Arcadian

You say you really don't want to take out the piercing, but the fact that you are asking for advice suggests that you are implicitly (perhaps unconsciously) wanting to take it out due to some unwanted possibilities. I don't know anything about the people at your prospective programs, but you just have to weigh your desires against your expectations. If you want to get in, do what gives you the best chance of getting in.

What's your current project? To what extent do you train your researchers to ___? Those are the two questions I asked.

I applied to a few programs with music cognition researchers (it's not my main interest, but it is definitely an interest). Two of them were Janata at UC Davis, and Dowling at UT Dallas.

I actually tried contacting two of the faculty, but they never responded. Oh well. And I was rejected from Northwestern today. Woo! I'm on a roll. (Good think I have that Dallas interview, otherwise I'd feel like shit right now.)

That depends on the field. In psychology, going BA to PhD is still extremely common and expected.

Yeah, I often think about that. I fancy myself an optimist. On the other hand, there's the possibility of getting rejected from everywhere and having to play a whole new deck of cards.

Yeah, I have noticed that! All my professors are like, "Oh, you're applying to top ranked PhD programs? Cool, you'll get in somewhere." Despite the fact that I am a pretty average overall applicant (statistically speaking). The difference is, when they told me this, I knew not to believe them. I wasn't sure why they were telling me this misleading reassurance - I thought it was strange - but I certainly won't be angry with them if I don't get accepted. However, I do see Jane's point. Getting reassurance convinced me to apply to top-ranked programs when it might have been better to apply to mid-level programs. But I never realized that it was somehow easier to get accepted in previous generations. Why is that?

I just found out I was rejected from UC Davis by checking the website. They didn't bother sending out a letter or anything. The deny reason was "No major professor available in proposed specialization." I'm pretty sure that's bullshit, because I listed five professors I wanted to work with, and at least one of them had to be taking new students.

It sounds like you know what you're doing. I remember reading that there are two "models" for training clinical psychologists. PhD programs use a "scientist-practitioner model" with an emphasis on research, and PsyD programs use a "practitioner-scholar model" with an emphases on clinical practice. Both do both, but it's just a matter of emphasis. Clinical isn't my area either, but I read about it a few years ago when I first started thinking about careers.

Has anyone applied to and heard back from UC Santa Barbara? I applied to Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology. (Yeah, everything's fine with the Dallas interview now. They sent me my confirmations today.) I also received my rejection from Duke today, haha. I should've known their standards were too high for me.

LOL, I applied to Northwestern BBC and haven't heard anything. I guess I'm out. Haven't received my rejection yet, though.

Yeah.

Yeah, I applied to 8 programs, was rejected by 2, and received one invitation to visit. I've heard nothing from the other 5.

I was rejected by the GT School of Psychology today by physical mail.

Yeah, I would think your Quantitative score would be more important than your Verbal score for an experimental psychology program. This is science, after all. Granted, there is a heavy writing component, but it's more technical writing than anything. While better writers tend to get published more often, the majority of research papers are statistics-oriented.

Yeah...something weird happened today. I emailed the "program assistant" (that is exactly her title) about this invitation, and she said she "wasn't aware of the invitations and visit" and that she couldn't tell me anything about it. I'm just thinking...Really?

I think I might be doing a group interview as well. I'm not sure because the letter they sent me was ambiguous, but it's a campus visit with "faculty meetings" and travel expenses paid. This is for the UT Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, in case anyone knows about this program. Honestly, I'm kind of hoping for a small group interview (but it had better be fewer than 10 people). I would be much more nervous for a one-on-one interview. With a small group, if you need more time to think of an answer, you can always pause and let someone else answer first. In a one-on-one, every pause is awkward and seems to last much longer than it really does, and then just thinking about the awkwardness makes it even harder to think of an answer. However, if it were a large group interview, that would be horrible because I hate talking over people and competing for attention. ...Maybe that's just me, though. You're not necessarily like me.

I got invited to visit the UT Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. I'm not sure if this is for a formal interview though. I got this message: The itinerary was also ambiguous. It says "individual lab tours" but never explicitly mentions an interview. Has anyone else heard from this program?

Oh trust me, I love research. I want nothing more than to make a career out of research and teaching. I totally take the position that a Master's degree is the way to go if you can't initially get into a Doctoral program. Even if I have to pay tuition, I am still willing to take two years to get a Master's degree. I was simply asking about the funded programs because I had never heard of that.

First of all, most Master's programs in experimental psychology are called "MS" rather than "MA." It's not really that important, but I'm surprised no one has pointed that out. Several people in this topic have emphasized the point that we should only look for MS programs that are fully funded. Personally, I have never seen such a program. What programs are you talking about, and how can I find them? Any in Texas?

Hey, at least you weren't rejected. This means you were better than a LOT of applicants. Cheer up.

LOL, that's pretty much how I feel. I will be much more qualified in a year than I am now. But at the same time, I had to apply this round because I'm graduating in May. It's fairly reasonable of us to want to go straight from college to graduate school, so we really had to apply this round. However, I almost never worry about this sort of thing. It's not worth it. Everyone should just chill, keep living your life, enjoy it, and whatever happens in the future, just know that you'll make the most of it. Unless you are on the brink of a total meltdown with no chance of recovery, and this was your last chance to get into graduate school, then you really shouldn't worry so much.

I was rejected by Michigan yesterday by email. I applied to the cognitive program.

I applied to eight programs, and I have only received one rejection so far from Michigan.

You should definitely apply to those two programs. You can never be certain that you'll get "the kind of job you want" later. This is all very abstract. If the programs are a good fit for you, then go ahead and apply. You may be overthinking it a bit (which is understandable).