Behavioral

I guess it's all about reference points. I'm working around 60 hours a week, and don't really find a problem with it. I worked as much as an undergrad being involved in multiple labs at once, and if you count traveling, I worked more my one year of FT employment. I also tend to work weekends since that's what everyone else in my program (and the other grad students I've met so far in other departments) does, so it's not like a 'glass-half-empty' sort of thing to me.

I'm kinda in the same boat as Eigen. For my program, it's myself and two Koreans from Korea who typically speak to each other in Korean even when it's just the three of us studying or prepping for a seminar. I don't really have much of a problem with it since it's forced me to get to know the older students in my program better and socialize more, in general.

Riem brings up a good point. I personally have numerous bags and briefcases I've amassed since high school and working. A lot of people here seem to be making this a discrete choice when the majority of people I know have both for heavy-load and light-load days.

I worked in industry for a year. I just have to remember what working with clients was like and I feel reinvigorated all of a sudden.

First day of classes is tomorrow, but I've been going into school to do a little bit of work and to attend seminars and whatnot. It's around a 12-15 minute walk from my apartment to my office. If I can catch the shuttle to campus, then it's around 4-5 minutes. I haven't ridden my road bicycle there yet (in dire need of a tuneup and I'll probably switch out my slick tires for something more robust), but it seems to be maybe a 3-4 minute ride without stops. Once winter hits, these numbers are probably going to go way up

Spumoni. From ANYWHERE.

You can probably get into some Top 50 programs if your GRE's sufficient and you're a good fit with the department. Anything Top 20ish would be a hard sell knowing the undergraduate profile of many of the admits.

Why not try it out at an Apple Store or something? If you can handle reading PDFs on a computer LCD, then you can handle an iPad. Anything with e-Ink is easier on the eyes, but you lack the pinch zoom feature that iPads and other tablets offer. I ended up compromising by buying both the older iPad and a Kindle 2G

Err... I think it's almost 50/50 in my my discipline for graduates with Ph.D.'s to get into consulting in industry (it's where the $$$'s at, especially if you're not getting a top R1 TT position straight out). The fact that the overwhelming majority of Ph.D. students in business schools hold an MBA at least tell me that a good amount of them have a clear intention of going into academia, and with the successful placement of many many graduates (even ones from, say, 'not as well-known of schools') get recruited into consulting positions, they have every right to choose that be their end-goal.

I don't think people here generally had a problem with jeans -- it's the people rolling in sweatpants or basketball shorts that were distracting from a professional environment. I'm most guilty of just going to class in whatever I slept in during the first part of undergrad when I lived on-campus, but now my wardrobe and style have just changed to something a lot more appropriate for work (working in industry a bit after graduating helped this a bit, too). Jeans are totally fine (as long as the student isn't giving a talk or presentation). And what professors do is largely a moot point since they're essentially at the top of the food chain; what we think of them doesn't affect them whereas their perceptions of us can have implicit and explicit consequences. I definitely don't wear a button down and tie with slacks everyday, but nice pants or jeans with a polo or simple V-neck is what I wear most of the time and it's just as comfortable as anything else I wear.

Social Psychology (JDM), Marketing (Consumer Decision Making), Quantitative Marketing (Choice Modeling), or Economics/Micro Theory (Game Theory) are your best bets for "decision making".

I have a few friends that always go to bars with us and never drink alcohol. Still a great way to hang out if the bar 'scene' is your thing.

I have a Samsonite Briefcase that can be used as a Messenger Bag. For the times I need to look fancy and network at conferences, I have a Coach Men's Leather Brief.

Understandable. Continue taking courses and see if you can sit in on some doctoral economics courses. Many of the quant programs are now starting to incorporate JDM/Game Theory into the coursework rather than dealing with primarily psychometrics (practical value of studying an applied science seems to be changing the paradigm in quantitative psychology research). Also, why not talk to your professors whom you've done research with to recommend some programs and POIs given your background? If you're asking them to be your referees, they should already have a copy of your current CV and know you well enough to start mentioning some possible fits. As odd as it may be, they may know your fit better than you do since you can only extract so much information from reading webpages and CVs (whereas professors may know other faculty personally and can judge how your personality and theirs' will mesh). If you're considering a Masters, I'd highly suggest going into a Stats or Econ program since the quantitative training provided by either will nullify any doubts doctoral adcomms may have about your math background. I know that many programs do accept people without hard math under their belt, but between myself and other friends who applied to some quant-oriented psychology programs, having more math is definitely never a bad thing, especially among some of the top schools (WashU, Ohio State, Columbia, etc.). A good amount of the admits I know or have met doubled in math or econ and were comfortable in empirical and analytical modeling research.

An econ Ph.D. will yield little to no benefits to you (nor do I believe you'd even get into one with a bio background since most people admitted were either math/stats majors or had a good amount of hard maths [i.e., real analysis, topology, etc.] under their belt). Any degree is an investment. If costs exceed expected return, then don't pursue it. Getting a Masters for the sake of getting it is stupid. Do your research about what benefits there are in your subjective position and see whether or not you can commit 2 years of opportunity cost and any explicit costs in tuition/living expenses. If the answer is 'no', don't get a Masters. Piling on debt is an easy way to bankrupt yourself and make yourself lack versatility in the market. If you're going into a Ph.D., you will NOT have time for 'leadership' positions--whatever that means. A Ph.D. is a full-time job and a half by itself. If you think you're going to have any time to devote to other extracurriculars while maintaining adequate progress in your doctorate, you're sadly mistaken. Sorry if my post sounds harsh, but it really doesn't sound like you know what a Ph.D. is and why one should pursue it. The entire forum is practically geared at answering those questions and is a repository for information regarding 'Why a Ph.D.?'

Only one(?) other person here watches Mad Men? :| Here are the shows I currently keep up with: Mad Men No Reservations: Anthony Bourdain Game of Thrones Dexter Adventure Time (HIGHLY recommended) Anything on Food Network, Travel Channel, and History Channel Some shows I have the series on DVD: Boy Meets World I Love Lucy Boston Legal Firefly Will and Grace Futurama

Not in Winter, according to friends.

What's your quant background? I was able to get a job as an entry-level statistician after graduating with a double in psych and joint math/econ. The entire job was just using recursive regressions and SEMs to predict various epidemiological phenomenon. If your understanding of hierarchical statistical modeling is alright, look for a job in stats. And I don't think being an undergrad is a barrier. I took the doctoral microecon sequence as an undergrad and worked with two econ professors doing game theory and bayesian analysis of choice modeling. I was the only undergrad there at the time, but the professors said there have been plenty other undergrads who took the initiative to develop their quant training early on.

They're not common. I had a couple of conference publications/proceedings and they were always brought up to be exceptional during my interviews.

By the end of my undergrad, most of my friends were either grad students or grad school-bound. Absolutely 0 were in my current field (marketing) particularly because my school didn't offer it as a major. Many were econ, math, psych, and engineering/materials sci.

I missed the deadlines to all the good schools in California!! hahaha

A lot of apps nowadays integrate keyboard typing and finger-writing together for times you need to type and perhaps draw graphs, etc. It takes a bit of getting used to, but on landscape mode, I have no trouble touch typing close to my keyboard speed (80-100 wpm) with few errors. If you really want to, you can just connect any bluetooth keyboard to your iPad and type with that. The Apple Wireless Keyboard shares Apple functions with the iPad (volume control, brightness, etc.) and there are others made for just the iPad that integrate similar features as well. If you go this route, just make sure you get a portable keyboard.

My dad passed away going into my last year of undergrad. Like your mom, he would have wanted me to go on, and I always used that as motivation to truck on regardless of how miserable I was. Of course I went through a grieving process, and rested as needed, and sometimes just vegged for hours on end because it was the right thing to do at the time. If you're in a highly emotional state, sometimes it's okay to do what your body's telling you -- but don't lose total focus of what you're trying to accomplish. I took time off work and had a smaller class load than normal for the first quarter after his passing, but I continued on with research and made my professors aware of my situation in case they thought I was acting a little funny. It's really tough, but it does get better with time, and having a good social support system works wonders. I'm the type who never really asks others for help in any situation, but sometimes it's better to allow yourself to be helped my friends and family. If people are reaching out to help you, don't prevent them from doing so.

OB and Marketing professors get paid a lot more than IO All have decent placements into industry/consulting Besides that, the lines of research are a little different. Look up some journal articles from each and see what topics interest you most.

Internships (the real determinant to whether or not you get into a nice clinical position). Both APA and APPIC either require or have strong preferences for those coming out of APA-accredited schools. http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/programs/internships-state.aspx