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You would be surprised. What I mean is seeming interested, asking lots of questions, not being on your phone, professional/polite, appropriate attire, etc. My PI likes to have people come in for unofficial interviews first because it is more laid-back but it should still be treated as a formal interview.

Also, please know that any communication with the PI or anyone in their lab is fair game for us to be making assumptions of how you would fit into our lab. As unfortunate as it is, it really means that you need to be on for any contact whether it’s an email/unofficial interview/interview/etc. My best advice is to be professional/polite through this entire process. Like I said earlier, I am happy to answer questions.

There is a lot of variability in when PIs start to look at applications. For example, I talked to my PI yesterday and he hadn’t even gotten the applications from the administrator yet. So don’t start worrying too much yet!

Just be honest with them. It isn’t something you can control and they will be understanding. They will likely try to set something up after you feel better.

I would reccommend this. A lot can change since you’ve talked to them last, so my PI usually wants to hear from applicants then forwards the email to us. We usually thank the applicant as a lab for their interest and offer to answer any questions they have.

Definitely. Already submitted, nothing you can do about it now.

Don’t worry, mistakes happen. Technically not even incorrect as health psych is a type of clinical psych. Truthfully probably don’t want to go to a site that would reject based on that. Plus a lot of people read through SOP so quickly that they probably won’t notice. You’ll be fine.

Hi All, First of all, congratulations on getting to this point. I see that many of you are nervous, but try to take time for self care and make sure that you aren’t too fixated on this process. It is truly the first step of many (believe me, I’m currently a clinical student waiting for internship interview invitations). Try to take everything in but don’t focus too much on any one thing, there will be rejection and frustration, but eventually everything will work out. I am happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. I have interviewed a lot of grad students for our program. Please feel free to message me or reply to this post. I wish you all the best of luck.