Gvh

I don't know if that rationale is entirely true. I know plenty of people who did their PhD in one institution and either stayed at that institution or went to a different school in the same area for their post-doc. It may be that certain schools do not take their own, but I don't know if you can generalize this to everywhere. I would try contacting current grad students at the schools you're interested to see if that kind of culture exists at their institution.

Sucks to be Canadian in this case :/

I've heard mixed opinions on this too. But I've decided I'd rather "mildly annoy" a POI and find out if s/he's taking students rather than spend countless hours + $100 putting together a App/SOP for a lab that isn't taking students.

I agree with what Realities has said though I do slightly disagree that journals don't discriminate. It is not so much the title per se (e.g. RA vs post-doc) but if they aren't familiar with your name in terms of the rest of the literature, that can hold you back. For example, I am currently authoring a lit review that would be relevant to a developmental psychology journal (we are writing about neuroimaging in premature babies); though because we are a neuroscience lab that has never published in a psych journal (only neuro), my PI thought it a bad idea to submit to them since it might be taken with hesitation due to our lack of expertise in the rest of the field... This may not be the case, but I would talk/think about it more carefully before you dive into writing the manuscript. Echoing what Reailties said, isn't there a way to publish something (even as a middle author) in your current lab? I don't think it's AS important to have published something directly related to your interests; this is still demonstrating your ability to do research, which is one of the main things they are trying to discern from your application...

On a slight tangential note, does anyone have any thoughts as to whether a published research article can be used as a writing sample? I wouldn't be the only author, so I was wondering if this would be acceptable (though, I would be the lead author).

Ha! I had actually found this about 5-6 years ago (right before undergrad) and it totally inspired me

To clarify: I agree with ahlatsiawa that truth is usually the best option; whenever you can be truthful, be truthful. However, there are no hard and fast rules as to making sure you are accepted for a US visa; often, if an officer is not "satisfied" with your case, s/he can deny you. My only advice is, don't give them a reason to deny you. I have been asked each time I had to get a new visa f I had a -- quote unquote -- "internet friend" or significant other in the US..I usually said no since it's really not worth saying yes. I doubt them "looking into" you so far is going to show you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, unless you are married to them of course, though this is a whole other can of worms.

Wait. No PhD is worth $150,000.

I have never been declined, but I recently went to the border to get a visa (it was a visa you get approved of at the border), and though my boyfriend was with me at the time, I "skewed the truth" when they asked about the nature of our relationship. Seemed like the best thing to do since they want you to not have permanent ties to the US -- though this obviously depends on the type of visa you're applying for.

I haven't worked as a TA as a PhD student, but I have as a visiting TA and in my experience, often it depends on enrollment of various classes in order to establish how many TAs will be needed in each class...Though like you said, this probably depends on the school/department.

That does seem weird. Unless it was a very small/unknown journal, I find it odd that you get a response the very next day. In my experience in cog psych/cog neuro, it's at least a few weeks before you get any feedback. But this may depend on the field and journal. Maybe you didn't submit it "properly" or forgot something which gave you an auto-reject? If I were you/your advisor I would email the editor directly and inquire. At the very least you should receive *some* feedback.

In any school where the student requires funding (i.e. a PhD program), coming with your own funding is a night or day factor. If it's a professional program that is usually un-funded, it probably depends on the school; in which case, I would definitely inquire to the school in question. But I don't see why it would ever be a bad thing. If in doubt, ask the school.

Yes.

This is true. But I also want to add that when the top 7% of the applicants are accepted, it's not referring to the top 7% students per se, but applicants. In other words, you could not be in the top 20-30% of your class (and with grade inflation, what does this mean anyway) and still be a top applicant through your work experience, publication record, etc. Being a top applicant from my understanding, also means being able to present yourself well, being well referred, and so on.

When my dad started using Evernote for work (he's an entrepreneur) I was skeptical; but I actually don't think I could live without it now. I used it throughout my masters, for my lab work and personal stuff. It is very easy to compartmentalize/personalize your info and it is also so easy to search for stuff. For instance, I keep track of key research papers, and Endnote lets you search your entire directory -- even through the PDFs. Also the fact that you can access anything from anywhere is very cool and convenient.The downside is that, if you're using it to a large extent like me, it is $5/month. But I found it worth it...

Well, if you feel like you've exhausted your search and keep coming up with the same results, try just googling the schools/areas that you *really* want to attend/live in to see if there is anything that fits your interest. Additionally, if you haven't tried it yet, try doing an advanced Google search restricted results to ".edu" domains. I found a program that I am very interested in this way; it hadn't come up in my initial search because my interests are a "new direction" of the PI/lab and it hadn't been well published yet.

This. Also, if you are only going to apply to the one, make sure your stats and scores line up with what your department is looking for; in my experience, if your scores aren't up to scratch with the department's average for incoming students, this can cut you out, no matter how much your POI wants you. This clearly depends on the school, how much power your POI has (i.e. if he's on the adcom), etc, but I would cross all your T's and dot your I's before you put all your eggs in a basket. That said, I don't see why it would hurt to apply to a couple more programs. An extra hundred bucks or so is worth it if it means having options.

A lot of the time, the universities will have admissions stats posted on their program/department website -- these are often a little hidden and difficult to find, so it may require some digging (at least, in my experience). Other schools don't post stats (especially if they are smaller schools/departments). However, some third-party sites do post this kind of info; how accurate it is, I can't say -- but it's worth a look. Magoosh's website is pretty handy: http://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-top-universities/ Otherwise, with the risk of stating the obvious, you could always just try googling "School X admission stats" to see what you can find. I have been successful with this method before

Yeah, I totally agree that if you *can* get good letters from tenured profs, then great! But if you have a choice between mediocre LOR from top prof or fantastic LOR from ABD lecturer, go for the latter; but obviously aim for tenured profs when you can.

Additionally, many schools' applications will have a space available to upload misc. supporting documents. Creating a document describing relevant non-peer review work can be referred to in your CV/SOP as "see Relevant Coursework.doc" or something similar; this can be a clean way to get information out there that might look misplaced on a CV. I agree with TakeruK that you shouldn't really post papers on a CV that aren't accessible to the readers.

Eh, I think a lot depends. Obviously, the director of the NIH is going to look a lot better than a letter from your pre-doctoral TA, but I would seriously just go for the person that knows you best and can speak to the experience necessary that your program is looking for. I had a letter from an ABD "lecturer" (he had a masters but never completed his doctorate) and I got into 7/8 competitive masters programs. It also depends a little on your field/degree sought, but based on the profs I've spoken to about this, it was generally agreed that a fantastic letter from a lower-tiered person is better than a luke-warm letter from someone more important.

A. Clearly the OP is a competitive candidate and B. Even if she wasn't, there is no reason for the director to be a dick about it.

Agreed with what everyone has been saying here. I found a paid full-time RA-ship (working on a first-authorship w/ PI with a couple other middle-author papers being reviewed), but only after I did a masters. It's definitely possible to find a research job with only a BA, but it's harder. I did start volunteering for a lab while I was in school, and they then hired me after 6 months. Sometimes you need to "prove yourself" first :/ Heck, I'm realizing more and more how this whole process (along with the process leading up to grad school), is such a crapshoot! Well, along with a lot of hard work

From where I'm sitting, it seems like you would be a competitive applicant for PhD admissions. Most people I know who got into really good programs (granted, not in I/O, but in top psych programs in the country in developmental/social/cog) didn't have publications at the time of application. I don't think not having publications is a deal breaker at all, especially since you'd be coming straight from UG. Sure, if you decided to do an RA-ship for a year or two to perfect your skills/get some pubs, that would be nothing but beneficial, but I also don't see why you wouldn't have a good shot now, as long as you have focused research interests and good letters/stats.

Erm, sorry to break it to ya, but the USA is made up of foreigners.