Dazen

I've really been enjoying You Can Grad School (podcast)

Thanks for the reminder for relaxation and self-love! I have officially submitted all of my apps and am now waiting for my last recommender to submit, and for the inevitable season of refreshing my email once we hit December.

I agree with justacigar that group conversations over Zoom are often really awkward, and having the added stress of knowing that it's part of your interview weekend wouldn't help. I personally love the idea of a campus/facility tour. I don't want to make my decision of where I'm going based on location, but getting a feel for the school's vibe is important for me before I move somewhere. As someone applying this year, what I'm most sad about missing because of virtual interviews is the social aspect of the interview. I would really have enjoyed being able to talk to grad students and other applicants through a dinner, staying with someone, or in the random downtime. I don't think there's a great way to mimic this virtually, but possibly something like a text chat channel? Especially if you're doing a lot of 1:1 interviews, it would be nice to have a connection to the other people participating in the weekend.

Honestly, if the rest of your application is strong, I wouldn't. I'd be more worried about the quant score hurting you than the verbal score helping you.

I'd be cautious about this if it's a program you're really excited about. There are so many reasons professors don't reply that go beyond their interest in you (general policy to not reply, being really busy and it slipping through the cracks, etc). While I totally understand it being disheartening, I wouldn't count yourself out, especially when so many people have said they've gotten in with either no or a very canned response.

That sounds super interesting! And agreed that I doubt we have PIs in common, which is nice, even though it feels weird to say that haha. Thanks for the advice! The student handbooks are definitely helpful, once you've read enough of them to actually distinguish the differences.

I feel that! Having a full time job while applying has been an experience. Haha yes, I do! Definitely an observable trend there. I'm more specifically interested in the impact of early childhood trauma and mental illness on juvenile delinquency. What about you (since I'm assuming you also have some forensic interests)?

I finished a rough draft of the general version of my personal statement. Waiting a day or two before I give it another read and start asking people for edits, although I've moved on to the school-specific portions. These will be the death of my sanity. I'm finding it reasonably easy to explain why I have a good research fit with potential mentors, since I spent so much time up front figuring out where I wanted to apply, but am having a hard time differentiating between unique aspects of each program. Anyone have advice for that?

Honestly, I think the most important thing for you is to decide a) which area of psychology you want to focus in and b) what specific research questions interest you in that area. Your interests seem incredibly broad, and professors are generally looking for research fit as one of the most important aspects of admission. This doesn't mean that you need research experience in this exact area - it's fine to have broader experience that you can connect to what you want to do through content/skills - but you should be able to concisely describe what you want to spend 5-6 years of your life studying.

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Honestly, the best advice I've heard is to have as many different people as possible to read it and give feedback (your parents, friends, professors, colleagues, dog, person behind you when the supermarket line is too long). One professor I talked to said he had more than 20 people read his SoP when he was applying and he thought it made a huge difference.

Who else has an "official" list of schools they're applying to? (Official is in quotes because I have a finalized list but also a consistent anxious desire to look through programs again just in case lol). It feels both surreal and exciting to take this big step forward in the process, and feel a bit closer to submitting apps and hopefully getting interviews.

This is only feeling more relevant as this thread lengthens...

I'm also concerned, which is why I'd like to apply to more. Does anyone have suggestions for finding more possible POIs beyond going through all the APA-accredited programs or looking for frequent co-authors/cited works? The latter is particularly frustrating since my area of interest has a lot of crossover with criminology/sociology/social psychology.

I'm currently planning on applying to around 10 school and constantly questioning whether that number is too low.

Oh wow! I definitely have the opposite problem - around 8-10 programs and not sure if I should add more. I know I should start working on personal statements, but also the thought of it is so daunting. When are y'all reaching out to LOR writers? Feel like I should get started on that soon.

My strengths have always been around research output (I had a first author pub and paper presentation at an international conference last time I applied), but I had pretty limited experience in psychology and no clear research direction. I think the biggest improvements I've made are 1) working a full-time job with my population of interest, 2) taking all the basic psych classes that are recommended/required for various programs, and 3) having a clear, concise research interest.

Wow... I understand why they're doing it, but I'm just starting to work through the implications to my application. And lament all the studying I did over the past few months.

Now that we're getting closer to applications, how many programs are y'all applying to? My expectation is in the 10-12 range, although could go as high as 15. I'm worried about applying to fewer because of competitiveness. I would love to walk out of this cycle with an offer (who doesn't???), but if not, at least a few interviews.

I would also recommend reaching out to professors you'd be interested in working with and including your CV/interests. They will often let you know whether you academic background is sufficient to apply if you ask directly.

I agree with the above posters that it's worth applying this year to see what happens, but I would definitely still be thoughtful about research experience. While you'll have some solid experience by the time you apply, it's really the bare minimum to get accepted, especially without poster presentations at regional/national conferences or publications. Not trying to dissuade you, just putting things in perspective.

I have had a similar experience

What's the best way to get you updates for this? CUNY/John Jay just announced all GREs are optional

Hi! Definitely feeling a bit of the stress, but glad I still have so much time until apps are due. Right now most of my free time is being spent taking online classes to shore up my basic psych requirements (Intro and Stats right now, Abnormal and Research Methods early fall). Otherwise, I've been studying a lot for the Psych GRE, since it's being offered near me in September and I'm hoping it'll add credibility to my knowledge of psychology not coming from a psych academic background. Probably the most promising thing has been hearing back from more than half of the professors I emailed that they are expecting to take a student and encourage me to apply. I didn't get any interviews the last time around, so hearing positive things about my current CV has helped ease the stress a bit. Otherwise, wondering if I should go through programs again to see if any possible faculty mentors slipped through the cracks or be happy with my list. What about everyone else?

Yeah, what I've heard is that the V+Q matters much more than the writing score, especially if you can demonstrate writing competence another way. GRE math is definitely annoying, but it is luckily pretty helped by learning test-taking tricks. I was always surprised by how it wasn't necessarily that advanced compared with the SAT, just very specific. But I was also an engineering/applied math major so YMMV