
nessa
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Everything posted by nessa
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I would say this is an issue- from what I've heard, a low GPA the first few years with improvement later on is better than having a bad last year. The classes the last year of undergrad and in your Master's are more similar to grad school, so if you had difficulty with them that would have been a bad sign. Also, you will be stressed in a PhD program so if you can't handle it now, you need to learn! If you have examples of how you have since learned to handle stress or otherwise can cope with a heavy course/research load, that may help assuage any concerns.
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trying to figure out your chances at one school is really difficult, and nobody here will be able to give you any sort of answer. However, a couple things to keep in mind: -most PhD programs (any reputable ones, at least) fund you and give you a stipend; it's not much, but you will not have to worry about paying rent or basic living expenses. -applying to one school is always a crapshoot. do you want to stay in the area or go to a PhD program? one of those is going to have to take priority. -your research experience is most important, and comparing yourself to others is not very helpful. That said, if someone got an 860 combined on the GRE, I would imagine they would have a hard time getting in to graduate programs.
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- yes, definitely retake the GRE. Also, your grades are a little on the low side, but not horrible. If you could have a LOR writer insert something about how your grades don't reflect your abilities for some reason (if that is indeed true), that may help assuage any fears. - most schools' websites will say if they require a subject test; if it's only recommended and you have to travel, I wouldn't mess with it, but some neuro programs do require it. - if people say not to contact them, then obviously don't, but otherwise I would drop a short email to POIs. if you can find out how the admissions process works in any detail (meaning, how much say individual professors have), that may help guide this decision. At some schools, unless someone is on the adcom they don't have much say, and unless they are really really interested in you contacting won't help. at other schools where they may have more say, an email may make a big difference. Plus, the person you contact may always be on the adcom... - your research interests seem fine, but the schools you applied to (all in TX) may look suspicious. they may wonder if you actually want to study at the school or if you're just applying everywhere in an area. If you are really set on staying in an area, throwing in a couple apps to schools farther away may still help with this. - try to get those publications out! was your master's thesis publishable? You do have a lot of experience in the field, but with few publications that may be a warning sign (true or not) that you're not a productive publisher. good luck! ETA: how did the interviews go? did you pick up any odd vibes? the fact that you interviewed at half the schools you applied to is a good sign, but try to figure out why they liked you enough to interview but not enough to admit you.
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Behavioral neuroscience jobs in the pharmacheutical world?
nessa replied to Planet Ex's topic in Psychology Forum
Test experimental drugs to see if they work, basically; that is, put animals through behavioral assays to see if the compounds have the desired effect on behavior. It's good money, but like neuropsych says, you don't have the freedom to choose what you want to research like you do in academia -
hey, another clinical psych/neuro person! contact as many people as you can. People will forget about you, positions fall through, etc. If someone's jumping through a lot of hoops to find funding for you and you turn it down, that is an issue. However, if you get vague interest from more than one POI, pursue all the leads you have, see what pans out, and let the others know you found another opportunity, are grateful for their interest, etc. have you tried contacting the RA from lab A? She/he may have forgotten too.
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hooray for bike commuting!I volunteer at a local bike co-op, and for being a member got a bike for free (minus $4 for new brake pads). I spent about $50 on a pump, lights, lock, etc. and it works great. Before I moved to NC, I commuted to work every day on a donated mountain bike In my experience, if you're relying on a bike to commute it's more important to know how to fix whatever bike you have, rather than getting a nice new one. No matter how nice it is when you get it, you will eventually have to do minor repairs and tune-ups. Having a broken bike when you need it to get around is much worse than having one that's a little old and creaky. If there's a bike co-op, or classes you can take on bike repair, or a bike-knowledgable friend around, try to learn basic bike repair and you will be very glad. as a side note- for groceries, I would suck up to a friend with a car or take the bus; lugging milk + perishable produce + cans on a bike is no fun. trust me:)
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Unfortunately, my matlab knowledge is self-taught enough I don't even know what to recommend...if anybody else knows, though, do chip in! and your point about not having access is my issue with matlab- yes, it's a great program to learn with and is used widely, but it's also prohibitively expensive for anyone without an institutional license of some sort a previous poster already mentioned that having familiarity with programming in any language is the biggest help, which I agree with, and so I would say if not matlab, than go for any language that's fairly simple to pick up. To continue the MIT OCW love, their intro to programming uses Python, which is free, so I've been working on that. Once you get the basics of any language, learning it yourself is not difficult, and learning other languages after that is also not bad, but the first part is the hardest. Oh, if I could go back and give my early-college self a few tips on courses...
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I'm a big fan of MIT's open course ware for anything math/computery; here's the matlab course they have: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-094-introduction-to-matlab-january-iap-2010/ other than that, here's how I learned Matlab: 1) think of something (manageable) to write code for 2) find code doing something similar 3) write lots of (awful) code until it works 4) look through my code and try to make it simpler & faster it's not terribly formal, but it does the trick:) also, I would suggest making good friends with someone who knows it well, and pestering them for help.
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Using old GRE books for the current general GRE and Psychology subj test
nessa replied to ThiefOfJoy's topic in GRE/GMAT/etc
yeah, neither test has changed since then- if you already bought the books, they will be fine. I also second Ennue's comment about studying an intro psych text; I looked over (but didn't buy) a psych review book, and although it was helpful, it missed a lot of content. The one I looked at (Kaplan? Princeton? don't remember) gave only basic info about each theory, researcher, etc. and I found that some questions on the test asked different questions about those topics than what had been covered in the book. I would combine the prep book with the textbook, picking out the concepts to study from the prep book but actually learning the material in the textbook. If your local library doesn't have an intro text, you can find one through interlibrary loan, so it won't cost you anything more than the ILL fee. good luck! -
that sounds roughly like where I was coming from- some research experience (you have more than I did, actually) but not in the specific field. And if you don't know how to program, etc. it can keep you from getting a lot of the opportunities, but the best way to learn those skills is to work those sorts of jobs... lots of fun. I actually live in the area you moved to, and if it's the post-bac I'm thinking of, yes, apply to it PM me if you want more info. There is also a lot of cog neuro research around here, so there are relatively more opportunities than you would other places... still few and far between, unfortunately. I found my job online because I was applying pretty much anywhere, but if you are looking at specific research interests in a specific location I would email people a cover letter and CV. And hey, if people are willing to meet with you for lunch, go for it!
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If you're trying to strengthen your application, I would say that just learning some language would only be marginally useful. Programming is really helpful in cognitive neuroscience, but I'm surprised that your lack of programming knowledge was specifically pointed out as a deficit. Do you have any experience doing cog neuro- type research? When I was applying for RA jobs in neuroscience labs, my lack of programming experience was brought up as a drawback, but I think it stood for my general lack of experience in the field. What helped me learn was getting a job where I was not required to do programming, but was around it and could pick it up. Is there some way you could gain that sort of experience (either by working, volunteering, whatever) before you apply again?
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it wasn't the summer before grad school for me (not there yet...) but I also had an awkward two months after I graduated from college to fill. Not only did I have to say goodbye to all my college friends, I was living at home and working as a temp processing mortgages, which was about the most boring thing ever. And yeah, everyone assumed I was an idiot because I was a temp. However, it paid about $12/hour, so that helped. If you have decent computer skills (which all college grads do), you could look into temp agencies. At least for those your monotonous work is sitting at a desk, which I prefer to flipping burgers, and they may pay better. The only not-sucky suggestion I can think of is that if there is a university in your area, you could see if there are any summer RA positions- the fact you're heading to grad school will make you seem pretty qualified and not need much training. If nothing like that works out, just remember, it's only until August, it's only until August...
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I went to a regionally known small liberal arts college for undergrad, and now work as an RA at a large research university in another part of the country (where no one has even heard of my undergrad). I haven't applied yet, but from my experience of how my background is regarded as an RA, I can tell you it is more difficult. First of all, people (especially those who are very concerned with prestige) assume you went to your school because you couldn't get in anywhere better, and that you must not be very smart. Secondly, they assume the quality of your education isn't that great. Even if both of those are false (which they probably are), you still have to convince people otherwise. Your GRE scores are not above average for the schools you are looking at, but they are good enough that people will not doubt your intelligence. And, the fact you've done some intelligent research, are able to think critically, etc. will help with any questions about your undergraduate preparation. Like tso123d said, one other thing you may be missing out on is that your undergrad profs may not have the connections to advocate to people at the schools you're looking at on your behalf. However, I think that gets your application looked at more than it actually gets you in, so you may be able to mitigate it by contacting your POIs and getting your name out there that way.
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I'm not sure what field you're in, but if this person has full time research assistants or something similar, it would be perfectly okay to email him to see if he has any positions. You could go either way on mentioning this year's application, but I would say mention it and get it out of the way. If you do that, phrase it like you realized while applying that more experience would be beneficial, that you are very interested in his research, etc. good luck!
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university-by-university is how I found my job- but I agree with lavenes, use your connections if you can. That's really the easiest and quickest way. If you're in the UK looking for US jobs, though, that may be more difficult. Even cold emailing people your CV may get you something, though. I just bookmarked every school's HR site, and each weekend would go through each one, mark down any jobs, and then apply. Once you get a few standard cover letters, each job doesn't take too long. good luck!
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Accepted into nonfunded clinical program. Should I turn it down?
nessa replied to Wotan's topic in Psychology Forum
I think your advisor is right- once your papers are actually published, and if you can get the GRE up in any way possible, you would be more competitive. You said some of the academics are questionable- what do you mean by that? If you're getting a bad feeling about that already, that's a red flag. -
check out http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php they're old (no copyright, public domain) courses developed for American diplomats to use when they are stationed in other countries. not all the courses are complete, and some are embarrassingly ancient/neocolonial (60's era blantant sexism, anyone?) buuut they are good quality and free:) and they have at least some material for so many languages- ever wanted to learn Amharic? you've come to the right place! I would also try to find local speakers in your area- maybe check up meetup.com?- to be able to speak it, since that's the quickest way to learn a language.
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I don't know how much you saw of Durham, but based on my experiences of the two cities it has a similar vibe to Berkeley. It's not huge, but with Raleigh and Chapel Hill close by you will have a hard time running out of things to do. And, like you noticed, cost of living is niice. I think the b-schools at Duke and UNC are fairly well regarded, so those would be options for your boyfriend too. /shameless plug for Duke/Durham...sorry;)
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You can definitely still find apartments, don't worry! In Durham you can find plenty of complexes with open apartments in mid summer. I moved there in August and had options, although a few were full by then. Chapel Hill real estate is a bit tighter, but May will still give you plenty of time. It may be that specific, very popular complexes have waitlists- I don't know UNC-area apartments well enough to know the complex the previous commenter referred to, but that's not the norm.
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Sorry, that's your job:) In terms of your GPA/GRE and where you would be competitive, your GRE is fine and your GPA is a little low but not horrible. It's good that you're starting to narrow down what you're interested in, but you'll have to narrow things down much further still. Cognitive and computational neuroscience are very broad (subfields rather than interests, really), and most any school will have programs in them. Find papers that interest and excite you, look up the authors, look up the papers they cite and which cite them, and repeat. Can you understand all of the methods section? Do you find the approaches they use interesting? Could you see yourself using those methods to study what you're interested in? What questions come up when you read them? etc.
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What school should I go to for Clinical Psychology?
nessa replied to myanlee's topic in Applications
Hi Myanlee, why do you want to do clinical psychology? the reason many programs look for extensive research experience is to make sure people know what they are getting into. You will need more research experience to get into schools like UC Berkeley. However, it sounds like (and correct me if I'm wrong) that you're mainly going off a school's reputation. You didn't say anything about what aspects of clinical psychology you're interested in, and having a good research match is very important. I would recommend that you take some more time to explore the discipline- definitely get as much research experience at Buffalo as you can, read papers of people you're interested in, etc. Then, see who is doing research you find exciting and look into those programs. And don't be afraid to take time between undergrad and grad school to get more research experience- that is becoming almost expected at many top clinical psych schools. good luck! -
I think Master's credits may not always count towards your Ph.D for clinical, and so doing a Master's may get you experience, but may not shorten your time getting a Ph.D. I would also second getting an RA job- research experience and a paycheck are a nice combination:)
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well, I'm a bit of a stats geek I agree that the Psy.D. is about the same for practicing, but another point to keep in mind is that Psy. D. programs are not usually funded, so you will have a lot more debt. It's up to you if that matters or not. Once you get out of grad school, though, the only thing you would have problems with a Psy. D. would be if you wanted to teach at a university. Otherwise, I think the pay, positions, etc. are about equal. And if you want to do abnormal psych, counseling may not be best, but I would still look into social work. A lot of people doing therapy, even with severe mental illness, have a social work background- look into getting a LICSW. Good luck, regardless!
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Most grad schools do have a mean/median GPA of 3.6 to 3.8, but that doesn't mean that someone with a 3.4 or 3.5 can't get in. You'd probably be only one standard deviation below the mean. I would say (and take this with several cups of salt) that if you have a 3.5, you don't need to worry, and if you have a 3.3 (or possibly 3.2) to 3.5 you are probably okay. Once again, I'm pretty much just pulling these numbers out of the air. If you do have a lot of research experience, get a good GRE score, and have good recommendations, those will make much more of a difference than if you have a 3.4 versus a 3.6, so I would say you are worrying too much:) However, if you are really set on doing something additional about your GPA, there are terminal Master's programs aplenty in the US. I can't really point you to a specific one, though. I don't know how much a one year program would help you, as you won't have anything to show for it when you apply (that is, you would not be even done with your first semester of your Master's when applications for Ph. D. programs would be due). One last thing- clinical psych grad schools range from being very research focused to being very clinically focused. If you want to practice more than do research, the clinically focused Ph. D.s seem a bit less competitive. There are also other ways to practice therapy; I'm not sure if you've looked into counseling psychology or clinical social work, but those are options as well.
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I hesitate to give advice about stats, as I'm not sure how much any of us actually know about people's chances. However, with that caveat I would guess that a 3.5 is not horrible and will not keep you out of most Clinical Psych programs. One plus about clinical psych is that all schools (in the US, at least, I dunno about Canada) are required to publish the statistics of the people they admitted on their websites. Look for "outcomes data" or something similar. This info should give you an idea of where you stand. If, in general, you are worried about not being a competitive applicant right out of 4 years of undergrad, doing another year of undergrad is not the best way to fix this. Maybe this is different in Canada, but in the US most people only do a 5th year if they do not have enough credits to graduate or otherwise had major issues with college. If you want to do something after 4 years of undergrad to increase your chances of getting into grad school, you can 1) do a master's program or 2) work in a lab for a year or two. The latter is becoming almost expected in order to get into better clinical psych schools.