hopefulgrad2019

As others have said, it’s still VERY early. The clinical faculty where I’m a student at didn’t even meet to discuss applications until today and no interview invites will be going out until a couple weeks into January. Try to stay positive through the holidays!! 

As a current grad student, I would say no. A thank you email is enough. 

Reply right away and indicate your strong interest in their program and excitement in being invited but say you’re still in the process of coordinating your schedule and will let them know as soon as possible. Thank them at the beginning and end of the email, etc. 

As another current doctoral student, I agree with the quoted person – a thank you gift to your host 100% won’t affect application decisions; save your money and just send a thank you email afterwards.

As a current grad student, I would say no. A thank you email is enough. 

As a current grad student, I would say no. A thank you email is enough. 

As a current grad student, I would say no. A thank you email is enough. 

Definitely don't. You will find out either way but it looks really unprofessional to reach out imo.

Most masters programs require a minimum 3.0 GPA so I can’t imagine any PhD program would admit that low of a undergrad gpa. Unfortunately, there’s just too many good candidates that have way above that. 

As others have said, it’s still VERY early. The clinical faculty where I’m a student at didn’t even meet to discuss applications until today and no interview invites will be going out until a couple weeks into January. Try to stay positive through the holidays!! 

hahaha feel free to DM! ?

Wait it out. Reaching out will appear pushy  and it’s a very busy time right now at most institutions (the end of finals week/having to get grades in, etc.) 

Most programs will give you a deadline for when you have to accept the interview so of course thank them for the invite and express your excitement but they KNOW people applied multiple places so you don’t need to agree right away. You can wait until closer to the deadline and then if you get other invites, go in person for the one you’re most interested in. This happened to me last year and the program I asked to skype interview for never even followed up with me (after I followed up multiple times) but now I’m a student where I did interview! It’s really important to go in person to your top choice, not just who invited you first. 
 
editing to add you should never schedule then cancel an interview but if you can wait to accept, that’s respectful as long as you give you decision by the deadline. 

Wait it out. Reaching out will appear pushy  and it’s a very busy time right now at most institutions (the end of finals week/having to get grades in, etc.) 

Thank you!! 

Subsequently receives 10 DM's from applicants asking where they study

Here's a thought! Instead of posting a million "Please can the poster from XXX University PM me their POI" messages...  YOU CAN YOU DIRECT MESSAGE THEM YOURSELF! Not trying to be antagonistic. This forum is just getting flooded with these kinds of posts and its personally driving me crazy!

Most programs will give you a deadline for when you have to accept the interview so of course thank them for the invite and express your excitement but they KNOW people applied multiple places so you don’t need to agree right away. You can wait until closer to the deadline and then if you get other invites, go in person for the one you’re most interested in. This happened to me last year and the program I asked to skype interview for never even followed up with me (after I followed up multiple times) but now I’m a student where I did interview! It’s really important to go in person to your top choice, not just who invited you first. 
 
editing to add you should never schedule then cancel an interview but if you can wait to accept, that’s respectful as long as you give you decision by the deadline. 

Most programs will give you a deadline for when you have to accept the interview so of course thank them for the invite and express your excitement but they KNOW people applied multiple places so you don’t need to agree right away. You can wait until closer to the deadline and then if you get other invites, go in person for the one you’re most interested in. This happened to me last year and the program I asked to skype interview for never even followed up with me (after I followed up multiple times) but now I’m a student where I did interview! It’s really important to go in person to your top choice, not just who invited you first. 
 
editing to add you should never schedule then cancel an interview but if you can wait to accept, that’s respectful as long as you give you decision by the deadline. 

I had my first rejection of last cycle early in December (from Georgia) and it was very upsetting and I thought it was setting the tone for the rest of interview season. I’m now a first year at my 2nd choice so it all worked out! I guess I would just try to stay positive and I kept telling myself that the rejections were only making my path clearer. I ended up with two interviews to schools in my top 3 and I’m confident it worked out the way it was supposed to but that doesn’t mean I didn’t SOB when I got my first rejection. Hang in there!!! You got this. 

Most programs will give you a deadline for when you have to accept the interview so of course thank them for the invite and express your excitement but they KNOW people applied multiple places so you don’t need to agree right away. You can wait until closer to the deadline and then if you get other invites, go in person for the one you’re most interested in. This happened to me last year and the program I asked to skype interview for never even followed up with me (after I followed up multiple times) but now I’m a student where I did interview! It’s really important to go in person to your top choice, not just who invited you first. 
 
editing to add you should never schedule then cancel an interview but if you can wait to accept, that’s respectful as long as you give you decision by the deadline. 

And just to chip in - having the other school know that there are multiple interviews is NOT necessarily a bad thing. It partly validates that they were right to invite you because you were obviously a good candidate. 

I would be prepared with a lot of questions for THEM. My best advice would be to never run out of questions to ask. In person interviews are about you evaluating their program, too. A question I got from a faculty who isn’t my PI was the basic “if you have unlimited funding and IRB approval, what experiment would you design?” Most of my other interviews were more me interviewing them by asking questions. This is fairly common. 
 
(this is from last cycle as I’m a current clinical psych 1st year PhD student) 

I had my first rejection of last cycle early in December (from Georgia) and it was very upsetting and I thought it was setting the tone for the rest of interview season. I’m now a first year at my 2nd choice so it all worked out! I guess I would just try to stay positive and I kept telling myself that the rejections were only making my path clearer. I ended up with two interviews to schools in my top 3 and I’m confident it worked out the way it was supposed to but that doesn’t mean I didn’t SOB when I got my first rejection. Hang in there!!! You got this. 

I had my first rejection of last cycle early in December (from Georgia) and it was very upsetting and I thought it was setting the tone for the rest of interview season. I’m now a first year at my 2nd choice so it all worked out! I guess I would just try to stay positive and I kept telling myself that the rejections were only making my path clearer. I ended up with two interviews to schools in my top 3 and I’m confident it worked out the way it was supposed to but that doesn’t mean I didn’t SOB when I got my first rejection. Hang in there!!! You got this.