PianoPsych

I can relate.. Definitely a stressful process (and quite expensive) to apply as international students. Thank you! I'm pretty sure think it will be fine (edit: just checked and that app has went through, yay!!). I will be travelling/seeing family to keep my mind off this. How about you?

Completed 6/7 apps on time, and I have a good feeling about the last one being let through even though it was late. For anyone applying in the future- I would not recommend leaving apps till the last minute, especially if the 1st of December is on a weekend! ?

Thanks for the reply- in that case, I'm aiming to submit everything at least 12 hours before the EST deadline.

Fingers crossed your recommenders do send them in! For the application to my top choice, they review transcripts before accepting them as part of the application. I was waiting on some grades so I only submitted one of my transcripts yesterday. I don't know if people still work during Thanksgiving weekend to review these, if not I'm scared I will miss the deadline! ? Also, I'm assuming the December 1st deadline means 23:59 on the day? I've written the majority of my essays, but would really like to revise them before submission!

I'm very happy to hear that! Yeah, I'm looking forward to the month (?) or so after apps are in to really relax. I seem to leave things till the last minute- I've just completed my SoP for my top school but I've still got the others to write so that's a little scary. But I'm aiming for good enough and know I will get there in the end ? I like your signature btw! will be adopting that format shortly.

Pm'd you!

I'm sure your apps are strong at this point ? and I'm glad you have learned to be easier on yourself. Mental health is so important and I'd love to do some advocacy role in grad school to support other students. For signatures: don't know if you've checked the 'view signatures' setting (Account settings-->View signatures) Anyway, these are my schools: UT-Austin, UMN-TC, UC Berkeley, Michigan, Cornell, UNC-Greensboro, Columbia. ?

I'm applying to all the places in my signature (below the post). How about you? Yeah, this process is stressful and I can imagine how your unlucky situation last year might make this round extra stressful. Definitely trying to prioritise my mental health through all of this.

Nice ? I am mildly panicking over how little time I've left for my statements: I only have drafts written for two of my seven schools, and I still need to edit them based on feedback. That being said, I've sorted out basically everything else for my applications, so I'm hoping I will have enough time to finish everything.

Yeah, I found this process arduous as well. This site (http://psychgradsearch.wikidot.com/phd) may be helpful- I'm not sure if there are School Psych specific programs there though. Another thing I've found helpful is looking up the collaborators of people I was interested in working with. Sometimes they are listed on professors' websites, other times they are co-authors. I've heard some people suggest sending an email to profs to introduce yourself and your interests and asking them to recommend anyone else you could be working with--unfortunately I haven't had much success with this approach. Good luck!

Aww, me too... ☹️

Bumping this thread to ask how everyone is doing ?

Oh okay. Just good to see there's a couple of these groups out there ? Yeah, I found 'How to Write a Lot' good for getting me to write more- although I still find it difficult to stick to a schedule due to my erratic sleep. Perhaps I already learnt principles of habit change from 'Atomic Habits' (great book btw) so it wasn't too new to me. But I'm really liking 'Write it up' and its focus on writing high-quality articles.

Do you mind linking it again? Btw, I'm liking Paul Silvia's 'Write it Up' very much too (for journal articles specifically). Has anyone else read it?

Just an update: I reached out and received a very warm response. So my take is it doesn't hurt to email (though this would vary between person to person). ?

Me- I think a couple of other social-personality folk might be too ? Same here- I don't want to settle for a program. But I'm sure that even if we don't get in this round, our experience will be helpful for any future application cycles.

Thank you for this thread. I haven't dated anyone before, and it's scary because people around me are beginning to settle into long-term relationships while I am probably going to move countries/cities several times before I get to settle down. There's also the uncertainty around what the dating scene will be like for me at my future university. ? How's everyone doing?

Fair enough- a combination of simplifying the application process, personal interest, funding, and POI availability for me.

Is your PhD in health psychology/relevant to the topics of chronic illness? I can see the first-hand understanding of chronic illnesses/how to cope or overcome them being a great strength for your application. My sense is that chronic illnesses should be less taboo than issues with mental health. What feels right for you- do you feel you can write a good SOP/personal history while omitting this part of your life? And would you want to work with programs/profs who would reject you based on your conditions?

Nope- I'm in Oceania/Australasia. I've also taken out the Ed Psych/Clin Psych programs from my list, so no more UBC for me ?

Thank you for sharing. Just wondering, do people think it's fine to email professors on this list (who are taking students) to introduce myself? I thought they might have their name on the list in part to reduce the deluge of emails they get from students, so I don't want to bother them.. But I'm aware it's also good for profs to be at least aware of who's interested.

Well, I struggle with this too. I only replied back to the professors I was most interested in working with.. but I have no idea whether that's the best way to go. Logically I think it wouldn't matter either way- they probably receive so much email that an extra 'thank you' email from one student is no big deal. Thanking the ones who are nice to you sounds like a great idea ?

Good advice from Clinapp2017. Some paid resources I found helpful were: Magoosh- I believe the 3-month subscription is decently priced ($139). Specifically for quant, I found the Magoosh questions (especially the Hard and Very Hard questions) to be much more difficult than those on the real GRE. So if you can drill practice questions in your areas of weakness, and watch the explanation videos for the questions you get wrong, this should help you raise your score significantly. GRE Powerprep Plus: I found the simulated test environment and the ability to get an AWA score helpful. They also provide difficulty levels for each question and explanations for Quant questions. I consider this relatively expensive ($40 each) for the amount of content you get though. If I were to use these resources, I would do a Powerprep/Powerprep Plus (Pre-test), get a score, then drill quant questions on Magoosh, then do a second Powerprep test 1-2 weeks prior to the test (Post-test) ? but that's only for me. I don't know how much time/funds you have to commit to the GRE.

That's a good point- our class discussions (at least at my level) focus on the field, its theories, concepts, and applications rather than methodology, probably we don't use methods described in our assigned papers in our own projects. If you are doing research in the same field as your assigned readings, I think discussions about methodology/results are very important (though they can definitely get dry!).

For journal articles, I found the "three-pass approach" very helpful for saving time while still giving me the opportunity to add meaningful contributions in discussions. "The key idea is that you should read the paper in up to three passes, instead of starting at the beginning and plowing your way to the end. Each pass accomplishes specific goals and builds upon the previous pass". For the amount of reading you are required to do, it might only be possible to do a "first-pass" for each article: - Title - Abstract - Introduction - Skim through other headings/subheadings without reading their content - Conclusion