dherres

Regarding a bigger name, I find it hard to believe that *in the chosen field,* Leiden is more prestigious than SOAS. The latter was ranked #6 in the WORLD this year. I know several alumni from their development program, and they told me that potential employers have commented positively on the fact that they attended SOAS. That being said, obviously there's a lot more to consider than rankings and name. SOAS is a specialty university: if you have a regional interest in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, SOAS is the place to go. Plus, London will give you more opportunities for networking and internships. Look at the curriculum of each program and identify which courses you'd want to take and what skills you would get out of them. Get onto LinkedIn and see where alumni have ended up. Consider how connected the faculty are, and whether they have mostly academic or practitioner backgrounds (one SOAS Dev Studies alumnus told me that faculty were very happy to use their connections to help the students network). Good luck with whichever you choose!

Anyone else planning on attending SOAS this fall? I've applied for their new MSc program in humanitarianism, aid, and conflict -- it's housed in their development department (ranked #6 globally this year, impressive). I'm literally expecting a decision any day now, and it's enough to make me crawl out of my skin.

Does anyone know what the deal is with TC Columbia?

I'm in the PhD program at UConn right now (second year) and one of the faculty this morning said that they're having their first meeting tomorrow. They want to have a recruitment weekend the first weekend of March, so I expect that they'll send out the first wave sometime next week.

Where on Wikipedia did you find this? I took a look and saw that the UNDERGRAD admission rate is about 10%, but nothing for graduate.... and nothing listed for TC specifically, unless I just missed it. A friend of mine who used to work in the admissions office of TC said that because they don't have any funding (no access to Columbia's budget, endowments, etc.), they tend to admit more students than a lot of other places.

I don't know if the person who got the interview email (for Social-Org PhD) is reading this, but if so, which faculty emailed you? (I wasn't expecting anything or at least a week, but now..... pins and needles every day!!)

I've gotten involved in community theater while in grad school. I used to perform on stage (mostly musical theater) in high school and college, but it had been about 7 years since I had last done a show. I'm absolutely loving it.

I applied here as well, to the PhD for Social-Organizational psychology. Fingers crossed!!

Sorry for misrepresenting my reasons for wanting to transfer. I'm well aware of the focus of the TC program, and prefer that to a traditional I/O program. My concern with UConn is that it's not even a traditional I/O, despite claims (one student who is ABD recently stated that he's about to graduate having never actually taken an I/O class.... how exactly does that work??).

I might as well post in here, too. I'm currently a PhD I/O student at UConn, but I'm applying to a different program: Teachers College, Columbia Univ. Don't get me wrong, UConn is great, but it's really more of an occupational health psychology program than straight I/O. The faculty here are awesome, though, as are the other students, so anyone who's interested in UConn, don't feel dissuaded!

I was just asked the same thing by my 2nd recommender. (I'm currently in a PhD program but am looking to transfer.) Apparently it's not that uncommon, especially when the person doesn't feel as though they have a strong enough grasp of your character and abilities to write it themselves. Don't sweat it; look back a few pages on this forum and you'll find several threads on the topic.

GBear -- yes, look at SIOP's site, there're also a few studies they list that are a bit outdated but a good starting point on where to look if you're looking at "elite" programs. That's weird!! You could try emailing, asking what projects they anticipate starting soon, or first you could try doing a literature search in PsychInfo (if you have access) or GoogleScholar for papers they've authored. That'd give you a bit of a better sense of their interests.

I've finished three weeks of graduate school now. And yet, I still don't think of myself as a graduate student, or at least, not *my* image of what a graduate student "should" be. From time to time, I'll stop and look around and think, "This is me??" Is anyone else feeling this, too?

Just an anecdote (not meant to contest your statement!): one of my professors exclaimed the other day in class how bitter she is that she made a 4.0 in grad school and not once has anyone ever wanted to see her transcript. (It was meant in jest, but there's some truth there.....) But yes, still, many places do want to see them. So careful!

To huanic: Give it up, there's no way you'll ever make it into grad school. Programs prefer actual people, not spambots. Love, dherres