socialpsych

It could be that they just want the factual data and statistics. Or it could be that they are going to use the list in determining whether to admit you, as a basis for speculating about where you're most likely to go given your interests. Programs do occasionally engage in the latter. Actually, the more dangerous question for that is, later on in the season, "Have you heard back from anywhere?" or "Are you considering any other offers right now?" -- of course they can't know what options you'll actually have just from where you applied, but once they know something more concrete, they are free to speculate. I don't think this is enough of a problem that you should leave that section blank on the application, but it's something to be aware of in a few weeks when the interviews start.

This, by the way, isn't always true. OP, your field is econ? At my school I would be willing to bet that well over 50% of the econ majors are international students, though I don't know the actual numbers. I don't know what proportion of applicants are international, and in any case I doubt this reflects an actual bias toward international applicants, but the point is that you will find some programs that clearly are willing to accept international students. The advice others have given above is still true. It is worth checking into the number of international students at your programs -- you could even email a few of them and ask whether their funding is different from that of American students. And you may also want to apply to more schools than an American student would.

In many departments it is not true.

Actually, I think the rejection email from one sociology program last year (I think it was sociology -- fortunately I didn't get it myself) takes the cake: the sender put all the recipient email addresses into the "To:" field instead of BCC, so they were all visible to each other.

I know I'm not anonymous here, and furthermore I'm aware that there is no way to edit or delete posts beyond a certain number of minutes after posting. So I try not to post anything I wouldn't be okay having up here for all eternity with my full name attached to it. Which leads me to err on the side of caution, even if I have no specific reason right now to avoid sharing a given detail...

Do you scuba dive? If so, that must come in handy...most of us need to wear weights to get the right buoyancy.

Last year, while a few of my decisions came through the app website eventually, I think in all those cases I already knew what it would be through email. Even one school that said "The decision will ONLY be posted on the website, and we AREN'T going to send you an email" did so anyway. My sense is that if you get an offer, they will not wait for you to check the website; they will make sure you know right away. If you are rejected, I think there is more of a chance you will find out on the website. Many schools also send you an email when a decision is posted, though, to tell you to check, so you still won't have to be checking the website itself constantly.

Both things happened to me last year: positive communication with a professor followed by rejection, and no communication whatsoever followed by enthusiastic acceptance.

Synaesthesia here too. That's what I always say when I get the "what's unique about you" question in real life, but...I figured it would be far from unique around here (:

Student at top school --> great profile does not imply great profile --> student at top school...it could still be that some great applicants are ending up consistently in the reject pile. I'm not saying that's the case; I'm just saying you can't just look at students at top programs to rule it out.

While I understand that having good acceptance rate stats can't hurt a school, I question its importance in grad admissions. How many of you actually took acceptance rates into account when deciding where to apply? I sure didn't...in fact I don't even know the rates for any of my schools. Do rankings of PhD programs even take selectivity into account? That said, I didn't even really look at rankings when I applied, but I would be surprised if they were even part of the equation...they just seem totally irrelevant. Grad school prestige is not about being an elite club; it's about the quality of research done in the program, which I imagine can be measured much more reliably using proxies like publication rates.

Neato! Thanks for sharing that. Cool to hear from people who are actually on the inside.

Here is a different reason not to post things on facebook (or, at least, to be careful): you might not want people affiliated with some of your programs to know exactly how excited you are about news from other programs. It matters to programs how likely applicants are to come if admitted. If you post something that indicates that you've already heard from your top choice program, for example, that could hurt your chances at other programs that haven't decided yet, which might conclude that you are not likely to come if they give you an offer. My strategy was not to post anything specific until I'd decided where I was going (and formally accepted an offer), but some of you may not want to go that far. Unlike last year, I guess you can now modify the privacy settings on your individual status updates, so it might be a good idea to make updates with details about schools friends-only (or even restricted to a particular subset of friends, especially if you have friended current students at your programs whom you met while interviewing). Just be aware!

You can come back to the gradcafe and dump all your obscure knowledge about applications onto next year's crowd. Will you miss the anxiety, the obsessiveness, the total craziness? Of course not! At least, I sure didn't, once it was over. Even for a minute!

Totally depends on the school. Sometimes they will tell you, either before or at the interview. Last year, I was invited to an interview that openly had a virtually 100% acceptance | interview rate (the interview was just to make sure nothing was wrong on either side) and one that openly had a 20% rate, and one that didn't tell applicants anything but ended up accepting something like 10% of interviewees. I know of another program whose rate is around 30-60%. So it's all over the map. Sorry to say, these are all programs that pay for airfare, hotel rooms, and some food for applicants, so I don't think the money they are spending is necessarily indicative of their acceptance rate. I should say that none of these are neuro programs, which may operate very differently!

My favorite interview questions: - (if a potential advisor) What have you been working on recently? - What kind of student does well at this program? - How would you characterize the atmosphere in this program? Those two usually got me pretty far, together with follow-up questions and further investigating whatever sounded interesting. In my field, there is some variation in the way advising works (e.g. whether and when incoming students are assigned a primary advisor, and how much they are expected to work with other profs) so sometimes I asked about that as well. Finally, if I'd heard of anything that was unique or specific to that program, I often asked people to comment on that. This is mostly subjective rather than factual stuff, because I thought that would be the most valuable thing to ask, but it is okay to ask for facts as well, as fuzzylogician said. The person interviewing you may or may not say something about when you will hear from them next. If so, go with the flow. If not, ...well, what fuzzylogician said. Congrats...and have fun! You've officially reached the fun part of this process!

Using a list of top programs the way the OP proposes -- simply applying to all of them because they're top programs -- might be "weird," but it's a good idea to have a list out there as a jumping-off point. I can only speak for myself, but I was not working from any centralized list of strong programs when I started checking out faculty webpages, and I ended up polling some professors and grad students and essentially coming up with my own list. Before you can evaluate research fit, you have to know what is out there!

Haha, you have all mentioned rereading the letters...if you get a phone call, make sure you listen. I think I missed about half the conversation that happened on the phone immediately after I learned I'd been accepted to my top choice program, just because my brain was screaming OMG OMG...and boy was I sorry later on when I had no memory of that half!

Shrug, okay. Back when I was considering going for a PhD in clinical psych, a bunch of people independently told me that it was "even harder to get in than med school." I think that's just a question of selectivity, not of the "painfulness" of the process, but you might still be right.

Clinical can be research-oriented too. And yes, it is the most competitive area of psych for grad admissions -- more competitive than med school!

Sorry, no magic answers...but they will not keep you in suspense for long after they know themselves. Last year, at the one school where I happen to know what day that final meeting was, I got a phone call later the same day. If it's taking them a while, it's because they're busy with other stuff, not because they want to torture you!

Just lurking, but wanted to say hello and go team! And yes, anyone in the field who cared enough to go to the trouble could identify me pretty quickly, even based on my signature...I just try not to post anything I wouldn't want linked with my name. (:

I'm sure those things happen, and I believe you. I just question your estimates of the frequency of such events. Would you advise female grad school applicants that, if they are thinking about working with male advisors, they might as well assume that their advisors find it appropriate to have relationships with grad students? Again, if you believe that's true, all I can do is respectfully disagree based on my experience, but if you don't believe it, I think the stakes in spreading such information are potentially high.

The test is always, "Would I be happy to go to School X if it were the only one I got in to?" If there are schools other than your 5 that pass this test, perhaps you should apply to those as well. There is some randomness in grad admissions, which can make it a good idea to apply to many schools. On the other hand, if you are fairly sure, for whatever reason, that you will get in to one of your 5, then it might not be worth it. 5 is a reasonable number of programs, btw...not too much lower than average, I'd guess.

Oh, I see. Bummer. Well, then you could do a year; I'd think that would still help, and if you start in the summer, you'll have done a few months already by the time you need to apply. Are there good universities with strong psych faculty in your home country where you could work for two years? I honestly don't know how much of a problem the stats grade would be. My impression from working with a few full-time RAs is that their stats background varies: some have a lot of background and some virtually none. I don't know what their CVs looked like when they applied, but you might have a chance. Have you actually talked to anyone about this or are you speculating? All that said, as you pointed out, this is more of a problem than just getting a job. I know of RAs who decided to sit in on a stats class at the school where they were working, if they didn't have the background coming in, because they needed the skills. Is there any sense in retaking the class during your last semester at school? I suppose you got a passing grade so maybe not...but, again, a C+ in stats is not damning of you as a person; it just means you need to do some catching up, so once you can demonstrate that, I think you'll be okay. A lot of people in the field who are proficient in stats had trouble with it at first. Regarding how to find RA work: yes, the emails from your school department are one source. You can also try asking profs at your current school for ideas and info about who is currently hiring. I am not sure whether it's the norm to just email professors of interest, although if you have made contact with anybody during the application process, that might open the door. But please, don't go on my advice alone! Are there any RAs at your school you could ask? As outside academia, the best way to get a job is probably through mutual connections, so if any profs you know can point you toward someone, that could be a good bet. And, if you find yourself looking for RA positions in your home country, and you are limited with respect to location, I am guessing it would be more acceptable to just email profs. But I am not totally sure about that, either.