PsychGirl1

That... sounds... horrible. Absolutely no experience with that (thank god) but good luck!!!

Univ of Hawaii at Manoa... whoever got a call to schedule an interview, can you PM me your POI? Thanks :-)

GingerbreadLatte- thanks, that's what I thought! It was just listed under the heading "interview weekends" so I thought I missed something :-)

Is the minnesota one an interview weekend or an admit weekend? And social or quant?

Nope- but don't expect a ride to the airport.

Congrats! Now you get to deal with all the awkwardness that comes with a Skype interview :-). Good luck!

Now that's a paper I want to be on my CV!!!

I wonder how many students are driving those statistics... I imagine that the top students get multiple offers at many schools, therefore rejecting a lot of schools, whereas a good number of students might only get one offer. Somebody needs to do some statistics magic and figure this all out for us :-)

"Flaming penguin incident".... I like where this is going. :-)

One of the graduate students asked me "what is the weirdest thing you've ever done"? I have been thinking about it since and I still don't have a good answer (that is interview appropriate). I think I have a high threshold for "weird", as I'm sure I do really weird things that I just classify as nerdy or organized. I asked him what the weirdest thing he had done was, and he said streaking. I didn't think streaking was weird at all. I'm pretty sure all the "cool" kids went streaking at some point in college. Guess I should go out and do something weird in the next 2 days (before my next interview), just in case that question comes up again :-)

For me- UMBC Human Services psych! It seems early to be releasing all their interview invites but two separate people posted. If you heard back, can you PM me your POI? Gracias!

Their incoming class ranges from 9-13 in past years, not sure how many offers they extend.

Somebody interviewing with Harvard has a lot of PM'ing to do! (I didn't apply there, by the way, I just found it amusing).

SLEEP. :-)

Thank you! I think it went well. They invite 60+ people to their interview days, though, so we'll see how it goes!!

Also, say you get an acceptance- you don't want to enter the lab on the wrong foot. Regardless of "how much you know" or "how much life experience you've had", cultures/expectations/everything are different within each lab and within each school. No matter how competent, you will find the support, advice, and guidance of your fellow labmates invaluable.

Yes x100000000. Last year, in the lab I'm working in, the prof didn't extend an offer to his first choice cause everybody disliked them. He went with his #2. As another thread on here said, just don't be a jerk.

Mine are both- a few are in the lab and a few aren't. Also my interview today has me interviewing with a grad student in their lab and someone not in their lab. Having someone not in there lab is nice because you get to hear about the other aspects of the program- social community, social life, the area of the school, how generally happy people are in the program, and general pros/cons that aren't specific to your POI. Also, there's a bit more pressure if they are in the same lab, so while you might found out more useful information, their opinion of you will likely be considered more when your POI is considering who to extend an offer to. (I didn't know this until my lab went through it last year).

I'm in an unfunded master's program now and it was a great decision for me. I even turned down funding from another school to go to where I am. I had a great research fit and I loved the curriculum and the students. It is an investment, but I've been trying to keep costs down and also got a small scholarship. I'm going through PhD applications now and I feel like I am in a great position. This is your career, so I would at least be open to considering many different programs, funded or not.

It really depends on the school, the program, and the PI. One program I applied to gets 700+ applicants, and they have the equivalent of four interview sessions that you can get invited to. They are probably bringing in about 50-60+ people and will take about 10, sometimes less. Another interview weekend, there is only about 7 of us for a handful of spots (it's a track within the bigger program) and apparently they sometimes do a second interview weekend depending how the first one goes. So that's 7-14 people for about 3-4 spots (which some years may be as few as 2, depending on funding and applicants). 10 per spot is definitely the extreme end of the spectrum but I'm sure some of the larger Clinical Psych PhD programs get close to there, depending how many offers they end up extending and how popular the PIs are. I know some people who had around 10 interviews in previous cycles and only got 1 offer. I also know that in one of the labs I've been in with a popular PI, we've had 12ish people interview with him, spread out over 2 interview days, and he takes 1 per year. That being said, smaller Psych programs with more specialized research (like social psych, quant psych) probably accepts a significantly higher percentage of their invites. That being said, I wouldn't WORRY- I just wouldn't take this as "you're in". Your odds are already quite good, even at the extreme end of 1 out of 10. But be well-prepared and practice, and don't take the interview as a formality. If you made it to the interview, then your GRE scores are fine (they generally exclude people based on GRE scores first).

PsychYe- yep. Although they will probably invite less (like, say, 3-4 per spot) than other programs (which can invite over 10 per spot).

Lebena, I don't think there is any harm in emailing the department and just say that you are interested in checking on the status of your application. Don't overthink it and don't go into too much detail (ex. I saw that this person was extended an offer on this date blahblah).

I would think it would be appropriate to take a few pictures at non-distracting moments using your phone. I don't even know that I would whip out a separate camera, it could be awkward depending on the size of the group and who is leading a tour. If you want to go that route and it's just you and other applicants/current students, I'd probably ask if they minded and when they said no, make a joke about it:-).

There's a bunch of threads from the past few months with lists of master's programs- funded and unfunded. As far as research fit, it really depends on the structure of the program- it goes from one extreme to the other. Some are mentor-based, some are general. Look up the programs from the past threads and get a sense of each one.

psych_kv- thanks! i went the "i'll let you know in a few days" route and luckily, everything ended up working out perfectly, so I'll be attending. thanks to all for your help!