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Oh by the way here are some schools i am looking at. All of them have research I am interested in. UTexas - Work here have lots of connections Vanderbilt - Worked there have lots of connections. UCSD - secondary connection (collaborators of professors I have worked with) Penn St - secondary connection and i write programs for one lab UNC - secondary connection Duke - I mean have you seen their work. neuroeconomics is batman cool. UVA - probably one of the more ambitious fall back schools i've seen. Ohio St - big school good funding, lots of pubs. I also have a secondary connection at Berkley but for some reason i just don't wanna.

Wow, thanks guys for the thoughtful speedy replies. Some really good points were brought up. This one was eye opening in particular. I'd say my primary loss of sleep recently is that i am writing my SOP out in my head over and over with little on paper. Having this stated matter-of-factly narrowed the spectrum of what is relevant. I am going to take this into serious consideration when writing my SOP and i think that will help me out a lot. In hindsight it looks so obvious. I have been working on a kind of foot in the door mentality. Because at every turn, if i can get my foot in the door then i am a shoe-in for acceptance (my puns and metaphors are on fire today.) I have a whole binder dedicated to professor's webpages and CVs. I am systematically contacting those i am interested in. You had a very good point and that is definitely something i am focusing on. From my experiences in academia it's all about execution. You get about 1% of positive outcome from 30% of the work you do with 70% being lost to time[citation needed]. I'm going to keep working hard because I am caught in the perpetual motion of working toward goals that are just out of reach. As I get further the next step gets more difficult. As an undergrad i used to play the 'innocent card' where I would just say things that I knew weren't quite right just to hear someone smarter than me explain it. That worked when you weren't expected to know what your talking about. Now that I am so deep into research, its either you have solid contributions or don't show up. Intimidating but not impossible. Thanks for the encouragement. All in all, I am very happy I found this forum and I am going to do what I can to give back.

Hey folks, So i have read some forum posts and so far it has been very comforting to know that other people are as intimidated by the prospect of grad school as i am. To be honest, i am the only on of my friends even considering higher education and transcripts, GREs, and lab experience doesn't make for receptive bar conversation. Hopefully I can at least find an outlet to open discussions with other worried folks. Thanks ahead of time. I am looking to get into a top 50 Cognitive Psych/Neuropsych program. I went to Clemson, which for all its worth was not a good fit for me. My grades suffered (3.2 total, 3.5 major) and it does not have a particularly good Psych program. I have been a part of two papers both of which are still in review and neither of which look promising. To add to the mix they are not in a related field. My GRE scores i am anticipating to be in the mid 1200 range although my goal is to get 1350ish. I have more of a systematic memory rather than just being able to memorize random things. I must see everything as it applies to the whole. This makes me a par test taker. But its not all bad, I have been in about 8 research labs over various times for the past 5 years 3 at Clemson, 3 at Vanderbilt, and 2 at UTexas. And holy data batman do I understand research. I am completely self taught, I knew when I was in my senior year at Clemson that i was going to have to find different outlets to have good credentials. I have worked so incredibly hard to perfect almost everything i know. I impressed a few professors at Vanderbilt that decided to fund a project of mine. Unfortunately, when I graduated and tried to get a job at Vanderbilt the economy crashed and grants did not come through that would have paid me. I was able to find a lab managing position at UTexas but not in a related field. But my determination did not falter and after being rejected for meetings with various professors in another ridiculously long story, I taught myself how to program and I have been offered a job in the Cognitive department. This is an extremely abridged version. My story is just one series of working from the bottom to impress everyone I can one after another. I have made great strides but don't have a whole lot of physical evidence to demonstrate it. I tutor Master and PhD level students in stats and research methods, granted they are in nursing and the program needs work. I am proficient in the majority of software used by labs today (100% self-taught as well). My fundamentals are equal to if not better than most of the graduate students I know. I have the ambition and passion. Every time i email a professor i get the same thing "Where did you go to school?, What was your GPA?, What did you get on the GRE?" Then some offhand comment that I should try again in 3 to 6 months. The only success I have had is when I expressed interest in person. Finally, i get to the issue at hand. I look so much better in person because I have more of an opportunity to impress people who didn't think they could be impressed. This is bedrock of how I have been able to do anything in 3 different universities. On paper, I am not as impressive especially to ivy league professors that make up some ridiculous majority in non ivy league schools. Most importantly, on paper how do i convince a group of people whose profession requires them to look at empirical data to consider qualitative information and think that it is a better construct for measurement in my case? I may have a better chance going to the Middle East and starting a bacon business called Bush and Barack's Bacon. And I am aware that there is an essay for most applications, but i am pretty sure the length of this post is about as much space as I get. The essay doesn't seem like enough. Anyways, sorry for the long read. Honestly I feel a little better just knowing there is a place like this where a little venting is not inappropriate. I know I left out a lot of potentially crucial information and I can probably provide whatever, I have been doing this for a long time. TL;DR OMFG Grad School apps suck.