Sildrugtanni

I'll quote your response, as it has a lot of important questions I need to answer: I only applied to 6 schools last year, which I realize in retrospect was really not enough. At the time, I had a very specific program in mind that I wished to apply for, and very few schools had it.I did not introduce myself ahead of time. I had some conflicting opinions as to whether or not I should do that, so I ended up not doing so; I'll make sure to do so this time.With my SOP...to be honest, probably not enough. I had spent a great deal of time writing one for Harvard which turned out very well, so I more or less adapted that one; at the time, given I was in the midst of a very busy semester, seemed like a nice time saver. In retrospect, not a great idea.I got an interview with Northeastern, and even if it had gone better (I had to interview with 4 profs--2 went well, 2 didn't go so well), it wasn't a good fit anyways.To answer your question, t_ruth, I did not look at Ed Psych programs; it might be something to think about, but I'm not really sure that's where my interests are at. I definitely am going to widen my list of schools that I am applying to, and I am glad to hear that my application seems pretty strong. While I did apply to largely upper end schools, believe me when I say it was not so much because of the name of the schools (I would be lying if I said that didn't account for some, however); it so happened that those schools with that very specific program I was looking for were in the top 30 range. I would like to follow up, if I may, with 2 more specific questions: Based on my current GRE scores, do you feel it would be a good idea to retake it?How necessary do you think it is to take the subject test?

Hey guys, new to the forum here! I got rejected from all the schools I applied to last year, and am looking to give it another go this year. I thought I would post what my application looks like here, and was hoping I could get some opinions on how I'm looking: Majors: Psychology; English (Writing Emphasis) Overall GPA: 3.93 Psyc GPA: 3.97 English GPA: 3.84 Graduated with Honors (honors program) and Latin honors (Summa Cum Laude) Dean's Honors List - Fall 2007-Spring 2011 GRE Verbal: 620 GRE Quantitative: 730 GRE Writing: 5.5 -Research assistant for ~3 years, tending to focus on the framing of information/questions concerning environmental issues -Two Research Grants in psychology department: $4000 Summer semester (2010) and $1000 Spring semester (2011)--not sure if the size of the grant is important, but I thought I'd post it just in case -2011 Psychology Department Research Award -Spent a bit over 3 weeks studying environmental psychology in Germany -Co-editor of Summit Avenue Review (literary magazine) -Aquinas Scholars Honors Program student board member (2009-2011) -Counting my research grant projects, I've been first author of 6 research projects 2 presented at MPA Psi Chi Conference1 presented at Seven Rivers Undergraduate Research Symposium1 presented at Midwestern Undergraduate Psychology Conference As far as what the actual projects were: My two grant research projects examined ironic processes of mental control during conversation (essentially, people's ability to control/hide private information during conversational tasks priming them to slip that information). Essentially, I spent about a year formulating and carrying out this work.Examined the effects of video game playing on the ability to perceive the gist of briefly presented (500ms) scenesLooked at MMO games as models for collaborative learning environmentsArchival project looking at the framing of religious delusion in popular press and scholarly literature in the US from the 1820s to the presentExamined relationship between styles of humor and relationship satisfaction I'm looking to apply for cognitive psychology programs focusing on language/communication. Ideally, I'd like to continue studying aspects of mental control (such as what Daniel Wegner does at Harvard--some of these programs end up being social) or studying aspects of learning/communication in video games. I am, however, fairly flexible in the type of program I'd be willing to apply to. I realize I gave a lot of info, but I'm a bit at my whits end as to what I should be doing to improve my application, if anything. Whatever advice you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!