psychapplicant2011

You definitely want to email POI to make sure he/she is excepting students. Keep the email brief, and only ask questions that are easily answerable with a yes or no. (Really, the only question you need to be asking at this point in time is if they are accepting new students next year ... ) When I emailed last year, I introduced myself (name), gave one or two brief sentences about my background, mentioned that I was interested in working with them next year as a PhD student (and very briefly why I was interested in working with them), and then asked if they would be accepting students. We are talking six total sentences with one simple question. If you keep it simple, you are more likely to get a response.

First-hand statements from an admissions chair for a major PhD program. Students from smaller but quality programs tend to do better. Why? Well, if it is not a quality program, it has hard to gauge what those As really mean. It is also hard to gauge the letters of recommendations, too. But why smaller colleges? Students at big universities, even (if not especially) at top-ranked PhD universities tend not to devote as much individualized attention to undergraduate students. (Of course, there are a million exceptions to this "rule", but this is pretty much the information exactly as it was relayed to me.) If you can find a respectable, regional state school with at least a few good, mainstream researchers in your department, you are good. If you can find a respectable LAC with at least a few good, mainstream researchers in your department you are good. But in keep in mind, your interests/major is bound to change! So find a program that offers these qualities across departments! (Smallish but mainstream, quality researchers and good teachers/mentors.)

I am a graduating MA student at Georgia State (and will be starting at Emory in the fall). I've never ran into any traffic problems getting to Georgia State, but then again, I don't live somewhere where I am having to get on the interstate during rush hour. I would highly recommend Candler Park. This is where I live. You will have easy access to public transportation to downtown, and, from Candler Park, you should rarely (if ever) run into traffic problems going to Georgia State. The neighborhood is very safe. Living in Decatur, particularly downtown Decatur or perhaps in Oakhurst, would be a great place to look. Both would provide easy access to GSU (both by car and public transport). Also check out Inman Park, Poncey HIghlands, and Virginia Highlands. All thee of these neighborhoods are intown and very convenient to GSU. If you have questions about any specific streets/neighborhoods, feel free to private message me. Like many big cities, many of the nice neighborhoods are bordered by sketchy neighborhoods, so you have to be careful between renting somewhere that is *in* Candler Park/Oakhurst/etc versus somewhere that is in the Candler Park/Oakhurst/etc. area. (Good news is that there really are very, very few _bad_ neighborhoods on the east side, especially the northeast side.) (Depending on how much you are willing to trade a small amount of niceness for money, there are some spots in Kirkwood, Edgewood, Grant Park, Glenwood, Cabbage town, etc. that may be worth considering. These neighborhoods aren't quite as nice as Candler Park/Oakhurst/Inman Park/Virginia Highlands, but I know several grad students who live in these neighborhoods and they like them just fine.)

Midtown: As a general rule, north of Ponce De Leon, East of Piedmont is where you want to be looking. If you don't mind living a 2-3 miles from Ga Tech, you definitely want to check out Virginia Highlands and Poncey Highlands. Inman Park would also be nice. (All three of these later neighborhoods are also very convenient to Ga State and Emory.) I currently live in Candler Park and highly recommend it to anyone moving to Atlanta. However, it is slightly more expensive than most other areas. (Candler Park is not quite as convenient to Tech, but it really isn't inconvenient either. Candler Park is about 3 miles from Tech and is on the East-West Marta train line. Candler Park is extremely convenient for those going to Georgia State or Emory). I am not really a fan of the Buckhead/Lenox/Collier Hills area. It is way overpriced and overhyped, but if you are in to that sort of thing, most neighborhoods in those areas are safe (thought there are a couple of spotty areas) and fairly convenient to Ga Tech. If you are looking for up-and-coming neighborhoods (aka lower cost neighborhoods that are relatively safe, but perhaps still a little sketchy), check out Kirkwood, Reynoldstown, Edgewood, Glenwood, and Grant Park. These areas are hit and miss and are probably more convenient to Ga State than Ga Tech, but may still be worth checking out. Even less convenient to Tech (but still fairly convenient to Ga State and Emory) would be downtown Decatur or the Oakhurst neighborhood in Decatur. For Emory, most of the neighborhoods right around Emory are also all fairly safe, but I have to admit, the north, east, northeast side of Emory are some of my least favorite neighborhoods (though they are safe). Hope this all made sense, and I hope it was helpful!

With a 3.1-3,2, s/he can try to get into a not-quite-as-competitive PhD program that is a good fit, just as you did. This is true. And he/she might even have an OK chance of getting into a non-quite-as-competitive program, so long as there is a good fit and all other pieces of the application are very, very strong. But her/his list of full of very, very competitive programs -- programs at which a GPA in the B- range will be extraordinarily non-competitive. (Yes, I know GPA is but one small piece of the puzzle, but at the sorts of schools that s/he listed, having one small piece of the puzzle out of place can severely hurt her/his chances.) So, my advice: Apply to your dream school(s). Who knows? You might sneak in. But also find a list of lower mid-tier programs at which you think you could be very happy. (If your goal is to become a researcher, you do want to be careful to not pick too low of programs.) Also find a few funded MA/MS and apply to them. Lastly, read the department's websites carefully. Many of them will tell you what kind of GPA/GRE is competitive. You may even be able to find actual statistics for the program. (You can almost always find these sorts of statistics for clinical psych programs.) If your stats aren't low enough to rule you out, then email the professors who you are most interested in working with. Find out if they are accepting students. Find out if they are accepting students with research interests like yours. Then find out if someone with a profile like yours could be a competitive applicant to their lab.

Given your GPA and (gauging from your list, what seem to be) your goals of getting into a high quality research-orientated PhD program, you might best be served by looking into funded MA programs. A good performance in a decent MA program can really help make up for any shortcomings you may have as an undergraduate.

Take the course. If you can, try to work part-time in a lab, but definitely take the course.

No. It happens. As long your POI is not a jerk (and you neither), he/she will understand and will be supportive of you. And from the sounds of things, it sounds like your POI may even want to encourage you to transfer out.

Is it a funded offer? If so, do your two years, get an MA, and transfer out. It sounds like your POI might be supportive of this.

I would just like to reiterate what everyone else has already said: 1. Getting research experience of some kind is of the utmost importance. 2. Getting research experience that is broadly relative to your area is nice, but not nearly as important as simply making sure you have research experience. Here is advice I was given by the chair of a social psychology program at an Ivy: "Make sure you get at least some experience in a psychology research lab before applying out. It doesn't matter if you are working with rats in mazes." There are some caveats to this advice: 1. The exact sorts of research experience your program, POI is looking for can vary from program to program and from POI to POI. 2 . The rats-in-a-maze advice was given to me with knowledge that I worked on a couple of independent projects that were broadly relevant to the work I wanted to do as a psychologist. Some other related, relevant questions worth asking may be: 1. How much research is preferred? (Is one semester generally enough? Two years? etc.?) 2. What kinds of evidence of research quality is preferred? (Is a year in a lab with very positive letters from the POI enough? Conference presentations? Independent Projects?) My rough sense to these questions is that the answer to 1 may depend on the answer to 2 (and visa-versa). My rough answer to this question will be based on my own experience: I think an independent research project can speak volumes to your ability to do work at the graduate level, but regardless, most admissions committees would like to see a year experience working with a group in a lab. (I had 2 independent empirical projects outside of psychology and only 1 semester working in a psychology lab.) Having at least one conference presentation at a well-regarded regional or national conference is nice, as it shows an ability to engage with the field beyond your lab/department/university (and to some degree acceptance of your work). So, 1. Try to have one year lab experience under your belt at application time. 2. Try to have completed or be working on a substantial independent project (or perhaps a project in which you are the lead within the lab). Ideas: Honor's thesis. Grant-funded summer research project for undergrads (most unis have these and they are awesome!) 3. Try to have at least one conference presentation under your belt at a well-regarded regional or national conference. These are all things to shoot for. If you don't achieve all of them, don't think your life is over. People do get in to grad schools (sometimes good grad schools) without meeting these "minimum" suggestions. It is just that it may be a bit more difficult ...

Congrats!

Congrats! U Michigan -- that is absolutely awesome!

Pulled my name from consideration at Boston College today. Not sure if that is really going to help anyone, though, as my chances of being offered admissions into the PhD program were looking bleak. I am debating about pulling my name from one other school at which I am still in the running. Don't won't to mention names until it's official, though. (I am going to give myself until Monday to make a final decision, so I will let you all know then.)

Re: GRE Scores Most programs do not have official cut-offs. Scores that are considered low depend in large part on the program you are applying. With this said, I think there is something right about the magical number 1200. Yes, you stand a shot of getting interviews with scores below 1200 (and it might even been a good shot depending on your target programs), but, anecdotal evidence aside, if you do not want to run the risk of getting flagged because of your GRE score no matter where you apply, then 1200 should be the minimum score for which you should be shooting. If we want to get away from minimal scores and talk about competitive scores, again, there is going to be a wide variation in what is considered competitive. At most of the best (and many of the better) programs a score of at least 1350 is considered competitive. But again, depending on your target school, much lower scores might be considered competitive. Another thing to keep in mind is that the importance placed on your GRE is going to vary widely from program to program. Do NOT be suckered into the anecdotal evidence that GRE's do not matter. While the anecdote that professor X at prestigious University Y really doesn't look at the GREs may be true, this does not mean that your next 10 POIs do not take the GREs seriously. As a rough rule of thumb: 1200 minimum, 1350 very competitive. If you score below 1200, I say retake it. If you score above 1200, I would just sit on that score unless (1) you think you can significantly improve your score and (2) your target schools are some of the toughest to get into. Again, all this advice needs to be taken with the caveat that what is considered "low" or "competitive" varies from program to program. If you are just trying to get into an applied counseling program at an average state school, then 1100 might be considered solid (and 1200 maybe even impressive). But if you are trying to be competitive in a research-orientated program at an upper mid-tier program (or better), then the 1200/1350 (rough) rule of thumb probably applies to you.

Anyone with any University of Southern California updates?