MichaelMonroe

I committed to school A yesterday!

That's true that ~30% isn't amazing, but that's people getting TT right after graduation, not overall. I think that school B's immediate hire rate is even lower.

It really is. I was just blown away by the organization of the program for school 2, and by how organized the PI was.

Help me decide: I need you guys to tell me I'm making the right decision. I've got 4 acceptances, but only 2 'real contenders' School A: Going into it this was my top choice 100%. Developmental Psychology Program The research fit is 80% overlap so I've got a lot in common but I'm not just copying my PI. I've got access to my very hard to come by population of interest. Location is perfect. Medium sized city, about 2hr flight from home. (I'm currently an 8hr flight from home). Downsides: The PI is very inexperienced. I'd be their very first ever grad student. Ever. It's a strong program (R1) but most people go to a post-doc before becoming a professor. (I know that's common) School B: I didn't even consider this school before visiting/talking to the PI. HDFS program The research fit is 60%, a decent overlap, but not as exciting as the other school. I've got access to my population of interest, but with adolescents not my ideal age group. The school has a mega emphasis on professional development. A lot of grant writing practice, certificate options in quant methods, a lecturing certificate, the ability to teach your own class, etc. (R1 university as well) ~30% of graduates go immediately into a TT position. Two of the 5th year grad students I talked to said that they had multiple TT job offers and were able to be picky with which ones they selected. The PI is very experienced, but not 'old' or slowing down by any means. PI essentially said if I want publications/want to work for them, I'll get them. Downsides: I HATE the location. I think I will be miserable there. The university is located in a tiny town and there's nothing to do there, most people complain about how boring it is. Grad students say they hate living there. It's in a state that would still have me at an 8hr flight from home. Grad students have talked about being hyper-competitive and how they feel like they don't support each other. After all of this I'm still leaning towards school A, but I feel less confident in my career trajectory than before. I also feel like I will need to be more assertive with the PI and explicitly tell him what I need as far as mentoring goes. At the same time, I seriously don't think I'll thrive in the location of school B. The stipend is roughly the same for both schools when COL is accounted for.

Did you have an interview at UMD? I interviewed and I think I must be waitlisted because I know at least one person got accepted, but I haven't heard anything. [Sorry you didn't get in!!]

That's me! I'm not sure about the grant. I had another phone interview after the in person interivew and at that time he reiterated that he was expecting 2 students.

I got into my top choice this morning!

My interview yesterday went really well I thought! But now I'm more anxious than I've ever been, he's invited 4 people here for 2 spots and the other applicants are so nice and deserving. I really really really want to get in, but I also want the other three to be a part of my cohort. He said we should know in a few weeks which of us is getting in, but it's so hard to wait.

I go to undergrad at the University of Rochester and I just received an email about the most recent brown bag event on Friday that states people who are housing psych interviewees should bring them along. I'm out of town for my own interviews right now, but I think that means their interviews must be this weekend. I realize that doesn't directly answer your question, but I'm guessing it means a no for you.

I had one last weekend, my top choice is this weekend, ones the next weekend (flight's booked so I'm locked n loaded no matter what for that one) and the one I'm thinking of backing out of isn't until Feb 22. I'm definitely with you on the open minded-ness aspect and I personally was leaning towards attending no matter what, but the top choice one is like a 99% fit with my research interests where as the next choice down would be 50% fit just to give an idea. So unless the top choice PI isn't clicking with me I'm pretty set on going. Knowing that, most of my co-workers (also in dev psy, some are also applying right now) are telling me to decline since it's kind of a dick move to the school and to other potential applicants.

Question: So I've been offered a lot of interviews and I've accepted invitations to visit each program, but my interview at my top choice program is this weekend. If I get offered a spot at this program I will 100% be going there. So hypothetically if I receive an acceptance sometime next week should I be cancelling my other interviews or should I attend anyway? On one hand I feel like it's rude to accept an interview offer and then change my mind, but on the other hand the school can use the money they would spend on me flying someone else out to visit the program. I really like the PIs from the other programs and I want to keep them as professional contacts no matter what, I just know that my top choice program is a better research fit than the others.

I was invited for my UMD-College Park Interview around the first of the year, the interview dates are Feb 7-8. Sorry guys....

I'm doing that as well. Luckily I moved my classes to be only MW to avoid missing any and I got a lot done for my thesis last semester. So it's mostly lab time I'm worried about.

Ugh I'm in a bit of a predicament. I've got interviews every weekend from the 24th of Jan - the 22nd of Feb and it's making me miss a lot of lab time. I normally work 18-20hrs a week and this will cut my time down a lot. I've also been invited to an 'accepted students day' at UConn on Feb 28th and I'm getting a lot of pressure from them to RSVP. It doesn't conflict with any of my interview times but it's only an 'okay' option for me so I'm hesitant to take more time off if I'm not going to accept the offer anyway. I wanted to wait until after I've heard a decision from my first choice, which I will be interviewing for Feb 1st, to RSVP one way or the other, but they're really wanting an answer by Jan 24th. So idk what to do. I don't want to not go and have it be my only acceptance.

Got an interview at UNCG! It's HDFS though, not Developmental Psych.

I applied to UConn's HDFS program, not Dev. I got an acceptance without an interview, but I did have an email correspondence with the PI before applying. The email invited me to "Graduate Student Weekend" from Feb 28- March 2, it sounded like a recruitment event to sell me on the program and show me the area, more than an interview.

What program is this for? I applied to UNCG for HDFS but I know most people on here are Clinical.

I got my first acceptance! UConn is my 4-5 choice so I probably won't go unless my interviews go really badly, but still I'm so much more relaxed now!

I didn't apply to the HDFS program but I just had skype interview for the Developmental Psych program on Saturday. I'm thinking that means formal invites will go out in the next week or so, so probably don't worry yet.

I agree. UMD is actually one of my last choices anyways, I was mostly just wanting to practice and I also didn't want to pass up any opportunties. Thanks for the words of support!

She seemed pretty positive with her responses to my answers, she definitely asked some hard ones that other schools didn't (Who trained your PI on the Strange Situation), but she didn't provide an extensive amount of feeback one way or another. I also got weird vibes when I emailed her before submitting my application, it was very short and didn't really leave room for questions then either, where as other PIs said something along the lines of "don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions" so maybe that's just her style? She did say that she may reach out to me to speak again at a later date (Interview weekend invite?) or I could schedule a call to ask her questions. So it was like this is her call to ask her stuff, if I want to ask her anything I need to set that up myself. Everything about my interactions with her has been kind of odd.

Anyone have a skype/phone interview where they didn't leave time for you to ask them questions? I just got done interviewing with UMD and they said they had 30 minutes to talk, asked me questions for 30 minutes and then said goodbye, so weird. I've had 3 other interviews and they all asked if I had any questions at the end. Kinda thinking it means she's not going to offer me an in-person interview.

Bummer. Thanks! Good luck on all your interviews!

Question time!! I've received an interview offer with Tufts! This is my second interview offer so far, and I'm pretty sure I'll accept. It's a solid middle choice for me, probably #5 out of 8 that I applied to. For the interview, they requested that I list 3-4 PIs that I want to interview with while I'm there. I only listed 2 PIs that I'm interested in on my application and those two are the ones I intended to work with, there is a 3rd that is a very loose fit with my interests, but I honestly don't know much about her and I would need to do some extra research before the interview (I have time). Should I list all three because I'm there anyway and why not, or just the two because 1) I only listed two in my application and 2) Interviewing with the third member has a high potential to be a waste of both of our time.

Is that Missouri state or Mizzou? I ask because Mizzou is my second choice and I haven't heard anything from them yet.