Katie B

I was at work (a residential treatment center for at-risk and adjudicated youth) and had to contain my excitement! It may have been plan B, but I'm going to grad school guys!

I have an unofficial offer from a program and I would like to respond with my excitement/get an update on approval from the dean (the only thing stopping the offer from being official), but I don't want my excitement to come off as my accepting the offer if it comes because I still have one more interview to go. Does anyone have advice on this? Should I disclose the last interview?

Good luck, I hope it goes in your favor! Which is your top choice?

TGC wouldn't let me react anymore today, but I do love this post and thank you! I'm coming off a gap year (graduated May 2018) where I worked full time gaining clinical experience and I definitely had my heart set on a PhD, but I do hope that getting a master's first will allow me to garner more research experience to make me more competitive when I eventually reapply!

So I'm currently sitting on a flight to an interview with a program I don't think I'll go to even if accepted due to financial constraints (I accepted the interview due to not having heard back from my only other interview) and guess who just read their official rejection letter from their only other PhD interview this application cycle? Yeah, this chick. I do have a master's program interview next month and I'm waiting to hear from another master's program, but after spending my entire academic career as an accelerated/ highly lauded student with professors always telling me how far I would go and how much I would succeed I'm finding that these numerous rejections are affecting my self-worth. Has anyone else struggled with this? Being the former "gifted student" now facing the reality of rejections? Of course I expected multiple rejections, but it feels like I may be facing 7/7 PhD rejections and that wasn't....

Not a PhD interview, but a Master's and clinical nonetheless! School: University of Houston- Clear Lake Type: M.A. of Clinical Psych Date of Invite: 2/15/19 Type of Invite: Email Interview Dates: They offer four slots: March 6th, 7th, 21st, or 22nd. Due to my work schedule I'll be attending one of the later two slots! Does anyone have any advice on a Master's interview vs a PhD? The first thing I've noticed is that the timing is massively different, the doctoral is an entire day where the time slots for the masters are only 4 hours. Any thoughts?

Thanks! It has been great clinical experience, but research is more my focus and you're right that PhDs want that! I'm thinking if I have to move I may consider the Houston area since I have an SO to consider. Thank you! This is great advice! I have some Python experience so I will make sure I include that.

No, I graduated in May 2018 and I'm currently working as a mental health tech at an inpatient residential facility for adolescents because I wanted to get some clinical experience. My research interests are actually in the trauma/PTSD/neuro field, though more as a result of early life adversity rather than military encounters, but I have certainly thought about the possibility of working in at a VA. However, I live in the middle of nowhere Indiana (my undergraduate school is 5.5 hours away) where the opportunities for psychological research are nearly nonexistent so a concern of mine is being forced to move for a position and not being able to support myself.

So it's looking like I'm not going to get into a PhD program this year and I am trying to shift into Plan B mode. I've applied to a couple masters programs that I haven't heard from yet, but I'm trying to prepare myself in case that doesn't go my way either as I'm feeling rather crushed by this entire experience. I honestly believe what held me back this year was trouble on the Quant GRE and lack of research in my specific field of interest (I did have 3 years of experience in undergrad, 2 projects in which I was the PI and 1 year of being a RA with 3 presentations, but no publications). Thus, I'm reaching out to you lovely people on Grad Cafe for advice on post-Bacc research positions. Do any of you have them? How did you find one? Are they paid? Did you have to move? Were you able to find one in your area of interest? Etc. If anyone has any advice for me, I'd really appreciate it because this first round of applications has been brutal for me and I'd like to have a better plan to soothe my anxiety!

I was going to suggest U of Houston, Sam Houston State, and Texas A&M as well! Texas A&M is heavily involved with Brazos County Corrections Department and they do many of the assessments for the county. Dr. Edens at Texas A&M is the main professor with forensic research interests and he's a great individual (I interviewed with him while I was interviewing at TAMU).

Me too please!!

I think you would be okay, but if you want to follow the example of @clinkingrefresh it certainly won't hurt!

What kind of piercing? Someone in my interview group had a stud in her nose and no one batted an eye!

This was one of my favorites from my daily perusal of the clinical psych results: Generic mass email. 2 out of 3 rejections so far, gonna throw myself a failure party if I get a 3rd. You guys are invited. Bring pizza. Don't worry dude, I'll get some pizza and liquor. You don't need Northwestern anyway.

School: Pacific University Type: PhD Date of invite: 1/30/19 Type of invite: Email from the graduate director Interview date(s): 2/23 with an informal meet and greet dinner the night before Finally I got another invite! My PI is TL.

@TiredOfApps and @dancedementia, thank you both for the information. I'll be calling them today after work!

Transitioning from the partner discussion (though I can completely relate as my long-distance boyfriend lives in Texas), my stress comes from the fear that I won't get accepted anywhere this cycle. I've only had 1 interview and I feel it went well, but all of us are highly qualified and I'm competing against 5 others! Otherwise, I have two confirmed rejections and two presumed which means that I'm at 4/9 rejections. I applied to a couple master's programs as backups, but I haven't heard from those programs either and with each passing day my heart is sinking lower. I am a ball of pure anxiety in this waiting process.

Did they by chance say that they were done sending interviews or if any POIs still had decisions to make? Given that so many invites went up today and I received nothing, I'm beginning to switch over into presumed rejection mode...

I'm in this group with you all! @dancedementia said they had emailed a couple weeks ago and were told that interview invites would start going out today so hopefully we all hear soon!

Thank you!

Has anyone heard from Suffolk University in Boston?

It's unfortunate for both of us. I understand that many programs may wait until after interviews/ acceptances have been sent out to officially notify applicants about rejections, if they do at all, but some clarity for those of us wondering and waiting would be appreciated. Best of luck to you and hopefully we hear something from some of our schools soon!

For those of you who received invites from Northern Illinois (NIU), did the emails say anything about them being done sending out invites? I've only seen 5 interview postings on the results page, but considering it's now past the deadline I'm starting to switch into presumed rejection mode sadly...

I haven't had my interview yet (it's this Friday at Texas A&M), but speaking as someone who felt they wouldn't be getting any interviews this round due to less-than-stellar GRE scores, I would like to say that it's my research fit with my POI and my letters of rec that have helped me land at least one interview thus far! It's not that you're not qualified, that's the exact problem actually, this field is filled with thousands of highly qualified individuals all vying for very few spots. Even if something happens and you don't get accepted this round, don't lose hope, you deserve to be here just as much as everyone else does.

Thanks for the info on this! Was starting to get nervous that no one had heard anything from them!