franks98

Oh.. and I'm also at a state university that no one outside of the state probably knows about... And, I was a high school drop-out (seriously!). I hope I can give others hope!!!

I had to go with 'none of the above' because while I just got a first author on an upcoming conference presentation (MPA) and am author on some publications in preparation, I don't yet have those credits to my name, nor do I yet have my undergraduate degree. Just found out today, though, that I have an interview with a great program with a POI who is very famous in the field. My GRE was also pretty bad (GPA though is pretty good)! What I think has gotten me to this point has been strong LORs, strong SOP, thoughtful responses to emails from my POI, and some good ideas on research.

Cool! I'm focusing on prejudice and group ID stuff too. I've also been getting really into the existential stuff as well lately (namely terror management). What an interesting field! What part of the country are you in now?

Whoops... just remembered this was the social psych thread.. Too much time spent hitting the refresh button on my email. . . not thinking straight.

I've gotten some insider info on some of the programs that I'm applying to, and really, it seems that many schools are still going through apps in search committees -- both faculty and current grad student committees. I wouldn't start getting concerned at this point . . . you're still in the game! Did you apply to a range of programs? Are you applying to social psych programs? If so, which area of soc. psych?

I put in an application to Brock U in St. Catharines, ON. While I'm hesitant about doing a program in Canada, the prof I want to work with is doing research that is exactly the stuff that I am into... a near perfect fit, really. I figured I'd give it a shot.

Oh jeez... I'm so sorry, but I can't help but find this funny! I had a similar thing happen to me. I ran into one of my letter writers in the hall and got to talking. He was telling me how he wrote very strong and personalized letters for me and blah blah blah. It was a pleasant exchange and as we started walking off he turns around and says, "Oh yeah, I made one mistake. I left the name of School A in the letter to School B. Sorry! Don't worry, it makes me look bad, not you!" And off he went. I've tried to not think too much about it, as it's entirely out of my control. I'm hoping it doesn't have too negative of an effect on my application, though!

The thing that stuck out to me was you saying that you want to become a professor. To me, this is saying that you're more interested in teaching than in research. And I think that's awesome, personally; but, knowing how research focused universities are (publish or perish), I wonder if this may hinder your application? Just my two cents... best o' luck!

Here's something I did that ended up working real well: I kept receiving emails from the grants office about an upcoming deadline for student/faculty collaborative grants. I didn't think a whole lot about it as I always assumed it wasn't folks like me that got these types of awards (which many think and which dwindles the field making it likely that it is you or me that get these awards). Finally, I thought, "eff it." I want this $3000 and I want the experience of designing my own project. I approached a faculty member who I had taken classes with, was friendly, and who was possibly open to mentoring the project. At first, the professor was hesitant and didn't seem to excited. He sent me an email, though, and scheduled a meeting with me to talk about the grant or other research possibilities the following week. I took that week and I wrote a proposal. I spent hours on it day and night -- completed a lit review, and designed a whole experiment to test a hypothesis. I made sure to incorporate the issues I am most interested in with the issues that my professor was most interested in (because in reality, our research interests differ). I sent out emails to the famous professors in the field who had studied some of the topics extensively and they were very happy to offer some advice on the direction of the study. I emailed the proposal to my professor the night before the meeting and forwarded some of the emails from some of the experts in the field. When I met with my professor, he was excited about the project and became fully supportive of it. We polished up the proposal, submitted it, and ended up getting the cash! This was an awesome experience and it has provided me a great LOR, continued research, a (hopefully) upcoming paper in which I'll be first author, and hopefully admittance to grad school. So, the point? I took advantage of an opportunity offered at my smallish third-tier state university, worked my ass off, and --- this is key -- made sure that the professor I intended to work with would be as unburdened as possible. I put in a ton of work to make sure that he basically would just have to sign the paper work for the grant (of course, he helped much more than this once he got interested in the project). Since then, we have been having weekly meetings in which we discuss the project and psychology in general for hours. It's been an awesome experience. I am not a social butterfly by any means, but nor do I see myself as socially awkward. I think my drive to do cool research inhibited any nervousness I had about doing this. My thinking was, "the worse that will happen is that he won't be interested in this project and I'll figure it out from there." I think one of the ways to build a basic rapport is simply asking questions in class. At my university, my fellow classmates are, for the most part, a bit uninspiring. The faculty seem to get frustrated that students don't ask questions, don't get involved in discussions, and then receive mediocre grades on exams and projects. By being engaged and doing well in class, professors learn your name very quickly and become very open to working with you. It does take effort -- especially if you're not very extroverted -- but I think after some positive experiences, it becomes learned behavior that snowballs into many other interactions with other faculty which opens up the door to other research experiences. Best o' luck!

I put in an app to the SCN psychology program as well. Did you accept the offer? If so, how do you like it? I'm really intrigued by the program because, while it's not top ranked or anything, it seems that they are putting out some really cool research. I'd love to talk to you about the program, if you're in it.