voluntconvertere

I didn’t post to discourage people from applying this cycle entirely, only to bring awareness to a trend and offer a very worrying example which I am almost certain is not the only one. I really hope my post encourages others to more thoroughly evaluate programs and think critically about how they are operating. Full disclosure: I am not in an ideal financial situation so the idea of paying lots of money to have my application tossed out really didn’t sit well with me and I wanted to know what my chances actually are. Also finding out if it’s a worthy investment for potentially 7 years of my life. I heard it from a student going on internship, they also went to my undergrad so I think having that in common helped them to open up. My advice for getting this kind of information is to contact a potential PI and ask for current grad student contact information they may be willing to share, or look at their pubs and contact grad students that are co-authors, or if the program has an updated website look on the lab page and reach out to lab members directly. I asked to chat over zoom, and asked for honest answers to questions like “what is the culture like their?” “How did the department respond to COVID? To the BLM protests and the violence against AAPI?” “Is diversity discussed openly or is there a ‘diversity day’ in classes?” “What are things you would like to change?” “What are things that are changing? How do you think this will impact the program?” “How does admin communicate with students? With faculty?” “Did you feel prepared for practicum? Internship?” “What were classes like?” “We’re you able to take the classes you wanted to?” “How did the PI/other faculty/ admin handle conflicts?” “Have students left the program? Was this related to the program or other life events? How supportive was the PI/admin?” etc. Another thing I have found to be helpful is looking into syllabi, when the classes are offered and how that maps on to the programs of study. Again, hope this helps others interested in applying to think critically about the programs we are applying to and maybe save some time and money.

Those intending to apply this cycle: there is trouble brewing in a lot of departments right now. I strongly encourage getting in touch with grad students for honest opinions if you can. Those who have recently graduated if possible since they can’t face retaliation. I’ll post an example. I have had contact with a student who just graduated from an R02 because I was interested in applying to the program. I was surprised how strongly it was discouraged by the student. The reasons they gave: - The DH and DCT are highly criticized for their handling of the COVID pandemic and responses to racial tensions. - Both the DH and DCT have openly lied to current students and applicants. - DH is being relocated outside of the department. - DCT is being asked to leave because they were holding up TLLPs, annual reviews, grades, supervision, basically everything, and not responding to students and engaging in some retaliation. - Classes are being dropped after students are enrolled. Apparently this can impact practica and internship placements. - Classes are not sufficiently rigorous to prepare potential clinicians. The student said everyone had a 4.0, but not everyone was a competent therapist, and that generally the classes were at or below an undergraduate level (they went to an R01 for undergrad). - Entire programs of study have been thrown out and now students who entered the program for those programs/tracks are getting general training instead of specific training. So students who came for specialist training in ASD treatments don’t have the opportunities they were promised or can’t take specific, relevant classes in the program handbook because they haven’t been offered in years. - Faculty sitting on committees are holding up milestones, not giving edits or feedback, or requiring entire projects to be redone at the last moment, or “not supporting students in continuing” in the program. - Multiple students have left the program in the past month alone (June, 2021). All this from a program with a 10-year APA accreditation. Be very, VERY careful this cycle. From the sounds of it loads of programs are struggling financially and some may even be closing. They still may take our money, though. You can DM me for the program or more details, although this seems to be a trend. I’ll try to come up with a list of questions or something if it would be helpful.

The second interview day is their alternate day for folks who couldn’t make it to the first day (mostly due to weather) so I think all invites have gone out.

Yes. They had interviews weekend before last and will have another 3/1. So offers won’t be out for a while.

To folks getting interviews at UMass Boston and Syracuse, congratulations!! Also, if you could kindly PM me POI initials I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!