psychpsychpsych

aww very nice of you, thanks!!

I feel for all of you, I also applied twice and its just soooooo painful. You try to tell people (not in PhD world) about how *hard* it is to get into PhD and its just impossible... let alone trying to explain to them the imposter syndrome aspect. If anybody needs advice or just somebody to talk to about how much this process sucks, please feel free to PM. Good luck everybody, you can totally totally totally do this!!!

Certainly reputation plays a factor in this (but also which is cheaper or gives you funding is really important), but after just completing my MA, I think it's most important to see which advisor or program is gonna help you the best get into a PhD program. Is the advisor willing to work on a project you're interested in, is there a chance you can get first authorship on a paper, could you go to conferences with research you conducted with them, do they know people in your area of studies, do they seem to want to help you network, etc. I also think it may help to analyse your own profile as an applicant, and see why you want to go to get an MA and see where you may be lacking (not meaning this in an offensive way at all) in your application and try to see if the MA can help you boost that area. Hope this helps!

thank you, you both bring up good points!

right exactly -- when will they start to make these decisions? should we even be looking at apartments...?

How worried are people who are supposed to start their PhD studies in the fall.......?

University of Maryland

I think getting more acquainted with different stat programs is a really good idea!! There are also several stat workshops that have moved online, so you could try and join those! You can put these newly acquired skills on your CV when preparing for PhD applications and they may ask you about your stats abilities during an interview, and you can talk about taking your own initiative to study it! As the above post suggested, I also recommend reaching out to PIs (or the PI you were going to work with) and see if there is anything you can help with! I did this about a year ago and the PI happened to ask me if I'd like to write a paper with her, so you never know unless you just put feelers out there! It is really rough now for research, because nothing is moving with COVID. But I think you still have options, good luck!

Hi everybody I hope that wherever you are in the world that you are safe and doing okay. This is a stressful time for the world, and to sound very self-focused, it's been also hard to juggle thinking about next steps in our academic careers. March/April time is really when things either come together or fall apart for us trying to get into PhD programs. In the midst of COVID and the world, society, families, friends all preoccupied with it, it does kind of seem to hampers our current academic success or struggles. I guess I am hoping that this message reaches those people who have either figured out where they will be going and to commend you on how far you've come, because it has not been an easy journey. But at the same time, I want to tell those people who are still figuring it out or just, honestly, so frustrated with the system and looking for something to keep you going. PhD is just one of those things that is very hard to explain to other people why you are working so hard to get into these programs, why you love what you do that you essentially give up a normal life, what it really means to get into a (or many) program(s) that you are really happy to attend, among other things. It's so hard not to give up. It's so hard during undergrad to stay up one more night preparing for an exam or paper, it's so hard caring about the GRE even though there is no place in academia for it, it's so hard not to be named a co-author on a paper even though you did most of the work, the list could go on and on. I hope this message gives you some piece of motivation to keep going, because we all have been there. We all have asked ourselves these questions and felt down, sad, self-depreciating, depressed, anxious, and sometimes all you can do is cry. But I hope that you keep going and don't give up on your dream to do PhD! It's your dream, keep working hard for your dream Congrats to everybody who has gotten into the program they wanted to get in! And I hope people still pursuing PhD that you don't give up, you can do this!

This is so terrifying. I'm so sorry to hear about this. I hope your position is okay!

I'm in a similar spot, super super super hard......

Seems like a really hard choice (but it's nice to have a choice right haha), but to me research fit with PI trumps everything for me.

I think it depends on what you're looking for. I would try to talk to some of your past profs (or some PI's you applied to that you may feel comfortable reaching out) and ask them what they thought your weakest point of your application was. This may help direct you to see if you need more schooling or more of a research background. Also...there ARE so many variables that go into deciding who gets in or not into a PhD program, it SUCKS but it's the way it is...so it may be nothing wrong with your application...it could be due to other variables that we are not aware of.

Not sure how other people feel about this, but I would give it a couple days after the expected date (sometimes funding decisions get delayed or something), but ya I think it's fine to contact the PI or program coordinator!

I didn't apply there, but I would suggest contacting the coordinator?

question of the year...

I'm sorry to hear that

Hey I would totally reach out to an undergrad journal. Mine was published, feel free to PM me!

There have been several posts here within the last few days about the wait...and it is just so terrible. We have an initial long wait to hear back from schools for an interview and then once (if) we hear back and have our interview, its another long wait. This whole week I've been telling myself to get things done that need to get done, but when I start, my mind just jumps right back to PhD. It's so hard to stay focused to do the things that need to get done. You try to explain to your family/friends why you're stressed, but it's hard to express why this is terrifying, because everything is hanging in the balance. I'm struggling with trying to keep busy and focused...but it's been helpful to know that I'm not the only one who can't seem to not think about PhD. I hope you guys are doing okay and try not to get in a cycle of thinking about PhD, try to stay positive everybody!

What do you mean 'diligence or self awareness that a prospective grad student should have, especially about research'?

exactly!! its so hard to focus, how have you been coping?

hmm have interviews been extended?

I think it would be best to contact the department coordinator to see if interview invites have been sent out, from my perspective, it could go either way (either bad or good) if you directly ask the POI.

Oh! Do you want to let me know who you applied for?

Interview weekend is this coming weekend, all interviews have been sent out. I hope this helps!