Regression2theMean

I agree that going to the program that is the better fit, offers the best opportunities, etc. should be a higher priority than your stipend. However, you also should consider what sacrifices you will need to make if you go to a program with an insufficient stipend. (By "insufficient" I mean a stipend that would not cover your basic cost of living. - which is, unfortunately, the case in some programs.) I have peers at different universities that have needed to take on side jobs or private student loans to pay the bills during graduate school. This can detract from their ability to focus on what they need to in graduate school and prevent them from taking full advantage of the opportunities available to them. As long as your basic needs are covered by the stipend, I would agree that your values and what you want out of graduate school/what programs can provide that should be your biggest consideration.

I agree @EileanDonan that these expectations are probably unrealistic and a huge burden! 20 years ago, I don't think this would have even been on the radar but PhD applications have become immensely competitive so this is just what I've heard has been making some applicants stand out recently. I am in a competitive program (< 10% acceptance rate) so the experience here is likely different than in other programs. When faculty in my program start narrowing down applicants to the top 10%, it is like splitting hairs because 25-40% of applicants have all of the necessary research experience, GPAs, etc.. The faculty then start to look at what makes each candidate unique or interesting. This doesn't have to be human service volunteer experience but it could be. Unique experiences can be anything that makes someone stand out from the crowd like life experience, as @SocDevMum stated. These experiences also don't need to be things you're doing right now. I think that most people have something unique to their story (e.g., life experience, volunteering, work experience) but they vary in how they are able to articulate that in their application. I think that reflecting on what those unique experiences are for you and how to articulate them effectively (without going overboard) could make a big difference for the 2022 cycle.

@SocDevMum 100% agree! The best way to improve your application is to make it clear that you (a) know what a PhD programs entails and (b) are able to do what a PhD program asks of you. The primary task is doing and publishing research! Publications and conference presentations will go a long way in proving you have the skills to do research. Another component to consider is what makes YOU unique as a candidate. I've been hearing many faculty members saying they are frustrated with the "cookie cutter" applicants. They get a lot of applicants who have 3-5 years of lab/research experience with strong letters of recommendation and great GPAs. What they're starting to look for is all of that same experience + something special like volunteer experience, community service, diverse experiences, etc. For example, one applicant this year who received many offers had research experience, good GPA, etc. and had also worked as a part-time mental health emergency personnel during covid (which aligned with their research interests in mental health). The faculty were blown away by this experience (particularly how the applicant spoke about it during interviews) and this applicant really stood out! Think about if you have done (or could do) something in addition to your research that makes you an interesting applicant. This shouldn't be as high a priority as research experience but is something to consider.

Congratulations! I agree with the others in this thread: Take some time to relax and do non-academic things for a few weeks. One thing I will add: Start planning your budget now (especially once you've found your place to live). A lot of grad students I know have struggled with balancing their budgets during the first year on top of the new pressures of being in grad school. Having your budget planned out ahead of time can really help!

You can definitely still do research with clinical populations/assessments that have an intervention component outside of a clinical program. I am in a social psychology program and I regularly do intervention/applied research sometimes even with clinical or subclinical populations if they're relevant to the research question. Sometimes the IRB/ethical constraints are harder because I'm not a clinician, but I collaborate with clinicians to get over that hurdle. I would say that almost all of the students and faculty in my program do research that ultimately has implications for improving people's quality of life. I agree with what others have said: What are your career goals? If you don't want to be a therapist (as you've stated), a non-clinical program might actually be a great fit! I've never heard of a student in my department successfully switching areas (into or out of clinical) without having to reapply. They have a leg up on the competition when they reapply but it is still no guarantee. One question you should ask your PI given your interest in a more clinical approach: Is there a lot of collaboration across specializations in the program? If so, you may still have the opportunity to regularly and directly collaborate with clinical faculty. Programs vary in how much they encourage cross-area or interdisciplinary research so check on this before committing if you really do want to have continued exposure to clinical populations/research.

Congratulations on having multiple offers! As you said, negotiating pay depends on the program. State schools have less flexibility than private schools. Some schools have graduate student unions that dictate pay which can reduce individual negotiating power. You should also do a cost of living comparison because some places offer less but that money goes a lot further in their location. If you have something outstanding on your application or if you fulfill certain diversity and inclusion criteria, the chances are much higher they will try to offer you something extra. They might have specialty fellowships or ear marked funds that they can pull from if you meet specific criteria. For example, my program had a DEI fellowship that pays $10,000 more in the first year and gets people out of having to teach as a first year. However, this is typically only a 1 year bump that won’t hold over time. Generally, I’ve not heard of people successfully negotiating stipends long-term outside of these types of fellowships or endowments. Given how competitive this year is, I doubt that will change.

If someone explicitly gave you a timeline and it's been longer than that, you should definitely contact them! If they didn't give you a timeline, I would wait ~3 weeks or so after your last contact with them. Just try to keep your message short and focused. Faculty tend to respond more quickly to shorter messages.

Strange that they made this change at a seemingly random time after many years of this forum being named "Psychology." I'm hopeful they will change it back once they receive everyone's messages!

How bad it is really depends on the circumstances. Are you certain no one else accepted an offer? That's the most common reason I have seen for rejections after interviews. However, there are so many other reasons people get rejected and it is not always because they were a bad candidate or didn't interview well. I encourage you to reach out to the PI for feedback because that will be the most instructive. If they interviewed you, they should be open to have some further conversation for feedback at the very least. Sometimes unusual things can come up after the interview that impact your status but have little to do with you or your interview performance. For example, they could find out funding they were counting on getting is no longer available or that an older student who is in the program won't be graduating on time. This then could make it impossible to admit a new student no matter how wonderful they are. It could also just be a matter of fit with the program or PI which speaks more to finding the right program/PI for your interests than it does to you as a candidate. The list of possibilities can go on. So, although poor performance on the interview could be one factor, it could be plenty of other things that contribute to decisions. This processes are very complex, beyond what any of us on the other side can begin to imagine. I would encourage you not to get too defeated by the rejection before you get more info as to the circumstances.

Like @PokePsych said, it really depends on the cost of living where the university is located. $20,000 will go a lot further in South Bend, IN than it would in Boston, MA or New York City. Cities and their surrounding suburbs tend to be more expensive than smaller towns or "college towns." California tends to be exponentially more expensive on average than most other states in the U. S. while the south and midwest tend to be a bit more affordable (unless you're in a bigger city). I used a cost of living calculator online to help determine if the stipends I was offered were reasonable (and to compare them to one another). Graduate students typically don't make a lot of money so most do have to give up a lot of luxuries if they're living on their stipend alone. Think about the things you can't give up (i.e., health care, food, bills) while making your calculations. You should also think about what you will need where you will be moving and what the program provides. My program gives everyone a new laptop and access to all the software you could need, an unlimited city bus pass covered for 5 years, very affordable health insurance, (during COVID) an internet stipend, etc.. These "bonuses" as a part of your offer will make a big difference in the affordability of graduate school over time, even if they seem relatively minor up front. Try talking to the current graduate students in the program. They should be honest about how livable they think their stipend is or will give some hints about it. Do they say they need an extra job to make ends meet? Do they live with 2-3 roommates because they can't afford to live alone? Is there guaranteed summer funding? Do people have to take out student loans or dip into their savings to make ends meet?

Do you know if that program has sent out formal interview invitations or acceptances yet? If they have, then she might be less likely to respond to emails - typically counting on you to receive the standard mass rejection email and therefore not having to address it herself. If they haven’t made any decisions, she probably hasn’t responded because she has nothing new to say other than “keep waiting.” If you know decisions haven’t gone out yet, I think you are OK to email her once more (at least 10-14 days after your last email though) to follow-up. Keep the email relatively brief but enthusiastic. Faculty are overly burdened right now with COVID-19, budget cuts, online classes, new university initiatives, etc. and emails are often the last thing they want to deal with at the end of a long day. Faculty are often better at responding to shorter and more direct messages (think 30-seconds or less to read in full). Alternatively, if you interviewed or talked with any other faculty members, you could try contacting them instead. They likely have some amount of information and then you reduce the risk of adding extra burden to the primary person you spoke with and already tried to contact. One thing more broadly to consider: Do you want to work with someone long-term who’s not great at communicating or responding to emails? I realize now that a lot of the experiences I had with potential advisors were indicative of how they currently advise their students (for both good and bad). I’ve since found out that some of the faculty members who were a little evasive of my emails and questions are relatively hands off as advisors (which is fine for some people but wasn’t what I was looking for). My current advisor was really receptive, flexible, and enthusiastic throughout my application process. To this day my advisor is the most responsive faculty member I’ve ever met and will drop almost anything if a student really needs help. I’m not saying this is definitely the case here, but it is important to be mindful of the broader message a set of behaviors might be hinting at.

UMN admits without interviews for all areas of psychology except counseling and clinical because the large body of research that suggests that interviews are not diagnostic of work or graduate school performance (or career success after graduate school) comes from the faculty at UMN. It would be a bit hypocritical for them to use interviews as tools for making decisions given that line of research which their faculty really put on the map. I do remember thinking it was odd when I applied until they explained it during their visiting weekend!

I agree with what @JArather said about reaching out to a program officer first. Given that they did provide you with a timeline, I think it is perfectly reasonable to contact them and say you haven't heard anything and wanted to follow-up. Additionally, based on the information you provided, it seems to me that you are likely waitlisted. Typically, if they are going to reject you, they would do that at the same time as the acceptances. My guess is that they are waiting to hear back from the first set of applicants they extended offers to. If one of those people turns them down, they will go to their waitlist. Most of the time, faculty are honest if you are on a waitlist (and can tell you how many people are ahead of you) so I think it would be OK to reach out and ask at this point.

The easiest option is usually to contact the program officer directly. The program officers handle the majority of the scheduling and logistics in many programs. They should at least be able to tell you if the faculty have begun interviewing, sent out offers, or are still reviewing applications. I also don't think it's terrible just to reach out and say something like: "I recently applied to your PhD program and am interested in your research on X. This is one of my top choice programs and I am writing to inquire about any updates in my application status." I don't think you need to go into too much detail but something really basic that conveys why you are writing and that you remain enthusiastic about their program/research should suffice. One of my current RAs who is applying to social programs recently did this with 2 schools and she got lovely responses from both (one saying she was on their waitlist and one saying that she's in their final round of applicants but they're still awaiting information about potential fellowships). She also mentioned in her emails that she has a few pending offers from other programs - so if you have other offers it wouldn't hurt to mention that (politely) as a part of your email. Best of luck!

In additional to the places you stated you are already checking, I would also recommend checking professional organizations/groups/societies websites. I have seen several posts about internships through the Society for Social and Personality Science. I'm sure other organizations similar to your area of study also have mechanisms for posting internships and research opportunities as well!