Mr. Tea

Also received a rejection from U Chicago today. Oh well.

First day of March seems to be rejection time. Rejection email from Princeton today. Also, wait list email from U Michigan. We'll see what happens there.

Also, how many schools did you apply to and which schools were they? Admissions are extremely competitive everywhere so if you only applied to four schools and they were Stanford, Harvard, NYU, and Yale, that doesn't help.

I know that Harvard has contacted applicants to the social psych program and they may have already conducted interviews. I can't recall. A guy who was at another recruitment weekend with me mentioned that he had an interview there, but I can't remember if he said it had already happened or it was coming up.

Study more and retake the GRE if it's something you want. Not getting into a program during a ridiculously competitive application season is not a good reason to give up if you really want to go on in academia. Think about the rest of your life, not just the current application season. Study more than a month for the GRE. I studied for about three months at a steady pace (in no way was it consuming my life, but I took time to spread it out) and raised my score by over 200 points by using the Kaplan book to study the verbal section and the GRE website math review to study for the quant section. Take the practice tests around the time that you re-take the GRE to get a better idea of what you need to focus on during the last few weeks of preparation. As long as the rest of what you mentioned have been quality experiences, raising your GRE score would make you a very competitive applicant if you don't get in during this season (hopefully you will). Just do that and make sure you emphasize your fit with specific programs (don't brag about your stats, which it seems like a lot of people do), and you'll probably get into a program. But this is all only worth it if it's something you really desire (which I assume you do).

Does anyone know if University of Chicago has contacted prospective students/sent interview invites/sent acceptances yet?

I have to say that I strongly disagree with the above posters. People go into graduate programs that have nothing to do with their past experience all the time. If you can show your ability and motivation (i.e., that you're capable of learning new skills and have a strong interest in ongoing research in a program) then you're fine. Apply to your dream schools and balance them with others. The reality is that admissions are incredibly competitive in the US right now regardless of your background. The most important thing is that you show some basic level of ability and motivation, but you really have to emphasize why you're a good fit for the programs to which you apply. I agree with the above posters that research experience is helpful; however, the claim that your current experiences are irrelevant is not accurate. They may not be cognitive neuroscience research experiences, but they are psychology research experiences and research training can generalize to other subdisciplines, even if you have to learn a new skill set. One thing you might consider is applying to Master's programs in cognitive neuroscience if you can find a good program. If you are not admitted to a PhD programs and get into a Master's program then you can build research experience and apply again later. Consider contacting professors who are doing the kind of work that interests you and just start a conversation (meaning, don't just say "hey I really want to work with you, will you accept me into your program?"). Read some of their work and ask them questions that you genuinely have, or tell them you wanted to say hi and appreciate their work on X topic for the following Y reasons. Whether or not they say it explicitly, many programs value diversity. For this reason I think that your experiences in India, as long as they were high quality experiences, could enhance your application rather than hurt it. Apply to programs with the honesty to acknowledge that even if you're a highly qualified applicant you may not get in just because the PhD climate is particularly competitive with the current state of the US economy (people are going back to school because they can't find jobs and many departments are hurting on funding). If you can't get in right away, ask yourself how much you want to pursue this career and do the next best thing that can prepare you for a subsequent application season.

Don't just think about the kinds of questions that researchers in either discipline have explored historically. Think about the methods that you will learn in one discipline or the other. Which can best answer the questions that YOU want to explore? In my opinion, higher education departs from early education primarily because you learn more methods rather than concepts. Disciplinary boundaries are fuzzy in terms of the questions they try to answer, but different disciplines have different traditions regarding how they try to answer those questions.

Just saw my rejection at Ohio State posted on the website, in case anyone else applied there and has not checked yet. I'm pretty okay with it. It's a great school, but it was probably the worst fit in terms of research interests among the programs to which I applied.

Northwestern has posted rejections on their website. I already suspected this was the decision there but it's nice to finally have some closure.

Yeah, negotiating through this process is tough. My tendency is to express real interest in each program that shows interest in me without making false promises (especially because I want to check out all of the programs before making a decision).

I haven't seen too many others mention these schools, but in the past couple weeks I've been contacted by professors at UIUC and Indiana U who let me know that I'm on the short lists at those schools.

Based on results from last year, yes, you need to wait until April 15 to know for certain. Some people (though it seemed to be rare) are notified of acceptance on April 1. Right now many schools have sent interview invitations. Some, but not all, have sent waitlist notifications as well (and not all schools have sent invitations yet). Keep in mind that some of the people who go to the interviews will not accept offers of admission (because many have interviews at multiple schools). My plan is to wait two weeks from now. If I have not heard from a program then I assume I was rejected; however, because some schools have sent rejections already then there is still a wee bit of hope for those from which you have not heard.

I'm here and I'm in.

You're right. I thought I remembered seeing something, but maybe it was in another thread (and for another program area).

Not to mention their deadline was in November.

I think someone mentioned earlier on this thread that he or she had been contacted by Northwestern (sad for me too, one of the schools I applied to as well). I've heard nothing from the others, but I think UIUC recently started to look through applications so I doubt they've contacted anyone yet. I have not heard anything about the other schools that you mentioned, but also applied to UChicago, so I'm anxious to know if anyone else has heard from them. To the person asking about U Michigan above, I have received an invite to their recruitment weekend and I know at least one other person has received the invite as well.

Congratulations! And thanks for letting us know.

This is exactly the same thing that I do. Some friends object when I tell them this, but I think it helps a lot.

May future grad students have these freak outs about our programs and about us.

Yes! Anyone heard from Stanford? I would interpret that as, this professor is going to recommend that you are admitted and he/she mentioned full funding for three years to start to sell the school to you (i.e., convince you to accept the offer that you will probably receive). Admissions decisions aren't up to that professor, so he/she didn't want to make a promise that could fail. I think chances of admission are highly in your favor.

This is a moot point for me because I'm in a Master's program, applying to PhD now (was going to take a year off, but my profs encouraged me to join the two year Master's program instead), but I would gain research experience and take methods coursework in a Master's program. I consider this an investment in my Ph.D. program. Aside from just spending 5-7 years somewhere you're not sure you want to be, you have to ask whether or not coming from that program will get you the kind of job you want. You can deal with 5-7 years somewhere you don't want to be. It's more difficult to deal with 30 years at a job you don't want.

My strategy for university fit was to research some of the work done by professors at the university and mention specifics. You don't have a lot of space so keep it brief. E.g., "My research interests in [X topic] fit well with [Y professor]'s. I am especially interested in her recent work on [Z topic]." Or "When I had [A class/experience] I became very interested in [b topic], which matches [C professor]'s work on [D topic] well." Don't take a shotgun approach. The department has to read through tons of SoPs, so they will appreciate it if you write something shorter and strong (if they provide a word limit feel free to meet it or fall short). I also looked for unique opportunities that certain departments offered. For example, I am applying to psychology PhD programs and it is very uncommon for them to offer a decent amount of stats courses. If they offered stats courses on new topics, I mentioned that as a compelling reason for choosing their university. Or if they mentioned that there were opportunities to take marketing courses I mentioned how this is a good fit for my interest in social psychology interventions because many intervention strategies overlap with marketing strategies. I think mentioning specifics about two or three professors (more if you want, as long as you don't go too long and you're being honest) is most important, and if you find unique opportunities offered by the program, mention one or two of those as well. Think about it this way: if you turned to a romantic partner and asked, "Why do you like me?", what would you want to hear? "You're hot?" "You're smart?" "You have a good sense of humor?" These are all flattering and they apply to many other people than you. I want to hear, "I really like it when you talk about the things you're passionate about. I may not always understand everything you're saying, but I'm really attracted to you at those times." "I love that you always laugh at my dumb jokes and that you make me life, like the time you said/did such and such." These are communicating the same information, but they are personal. They describe the unique ways in which there is a good fit. Lots of programs will fit a profile that will be good for you, and you have multiple good options. Explain how each one uniquely meets what you're seeking, even if all of them meet it in different ways.

Nevermind, I just (two minutes ago) got an email for invitation to U Michigan's recruitment weekend! I'm bouncing off the walls!

Hey all, applied to 9 social psychology programs. Most are very competitive, so I'm hoping to get into at least one. Stanford Princeton U Chicago U of Illinois (UIUC) U Virginia U Michigan Northwestern Ohio State WUSTL I've heard nothing official so far. Small unofficial indication that I'm on a shorter list at one school, but just because they contacted my prof to ask him for info.