ResilientDreams

@Sigaba I agree, and that's exactly what I want to avoid! I actually really do like Professor B's work. The only reason I contacted Professor A first instead was because I could more directly tie in the research I had done (although I can also relate it well to B's work). Do you have any suggestions for what I should say instead? Am I in a position where I really shouldn't email B at all?

@Hk328 Thanks for the input! So something along the lines of "I spoke to Professor A, but he's not taking grad students this year. I see that you do similar work and it fits in with my interest area" and so on? I just want to be sure to word it so that Professor B doesn't feel offended for being my "second choice".

@ReturningStudent My friend is a non-traditional student who received her bachelor's in English and then worked in an unrelated field for ten years. She decided she wanted to switch to psychology, and began volunteering in the same lab as me. She volunteered and took classes for two years before successfully being admitted to a PhD program and a master's program (she ultimately chose the master's program). I'm not as familiar with educational psychology specifically, but I would suggest volunteering and taking classes as your two main starting points. Best of luck!

Hello! I recently sent an email to a professor I was interested in working with, and he informed me that he was not taking graduate students this year due to funding distribution, but that I seemed like a promising student. There is a second professor in the department whose work I found interesting, and I was thinking of reaching out to her. How should I word that email? Do I mention at all that I talked to the first professor? They actually both collaborate in the same lab. Thanks for the input. This site is a lifesaver.

Oh, looks like someone merged my threads for me...see above for the original exchange.

Hello! I hope this doesn't count as double posting, but I had posted in the LoR thread asking for advice about choosing my third recommender. I have been heavily involved in two research labs related to what I want to study throughout undergrad, so I know those will be strong recommendations, but I'm having issues thinking of a third person to ask. I'm starting to lean towards asking this linguistics professor that I've had in class before who also runs the linguistics lab meetings that I've presented at. I will also be asking her to serve on my honors thesis committee. However, I got a response back on my thread from someone outside of psych who said that interdisciplinary LoRs are a bad idea in some departments. Does anyone know if this is the case for psych? One of my main interests is first language acquisition, so I feel like it's inherently interdisciplinary. Also, most psych PhD programs I've looked at don't even require that you major in psych, so doesn't that imply they're more open to LoRs from other areas? I ~could~ try to cast around in the psych department for someone else to write a LoR for me, just for the sake of having a psych professor do it, but most of the other professors I've had have retired/left or are part time lecturers whose areas of specialty are way outside my interest area. Seeing as I'm interested in first language acquisition, I feel like an LoR from the linguistics professor who knows me is better than trying to track down the part time clinical adjunct professor I had for developmental psych. But I ~could~ do it, if it's absolutely necessary. Thoughts?

@megabee I sort of had a feeling that might be the case...the unfortunate thing is that of the six other psychology professors I've had class with, two have retired/left (and I didn't know them well enough to try to track them down and ask for a rec), two are only on campus once a week and specialize in clinical, which is not my interest area, and the other two are still on campus but way outside of my interest area. And in the fall I'm only taking class with the professors I've done research with. By contrast, even though I've only had one class with her, I actually know the linguistics professor much better than I expressed in my original post. She runs the linguistics lab meetings that I attend, and I'm going to ask her to serve on my honors thesis committee. I feel like since first language acquisition (my interest area) is inherently interdisciplinary, then perhaps that recommendation would be okay. I could alternatively try to contact one of the clinical professors and ask them for a rec...but I don't want to go into clinical so that doesn't really make sense to me.

I just wanted to update everyone to say that my email was received very well! Maybe it was the CV that did it.

No, your score is fine!

Yeah, I just sent another email out to a professor and ended up including my CV.

@knifesteak In my personal opinion, I wouldn't worry about the GRE anymore. Your time is better spent elsewhere, and if a school passes up your otherwise strong application because of a few points in one section, then that school probably wasn't going to be a good fit for you anyway. I also have a lopsided score (really high verbal and writing, lower quant), and I talked to my undergrad advisor and a friend of mine who's in a grad program now about it, and they both said not to try to retake it. My friend studied for months and ended up getting the exact same score. Her quant score was similar to yours and she still got interviews at half her schools. Social/personality psych isn't the most quantitatively based program either, so I wouldn't stress about it. Best of luck to you.

@H1ppocampus Thanks for the advice! I sent one email and the response wasn't the most encouraging, so I've been delaying sending out more, but I feel like I should get on it.

I think reaching out without attaching a CV is fine. This is an initial email. If they're interested in you they'll ask for more information.

Take all the breaks and stay focused during the math (I had time issues with that section). Don't panic and remind yourself that you can always retake it if you're dissatisfied with your score. Good luck!

The GRE isn't everything!!!! Don't give up because of it!

@philopsych Don't say your research interests match! Let them decide if they think your research interests match...this happened to me with an email I sent. I thought my research interests overlapped more or less perfectly with the professor's, but she did not. I would say something along the lines of "I'm interested in hearing more about the work you're currently doing in your lab and about the graduate program at [university name]." Then if they're interested in you, they'll tell you. This approach also makes it easier to reach out to multiple professors at the same university, while asking to work directly under just one makes reaching out to their colleagues a little awkward.

I personally think that building relationships with professors is one of the most important things you can do in addition to research. Make yourself and your interests known so they can write good letters for you. Then there's the GRE, and a high score on that is always good. I'm a rising senior myself, so I apologize for not being able to give more specific advice.

Hello!! From the professors and current grad students I've talked to, the GRE is a very small component of your grad school application. They just want to make sure that you're reasonably competent. I wouldn't look at that score and think that you're incapable of reading/doing math, so I think it's fine. If you pay $20 you can access the database of grad schools on the American Psychological Association website and see what the average GRE scores are for the schools you're interested in. You should really go more by that and not by the overall percentile. The GRE Psychology Subject Test is borderline useless. The only situation it might make sense to take it is if your undergrad degree is in something other than psych.

I did "well enough" on the GRE my first time...I used the 5 lb Manhattan Prep book of practice problems and basically just drilled math over and over again because I know it's my problem area...it was still my lowest score but passable. I know I'm strong on verbal and writing so I barely studied those and got 93rd percentile for both. From all the professors and current grad students I've talked to, the GRE is not as significant a factor (at least for psych) as the people on GradCafe make it out to be.

Hello! I will be applying to PhD programs for developmental psychology for Fall 2019. I have been heavily involved in two research labs related to my field, so I know I'm going to ask those professors for sure. However, I am not sure who to use for my third recommender. I could either ask this one linguistics professor to show my interdisciplinary interest (one of my interests in language development), but I've only had one class with her. I could also ask my French professor, which is a completely unrelated field, but I've taken French every semester and will be a TA/peer tutor for her this upcoming year (shows work ethic and ability to serve as a TA?). What do you all think?

@cupidcello Yay, another developmental person!! Your research interests overlap a lot with mine. I may end up applying to the linguistics department at the University of Maryland as well (my list is very all over the place currently.)

Thank you! Everyone always says to apply to schools where you're interested in more than one professor, which is good advice, but it makes emailing a bit tricky.

Thanks everyone. This has been really helpful. I have another question. If I'm interested in more than one professor at a particular school, should I tell them that I also contacted their colleague?

@FreakyFoucault Thank you so much for that. That was beautifully written and made me feel a lot better about my own GRE. @topsailpsych I second his point. I honestly think that pouring hours and hours into studying trying to increase a score by 3-4 points is not worth it. I was honestly surprised by how much weight the people on GradCafe seem to give to the GRE. I went to a psychology graduate school information session at my undergrad institution that was run by faculty, and they said the most important aspects of your application are research fit/experience and statement of purpose, followed by recommendations and interview, then GPA, and GRE scores all the way at the bottom. That ranking makes a lot more sense to me. GRE scores may be used as a sorting device in that they want to make sure you have some sort of reading/math ability (which your scores demonstrate), but what gets you into grad school is how you portray yourself as a researcher and whether the faculty can see themselves working with you. I suppose it may be tempting to focus on the GRE because it feels like something you can easily change in a short period of time, but you have to remember that (1) it's actually difficult to improve significantly and more likely that you'll receive the same or lower scores and (2) the test prep companies are really invested in making you think that the GRE is worth more than it is. Good luck with those papers and your next application cycle!

@t_ruth Thank you for your input! There is one professor in particular that I'd really like to email because her research interests line up more or less perfectly with mine and I'm citing her a lot in the honors thesis I'm working on. Should I tell her a little bit about my project in my email, or is it best to keep it more general?