spookycat

I agree with Psyhopeful that it definitely depends on your personality. On the one hand, if you think that you can handle someone who's very blunt about things, I think it won't be a huge issue - especially because to some extent, you can limit interactions with your advisor according to your own needs. Also important to note that in the graduate school process there are lots of reworks and revisions being made to projects/proposals/papers, and sometimes being blunt is better than someone sugar coating. (Note: that definitely does not mean it's easy to handle blunt critiques, and I could see how some people could get overwhelmed by that process). On the other hand, this is someone you'll be working with for years (at least 4 if you're talking about a clinical PhD). While you may be fully capable of handling this personality and taking harsh critiques, you have to decide if you want to put up with that. I interviewed with a faculty member who's behavior really rubbed me the wrong way, and I personally knew that I could not handle interacting with them periodically for the next 4-5 years of my life, especially because they would be the main resource for me whenever I had questions/issues. Hopefully things go well with the other school! Good luck to you whatever you choose!

Keep the fellowship in mind, but also try to keep an open mind about the next interview! I was not excited about the location of one program which had a crazy low cost of living, and when I went I was absolutely and completely in love with the program and suddenly the location wasn't so bad. I don't have children but money is a huge factor for me as well, and being able to rent a full house for the price of a crappy apartment in my hometown (or a box in one of the big cities) is just something that I couldn't pass up. Not saying that you should choose a program you don't love, but try to really explore the positives about the cheaper city - there are some major perks to living in smaller cities beyond just cost of living.

School: East Tennessee State University Concentration: Clinical Psychology Type: PhD Date of acceptance: 02/27/19 Notified by: Called by admissions office Released my spot, hopefully the next person in line gets a call soon! Feel free to PM for POI initials

I'm in the exact same boat. I was like "you know what, moving and starting a graduate program isn't enough, let's add a wedding to this mix!"

This is crazy! I had a similar situation where I had a school invite me to an interview a week early and I immediately said I couldn't afford it, but they were very understanding and let me do a skype interview with no issues. I completely understand why you would push for it if it's your top school, however. I'm not sure how they can expect you to pay for everything.. Maybe see if there's AirBnBs in the area? Sometimes you can get a pretty good deal on there. Not to make assumptions, but does this school have good funding for their program in general? I'm very surprised to hear that they are giving you such short notice and then not offering any help, even if it's just to stay with a grad student on their couch or something.

I interviewed and my POI emailed me Friday to say they had accepted another applicant. I have a feeling that this process might be a lot like their interview invite process where it was entirely dependent on the professor when they reach out. I had sent my POI a "thank you" email and they replied to that with the news, so maybe if you haven't reached out that'd be a good way to get some news faster? Just an idea! Good luck to you!

I applied to work with Dr. Leffingwell! I honestly didn't really know much about the program going into that interview, but I left completely in love. I found myself comparing every other program to them and thinking about that program while I was in other interviews, lol. Good luck to you! The marathon is almost over (thank god)!

Accepted my offer at Oklahoma State University! Completely over the moon, this program was everything I didn't know I was looking for and is just such a good fit for me!

Thank you for the advice, this was a huge hangup on the issue overall - $200 is a huge chunk of cash after everything I've spent on this process, it's money I could really use for just about anything other than a rental car lol. I did end up canceling the interview, I feel guilty but at the end of the day it's what is best for me and I hope that the professor can understand that. This process is completely insane, and by March both my mind and my wallet are completely used up hahaha

In need of advice! So I have one remaining interview, and after attending other interviews and learning more about what to look for in potential programs, I have decided this program is not a good fit for me, and I don't want to go to the interview. I know the advice most times is to go anyways and see if my opinions change, but this school has some serious red flags that are coming up that I just can't imagine they can explain away at an interview. The problem is, the interview is in 4 days, and they arranged for me to stay with a graduate student while I was there. In addition, I could only afford to fly into a larger airport about 2 hours away, and thus will have to pay for a rental car and drive two hours to and from the interview just to get to my flights. Although my flights are nonrefundable, I could still save probably $200 by not renting a car, not to mention I could instead be at my job and not have to take more unpaid vacation time. I know this sounds very ungrateful, but this whole process has been so expensive and emotionally taxing, that I don't know if I should waste my time or theirs by attending the interview. I am worried that to cancel so last minute so rude that it will damage my reputation moving forward as a professional. Money and (much needed) R&R are obviously not worth this. If anyone can give me some advice, I'd really really appreciate it!

I would give at least one kidney to have this process just be over. The burnout is so real.

Quick rant here. Had an interview at what was once my top program, and really felt like the POI didn't value my time at all. We had very short formal interviews as it was, and they filled a good portion with fairly irrelevant topics and then spent the rest of the time grilling me, so that I was only able to ask them one single question. Then they were not present at what was supposed to be a lab-wide meeting, so none of the applicants got the extra hour and a half to talk to them that all other applicants had with their POI. We had an informal dinner later with the graduate students, but it was a very casual environment and the professor didn't seem to want to talk about actual formalities of the program/their lab, and kept the conversation casual. In the end, I feel like I know absolutely nothing about this professor as a potential mentor, albeit a lot about their personality outside of a professional environment. I was very frustrated leaving that interview, as I had spent a lot of money and a lot of time coming to their program only to learn next to nothing about it from the POI, and to essentially have to piece it together from other people who worked with them. I think it's important to know what a POI is like outside of the office, but honestly if I had to pick one I'd rather know what they are like as a mentor than as a "friend".

In my experience, one of the big key questions (that has been mentioned on this site before, I'm sure) is - if you had all the funding in the world, what research would you conduct right now? I don't think you need to have recruitment plans or any crazy specifics about measurements, but be able to have a clear "plan" of what you would study. This shows the faculty members that you've been thinking about SPECIFIC research as opposed to just general topics of interest or just spitting back studies that the POI has already conducted. This is a tough question, and one that is extremely hard to answer on the spot if you haven't prepped for it. This is a really great time for the POIs to measure whether your research interests align with areas they are interested in going, and I think it can spark their interest if you have ideas that they hadn't considered.

School: Oklahoma State University Concentration: Clinical Psychology Type: PhD Date of acceptance: Feb 5th Notified by: Emailed from the department with POI cc'd. This is my second round of applications, and after not hearing anything from a single school last year, this seems so surreal!

School: Washington State University (Pullman) Program: Clinical Psych PhD Method of Notification: Email from POI extending offer to interview Interview Date: March 1st I was honestly really surprised, I'd heard rumors that all invites were out - but maybe that just means I was waitlisted? Either way, I'm thrilled. Feel free to DM for POI!