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franks98

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Everything posted by franks98

  1. E/E G/G E/E And a fucking HM. Damn that pisses me off. Oh well, another year of TA'n'. Congrats to all awardees and HMs!
  2. ^^^ nevermind. Apparently it's on the homepage; the about page shows last year's numbers.
  3. nevermind. I thought it had been on the about page.
  4. I'm cross-posting this from the NSF GRFP thread: For the GRFP, I think they will just hold funding at last year's level (i.e. 30k/yr, 10.5k institutional support). The nsfgrfp.org website doesn't have the info about the stipend and support increase for FY13 listed anymore, so my guess is that they'll keep the number of awards the same and decrease the award amount. That sucks, but I suppose it's better than thinking that you maybe could have gotten an award if only damn politicians didn't screw everything up.
  5. For the GRFP, I think they will just hold funding at last year's level (i.e. 30k/yr, 10.5k institutional support). The nsfgrfp.org website doesn't have the info about the stipend and support increase for FY13 listed anymore, so my guess is that they'll keep the number of awards the same and decrease the award amount. That sucks, but I suppose it's better than thinking that you maybe could have gotten an award if only damn politicians didn't screw everything up.
  6. You have a lot of schools listed that receive a hundred + highly qualified applicants for 2-4 spots in their program. You have good stats yourself; but I would recommend also finding schools that maybe wouldn't get as many applicants -- many schools like that still have top-notch training and will pay you a descent enough stipend. One thing I recommend is to look at those big names you want to apply to and look at their students who are now faculty at other universities. A lot of times, they may not have the name recognition; but, they may be very productive, funded with junior researcher grants, and in need of students.
  7. Sure thing: Symbolic self-completion in academia: evidence from department web pages and email signature files (Jones, Schmeichel, & Jones, 2008) European Journal of Social Psychology Volume 39, Issue 2,pages 311–316, March 2009 DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.541 If you have institutional database access, PsycInfo would probably get you the article quickly.
  8. Cool. I didn't just make this up. I figured there was a good possibility that I did and that I would now have to do a study on it. I found the study that I was thinking of: "Symbolic self-completion in academia: evidence from department web pages and email signature files" (Jones, Schmeichel, & Jones, 2008). Interestingly (for social psych folks), it comes from the research on terror management theory. The abstract: Symbolic self-completion theory proposes that individuals use symbols of attainment to define themselves as accomplished in self-defining areas and to communicate their accomplishments to others. The goal of the present research was to examine whether individual professors and academic departments strive for symbolic self-completion when communicating through the Internet. We hypothesized that publications, citations, and departmental rankings by the National Research Council (NRC) represent important indicators of attainment for professors, whereas professional titles (i.e., “doctor,” “professor,” or “Ph.D.”) may serve as alternate symbols of attainment. We predicted that a lack of important indicators of attainment would motivate the display of professional titles in web pages and email signature files. In Study 1, academic departments with less prestigious NRC rankings listed more professional titles on their departmental web pages compared to departments with more prestigious rankings. In Studies 2 and 3, professors with lower annual rates of publications and citations displayed more professional titles in their email signatures compared to professors with higher publication and citation rates. These results suggest that self-completion motives help to shape naturalistic Internet communications. The results further suggest that analyses of Internet communications can provide externally valid tests of theories concerned with motivation and self-processes.
  9. Meh. . . I just sign my first name. My first and last show in the person's inbox. I see a lot of people in my program with extensive signatures and I kinda roll my eyes at it -- more so if the person is annoying in general. If it's necessary that someone know something about me, I'll introduce myself as such. I think there was some study done showing the negative correlation between signature length and number of achievements/pubs/notoriety.
  10. Well... I got an honorable mention. While there's no cash, I'm pretty damn happy about it. I'm the only person in social psychology to get on either the HM list or the awards list in all of Texas -- something to be stoked about, I suppose. And, seeing that everyone else in social psych on both lists is from pretty much all the huge name institutions, I feel good about representing a smaller school that's not exactly known to be a power house in psychology (though, in my opinion, we have some real top-notch faculty). I'll really beef up my application next year! A toast to all. Cheers!
  11. If you can handle it, do both. I think schools will be looking for at least one psych methods course. Most will even usually state that if you're applying without a major in psych to make sure that you have had methods and stats. Despite your research experience, it would be quite a gamble putting in apps without methods on your transcript. Being in the UW system myself (not at Madison, though), I think you'll be able to handle the 8 week summer course while doing research with a lab. The 8 week courses go at a nice pace, not too compressed -- in fact, I prefer an 8 week class over the 14 or 17 week ones just 'cause it doesn't drag on for so long. Anyways, that's my opinion. Try to do both. You seem motivated and bright and I don't think you'll have a problem handling the work load. Oh, and as to whether research will make up for lack of a methods course? Again, I wouldn't try this as it may not fly with many schools. Even if you are well taught in the hands-on setting, that then must be communicated not only in your SoP but your LoR writers will also likely have to make mention of it. To me, this is unnecessary space spent explaining a deficiency rather than using it to tell adcomms how awesome you are.
  12. Nice! I'll be in the SCN program working in the Social Cognition lab with Michael Zárate. Yeah, my plan was to head there early August. My partner (aka: my sugar momma) is working on getting a job within the EP school district, so we're looking to buy a house near campus. I'm excited -- ELP seems like a real nice place to spend the next five years.
  13. Thanks! Yeah, I was on the wait-list at KU. They had contacted me just this week asking if I still wanted to be considered and that a spot may be opening up for me. Then two days later I was notified that the funding wasn't there and that they had finalized their decisions (the program director was super nice about it). Unless another professor is still looking to choose off the wait-list, it looks like KU is done with this season. I was told that formal letters will be sent soon. Best o' luck!
  14. [quote name=hello! ' timestamp='1302367670' post='241903] That's true, but my impression is that if the student later takes additional upper division courses in Behavioral Neuro, Cognitive Neuro, Neuropsych, etc. and gets an A, she/he will likely be fine.
  15. Ha! Prior to interviewing at Arizona, my POI there called up my advisor here at my UG school and said that he really liked my application but had concerns about my B in Social Psych that I got when I was a sophomore! He wanted to get reassurance that I could handle a social psych doctoral program. From then on out, my advisor had it in his head that my GPA was weak... it's 3.9, damnit! It was more funny than anything else. Bad grades in stats or methods will hurt you. They'd be a red flag to a lot of POIs and adcomms. If you're going into neuroscience or something along those lines, a bad grade in biopsych definitely ain't helping you.
  16. Meh... I have one Canadian app outstanding, but I haven't heard a peep from them. I accepted my offer today and will withdraw the app from the Canadian school. I kinda wish I wouldn't have spent the $150 for the app, transcripts, and fedex charges to apply there!
  17. Nevermind, KU didn't pan out, so to UTEP it is... officially now!
  18. Who is your POI at UTEP? I imagine we'll be in the same cohort. I haven't officially accepted yet as I think there is going to be an offer from University of Kansas coming through real soon, but even with that, I think I may still choose UTEP as I was really impressed with their program. Decisions decisions...
  19. I guess I'll bump my own thread to provide more info for people who are doing searches in the future. I just got back from a short visit to El Paso. I couldn't make it to their official visitation weekend so I just flew down on my spring break instead. First off, the campus is absolutely beautiful. It is very a laid back place. The architecture and surrounding mountains really add to the feel. It is in the heart of the city, but the campus feels removed from the bustling of the surrounding neighborhoods. The university is expanding. UTEP administration and the state legislature are aiming to make the university a 'very high research activity' (R1 under the older system) institution. Right now they are considered a 'high research activity' institution. The psychology doctoral program is relatively new, less than 20 years old. They are planning to expand from about 15 faculty currently to 25 in the coming years. With this expansion, they are going to be moving into new building on campus as they are outgrowing their current building. Right now, they have three different concentrations: Health, Legal, and Social, Cognitive, and Neurosciences (SCN). Down the road, they are hoping to split up the SCN into distinct programs. The cognitive specialization will likely focus greatly on language processing and bilingualism considering its location along the US/Mexico border. Much of the research being done throughout the department focuses on issues that relate directly to the border and immigration. The faculty are well established in their respective fields, and the students seem to be consistently publishing. The psychology program seems to treat their graduate students very well. Most students come in with a TAship that provides just over $15k in support. It was explained to me that they don't just throw you in front of class right away, but that you'd start out assisting with grading etc. By about your third year, you'd probably teach your own class. Out of state tuition is waived and they also provide a scholarship to cover much of the tuition costs. 15K may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that El Paso has a very low cost of living in comparison to other cities around the U.S. One could easily rent a one bedroom apartment for $400-500. If you get a place with roommates, you could probably keep your rent to around $250. There seems to be a good mass transit system as well that is easily accessible with descent hours or operation. I've heard that El Paso is pretty bike friendly, but I didn't see bike lanes on a lot of the main drags. I did see quite a few students who rode bikes, though. Despite being across the border from the deadliest city in the world, the violence does not spread to El Paso. El Paso is consistently ranked one of, if not the most, safest city in the United States. The crime that occurs is usually targeted to individuals who are mixed up with the cartels across the border. The El Paso police seem to do an excellent job at keeping the violence down. There is also Fort Bliss, one of the largest military bases in the country located in El Paso. If the violence were to erupt in El Paso, I don't think it would last too long. So, that's my take on the program and El Paso after a very short visit.
  20. We'll likely be in the same cohort. I'm in El Paso right now as I couldn't make it on April 1st for their visitation weekend. It was nice to get away from Wisconsin as I heard there was 7 inches of snow there today. After walking all over campus today, I really dug the vibe of the place -- Laid back, beautiful. I'm meeting with some of the faculty tomorrow. I'm looking forward to learning more about the program. Their offer was really good, and I'll probably take it. I think I'll fit well here.
  21. It likely depends on the state as each state's DPI requires different credentials. Places where teachers are needed, though, will likely put you on board on an emergency license while you take education courses to meet the requirements.
  22. I just got accepted into the Psychology Ph.D. program there and will likely take the offer. My research centers around prejudice and immigration issues, so I think that El Paso will be a prime location (especially seeing how U of Arizona just rejected me post interview! arghhh!). For a smaller school without the prestige of some of the the flagship state universities, I was very impressed with their funding offer. UTEP doesn't seem to be feeling the budget crunch that most schools are. I know the Texas legislature is pouring in a ton of cash in hopes of making the school on par with A&M and UT-Austin. One of my concerns with the place is their nearly 100% acceptance rate for undergraduates. To me, this seems like the school is simply trying to boost enrollment to receive federal financial aid funding. While I understand the economies of such a move, I am a bit worried about being a TA and having to deal with kids who are not able to do college level work. Biding by my own moral principles, I don't believe that I could grade inflate just to help the university in its retention missions either. To me, it would be wiser for utep to pass on students who cannot do the work, get them into the local community college, and if they can hack it there, then get them into UTEP for their degree. Just my thoughts..
  23. Here's something you music-cog folks may be interested in checking out:
  24. I agree with this. With the school that accepted me (a relatively unknown but strong program with a well known POI), the POI told me early in the process that he completely disregards GRE scores unless they are extremely low (below 450 on each section) or extremely high (above 750 on each section), but that he did look at GPA much more carefully. I scored just below 1200 and thought that the GRE was the biggest waste of time an energy ever. I got wait-listed at two top 30-40 schools and got an interview (and then a rejection! grrrr!) at a top notch program despite my relatively poor performance on the GRE. Strong letters, strong SOP, good grades, and making meaningful connections with POIs prior to submitting apps is where it's at (yo). Though, I imagine that some programs do "paper screen" based on GRE before even looking at an app. Those programs can go eff themselves, frankly ... i kid, i kid...
  25. I just got an offer for the Social, Cognitive, and Neurosciences doctoral program within the psych department at UTEP. It's a really good offer with a very competitive TAship, out of state tuition waiver, and a scholarship that will cover most of the tuition and costs. I am wondering if there is anyone currently attending or anyone who has previously attended there who could chime in with their thoughts about the program, UTEP, or El Paso in general. I can't make it to their official visiting weekend, but am going to fly out there for a few days over spring break to get a feel for the program and the town.
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