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kaister

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Everything posted by kaister

  1. Sounds like he's covering his ass now. We don't know if his intentions with you were. Sure he might've been flirting, but some people's flirting is just being friendly. It's possible he almost crossed a line with, on the other hand it's also possible he just didn't realize that your relationship was getting too close. It doesn't sound like anything other than flirting happened with you two. He probably now just wants nothing to deal with that situation either because he now realizes it was wrong or feels being too friendly with you is giving you the wrong impression. Either way I don't think you're going to have that friendly relationship you used to have before. You may not think it's fair, but it's that prof's right to just back away from a messy situation, and that's what you should do as well. Let it be. Just accept the fact that you'll have nothing but a detached strictly professional relationship with this person. If you don't have actual reason to talk to him (and just talking about problems, etc aren't good enough reasons in this situation) then don't bother him. It's better for both of you in the long term.
  2. I'm not in chemistry, so maybe my advice isn't relevant. I'm working as a RA in my future lab during the summer and while I'll be helping out with a lot of the experiments going on during the summer it also gives me a considerable amount of time to focus on my own project(s). So I get the whole sense of pressure (which is probably not as bad as I feel it to be). My plans are just to focus on reading literature and forming a more concrete plan of action on my experiment. I have a general idea, but I need to break it down and figure out what measures, etc I will want to use. Maybe if I get so far, I will get to fill out an IRB before Fall comes. That's my plan. The ideal situation is that I'd be so prepared that when school starts I may potentially get to start running the experiment. Now the catch is that I already have a somewhat formed research question and I've already run that by my PI and she likes it (I just have to refine it a bit). It may be a little harder if you haven't figured out what you want to tackle first and figuring out feasibility. Good luck! I'll be starting around June as well! It's exciting!
  3. It's interesting that you both point out the relation of enjoyment to inherent, distinct musical qualities/characteristics. I can see how perhaps they are caused subconsciously through other experiences which cause us to enjoy particular cadences or timbres, etc. Thus explaining a seemingly random attraction to certain music. What would be a more interesting research question is the inherent attraction to consonant sounds, as that has been shown in infants, to potentially void any limitations on exposure. My theory is that because it relies on hierarchical organization our brain is attracted to these types of sounds. Thus we could assume that we are merely attracted to the most organized set of sounds, at least at our base, and from there on our experiences dictate which variations of organization we like more than others. On the bigger picture, music preference is still a fascinating question that has much more research to be done on. I don't do research on it anymore, but had to jump in the conversation and be a little nerdy. Sorry OP, doesn't seem all that related to your post lol.
  4. First look at your department as they'll likely have some scholarships or opportunities for funding. Also look into your school's graduate student organization, they will most likely have some opportunities as well. There are national grants/scholarships as well like the NSF, NIH, Ford Foundation, Javits, and many more. Also if you're a member in any organization like APA, etc, they may also have scholarships as well. Talk to your advisor and other grad students at your school, they'll likely know of sources.
  5. If I'm looking this as a potential clinical applicant..I'd say the clinical human services sounds a lot more relevant than the political science minor. If you're wanting to go into clinical, it makes sense to have any sort of clinical repertoire under your belt. Then again, I don't know how important a minor will be in your application and if you're very strongly interested in political science, I would take it if it interests you that much. Undergrad is your chance to learn many new things, whereas grad school you won't have as much flexibility. Research experience, LORS, and GPA/GRE will be a lot more important than what you minored in. If you're evenly interested in both options, I'd go with the clinical one.
  6. kaister

    Honolulu, HI

    I'll be going to UHM! I actually already live here and I would recommend getting something settled before hand. To be safe get a rental that's only a year that way if you don't like it you can move. If you find a place you're unsure of you can post it on here or PM me and I can let you know if it's a good area or place. I know sometimes they aren't always what they seem from online listings. Like Zachary said, Manoa, Makiki, Moiliili, and Kaimuki are good areas close by the university.
  7. I'm not in the same situation, but similar. The PhD program I'm starting this fall is in a school in my hometown and I actually attended that school for 2 years in my undergrad before I transferred out. So I get the feeling of never moving on and kind of backtracking in a way. For me, I was never involved in the same department as I changed majors since my first years in undergrad to my focus in grad school. Because of that, I feel like I'm still entering something new. I don't know about your situation, but even if you're in the same major, undergrad and graduates can often have very different environments within the same school. Also having connections already set makes it easier to get things done and find out about opportunities otherwise. You will definitely find new people and things to get involved with, I have many friends who have done the same thing as you and they are all pretty happy and have new social groups and are doing much cooler things now that they are grad students. So don't fret, there is much excitement to be had and you will be that much further to your goals, so it is a great thing!
  8. Why don't you consider starting a club or committee of some sort that does research on the topics you're interested. It's not as concrete as a lab and you could still have faculty be sponsors, while you run some sort of group that engages in research of a specific topic. For example I've seen diversity committees or cultural perspective groups. They aren't labs but they are just a group of people who are interested in that topic that gather together to talk about research and even collaborating, that way you could bring in other faculty, grad students and undergrads who are interested. On the other hand, more simply, just conduct this research on the side in your own PI's lab and just ask if any of the RA's are interested in helping. PI's know that you won't always have interests that directly relate to the lab, and it's okay to do your own little project on the side.
  9. Gut feeling is a great thing to use!! I used mine in deciding. But I also weighed objective facts against my gut feeling and if there were enough practical facts about that school along with my gut feeling toward them, then I seriously considered them. That's how I chose my school. So it's not 100% gut feeling but it definitely played a part.
  10. I was deliberating about whether to go to an interview for a school I wasn't nearly as interested about and then the POI for another school emailed me about the unofficial acceptance. Since we had already met and talked many times before hand she kind of knew my situation and wanted to tell me in advance so I wouldn't be so worried, it was awesome and already speaks to how good our relationship is going to be. So on top of the acceptance it was nice to feel so open with my future advisor. Beginning of a great relationship!
  11. Honestly, sometimes you get dealt a bad hand and you'll be surrounded by people who have no interest to be your friend or hang out with you, and other times you'll get lucky and be surrounded by chill people who are eager to make new friends. If you are for example dealt the bad hand, you will just have to find new avenues for new friends. All the suggestions above are great. Meet up and clubs/social events on campus are probably your best bet. Hopefully from there you can continue networking. But I'm also optimistic as well that entering grad school there will be many people in new environments and a lot more open to making new friends.
  12. I used it and I thought it was very helpful. Even the math videos were helpful because they explained each concept and I think I better grasp things when someone explains/draws them out for me rather than just reading books on it. I think it was helpful most because the videos give good explanations that sometimes doesn't come across when just reading things, and the practice tests. The fact that each answer has a video explanation is great too. I liked the timed practice sets as well because I probably wouldn't have been as honest if I were just timing myself, this left the control out of my hands and it simulated the GRE more accurately than me studying with books by myself. But honestly, it still won't be that worth it unless you intensely study as well...
  13. I bought one this past summer as a graduation gift to myself and plan to use it for grad school. So far, so good. But I also have an external hard drive so that I can store things as this laptop gets fuller.
  14. There is another lab at my school in which the PI has about 13 advisees. What I noticed from this lab so far is that there is not a lot of cohesion between them. There is not as much sense of community within them and I think that results from everyone having their own thing going on and not all are on campus as much. This may not be true of every big lab. Another thing is that they don't have regular lab meetings and because of so many students they have a hard time all meeting together. Attention does seem spread kind of thin between them, and I notice that the students who need more guidance often have to rely on each other or seek advice and help from other professors like my PI. I would ask the POI what their routine is, like lab meetings and the community between all the students. Do they collaborate with each other much or are people more so doing their own thing. How available the POI is and how they schedule to keep up to date with all their students. I'd ask the students in the lab how responsive and available the POI is. Also another important question is where these students end up after graduating and how many of them continue through the program to its finish.
  15. I think you definitely should just explore different labs and topics in psychology until you find something that really interests you. You can't really calculate what you will go into if you don't know what it is you're into, and your tastes may change as you go through your curriculum. In the meantime just focus on getting research experience (it doesn't necessarily have to be in the specific field you will end up in and different labs will give you a realistic idea of how research is in those specific areas).
  16. It definitely is possible. So just look at what most psych phd programs require. You've got the knowledge and fit down already, as it appears in your post. The next things I would suggest looking into is what your research experience is. You will definitely need some research experience in a psychology lab or doing psychological type research. Next will be psych courses, most importantly would be research methods and quantitative skills like a stats course. I'm not sure what an MBA gives you in terms of research, so you may already have some of things down already. I know people who have had their masters in education or sociology go into social psych, so realize it is possible to get there from a different discipline. The most important thing I think will be showing that you have some experience doing psychological research, so that they know you can be successful in that and that after all that you still want to pursue social psych. Have you looked into organizational psych at all? A lot of them are housed in the business department but are supervised by professors with their degree in psychology, a lot even social psychology. Some of my interests are in culture and social cognition as well and in my search I had to let go a couple of professors whose interests matched mine because they were part of the business dept. Although that's irrelevant if you've already decided to you want a degree specifically in social psych.
  17. Ugh! I got this same question too. And it was like my last interview so most of my questions had been answered already. Needless to say it wasn't a great interview.
  18. Just sent my rejection email to the other school I got an accept from. It felt bad to tell them no. I hope they make an offer to someone else, it will make it feel a lot better.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Lilac13

      Lilac13

      Same here :( On the bright side, declining early probably makes it more likely for the program to make an offer to someone else.

    3. queenleblanc

      queenleblanc

      And everyone who has a wait-list thanks you! ;-) Tough decision, but it is good for the university to make it early if you can.

    4. kaister

      kaister

      Yes, that's why I tried to do it as quickly as possible!

  19. Thanks you guys, you're right, I should be more positive about it. I guess I was just worried I wouldn't be able to follow through on things.
  20. I sent one of those emails. I didn't get too specific, just saying that I hope to cross paths again since our research interests are similar and wishing them the best in their research. Especially since my future advisor knows this POI, I think its very likely we'd cross paths.
  21. So I'm in a unique situation where I'm already volunteering in the lab that I got accepted into. My prof wants to sit down and talk about future project ideas, which is great and I'm excited to do so. I guess my concern is that since I'm not yet enrolled/employed, technically, is my prof going to expect me to start doing work? I mean I do things here and there to contribute to the lab as I can (especially since it's on volunteer basis and I have a real job to make money right now). Don't get me wrong, I would love to start on my academic life, but I feel like right now my obligations are too scattered to really do any genuine work of my own. Once I get to start grad school, and I'll be free of other obligations to commit fully, but in this situation...what do you think? Should I mention that to my prof? I'm probably exaggerating what will happen in anticipation...but figured I'd hear some opinions.
  22. I would wait. You still have time to hear back about the fellowship. You still haven't heard about the funding package from the other school you've been accepted to. Once you have those answers, it may be easier to make your decision. You can also ask your second choice school if there are other ways to make money (I mean, besides the chance to apply for external funding while you're there), for instance, my school allows you to teach your own classes once you have your masters, and you can earn some extra income that way.
  23. I have accepted an offer! I feel a sense of closure. It's beautiful.

  24. Can we talk about rejecting an acceptance offer? I suppose the proper etiquette would just be to email your POI/grad chair that you appreciate the offer and after careful consideration you have decided to accept an offer elsewhere? Would you state the reason why and where you plan to go??
  25. My two boys keep me sane and happy through all the stress of application season.
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