since I might not get in."

How about meeting someone who you hit it off with on a lot of levels? Ya, that happened and I am wondering what the point is since I'll be moving in potentially 4 months if I start Summer sessions at a school. Life really slaps you in the face sometimes! Also, hoping my perception of myself as a promising grad school applicant is realized by others. I've been placid throughout this whole process with pre application interviews, good email correspondences with POIs, kind words of promise from letter writers. It's going to sting if I only get Master's offers, especially given I could have had those last year. I'm also a bit bugged my manuscript didn't get sent for review when it was suppose to in the summer. I took the year off just for that. Now I have an under-review on my CV instead of accepted.

I was told in all of my automatic follow up emails from admissions people that they would contact me if something was missing. So far I have been lucky and only Harvard has been missing a transcript. They couldn't have been nicer in follow up emails. Is this not the case for other people? Most my applications were done on the Embark system and once you hit submit you can't really preview anything.

I'm starting to wonder if the immediate reflex of everyone replying in these threads with "no, a master's is a waste of time unless your grades suck" might be on the wrong side. I noticed that in developmental psychology, a field where a Master's has not typically been a requirement, when I examined the CVs and profiles of current graduate students that most ALL had a Master's. So, maybe we are wrong and this is a new trend. I know my experience is only anecdotal, but this seemed to be the case at the long list of schools I was interested in before I narrowed it down to apply. I also am applying to a couple MA/Ph.D track programs.....and noticed in other programs the funding situation isn't equal to a 5 year full ride. Some schools are making you pay in part for the first couple years. My question is if my grades in undergrad didn't suck, and I have great research experience for an undergrad, why the hell would a Master's offer? I bring it up because it is my "fall back" plan, and this is the same for a few people I know, but it just seems like if our cards aren't drawn this round securing more debt to prove one's self is silly.

Ya, I think that the test is totally pointless for psychology majors. From what I gather a cursory read of an intro to psych book will put you above the average. I don't see how it would put an applicant over the edge in any situation. If you were not a psych major I think you have a lot more working against you that a good psych GRE score won't make up for. I personally refused to let ETS soak me for any more cash in this whole process. I tallied the whole application process up and with school fees, taking the GRE twice, sending scores then having to send materials priority that some how never magically made it to the schools the first time I sent them, I'm up at about 1000$. I wondered why when I was staring at my bank account I was so broke and for the first time I was carrying a credit card balance ( I never have to do that). Now I'm wondering how I am going to save enough money for apartment fees in the event I want to move to a school and potentially start some classes in the summer, which is going to be the case for a couple that are MA/Ph.D track programs. So, there were bigger fish to fry for me other than paying for the psych GRE and worrying about it.

I didn't bother even taking them. My psych GPA was a 3.9 and I've been involved heavily with research, conference work and manuscript work. I guess we'll see in a couple weeks if it bites me in the ass.

I feel at peace with all of this. "You do your best then the hell with it." However, no one in my field is receiving interview news yet, maybe the anxiety with start then.

I applied to the Ed.D Human Development program. I'd love to be admitted given the amazing intellectual resources within the University, but in all actuality I applied because I figured I would more likely get a rejection and a Master's offer. My raw GRE and GPA numbers are above the mean for Master's applicants and I have loads of research and conference experience. Last year the conciliatory Master's offers seem to have happened a lot around this forum and another. But who knows? There doesn't seem to be a "typical" HGSE student. Lots of diverse backgrounds and experiences within academia seem to be represented there.

What kind of administrative excuses can these people create to justify 225 or 415?

225???!!!!!!!! The most I paid was 85$ and the last was 65$. In two weeks I pissed through about 550-600$.

24

Yes!

Ludwig, I can listen to as song and tell you things like: The chord quality( Major, minor, dom, dimin, etc) Tensions (#11, b13, etc.) The motion of the harmony (I ivmin ii min) The melody I can tell you how the melody moves in intervals and the "color" of each note (root, 9, 13, etc) Anyone can teach themselves this though.

I am applying to a different psych program within Steinhardt. a professor there told me each program only accepts 4 doctoral students a year. So, the competition should be tough.

Ludwig, I have relative pitch. One of my friends in music school had perfect pitch and he thought it was a curse because nothing is ever really "in tune."

I really don't stink at guitar I play solo jazz gigs for fun sometimes. I can throw a curveball

Awesome! I realized today, even after I thought I had triple checked things, that one of the remaining 8 programs I am applying to requires the subject GRE. So, I guess I am down to 7. This sucks!

I missed 2 hyphens in one of my SOPs.....2 professors didn't catch it. I'm not worried because it flowed well and I believe someone on the adcom committee is more apt to pass over it without incident.

So is time-frame for being "too late" with hand written appreciation cards your last deadline in January? I am hoping to get mine out this week. I've thanked profusely via email and in person several times already so I'm not too worried about looking rude.

btaek: I wouldn't freak just yet. I checked the "results" part of the webpage and it seems most all people start hearing about interviews in real late December/early January....Late January if your deadlines are the 01/01.

I'm envious! Those must be the most efficient departments in existence. BU sent me the "application has been sent to the department" email. but with the clause "it will take 2 weeks to match credentials with application materials." George Mason doesn't even do interviews, but sent me the same kind of email with the clause, "You will be notified of a decision within 4-6 weeks."

Congrats on the interviews to those who have them thus far!! What I am asking is when were the deadlines for the programs in which you are applying and interviewing. I guess I was thinking don't get excited until after the holidays.

There is nothing charming about snow aside from the first snow fall. After that the cuteness wears off. The subzero winds, messy roads (not to mention what the salt does to your car), shoveling, it goes on and on. I've been in the Northeast over 20 years. However, you do get accustom to it to a degree. If you are in Northern New England you'll be ready for winter to end by January and find there is still snow on the ground in late March and sometimes April. However, you can't beat autumn and summer on the coast.

When were the deadlines for Neuroscience programs? November?

I've surveyed so much music across so many cultures and most my friends (both local and cross-culturally) agree Kurt Rosenwinkel is perhaps the premiere musician in the world....at the vanguard of so many styles