honkycat1

1) Don't wear something because "most guys wear it". Most guys dress terribly and look terrible. 2) Wear shirts/pants/jackets that fit you. People typically wear stuff way too big and baggy. Know your body type and get stuff that fit you. Most off-the-rack still are made for a big body type regardless of the height. Look for fitted shirts or slim fit shirts, in general. 3) Go for simple, classic styles. As far as AoM's wardrobe guide, I don't think its fancy. Sure, you don't need to wear a suit or even a blazer to school/TA every day, you ARE a student. If you are a professor, then thats not a bad look. But wear a button up shirt and throw on a light jacket or sweater and some dark jeans is totally casual and can look nice at the same time (If they fit well). and wear nice shoes, loafers or some nice lace-ups, don't wear gym shoes outside of the gym (unless you want to look like the typical academic: slacks and gym shoes... ). dressing well is not the same as "dressed up". You can dress casually and still look very well put-together, which is what you are looking for. And find stuff that you are comfortable with. There are a TON of resource on men style/image online if you want to better take care of your image. but seriously, if you wear things that A. Fit properly, B. is clean, and C. isn't filled with graphics and make you look like a walking billboard, you are already ahead of 90% of the guys walking around on campus.

I will only have a full signature when I feel the information in that signature (title, school, etc) is relevant to the email and I feel the recipient needs to know it. I.e. If I think writing out my title and qualifications in the body of the text is not necessary, I usually don't include it in the signature either. my default email don't have default signatures. I don't even sign most of my emails, I'm pretty informal with my emails especially when sending to my peers and advisor who I see often.

Like everyone said, age is irrelevant. What I'm more interested in is if this person is single. In my department, it seems like 85% of the people are not. So, best of luck if he is single Maybe there are more single 30year olds than early 20s. I do have a theory, people who get married under 25 have a insanely high divorce rate (~70%?) as opposed to people married after 25, and I think that is a result of SO MANY PEOPLE getting married to their college sweethearts or whatever before anyone has a big boy job, enter the real world. Thats why so many of them are divorced by the time they hit 30.

oh, your macbook is 1.5 year old? unless your wealthy, getting a new laptop for the sake of windows is a waste of money, IMO.

of course. People always over-exaggerate how much time they will be spent working. PhD is hard work but I know of NO ONE who work so hard that they have given up TV. But, in the end, its time management. Though, if you know you have a problem with it, and you can see the "future you" spending 5 hours every night watching TV, then I may not get one. Also, I can't work well with noise, if I had TV on while I "work" I would not get anything done. So yes, you CAN have a TV, most people I know have a TV and they haven't dropped out yet.

PhD in I/O is definitely a mixed degree. And it depend on the school you attend. Some schools will encourage both, while others will focus on one over the other. Don't go to a school like Penn State or Michigan State and say "I want to be a consultant". Those are big research schools and expect you to do a TON of research and get offered jobs in academia. And obviously, a PhD can land you more/better jobs than a masters, but I/O is a growing field even as of today and a masters alone is fully good enough to land a decent job. A lot easier than a masters in some other fields, for sure.

I went through the whole first year not really using my laptop at all (maybe once or twice, but hardly necessary). It broke down, and I got an iPad instead. I also have two desktops (One at school, one at home). But if I didn't have the school desktop, then I would probably need a laptop. You need a computer at school that you can work with. iPad is GREAT for entertainment, and its actually quite productive. I take it to meetings, take notes, sync my life together. If you don't have experience with apple products, I do recommend you give it a try. If you are a tech nerd like me and use it to its full capability, its worth a LOT more than what you paid for RELATIVE to what you would pay for a laptop IMO. I would say, 85% of the things you do on your laptop ON THE GO, can be done just as easily and if not, more conveniently with an iPad. The other 15% of stuff that iPad can't do, well, you RARELY NEED to do it ON THE GO, so if you have easy access to a desktop or school computer, then you don't need it.

I'd keep my awards, poster presentations at major conferences or pubs. Just because the work isn't as good doesn't mean its not a presentation or publication. But things like "research assistant" at some UG lab, that can probably go.

Clinical is insanely competitive. You need a lot more research experience than just a thesis, and a MUCH higher GRE (70%+ I'm guessing) have a legitimate chance. Otherwise, you are going to be wasting a lot of money applying and risking the chance of not getting in anywhere and wait a full year. The emotional and financial toll is very hard to deal with. Your lucky you are so young, I would just volunteer if you can at some labs and try to get on a publication by the time you are at "normal" application age, and rather than cram the GRE, study a little at a time for the next 2-3 years and apply when you are at least 21. Going to grad school before you can drink is NO FUN either.

If you have stellar GRE Quant and GPA, and some research experience that demonstrates your ability as a researcher, I'd say you have a good shot at many above avg programs. Poster or honors thesis will be great but publication is something that takes a VERY long time, and you have to be quite lucky to have one if you are applying straight out of UG. I mean, the process takes 2-3 years from start to finish. Yes, you can jump in a project that is near finished and get your name on a pub, but like I said, you have to be lucky and professors knows this.

yea if you are applying this fall and don't have data yet, there is no chance it can be published then. At most a poster presentation. Stats and experimental methods are very important courses, IMO. Also, GRE is also very important for I/O. I/O more quant focused than some other fields. Bottom line, the want someone who demonstrates that she/he can do researcher. This is through courses, research experience, and quantitative proficiency.

yea, be VERY cautious with these schools. Even those that say they are accredited or in the process of being accredited. So many of them are just semi-scams that takes advantage of the bad economy, convince you to take out huge loans, and you end up with a useless degree and a lifetime of debt that you have no way of paying off. It can be very scary if you make a bad decision.

as someone who applied to OB programs at business schools and I/O programs, I can tell you, MOST business programs that you mentioned (dunno about marketing?) are training academics. I/O programs is often 50/50. So if you are considering industry i.e. consulting, I/O programs are better. If you are set on research, OB programs are good options, BUT teaching MBA students and business school culture is VERY different from I/O programs. These are things I didn't consider and only learned after I got in, so I would talk to business professors and students who can tell you more about the differences between these two types of programs in terms of doing organizational research.

make sure the school name is right in your statement.

I think this is another one of those idiosyncratic things for academics and lawyers that has really little practical advantage over spiral notebooks. Oh, the other thing is messenger bags, ugh. everytime I feel the peer pressure to convert to using legal pads or messenger bags, I remind myself how uncomfortable messenger bags are and how messy legal pads are, and how it has no cover and pages fall off too easily. /rant, but seriously, what are some practical advantages of using legal pads rather than just spiral notebooks? I use spiral notebooks for general note taking, its not highschool anymore so I don't have 1 for each class or anything, just one for all general purpose and scribbles.

and what are pros and cons for them? I think the most common is obviously powerpoint, although I think mac has its own standalone software for presentations (not a mac person). I've also seen a lot of people turn powerpoints into pdfs, is this to make sure it can run on any platform? I don't see too many merits of changing powerpoints to pdfs for other reasons. there is also Prezi, which is pretty cool but its a webapp and it obv doesn't have as many features as powerpoint. finally, I've had professors that just scroll down a google doc in his lecture but obviously not in a formal lecture. I personally have used them all, prezi is more work but its fun to play with.

I wish I had friends outside of my program lol...

I do wish I had more friends out side of the department. that said, I do like the program that I'm in and feel similarly to most people in the thread so far.

if we are talking about the economy, I think if anything, this is as good time as ever to be in a fully funded, graduate program that your secure for the next 4-5 years. the economy is projected to pick up and job markets are getting better, so by the 2015 2016, hopefully this cohort will be in much better shape than the cohort that are looking for jobs atm.

what conference? different conferences have very different atmospheres and expectations depend on the people attending. it could range from drinking wine and beer at poster presentations with a bunch of academics at a conference like psychonomics, to more formal business oriented conference like SIOP where people have different agendas such as selling scales to companies and getting jobs. Not sure what clinicals are like...

If the GRE scores are comparable to past scores, then yours are way too low. 1200+ is really what the top schools look for, even mid-tier schools I would think want at LEAST 1100. On top of that your past experience and lack of research experience will really hurt you. I would seriously consider retaking the GRE

its for the most part, applied statistics. the theoretical understanding can vary from program to program. Some program will be heavy on theoretical understanding, meaning probability theories, some programs will be more applied meaning, knowing how to run different analyses without understanding the nuts and bolts of those tests. I would say Clinical, developmental are not ones that you have to worry too much about quantitative sophistication...

I applied to cognitive, social, and MOB programs as well. I also had to consider getting jobs after I graduate. Tenure academic positions are competitive, and there are certain aspect of academia that do not appeal to me, which is one of the reasons why I applied to I/O programs, because of a industry career path afterwards. Despite all of it, I got into a highly connected and reputable program and doing the research I like to do so it all worked for me.

ok, to maximize your training as a phd experimental psychologist, academia is the typical route. Are there people outside of academia? of course, could those people get to that job with out a ph.d in experimental psychology? probably. Point is, there aren't many jobs outside of academia that would say "Seeking PhD in Experimental Psychology", so if someone wants a job in that field, why spend 5-6 year in a degree that isn't made for that field? my point is, if your goal is to work outside of academia, think about what those jobs may be, and ask yourself, is a phd in experimental psychology the most productive use of my time to get that job? hoping that the infrastructure of academia changes or the program will accommodate you because you don't like what you signed up for is just being overly optimistic and doesnt sound like someone that went into a phd with a good idea of what it is about.