cogneuroforfun

I don't know about English specifically, but I know History stipends at some Ivies hit the upper twenties (something like $27,500). Department certainly matters, with humanities getting less than sciences, but school matters a lot, too.

You've all already figured it out, but yes that 10,000 is to the entire graduate school. Psychology gets around 300-500. Also, keep in mind that the relationship between competitiveness of a department and number of applicants is not linear. Less competitive get fewer applicants, sure, but there comes a point where more competitiveness scares off people and application numbers probably flatten out. I would expect the number of applicants to the top 10 or even 20 programs to be roughly equal, but I could be wrong

No chem, a little bit of bio. I was applying to work with fMRI and monkey people, so lack of chem didn't hurt me I don't think. Did you contact faculty you were interested in before/after applying? Was there good match of interests between faculty there and yourself? Those are two things that I focused on that I feel helped, although I'm not sure how much.

A lot of it is old, but there's a couple new people hanging around. And sure, I'll share: ~3.8 GPA, ~1450 GRE, 2.5 years in an unrelated psych lab, 1 year in a very relevant psych lab, honors thesis, no publications or anything, some graduate stats and data analysis courses. I applied only to places with people doing the specific subfield of cognitive neuroscience that I wanted. Stanford, Caltech, and Princeton rejected me outright, and at least with the latter two I think its because I was applying to work with some more computational neuroscience labs and didn't have the math background.

One of the big differences was that UCLA was very course-oriented and Yale was definitely not (and both programs were up-front about this). You'll learn more when you visit, but at Yale you take basically 6.5 classes your whole time here, and can reasonably finish all your classes by the end of your second year. I don't remember specifics, but UCLA had many more courses and requirements, which is good in that you can pick up a lot of knowledge and skills in a structured way, but bad when you really just want to get your research going. UCLA psychology also required TA'ing every semester, unless you had outside support, while Yale requires two semesters of TA'ing. That's another cost/benefit thing, because teaching experience is important (I think) in terms of being a good faculty member down the road, but takes up a good chunk of time. Yale also has rotations, which I favored. But it really came down to which PI and lab I was most excited about. So far, everything has been better than I hoped. I'm in my second rotation and have really liked both labs, but I'm pretty sure which one I'll be joining. Everyone talked about how bad the winter would be, but it really isn't that bad (and this is coming from someone who lived where it never ever snows until moving here). That said, its currently 70 degrees and sunny back home, so "not that bad" is definitely relative. All the students and faculty have been supportive and friendly. I think New Haven's reputation is worse than reality. I think things have gotten much better in the past 20 or so years. There are some pretty shady, impoverished areas nearby, but I haven't felt unsafe in any of the areas that I'll ever normally go to in New Haven (downtown, university area, East Rock) or in nearby towns (Hamden, Orange, etc.). If you have any specific concerns, I can probably speak to them, but otherwise nothing negative comes to mind.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask here or message me. I interviewed at two psychology programs (UCLA and UPenn) and three neuroscience/cognitive neuroscience programs (Yale, NYU, Duke), so I can hopefully give a little insight.

I don't have much to add, other than that I'm really surprised so many grad students do not call professors or even their advisor by their first names. I have yet to meet a professor that wants to be called anything other than their first name, and that's from new faculty up to established, tenured faculty in their 60s. I understand professors wanting to be more formal with the hordes of undergrads they teach, but I haven't seen it as a graduate student. In general, I don't think there's anything wrong with being friends with any faculty member, advisor or not.

Well, I'm in a neuroscience program. I interviewed at 3 neuroscience departments and 2 psychology, and got that question nowhere. They were all good schools (with the "worst" being UCLA), and I answered the "where else are you applying" question on any app that had it. I think you would probably see that question much less often in the hard sciences, simply because funding is not as tight of an issue usually. If they want a cohort of 10 and 15 accept, they can make do; if 5 of the initial offers accept, they can always ask a couple off the waitlist or just go for a bigger cohort the following year.

Wow, I'm really surprised how many people have been asked this. Its one thing if you apply to Harvard, MIT, and University of Nowhere or whatever, then U of N might know they're your safety. I don't know what I would have done if I had been asked. Like some others have said, I only applied to places I would be willing to go, but there were obviously some I preferred more than others. I think an answer of "I paid $x to apply here, didn't I?" while somewhat rude, would be completely warranted. And I would think smaller, less-funded departments are the ones that need to be as appealing as possible to attract top students, not pushy and rude.

I think as long as you think long and hard about your decision, it will be tough to agonize over it for too long. Even if conditions change in the future, you'll know you made the best decision you could at the time. Personally, I had a somewhat tough decision, but after interviewing at the two places and talking to the PI's, it wasn't that hard to see where I would be happiest. And at least with the sciences, if you really think you missed out on something and picked the wrong lab, there's always a postdoc (or two!) to try out the lab you think you should have picked.

I don't think that would be very easy or accepted by your PI or program. You'll certainly need to learn some stats, but that's part of your PhD, since it will help your research. Getting an MA would be overkill and take way too much time from research, which is more important. Look at it this way: you'll probably be done with classes by your second year in the PhD, so the final three (or four) years of your PhD is pure research. Do you really think its a good idea to try to fit another one or two years of coursework into your schedule during what should be the most productive research years of your PhD?

I just wanted to mention that in graduate schools, I don't think any school is anywhere near 90% enrollment of accepted students. The Yale BBS umbrella program is something like 1/3. Other factors like fit and potential advisors are too important for "top" schools to get such high enrollment numbers, I think. You may interview at the #1 through 5 ranked schools, but find your potential advisor at the #10 school is too good to turn down. I think that probably keeps people from automatically accepting an acceptance from a "top" school.

I'm at a Yale BBS program now and went through the interviews last winter. Do not wear a suit, you will look completely ridiculous. Some of the grad students at one point said that we were actually a good group of interviewees because there wasn't even one fully dressed-up out-of-place person. Business casual is alright, if you feel you must dress up some. I came in black jeans, dark slacks, and t-shirts with sweaters. You need to realize that they don't care what you wear, they care about how you talk about your research. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Why are you doing an MS in math with so little math preparation? Why do/did you think you would enjoy or have a passion for math when you hadn't experienced anything like upper division math courses, let alone graduate math courses? I'm not trying to be hard on your or anything, I'm just really curious. I can't imagine ever thinking of doing an MS in math with my calc 1 and 2

I had two courses, and should do fine in both of them. More importantly, I ended up very happy in my first rotation lab, so I have a good idea of what work I'll be doing for my thesis.

Yes, an interview means you have a good shot of being accepted. If you have any desire to enroll in this program, you need to make it to the interview.

You should definitely read at least 2-3 papers for any faculty whose research is similar to yours, even if you don't really plan on working with them. In my experience, the talks with faculty broke into two groups. The more important group (I think) were faculty in the same general area as me, doing research and using methodologies that I was familiar with, even if I was not actually considering working with them directly or joining their lab. I read papers for these people so that I could talk science with them. The second group were faculty in completely unrelated areas (though still within the same department). With them, it was generally more to give me the chance to ask questions about the program or city, rather than talk about research. It was fairly evenly split between the two groups, with 2-3 faculty in each at each school. The thing to remember is they're never going to put you on the spot and ask tough questions to try to see if you're "good enough." I understand that med school interviews are like that, and in my experience at least the interviews were relaxing and interesting, not scary. They will ask you specific questions about your research, so be prepared to talk about both the details and the bigger picture of the work you've done. Otherwise, you just need to show interest and be engaged. Have questions for the faculty that aren't in your research area, ask about the city or the program or the university in general. When in doubt, don't be afraid to ask about their research, even if you're not going to understand all of it. Its good to get a feel for what each of the labs in your department is doing.

I think it is pretty strange to think that professors are fighting each other for the right to claim an applicant, especially one whose application they have not even seen yet. For the people worrying about talking to more than one faculty in a department before you've even been interviewed or accepted: really? You'll end up in one lab eventually, but why would professors not want you to see all your options and make an informed choice as to which lab you would like to work in? If they really want you to come to their lab, they'll try to sell the entire program, school, and city to you, not get angry when you ask about related research in the department.

Metro North rail goes straight from Grand Central Station to New Haven for under $15 one way. See: http://mta.info/mnr/html/mnrmap.htm Alternatively, you can take CT Limo straight from the airport to Yale, for a little over $100 I think. Depending on whether you're more scared of public transit or wasting money, either option is convenient. From New Haven to Boston, I don't think there's anything nearly as cheap as the Metro North. Supposedly there's a new bus service for ~$20 from New Haven to Boston (http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/city-news/2009/09/21/briefly-private-bus-company-moves-ahead-plans-new-/), but that route may not be in service yet. The Acela Express Amtrak route goes from NYC to New Haven to Boston, but it will probably be pretty expensive. You might be able to find a bus service like CT Limo for New Haven to Boston, you'll just have to search.

If your interviews are anything like cognitive psychology PhD interviews, it will not be very technical. If the program is research-based, they're probably going to focus on your previous research experience. They'll ask you to talk about it and ask specific questions about it. They'll ask you if you have any questions, and you should always have some question. If you're speaking with a faculty member you'd like to work with specifically, you should ask questions about their research, even if it is just general "I know you published about X this year, are you still going in that direction or doing something new?" Edit: And if you're talking to someone whose research you have no interest in, ask about the program or the city or the school in general. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions, either because you're interested or because you don't understand something. If someone is talking about their research, they want you to be engaged enough to interact and ask questions. It shows interest. In general, though, try to relax. You got an interview because they like your application enough to accept you. Now you just have to go to the interview and show them you can talk about research, show some enthusiasm, and are a (relatively) normal and easy to work with person. Definitely go in person if there's any way you can, because you need to see the place and talk to the faculty and students in person to get a good feel for the program. I think that's all the general advice I can give! I can try to answer anything more specific if you think of anything else.

You certainly have a shot at places more prestigious than #60-100. At least apply to your favorite top 10, several top 20, etc. Isn't it worth the extra $50-100 per school to have a shot at getting in at a significantly better school? If you feel up to it, I would recommend taking the subject test, as it would help show that your curriculum is at least somewhat comparable to more well-known schools. But you definitely won't get in if you don't apply! Edit: I meant to add, if you can have a letter writer attest to your work ethic, perseverance, etc., that would go a long way toward alleviating any problems you might face from having multiple W's on your transcript.

Congrats! That's got to be relieving to know you're almost certain to have somewhere to go next year!

Highly field specific, I guess. For psychology/neuroscience PhD programs, all of them had interviews before you were accepted. Only one officially accepted pre-visit, but still arranged and paid for the "admitted students weekend."

Focus on your SOP.

What is the percentile? That will tell you if it is a decent enough score to send.