PsychGirl1

Thanks disillusioned14! I might just be an annoying applicant and follow up with them. I still have 3 more schools to hear/not hear from, but they're the one that I care about the most out of that group. :-) Congrats again!

Ah you Manoa social people are killing me! I applied there for clinical and it looks like I still have awhile to wait. I've been almost emailing the department every day, but they have interview invites in past years in February, so I'm trying to resist. Sigh. But congrats!!! :-D

Great- thanks a lot!

Good luck!

Why don't you give them a call or shoot them an email? (The school, that is).

Anyone hear from Minnesota's social psych program?

This is pretty much the longest post ever :-). I tried to get through it but mostly skimmed it (sorry). I wouldn't go through a Psych PhD degree if you didn't want to work in research or academia within that specific psych field. It sounds like you want to do truly interdisciplinary work- so I would maybe consider doing a M.S. in Psychology (a research-based program) and then an MPH. Another good thing to do is to message people who are doing the types of jobs you want to be doing (for ex, if your undergrad college has a database of past graduates and their jobs who you can contact) and ask them for educational advice. From a Psychology perspective, I'll answer your questions generally: "Do you think my personal experiences would be worth focusing on for next years applications? If so, which aspects specifically (e.g. homelessness, supporting myself during adolescence/college, my struggle with mental health, etc.) If not, please provide reasons why (I’m just curious what others think)" For Psych PhD programs: no. I would approach these as generally as possible, ex. "Drawing on my personal experiences and the experiences of people around me, I became interested how negative life events affected xyz" or whatever. Some people have different approaches, but in general, don't go there. "If not, how would you address my less than stellar GPA/GRE?" You have a year. Study and retake the GRE. Study, practice, study practice. You can get a lot of progress done in a year. If it's that important, pay for a prep course. GPA- I'd probably take some night or online courses over the next year (graduate-level) in things you are interested in. This can help boost your academic history and crediblity, plus might lend you some guidance with where you want to go next year. And work on developing skills- data, SPSS, SQL, etc. Also, over the next year, maybe find two very different labs to volunteer in part-time- one with a public health focus and one with a mental health focus. And again, just keep talking and talking to everybody you can find- then at the end of the day, go with your gut.

Can the person who heard from PIttsburgh's clinical/health program today PM me your POI please?? I know invites traditionally go out today (I stalked past years) and I am nervous I didn't get one! Thank you :-)

Thanks!! Definitely great advice, from both of you :-) Appreciated!

PS If you're female, Jones New York has been having suit sales like crazy- they just had one a week or two ago to make your own suit for $99 or something like that. Maybe see what other offers you can find there, or coupon codes at Macy's, or something like that. That being said, if you're going to go for your MBA, you're going to need a suit (some of them even wear suits like, on a daily basis for no reason). Probably should just bite the bullet. And I wouldn't draw attention to what you're doing- what are you going to say, "sorry I'm dressed like this but I'm poor"? Just rock it with confidence.

Second-hand consignment shop. At a minimum, find a nice blazer and pay what you need to for it. You can get a cheap button-down white shirt, and you can have a little bit more flexibility with your skirt/pants (ex. grey, black, print, etc.). Go conservative though- a full-blown suit would be best, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do.

BU (tuition- aka $30k/year), BC (fully funded but very competitive, I think they took 2 people the year I applied and they were both straight from the PhD applicant pool), Drexel (Philly- great research program, tuition but you can work as a TA and some other jobs on campus to lessen the burden of tuition), Villanova (suburbs of Philly- some funding + stipend offers). Those are all the master's programs I found in Philly and Boston when I applied two years ago.

So, I have inquired about the interview day/weekend format at most of my schools. This seems to be a fairly standard response: "You will meet with your POI one-on-one, and in addition, meet with other faculty in the same track, either one-on-one or in groups.", or, "You will interview with multiple faculty, one of which is your primary faculty of interest." How do you prepare for these? Should I come in only knowing my POI's research and what I want to do with them or is that the kiss of death? Do I have to simultaneously prepare- to some degree- my interviews with every single possible faculty member, including knowing their research? I only specified one POI in my application, but I know that sometimes other faculty are still interested in possibly working with you despite that. I know that I can ask them general questions about clinical training, research-clinical focus, interdisciplinary work, research opportunities, etc., but not sure how much more faculty-specific it is supposed to be. Anyone have any thoughts, or has anyone been through this before?

I think it's highly likely you are accepted!! I've heard of a few cases where the department makes decisions as a whole based on department funding, so not all POIs can get the students they want. But if they say it's usually just a formality, then I'd trust that :-). CONGRATS!

Thanks... definitely some good advice. Excellent point that losing the interview probably means losing the chance to enroll. I went through my best guesses for interview weekends for my other schools based on which ones were posted on their website or what they had done in the past. I came up with 2 possible conflicts with that specific weekend. Both of the schools don't usually notify candidates until the very end of January, and both schools I'd significantly prefer over this one. I'm thinking I'll take your advice- tell them I'm excited about interviewing and I hope to interview in February but I'm working out a potential conflict with the weekend. I'd let them know for sure either way when I heard from the other schools, which will still be over 3 weeks before the actual interview, so hopefully they won't mind too much and I won't be causing them too much trouble. Has anyone else been in this position before?

bump bump.

I am currently a graduate student in a master's program and graduating in June. I just received an email to update my FASFA for next year, but I am applying to PhD programs and not sure what school I will be going to or what the exact financial situation will be. I know that state/federal deadlines give me plenty of time, but I believe colleges often have much earlier deadlines (like March or April). Does anyone know how this works in this situation? Thank you! I appreciate the help :-)

I have a question on the etiquette of accepting interview invites :-). I received one for late February, and I'm still waiting to hear from 7 schools, most of whom have their interview days in February. I applied to 12 schools, and I'd say this school is maybe #10 on my list. So what is the "proper" response? 1) Accept it, and if a school I prefer invites me to an interview on the same day, then inform this school immediately about the conflict and ask if I can have a Skype interview instead. 2) Tell them I am interested but waiting to hear from a few other schools so don't want to definitely RSVP this early in case my travel plans need to be flexible. 3) Other?

Plenty of people on these boards apply to master's programs- start a master's thread about interviews/acceptances! I think in Psychology, it's just much rarer to apply to master's programs than PhD programs- but there are definitely some people on here who are applying! For example, at my school, maybe 100 people apply to the master's program and 600 to the PhD program- so obviously in the results section, the master's will show up much less often (and they also usually have later deadlines and slower timelines than the PhD programs).

I have two official invites so far- one covers travel, one doesn't. Almost every single school will offer you housing with current grad students, though, so it will just be the flight. You've invested so much money into the process already, that I would just suck it up and buy the flight either way.

Alright I'll indulge :-). Whoever got invited to Vandy's Clinical Psych program, can you PM me your POI? Thank you!!!

Good luck!

I was invited to interview (sorry!) but directly from my POI, so it's possible that there is some variation in invite time, although someone else posted that they received their invite the same day I did. The interview day isn't until February 8th, so there's still some time to hear. I wouldn't give up hope yet, but I wouldn't obsess over it either. Good luck!

I only had one at each school. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

Don't list anything you haven't started writing. I've heard stories where POIs will ask applicants for their manuscripts in prep, mostly just to see if they are merely ideas or actually in preparation. There's a difference between slightly stretching the truth and outright lying, and if it's not in preparation, then it's lying :-).