t_ruth

ah, nice to hear I'm not the only old lady! what are you going for?

I'm curious to hear the answer, but can I just say I hate you :wink: I have two small children and my own business, so I'm a bit behind the games with the applications (I have to do all my writing when they are in bed or napping and before I crash from exhaustion). They give me a few minutes when they are playing to check email and do non thought-intensive tasks, but that doesn't cut it for writing those SOPs. Do most people get stuff in far before the deadline? See, this relates to your thread because if they do, the schools may be more inclined to start communications early

seriously! I think it is just one of those cases where they are only measuring how to take the test. I think maybe those of us who are confident in our writing ability didn't concentrate on how to take this portion of the test and that's where we went wrong. Shame on us! I miss the old analytical section.

I've decided not to retake or rescore. I asked one of my law professors to stress my analytical writing ability - shouldn't be hard since law school grades are almost entirely based on this. If I could turn back the clocks I sure as heck would have indented those paragraphs!

thank you both!

It definitely varies by field then, that wouldn't work for my field - you have to make sure there is someone with matching research interests, and the only way to do that is to write (unless the school has kindly put a list of who is accepting students, which some do).

edited because this being t'internet and all (too personal). Anyway, the things we do (and may be impressive) in our teen years are less relevant when we are 30 (which I sadly am).

I think either of the first two would be fine. You already have two professors writing, why not go with the supervisor?

I did a search but didn't find much... I'm scheduled to talk w/a possible advisor next week. Anyone done this? Can you share? What should I expect? I've read some of her recent work and will brush up right before our call, but am a bit nervous. Thanks!

thanks! It's a tough decision. My undergrad was from a pretty lousy school and I got a 3.4 (but, that was back in 1997 and I was 19 when I graduated and worked the entire time so I'm not sure how that will play either).

thanks for your feedback. you have me freaking out a bit now as I *have* to get in and get funding this year or it is probably a no-go. I can retake it this Saturday. Do you think I should?

youch. I wasn't thinking about retaking, just rescoring. I'd be worried to lose my 760 quant score because the math was SO tough when I was taking the exam. I would hate to play the what if game though, man! I figured my other scores were pretty good for my program... should I try to rescore the writing before retaking the exam?

thanks. my verbal was the 93rd percentile, so not as great as yours, but still not awful I guess. From what I've read, the reviewer takes less than a minute on each essay. I also realized that I may not have indented my paragraphs, which I've read can be a significant deduction, crazy! My most recent writing sample is a legal paper on an educational topic...no clue how that will be received. Basically I feel completely in the dark as to my chances, so am applying everywhere I wouldn't mind going where the faculty has similar interests.

Being a lawyer wasn't the right thing for me, so I am going back for a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. I've been out of school for some time, so I was counting on the GRE to be good, sigh. My husband suggested I must have approached the exam like a lawyer, but it is an analytical test, so I don't see why I shouldn't have. I had taken the old GRE in 1997 and scored an 800 on the analytical section then (and my LSAT scores are 98th percentile)... I'm worried that if he is right, then a rescore will be pointless, and also scared about the possibility of dropping from what I've read about rescores online. ETA: verbal: 650 (also disappointing) and quant: 760 (which I'm find with considering my last math class was in 1995)

Hello all. I need some feedback here. I just got my writing score on the phone and it was a 4.5!?! I have a J.D. from a top 25 law school where I was an editor of the law review and near the top of my class, so I was a bit surprised to be below the 60th percentile on the GRE analytical writing section. I felt that I did a decent job (well, more than decent) during the exam, so was actually floored. Is it worth trying to get it rescored? Thanks in advance for your advice.

but then how do you know if they are accepting students the year you are applying? I didn't think this post was about asking them what a prospective student's chances are (like the subjects of your links), but instead if they are accepting students, right?

thanks. I paid for the subscription on that a while ago, but I can only see 9. Can you see more? I've been researching and applying for a few months now, but it takes forever to dig for the programs (since they are in different areas in every school...some in psych, some in education, some somewhere else entirely), and then to find a professor with the right interests. My interests are motivation, achievement and metacognition. How about you? Did you apply for any of the fellowships?

It would be great if they doubled the awards, but I doubt that will help me at all as I don't think I will be ANYWHERE close to getting one. I'm thinking I may have a better chance with NDSEG if my undergrad grades from 11 years ago don't ruin my chances for all.

thanks guys. I did some further research and it looks like a lot more of the 'softer' science psychology stuff qualifies as well, so that is v. cool!

don't think it merits a new thread given the slowness of the board, but what kind of cognitive/behavioral sciences can get an NDSEG?

true. I just haven't been able to find one.

thanks for the response! School Psych programs seem to be more practice-oriented. I'm looking for a traditional research-based Ph.D. with the goal of being a professor and researcher.

I think the Verbal scores are extremely hard to predict. I used books from Barron's and ETS and was getting a verbal range mostly 730-800 and a quant range mostly 710-760. When I reviewed my answers on quant sections it was mostly stupid mistakes and I did not find the practices stressful or hard. I took the Power Prep practice test and scored 740v 710q. The day of the test the math was awfully hard! like pull your hair out hard and frustrating. I'm guessing what happened is that I answered the early questions correctly and quickly ramped up to a lot of stuff unlike any of the practices as I still ended up with a 760. I had a super hard quant section first (believe was experimental section) and by the verbal was exhausted. Most of the words I had never seen before, which was very frustrating. I ended up with a 650, well below my practice average and range. writing TBD, I should get the scores this week

I'm having a hard time finding many good options for research-oriented Educational Psychology programs (Ph.D. instead of Ed.D.). Some schools offer this directly through the Psychology program and some through the College of Education. Other Universities offer only Developmental Psychology programs with a focus on school environments. It's taking ages to find exactly what I want and I was hoping that someone could make suggestions of places I might have missed. So far, looking at: Stanford, Vanderbilt, UC Irvine, Duke, UGA, FSU (maybe?) anyone have somewhere great that I should know about? I am applying to a broad range of schools because I am returning to school after a long absence (12 years since undergrad and 5 since law school), so I have no idea how I will fare. Thanks!

ooh bumping this thread and hoping you return. I'm applying this fall for the Educational Psychology Ph.D. Any advice? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post here. Thanks!