Bison_PhD

purple people-eater (did I cheat?)

This is my second application season, and I different types of programs do the interview process in different ways. That said, I know that in most of the programs that I've applied to, they do a few rounds of interviews. The first round of applicants are the creme de la creme, but people will get accepted from the second of third rounds too. This helps me some when I see others post from schools I've applied to. While knowing that you are not your schools top choice may hurt, it doesn't mean that you have no chance. Good Luck.

I couldn't have said it better.

I think that the majority of us may logically know that we have a strong application, it does help to vent your irrational nightmares.

Yeah, so evidently in my anxiety I may have broken that unwritten rule, but it is too late now. That does explain why most have not responded, I guess I do sound desperate.

"Hello, my name is Bison and I am an addict." "Hello, Bison." "Uh, thanks. About a year ago I began my addiction to checking application statuses. At first, it was just some experimentation, but soon I was a full blown addict. After hitting rock bottom on April 15th of last year I quit for almost 8 months. This past December was a stressful month for me, so I began to crave my old vice. I decided to not go back to heroine (checking application statuses), instead I went to the methadone clinic (GradCafe). Now I am addicted to GradCafe forums, results page, and checking email. Thank you for listening."

Hello Sunshine!

Mine is pretty simple, it rhymes with my first name and I've always liked the animal. My avatar is b/c I like "The Simpsons" and I'm pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience. Feel free to guess my first name if you want, but you probably won't get it.

"A 3.4 at Blah Blah State University is ridiculous. I haven't ever heard of it but I'm sure that it is a very poor/easy institution. Hah, if I had gone to such an easy school I'd have gotten a 4.0 They think that they are going to make up for it with only 1 year as an RA at a research institution, Puhleese. Grad Student #4378, throw this in the trash for me, I can't be bothered by this 'Bison' any more."

Lab Rat- It is hard to say what my top choice is, they all have different strengths. last year I got 2 interviews and even got accepted to one, but during the interview process I learned that it was not a good fit. It is just so hard to get a good feel for a program just from their website. I've tried to make sure that if I get accepted to any of the programs that I applied to I will be happy. Good luck on your apps. BTW, what lab is you're colleague in? Or, what is her research focus?

Lab Rat- Well, since the last application season I have been working as a RA in an lab at Vanderbilt. This is to correct a relative weakness in research experience from last time around. It SHOULD help tremendously, but I've been confident before. I am applying to mostly cog neuro programs @ Vanderbilt, WashU, Emory, U of Chicago, Maryland, Virginia and MIT. I've got an interview at Virginia and that help ease some of the anxiety since they didn't even call me last year, but we'll see what the next few weeks hold. What about you?

No, it is not just you. My wife keeps telling me that I need to turn off the email alerts on my phone b/c it is stressing me out. But what she doesn't understand is that NOT knowing immediately when an email comes in would be much worse. Also, this is my second time through this hellish process. I have recieved one interview and this makes me confident. But, everytime I get confident I get this wave of anxiety b/c I remember how overconfident I was last time around. I know that my application is much better than last round and that I didn't miss it by much last time around. But, the anxiety is still there, and it will be until I hear form a few more schools. Ahhh... I feel better.

Glad to have found this thread! This is my second turn on the arduous roller coaster of the admissions process. Here are my stats: 760Q, 480V, 1340 Total 4.0 writing 3.4 GPA from a state school (Psych Major, Minors in Bio and Chem) Moderate undergrad. research 1 year of lab experience as an RA (at Vanderbilt Univ.) 4 GOOD LORs Applying to Cog Neuro programs at (in no particular order): Vanderbilt Emory MIT UVa Maryland CP Univ. of Chicago I've been lucky enough to hear from one of my schools so far. I know enough from last year to be encouraged by this, but not too over confident. My biggest word of advice to those of you reading this, is to try to contact faculty at institutions to which you are applying. It helps so much, and I might not be doing this dance again if I had done that better the first time around.

Good Grief

I am applying to several cog neuro programs and have only heard back from one, but it is not one of the ones you listed. This is my second application cycle (FUN!), and in my experience most don't contact until early January. Also, I can almost guarantee that Vandy hasn't contacted applicants yet. I work there/here and they wait until Jan. usually.