rainydaychai

Simon Fraser University - Clinical Psychology PhD!  Just formally accepted my offer this morning.

Simon Fraser University - Clinical Psychology PhD!  Just formally accepted my offer this morning.

Hey there, I was actually in an extremely similar situation last year. I came close to admission into a few fully funded Clinical PhD programs but ultimately only received an admission offer from a partially funded Clinical PhD program in the US. As I'm Canadian, the out-of-state tuition would have been just under $20k each year after the "partial funding" was applied. 
Personally, after some thought I released the offer as I did not want to go into debt for my graduate studies. Instead of applying to Masters programs (Canada doesn't have many - or any? - so it would have been a similar situation, paying out-of-state tuition for an American program), I secured a research coordinator position within my subfield of psych (forensic) and was actually able to make money while gaining experience the past year!  I tried again this application cycle and was offered admission to one of my top program picks - it's not funded, but as it's a Canadian university, tuition is much much cheaper and the TA/RA ships offered more than cover it. Many of the faculty I interviewed with this year cited my current position as one of the stronger aspects of my application.
As for factors I considered, the financial aspect was a huge one - it would have totaled roughly $100k USD of debt after I graduated the program I was accepted to last year and I wasn't willing to do that to myself or my partner. It was also one of my last picks, so if I had interviewed and loved it, it may have been a different story. I might have been much more willing to shell out $$ for a top pick program. Keeping in mind that this is my own experience and there may be many other aspects to your situation that I don't know about, have you considered research or lab coordinator jobs over a Masters? You can often earn the same amount of publications/conference presentations/other experiences, especially if you work for 2+ years (same duration as a Masters). The only situation that I have generally heard a Masters is better in is if you have scant research experience, as it may be harder to secure a coordinator position with very little past research experience.
Feel free to DM me if you have any questions or want to talk more!

I think that's it for this cycle for me. There's not really a point to this post other than maybe some kind of closure? I've checked this site countless times a day for so many months, but there's no need anymore, not right now anyway. But, I did want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my questions and everyone who has been so inspirational and kind. You all made my first process a little bit easier, so thank you. Might I even dare to say that I'll miss checking this site for awhile. Thank you all, please keep pushing, I am sincerely SO proud of all of you on this site. Go get those degrees! 

Hey there, I was actually in an extremely similar situation last year. I came close to admission into a few fully funded Clinical PhD programs but ultimately only received an admission offer from a partially funded Clinical PhD program in the US. As I'm Canadian, the out-of-state tuition would have been just under $20k each year after the "partial funding" was applied. 
Personally, after some thought I released the offer as I did not want to go into debt for my graduate studies. Instead of applying to Masters programs (Canada doesn't have many - or any? - so it would have been a similar situation, paying out-of-state tuition for an American program), I secured a research coordinator position within my subfield of psych (forensic) and was actually able to make money while gaining experience the past year!  I tried again this application cycle and was offered admission to one of my top program picks - it's not funded, but as it's a Canadian university, tuition is much much cheaper and the TA/RA ships offered more than cover it. Many of the faculty I interviewed with this year cited my current position as one of the stronger aspects of my application.
As for factors I considered, the financial aspect was a huge one - it would have totaled roughly $100k USD of debt after I graduated the program I was accepted to last year and I wasn't willing to do that to myself or my partner. It was also one of my last picks, so if I had interviewed and loved it, it may have been a different story. I might have been much more willing to shell out $$ for a top pick program. Keeping in mind that this is my own experience and there may be many other aspects to your situation that I don't know about, have you considered research or lab coordinator jobs over a Masters? You can often earn the same amount of publications/conference presentations/other experiences, especially if you work for 2+ years (same duration as a Masters). The only situation that I have generally heard a Masters is better in is if you have scant research experience, as it may be harder to secure a coordinator position with very little past research experience.
Feel free to DM me if you have any questions or want to talk more!

Congratulations to everyone! We can now finally sleep in peace at night.
Can't believe that I will have the chance to post on this thread.. 
It was really a make or break situation for me as I student visa is expiring and I will have to fly back to the US if I were to apply again next year, which I won't be able to afford because the airfare is freaking expensive. There's a good chance that I might just have to give up my dream and pursue something else if I didn't get in this year.
I've really came a long way from a rural area of a small country in South East Asia where I haven't spoken English until I was in college. First generation college student and my grandmother didn't even really understand me when I told her about my acceptance this morning. But here I am! 9000 miles away from family and friends but I am so thankful for all the unconditional support from them! Finally I got the chance to make my dream come true!
I'll definitely go back to my country to spend time with my family before I'm stuck in the US for the next 5,6 years lol. I'll maybe come back around July just to deal with the moving, housing and car! Meanwhile, I'll let the good news sink in because I'm still having a hard time believing all of this!
Congrats again to all of you who made it! It was a really hard and torturing process and I still feel like an impostor! 
 

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I am honestly just feeling so grateful that I can even post on this thread. A huge congrats to everyone, we all know what a huge accomplishment this is!  
I am currently working full time as a lab coordinator so will have to stay in the position until the end of July, but I intend to savor the feeling of free evenings and weekends until the fall. As the university I am 99% attending doesn't start until September, I am planning on taking all of August off to spend time with family, find and set up a new apartment, potentially get a pet, and take a few little vacations. While it is a trip for a conference, I am going to Poland in June and am excited to explore that new area of the world.
Oh yeah, and I am getting married spring of 2021 (at the end of my first year of grad school - yes, I'm insane) so after the year mark passes, I intend to get as much of that planning out of the way as possible before school starts!

I have received an official offer from SFU via email! Very excited!! Feel free to message me

So much yes. As you said, I know they are trying to be cordial, but receiving these same sentiments multiple times last application cycle while getting no offers was pretty crushing. I have already promised to myself to never say this to an applicant if I'm ever a prof. ?

So much yes. As you said, I know they are trying to be cordial, but receiving these same sentiments multiple times last application cycle while getting no offers was pretty crushing. I have already promised to myself to never say this to an applicant if I'm ever a prof. ?

So much yes. As you said, I know they are trying to be cordial, but receiving these same sentiments multiple times last application cycle while getting no offers was pretty crushing. I have already promised to myself to never say this to an applicant if I'm ever a prof. ?

So much yes. As you said, I know they are trying to be cordial, but receiving these same sentiments multiple times last application cycle while getting no offers was pretty crushing. I have already promised to myself to never say this to an applicant if I'm ever a prof. ?

I’ve officially accepted my offer to Calgary!
Maybe it’s too early for this, but I would love to connect with any incoming U of C students for the Msc Counselling program! 

Is anyone else feverishly checking their application status portals for the official letter after receiving an acceptance via email?
 
It still hasn’t hit me yet lol

School: Sam Houston State University
Type of Program: Clinical Psychology, PhD
Acceptance Date: 2/11/2020
POI: JA
I was waiting to post until I heard back from the rest of my programs, but I have officially accepted the position. Super excited, if anyone else will be attending Sam next year and wants to connect before the fall feel free to DM me!

This seriously just blows. I don't understand this from POIs, really. I mean you can always weed out match with candidates from prelim Skype interviews. Why do they have to have 7+ people incur the expenses of travelling, missing work/school and everything else, when you only have one spot? It just seems excessive to me and not really aware of their own privilege. It also gets the hopes up of all these great applicants, and it makes it harder to choose for the POI.

School: Columbia University 
Type of Program: Counseling Psychology PhD
Acceptance Date: 2/14/20
POI: BV
 
Dreams. Come. True. 

I did receive an email from my POI asking to set up a time to call (at 10 pm! and he called right after when I said I was free, too!!) but he explained it as a special circumstance since he was overseas. He mentioned he would have cold called if it was during work hours.

Last week I had the pure happiness of receiving an unofficial offer from the SFU Clinical Psych PhD program!!  As it seems that no other unofficial offers have gone out from SFU yet, I wanted to update that they should be going out any day now - I have an existing relationship with one of the faculty who advocated for my admission, which explains why I was notified early. Feel free to DM with any questions!

Congrats!  It's even more exciting when the official letter comes.