bialetti-overdose

@Glasperlenspieler Thank you for the wonderful advice. I will try doing this immediately.

@rising_star Yes, I feared that my request might be too vague. Sorry about that. It is vague may be because I, too, am NOT sure how to tackle the problem of improving my general writing skills... My university has a writing center, but it is very hard to schedule a lesson. So, I was just wondering if someone here had a similar problem and may be able to share their success story about getting better at writing in general...

Dear members of theGradCafe, I am a PhD student who is in need of a wonderful writing tutor. I've searched all the forums listed on this website whose postings are related to the writing improvement, but besides the suggestions, like "write more to get better," I failed to find information about hiring a writing tutor as a way to improve writing. I know hiring a tutor is the most expensive way to improve your writing, yet I believe it is a relatively less risky method of improving my writing skills than the method of writing and reviewing my own paper over and over without feedbacks. I am happy to pay for the tutor if he/she can improve my writing. Can anyone recommend a great writing tutor for me? (I live in Pittsburgh, but ONLINE tutor would be just fine as well)

Hi all, In my school, we invite guest speakers for a seminar presentation each week. This week, my advisor advised me to have a lunch with the guest speaker. The lunch usually lasts an hour. But the question is... What the hack am I supposed to talk about with the guest speaker? Any tips? Should I read up the speaker's research before hand to pretend that I know about the person's previous work?

Other than the reasons that you beutify for the application, why would you pursue PhD in Psychology of your chosen discipline for REAL? I know what to put in my application that would help professors to make choice for their pupils, but I just want to know why others want this degree?... You can write anything from.... "I love research" to... "My parents told me to get one." Sincerely,

Thank you, I didn't mean to offend anyone with my post nor I would have ever expected to offend anyone for just my wanting to get into Ivys.

I am sorry I thought I clearly said "not so much" not "not at all"

Lol.....

I think they are very concerned with Verbal and analytical writing scores. Not so much for quant.

Thank you for the word of encouragement. But I decided to jump outta window tonight. (easier said than done....4 real)

Project: Let's get rejected!!!!!!! Hi guys, I applied for 10 schools for PhD in Psychology and it's Feb. 18th and I have not had a single interview appointment! I kept denying myself saying that, since I am an international student, my decision will come later than the Americans. However, I am starting to accept the cold-truth. When I took a look at "admission result" of thegradcafe.com, I could not help myself but to compare rejection dates in previous years. This is what I found: Acceptance (Da gooot nus) : around late Jan to late Feb. Interview appointment : around Jan. Rejection (Da bad nus) : March hey~ I am screwed (and completely insane) Let's punch in your major name and school that you applied to in the "search box" and compare the dates from 2010. and let's get rejected!!!!

Well, i was free basing my acceptance to be honest. It is one of those feeling that when you were HS student, you are applying to safety schools. However, if that made you feel uncomfortable, sorry about that.

Thanks for your reply. Of course I am aware of the pure purpose of going into MA program. However, my dream is to attend Ivys. (I know, I know i should look more into "fit" than "name") What I meant by "extra" was my asking how to strengthen my future application besides the stuff that I might already know or something that can make me stand out from the packs

oh yes, I have gained a year of research experience so far after the graduation of Bachelor's. I have worked in an university as RA for three months and right now I am working at a private research institution like Gallop.

Hey, guys, I think I may get into Boston University and NYU for their MA psychology program. My goal is to pursue PhD in another school upon completion of MA in these institutions. In order to further strengthen my PhD application in the future, what should I do extra during MA program? Should I publish something with my name? (I heard it's hard even for MA students) Should I suck up to a professor who has connection with the university that I would like to go for PhD? Should I just focus on maintaining my GPA? Should I retake GRE? (current GRE score: V: 710, Q: 780) Should I broaden my "connections" in psychology conferences?

One that I know is from Wakeforest

Thanks for your kind response to my posting. I applied for 12 + schools right now. (application fee was kinda tough to afford too and all of the professors that i wish to work for confirmed that they are taking some new graduate students. and if you don't mind, may I ask which MA/PhD program you are in?

oh, i may have confused you. I was an international student in the US. I was born and raised until middle high school in Korea. and my entire family resides in Korea. So, I guess it was easy for me to get a research assistant position in Korea

yes, test takers can get very frustrated and start to believe that the standardized testing process is absurd. I have received Q:770 and V: 710. Just ask yourself, "Do I "understand" all the vocabularies?" I must emphasize "understand" because GRE is not about merely memorizing the vocabularies and their meanings. It's all about being able to tell the nuiances of each vocabs. If you are able to catch that 800 for V is piece of cake

oh! yes, thank you for your continued reply, yes, I would like to study (as stated in my SOP) social psychology in the grad school. More specifically, I wrote about my interest in "potentially devastating effect of stereotyping" in detail explaining my past research experience that led me to this topic. And as I was preparing for the top tier schools, I must confess that I applied most of them just because of their names. However, there were some schools that could potentially support my research perfectly, such as Princeton and Berkeley. currently, i am looking for MA programs at NYU and searching for other MA programs in psychology at some prestigious schools (<- this is where i need help) as a safety measure... btw, i graduated from Emory Univ.

my ultimate goal is to obtain PhD degree. I got GRE score of V: 710, Q: 780. Only thing that's concerning me is my low GPA. (3.22) However, I really want to get into Ivys. That's my dilemma.

Do you recommend any MA in psychology? I applied for psychology PhD for many schools now and I am not so confident that I would get into any of them. So I am thinking of applying for MA degree for NYU starting on Summer of 2011. Would this be a good decision at the moment to build up my application status for future PhD application? And if you guys know of any other schools that offer the kinds of MA degree that NYU offers, would you list them please? Thanks,

Hey guys, I have very bad GPA for my undergrad (3.22) and I have high GRE score (V: 710, Q: 770). I am applied for PhD program in all the top tier schools that I could think of in Psychology. I stated that my research interest was studying Stereotypes. (Social Psychology) I am currently working as a full-time research assistant for psychology lab here in Korea right now. and I want to get some advices from you guys as what I should do assuming that I do not get into any of the programs that I applied for this year. should I ask for some kind of research assistant job in the university that I want to get in? or if there are any advice as to where there are openings in Fall 2011 admission PhD program or research assistant position or whatever?? Thank you so much,

and what tier of school might I get into?

Yea...it's a serious problem for me. I am trying to determine which path of psychology I should be focusing on. However, my ultimate goal is to be a professor at university and research my interest. do you think I can gain som research exp in Korea that will count as valuable as the exp that I can get from American institution? and any tips on SOP??