imonfire98

My advice to first year Graduate Students: Change your mind and turn around. Don't go to grad school!

As a current grad student, enjoy the time you have for you will never see its like again. 

I'm excited about graduate school, but I'm already starting to feel some extreme post-college sadness. I graduate in June. I love my undergrad institution to piece. I've already cried about it twice last weekend.
I also wish my family understood anything about academia...

An alternative account. I emailed the place I was waitlisted on Tuesday. Then, they emailed me back to schedule an interview for Wednesday (they mentioned in the email that they were glad I reached out and showed I was still interested) and we had the interview. Wednesday night I was accepted. So moral of the story, I dont think there's any harm in reaching out now to ask about your status and let them know if you have the intention to go there if you get off the waitlist.

I messaged you!

I'll be attending the University of Oregon, also!

I got the unofficial email, but I'm still waiting on the official letter from the graduate school. Once that comes, I will accept my offer from Wake Forest wooo!!! 

Good luck everyone!  I think those of you with lots of schools on your list are making a good call! I started with 24-25 schools on my list and cut down to 15 and eventually just applied to 12 during the application process. It's way easier to cut rather than add schools! 

So happy to report that I received a generous funding package and will officially be heading to University of Nebraska-Lincoln!

I got off the waitlist at last!! I received the offer from my dream school on April 12th, right before the April 15th deadline. It is kind of hard to refuse the professor who gave me the offer from another school. Anyway, always have faith and do not give up on hope!! Good luck with everyone else!

I will also be attending Miami University's PhD program  PM me if you want to connect!

This can be about anything. Research, school, life in general? What were the learning curves, or learning moments? LAY IT OUT!

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!

my advice to you is to find mentorship. you still have over a year to get involved in a psychology lab at your university. (it doesn't have to be in your desired research area, but it has to be in a productive lab and a lab that provides opportunities for undergrads, so read the RA job descriptions before joining a lab. Keep in mind that productiveness is not all about making posters and publications but it also involves gaining hands-on experience like managing studies, running in-lab studies, programming qualtrics, supervised statistics experience, lit searches and reviews, hypothesis testing, even learning research jargon, etc. ALL OF THIS WILL BE REFLECTED IN YOUR CV AND PERSONAL STATEMENT. iT WILL BE NATURAL AND FLOW EASILY IF YOU HAVE THE RESEARCH EXPERIENCE.)
Build a trust relationship with your PI (the lab owner basically an) and the grad students and share your intentions with them. They will tell you that it is hard, almost impossible, etc (this is very true as it is very competitive), but if you decide to try and apply straight out of undergrad, they will ideally provide directions, and help you. this means helping you read your personal statement, do mock interviews with you, provide legitimate do's and don'ts of the process.  this is 10x better than taking advice from the internet. trust me!  it is shocking what a lot of people do during applications that are a huge NO-NOs and a red flag. remember that these people see applications come in every year and are ideally involved in one way or another in the process. 
Also, if you are going into a Ph.D. program, make sure you are interested in research and joining a good research lab will help give you an idea of what it is like. PhDs are usually 6-year commitments and can be longer if you decide to do a fellowship and go into academia. Otherwise, becoming an LMHC might just do well for you if you can afford it. I know some schools have programs were they cover your tuition but you have to sign a 2 - 5-year work commitment in underserved areas. This is not to say that you cannot go get a PhD if you just want to practice because you definitely can but you have to do a ton of research (which you might hate/or might cause you to drop out which is why programs are wary of admitting people who do not like research because they are losing an investment) even if it is a scientist-practitioner model.
Mentorship is great and it does require a miracle to get into a Ph.D. program straight from undergrad! All in all, stay informed, do a lot of personal research!

This can be about anything. Research, school, life in general? What were the learning curves, or learning moments? LAY IT OUT!

This can be about anything. Research, school, life in general? What were the learning curves, or learning moments? LAY IT OUT!

I think that still counts as generalizing people based on their nationality. You wouldn't really be able to find out if you can get along with that person unless you actually meet them. 

I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, but I'm curious to know what's been your experience with international students as roommates? I could potentially be sharing a place with a student from China and I've heard mixed messages regarding their...residential upkeep tendencies... Should I be concerned?

I'm pro roommate, but it's also because I'm bad at living alone. Although I do extensive 'interviews' on similar lifestyles or at least similar values and have been pretty OK on finding people similar to me. I do live with other PhDs though, preferably other incoming people in a cohort can be a good option/and or people already in the department/ or maybe through someone you know like that.

DO get an individual lease if possible though and do make some sort of agreements/rules in general. 

Living along can cost almost twice as much as living with a roommate. Whether it's worth that cost is up to you.
Unlike Crescenza, I lived well with roommates throughout college. If you decide to live with them, I would look for an apartment complex that offers independent leases (i.e. they lease the bedrooms to each of you separately, as opposed to leasing the whole place to all of you collectively). That way, if someone skips out, you're not on the hook for the rent. And if worse comes to worst and you need to sublet, do NOT use AirBNB. Find someone in a local sublet Facebook group or on Craigslist. It's still risky, but I've done it multiple times with success.
Anyway, I'd recommend roommates. Yes, they can be pesky, but learning to live with people outside my family was good for my personal growth. Meet your roommates before move-in (ideally pick them yourself, even if you're picking someone online), set clear boundaries, and be willing to communicate.

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!

Nothing short of a miracle! I will be joining the clinical psych program at Miami University!