Troyyy

With the others, your POI for sure wants to meet them in person. For you, they may not be too sure about it and wants to use the zoom interview to get a better feel before confirming an in-person invite.

It’s possible. I think you actually have an advantage as a cultural minority as many schools want to increase their diversity. As a black male, I’ve spoken to and even experienced situations where ignorance or micro aggressions come up in graduate school, but it’s all about how you navigate it. I know a couple clinical psychology faculty that focus on resilience in racial minorities if you’re interested. That happens to be one of my research interests too.

Honestly, I’ve just accepted that it’s no longer in my control and if it’s meant to happen, then it’ll happen lol.

Yeah I’ve used PSYCAS last application cycle and again this application cycle. So I think they recommend submitting it weeks in advance because it gives the PSYCAS people ample time to actually send the completed application to the program(s). Unfortunately with third-parties like PSYCAS, things aren’t always immediately done. It may take some time for your application to get to it’s destination, especially when its high-traffic like now when everyone is submitting. I don’t want to discourage you, but that’s just an idea. It’s still a chance that your application will make it to the programs with no problem. Good luck!

Lol yeah, I used PSYCAS to apply for my programs and yeah it can be a bit of a hassle. You either put the grades in manually or you can pay them to put it in there themselves. I just put it in manually just to get it out of the way, but just be sure to have all of your transcripts up and ready so you can quickly put them in

I’m currently in my first year of my Social Psych program and I graduated with my bachelors degree this May. I don’t mean to scare you but the application process was anxiety-provoking and stressful. I tell people all the time that applying to schools is like an extra course in the semester because you have to do tons of research, write essays, take a hard-ass exam, and include the cooperation of faculty mentors/members to support you. I swear, by the time I submitted my last application, I was extremely flustered lol. This is definitely something that I wasn’t anticipating going into application season, but I learned a lot through that experience. Surprisingly, I have adjusted to my PhD very well. I’m only 5 weeks into my program and so far I’ve been acing all of my quizzes, assignments, tests and presentations. Even though I only have 1 other person in my social psych cohort, the classes that we take include all of the first year students from the other Psych PhD areas that my school offers (clinical, developmental, social, neuropsych and personality), so my “first year psychology cohort” comprises of about 13-14 people and we all get along pretty well. Its a bit overwhelming when it comes to the new faculty members at my institution. I gotta start over with getting to know them and build good relationships with them, alongside understanding the “politics” too haha.

Hey heyyy, Well, you're only in your second year at your institution so I think that you are beating yourself up a bit too much. You only begin applying to Ph.D programs in your senior year, so if you don't feel as if you're in the right mentality, or if you don't exactly know what you're doing, then it's normal. First thing first, though, is to definitely get yourself involved in some kind of research at your institution. I have never been to UCLA, so I'm unsure how the structure is for research assistants, but you should try your best to apply for the position regardless of the predicted outcome. You would never know if you didn't try, right? While you are applying, do some research on the professors at your university whose work seems pretty interesting to you. During their office hours, I would recommend you to sit in to speak with those professors and give them some background about yourself and explain some of your passions to them. Building strong relationships with professors whose labs you wanna work in helps them see your motivation and can also help for a strong recommendation letter in the future. Even if you don't become a research assistant during this application cycle, at least you would have the appropriate connections and possible mentors to get you prepared for graduate school. As far as your GPA, you can make it up. The classes with the lowest grades, you should target first. Re-take those classes in hopes of getting an A so that your GPA can be boosted. I know that taking classes over can feel a bit daunting, but remember that your end-goal is to become competitive for graduate school. Also, taking classes over again shows determination and can reflect well for grad applications. See if you can take these classes in the summer so that your expected graduation date isn't pushed back.

In order to properly answer, there are some information that you can provide: - What programs are you applying for? (Masters v. Doctorate) - What does the application recommend that the LOR should say about you? If they don't specify that, then what do the personal statement/statement of purpose requirements? Focus the LORs around those.

Mmm, well I've participated in a total of four research projects and presented them at various conferences. Out of those four, two of the research projects received second place, and a third received first place. I was a lead research assistant and had plenty of experience with SPSS and data management (coding, analyzing, interpretation, etc.) and of course presenting. Two of the research projects are currently in the manuscript phase for publication. Outside of research though, I've been an undergraduate teaching assistant for my school's general psychology course for 1.5 academic years (this would be helpful since many PhDs go into academia, which is what I intend to do). So, I didn't have any publications by the time of application submission, but my experience in research was pretty high, and it seems like you have some research experience too. You should definitely take advantage of the data analysis experience that you'll be taking up shortly. Those skills will be pretty helpful. If you have that with a high GPA and GRE score, then I think you may have a chance. Just do the best that you can to incorporate any experiences that may be deemed necessary for the application/program. Let the universe take it from there! When it comes to PhD and PsyD, you are definitely right that PsyDs are more practice-based, while PhDs are more research-based. However, most PsyD programs are not fully funded like many PhDs are, so you often would have to come out of pocket to pay for it compared to PhDs.

It seems like you pretty much already have the answers. You're right that you can get into PhD programs straight from undergrad, but what makes you stand out as a competitive applicant is the amount of research experience that you have. If your undergrad thesis is all that you have, then you may want to consider applying for master's programs first to get more research experience to be more competitive. Since I'm going straight to a PhD program from undergrad, I can't exactly tell you if master's thesis really set you up for doctoral programs, but I'm pretty sure that they do. I think that you may be better suited getting the master's first before getting your PhD, but it wouldn't hurt to apply for a couple PhD programs to see what they say.

Haha, it feels kind of weird not having to be in school anymore. I'm attending Howard University in the Fall. Congratulations on getting into Cornell!

Hey heyy, I’m actually new to the site, so I feel bad coming into this thread, but I just graduated from my college yesterday with a Psychology B.S, and I’m going into one of my top choices for my PhD in the Fall. If I found this thread last semester, then I would definitely have spoken about the stress of the application process. There has been many times where I wanted to give up and had a lot of self-doubt, but my professors and friends supported me throughout the entire process and I’m glad I was able to complete it! As far as my feelings in the program, I am not exactly nervous at all. I’m actually very excited and ready to take on the course load. I feel prepared! I hope to see people continue this thread when the Fall begins so we can share our experiences in our transition!

Every program is different and list different expectations of the recommendation letter. What seems to be a general understanding is that there should be 3 recommenders on your behalf, with two of them being faculty members (PhD level). They should be able to speak on your academic, research, and clinical experiences if you have any. This is not something that you will be submitting, but something that those recommenders will submit on your behalf.

I know it’s been a while since you made this post, but I think you should have applied for the post-bac anyways, just so that you can have something to fall back on. Have you heard from any schools yet?

School: Howard University Concentration: Social Psychology Type: PhD Date of acceptance: May 10 (I know, late as heck) Notified by: E-Mail

I would recommend you call the school and see if they would allow you to defer for a year. This would mean that you'll wait until the following year to begin, instead of going immediately into it this fall. This way, while your current PhD program is on hold, you can work for a year and also try again to apply for admission at other PhD programs. If you still don't have a good chance at being accepted, then you can always fall back on your "safe school".

I think that you would be eligible apply to an I/O psychology program. Go for it!

I'll be attending Howard University's Social Psychology PhD program!