JakiraJakira

Dang. I hope you find out whether you were accepted or not. Maryland has a great program. Thank you! I'll need the luck haha.

I got rejected from UM without an interview (email from coordinator said I didn’t take enough psych courses even though I have a Minor in psych) UVA is probably the most competitive PhD in school psych and they rarely take people without a masters. Congrats on Tulane! Hope you hear back from Maryland soon.

This is for a different field of psychology but if you applied to programs that do not have guaranteed funding (but still have a good track record of finding it) some applicants may be waiting to hear if they ended up getting an assistantship or fellowship they applied for. In my case I am waiting to hear back from both Indiana University and Ohio State about funding and without knowing that I cannot make a good decision about rejecting one over the other. Best of luck!

My advisor told me yesterday that all fellowships have already been sent out and that I was not selected.

That’s fair! I hope to experience a diversity of cultures and opinions during my graduate studies. I apologize for labeling the whole state as ignorant. I think I should have explained myself more. My problem isn’t with the diverse range of ideas down in Florida. It is with people who disregard others lives and safety. Some of my extended family live down there and their disregarding of COVID restrictions and lockdowns has made me fearful of catching COVID. I’ve been to Miami and it is a wonderful city. Florida is a diverse state and people of many walks of life live there. I am choosing my graduate schools on places I would be willing to live for 4 years in safety, programs that have great fits with my professional goals, and programs with a social justice focus. I also cannot tolerate heat well and did not want to move to a state that rarely got snow. I wish you the best and am sorry for casting a wide label! I think my family drama has affected my view of that state. Thank you for saying something. I enjoy when others challenge my opinions and cause me to think!

That’s great! I almost applied to USF but couldn’t bring myself to live in Florida for 4 years. With all the drama going down there in the last couple of years I just decided to stay clear. The School Mental Health collaborative was pretty tempting though. It almost swayed me. I just hate the heat, huge crowds of tourists and a heavily populated state full of ignorant people (COVID mostly) I wish I had the bravery of people willing to move there.

Not yet! I changed the color in my signature because I will be declining an offer if it is made. While I am still working out funding with my other offers I do not think UMass-Boston is a great fit for me. (Program length is longer, funding is low for an expensive area, research interests are not as close as OSU or IU)

Waitlisted at Buffalo! It's been 26 days since the interview so I feared the worst. If you have not heard back yet and fear rejection just hold out and hope for the best!

I still have not heard back. If they don't get back to me by Friday I think I might email my POI and ask if decisions have already been sent out. It's my number one choice but the longer it has been since interview day I have been liking my offer from Indiana U. I have had several conversations about funding and the program with my POI since the initial offer and the overall program seems heavily aligned with my career goals. My worry about Indiana is that I don't know about funding yet since the fellowships I was nominated for have not been decided. I also still need to interview for assistantships (at places around the campus) as they get posted. Hope you hear back soon!

It's been three weeks since my U of Wisconsin and Buffalo interviews... I hope you hear back in the next week because I am an anxious mess too.

Look in my previous posts. This is for PhD but it was an email from my POI/program director who talked about how to secure funding. Most funding on campus is prioritized to doctoral students but you still could find some!

Also don't think that because the interview was competitive and not very long that you won't get in. My interview for Ohio State was 10 minutes casual with a student and 15 minutes with both POIs. Plus, it was an alternative interview date because I couldn't attend the regular interview day due to a prior commitment. Stay positive and don't sell yourself short!

Yes. 100%. Most schools do not have a 100% enrollment rate of accepted students. At most schools at least one student is accepted off the waitlist. I would say you have a good shot!

I called Buffalo yesterday to inquire about my status and they said that while some rejections had been sent out the admissions committee had yet to send decisions to the office so if you have not heard back after interview day you should still be in consideration.

I have not yet! I believe the students at the interview day said we should hear back in the next 2 weeks. I will not be accepting if I receive an offer though as I do not want to spend an extra year in grad school or live off 18k in Boston. That's why I changed my signature to say declined offer (as I will not be accepting if I do get one)

UMass-Boston

Thank you! Congrats on interviewing at one of your programs! Hope it was your top one!

I interviewed at a program that had 5 people for each spot on interview day. 20 people for 4 spots.

I actually am in the same situation you are in right now. For Indiana U and Ohio State in previous years all students have been able to secure funding for at least 3 out of 4 years or for all 4(1 student opted out their first year as a veteran with GI bill). They can't guarantee it however as the funding comes from the college of education or department itself and is allocated to applicants depending on available positions and skills that prepare applicants for roles. Depending on where you got accepted (your best chances are at large R1 public universities) you should find funding somewhere at the university it just may be different than research work in a lab. You might be a TA at the tutoring center or a program assistant for student teacher placements. The majority of programs in school psychology actually do not guarantee funding. This is due to the heavy applied role of our field compared to clinical psychology. Less faculty are pursuing grants that fund their research since most faculty have a large teaching role. Even if a program has been able to find funding for their students in the past 10 years they almost never will guarantee it unless they have hard funding (grants) they have control over. Soft funds at the department or university level change year after year and while are almost guaranteed are not their yet. This is what one of my POIs said. I wont disclose what program or professor since it could identify me. "Regarding fellowships, we advance accepted persons names for these, there is nothing you need to do. And you do not need to accept your offer in order for us to do that. While we would love to you to come to our program, we respect your right to take as much time (up to the universal deadline (the school psychology programs nationally have agreed to this April 15 deadline, no program should be pressuring you to decide sooner than that) as needed to make this important decision. We pursue funding for you regardless of whether you have already accepted our offer. We understand for a lot of people whether they accept our admissions offer is heavily related to the funding they receive and I promise you will pursue funding for you with just as much vigor as we would if you had already accepted the offer, they are unrelated. Until the minute someone says they are not coming, we assume that they are and try to get funding for them, you most certainly included. Regarding timing, that’s a bit harder to know. I think it’s possible that we will know more about funding by early March, but it really varies from year to year and the fellowships in particular are decided at the college level. On our end, we nominate people and then it goes through a selection process that we are not directly a part of as individual faculty as different awards are decided by different committees that we are not a part of. So, while we may or may not know more by early March, we certainly will know about the fellowships by April 15. We typically know about fellowships well before then, but with COVID I am so hesitant to make a specific prediction about the timing of anything. That said, most programs have an April 15 deadline, so I would imagine that we will hear well before then just as we normally do. Please also keep an eye on postings for assistantships, as you will be very competitive for these. Ultimately, most of our PhD students end up with an assistantship rather than a fellowship. I’m not saying this will happen with you as you are a strong fellowship prospect as well, but I just don’t want you—or anyone else—to have all of their eggs in the fellowship basket as this is just one source of funding and the most competitive source. When I looked a few weeks ago there were not yet any assistantship postings for jobs that start in the fall, but if this has not already changed it will as the semester progresses (we are the end of week 2 of our semester, so it’s still very early to be thinking about August in terms of job openings, but that will change as we get closer to mid-semester). The bottom line is that while we don’t have funding to offer your this exact moment, we are going to pursue this vigorously and I encourage you to do so as well for assistantships as they start to be posted. While we cannot promise funding to anyone we accept, our track record is very strong and we are committed to working with you and on your behalf to secure funding. Let’s stay in touch, OK? Again, I will never pressure you to make a decision before April 15, but if you have any questions or want to keep me updated on anything that seems promising, I would appreciate it. On our end, we will be proactive.

I would agree with Schoolzy. My top two schools happen to be both the schools that haven't gotten back to me yet and I interviewed with them on the 23rd and 24th of January. I am just going to hold out hope and until I hear back assume I still have a shot!

I just saw that someone got a rejection email from the University at Buffalo PhD program with their POI being SF. That is my POI as well and since I haven’t heard back yet I am also fearing the worst. Did you get an email or was your portal updated? My portal says nothing right now.

I would write a polite and personal email to the program coordinator or POI you wanted at that school and explain that while you enjoyed meeting them, another program is a better fit for your and your professional and career goals. I have already turned down 2 interviews like that and plan on rejecting one of the current two offers I have depending on who gives funding or whether I can find it by April 15th.

For a Masters/PhD program at UMass Boston. Every other program I’ve looked at (and the two I’ve been offered admission with) requires 4 years of coursework at a minimum the 5th year being an internship. UMass-Boston is similar to U of Washington in that if you do not have a masters or EdS prior to joining you will have to complete 5 years of coursework and a 6th year internship. Essentially it would take a year longer at a minimum maybe even longer.

I had an interview with UMass-Boston today and while the program as a whole seemed nice and the faculty seemed very friendly and collaborative, two things stood out to me that have led to me deciding that I would not want to there. Posting this here for other applicants deciding about the program and for people browsing this next year. 1. If you do not have a masters degree the program will be 5 years of coursework and a year of an internship. It really sucks since another school I really liked (U of Washington) has the same model. I don’t understand why these programs would keep us an extra year when every other program is 4+1. Unless you were geographically tied to the area I would stay clear. Doesn’t make sense to spend an extra year in grad school for limited to no gain. It also sucks they did not mention this on their website. 2. While funding is guaranteed it is only 18k for living in the Boston area. Graduate students mentioned that it would be hard to live without a roommate or multiple roommates. The biggest reason for me is the extra year in the program. I can’t imagine doing that when I applied to so many programs that would allow me to graduate in 5 years. Best of luck to everyone!

Hi! The previous poster meant are any of your programs that you are applying to part of the discipline "School Psychology". You previous mentioned that you were in a nuero lab and almost all of the universities you applied to do not have a school psychology phd program. Hawaii as a state does not have a school psychology program. Are you applying to clinical programs with a nuero focus? You might want to try the clinical thread.