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Everything posted by Gvh
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Haha yup; I had a student who insisted she had handed in papers (via email). So I asked her to send me screenshots of her sent emails with the timestamps... I never got any screenshots.
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From what I understand, while this is slightly dependent on the culture of the school, applying 4 months or 1 week before the deadline doesn't really make a difference (assuming all the material and letters, etc are in). They will start reviewing apps after the deadline. The only exception is if your program has rolling admissions. Then it can make a difference.
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This. One of my friends who did her undergrad with me got an 81% on an essay (pretty much unheard of) and had her essay published.
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International students applying for Fall 2015
Gvh replied to QuidJuris's topic in IHOG: International House of Grads
I did my masters and currently live in the US, but am applying as international to PhD programs this fall. As a tip, if you're applying to PhD programs/funded masters, email the school you're interested in if it's a state school (including UC's) before you apply; sometimes, depending on the field, internationals are disadvantaged due to federal funding restrictions :/ -
It's just a completely different system to the US one. Nobody ever gets 80s or 90s. For instance, a 75 is what some of my old professors would have considered at a "publishable standard", if that helps.
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Here is the WES link: http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/index.asp I was a bit off, but you get the picture
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I had to send my grades to a professional "grade translator" (i.e. money mill) called World Education Services or WES when I applied to master's in the US. The way it worked that anything between a 65 and 69 was given an A-, 70 or above an A. 59 to 64 B+ and so on. You can then translate the letter grades into GPA. I had a 71% UK and got a GPA of 3.78. Hope this helps!
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Pubs expected for PhD admissions from MA program?
Gvh replied to davet73's topic in Political Science Forum
I come from a different field from you, but in speaking to profs in Psych/Neuro, publications are considered hugely beneficial to PhD applications since they are great evidence of the applicant's ability to do research. One professor I spoke to in particular went so far as to say a publications made a "day or night" difference; though, I am sure there is some individual difference between profs on this stance. Intuitively, I would also guess that a first author is better than second, and fifth author is better than no publication at all. I'm not sure if this still stands in PoliSci, but I don't see why it wouldn't. -
It depends if you want to give yourself time to re-take if all goes wrong. I've already taken it once and I don't plan to take a third time, so I will be taking it the 3rd week of October, which is roughly 6 weeks before my first deadline. I also didn't want to take it TOO early so that I would have a finalized my school list to send my scores to.
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My GRE vocab isn't that great either right now - and yes, I understand, my verbal was great...shame to have to redo it. And about the prep materials, I caved and decided to sign up for Princeton Review's fancy in-person GRE prep class. It is fantastically over-priced, but I have a couple friends who managed to really get their scores up with a class. I studied by myself last time, which clearly did not work for me. And with my lab job/TA commitments and other misc. projects I figure having someone hold my hand through the study process would give me the best shot.
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Yup, agreed. They are "holistic" but only if holistic means you have good GRE scores. Hah! Are you retaking/have you retaken the GRE?
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Sounds like you will definitely have a strong profile Tolman! Though I might add that perhaps one of the reasons you got rejected your last round was not due to lack of fit/weak profile, but due to your weak score. I don't think GRE scores are going to get you "into" a program alone, but I do know (based on my convos with profs) that GREs are used as an initial screening. They may have seen your 60th percentile and written you off without even reading your SOP :/ GREs are stupid but if you don't pass the first round, your whole app gets chucked :/ One of my friends who applied and got rejected from each of his schools got this exact answer from programs when he asked for feedback on his applications. I actually have similar percentiles as you; it got me into my masters but I'm retaking for PhD apps. It's the name of the game, unfortunately.
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Summary sheets are probably a wise idea. Yeah, I won't be applying to more than 1 department in each school, I am just a little worried my LORs (especially 1 in particular who I am a little less close with) will think I am scatter-brained and lack direction. I suppose if I clarify my reasoning to apply to different departments that would be okay. Thanks for the tip!
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Hi All, This is quite a silly question, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway; I'll be applying mostly to psychology PhD programs, but the departments will vary depending on the POI. More specifically, while a couple of the departments I'm applying to are obviously Psychology departments, I am also interested in POIs in the cognitive science, neuroscience, education, etc. I am assuming LOR writers typically start off with something like "I am writing in support of Ms. X's application to the PhD program in Y department". If applying to different departments, do you simply ask the LOR writers to have "different" letters for each department? Or is there a more general way to go about this? I can just imagine a psychology LOR writer of mine rolling their eyes: "Wait, you're applying to the communication department??" Ugh. First-world grad application problems :/
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On a semi-tangential note, is it relatively normal to have "preliminary" phone interviews prior to being invited to a "real interview"? I have heard of some people being asked by POI's to have an informal phone meeting after contacting them, but is this also fairly standard practice?
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I like LinkedIn. Most of my previous profs/mentors are on there; it's a good way to keep in touch without having them see how smashed you were at your cousin's birthday last weekend.
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Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I think you're right in that the main advisor must be in the dept you're getting your degree in. I suppose I should get in touch with some of the grad students to get a feel for the culture at this particular school/department.
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I am trying to figure when to contact POI's to ask if they'd be taking new students. I know that my PI at my current lab doesn't know if he'd have funding for 2015, so I figure most others wouldn't either. I have read that a lot of people contact their POIs around late summer to ask...but it seems that a lot of 2015 applicants have already asked.
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I was I had 15 schools that were good fits. I have a hard time finding more than 4 that are really good fits...I guess my interests are pretty specific, but it is still kinda daunting :/
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Any way to see the full Application forms for past years ?
Gvh replied to ahmadka's topic in Applications
To be fair, if you just want SOP prompts, you might be able to find that info on the school's website. I managed to find much of this kind of info before the application opened when I was applying for masters... -
That's a good point, Lewin. He does publish in psych journals; not as many as your typical psych PI, but due to the relevance of his work to the field of psychology, he almost has to publish in psych journals. Interestingly, his close collaborator (who he has published a book with and worked with at other institutions) is in a psych department. Bleh. :/
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Any way to see the full Application forms for past years ?
Gvh replied to ahmadka's topic in Applications
I think he just wants to see what the application *looks like*, not necessarily filled out applications. But, I don't think this is possible either; you could try emailing the school if you're dead-set. -
@Lisa - I think you are probably right, I would have to apply to the psych dept and potentially work with the PI in communication. Though, did the incoming student apply to the Comm dept first as an MA student and then re-apply to the psych dept for a PhD? How would it work otherwise? @ClinicalPsych - I'm not sure if he is affiliated with the psych dept or not. All I know is that his undergraduate and graduate work is all in psych, and the methods he uses are some of the methods I want to use.
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Hi all, This is sort of an odd question; but has anyone had any experience in applying/wanting to apply to a lab conducting psychology work/psychological experiments that happens to be in the Communication department of the school of interest? The PI is a psychologist by training. There's a lab I am thinking of applying to in this situation, but I'm not sure I want (or would be eligible for) a PhD in Communication; that said, many of the graduate students in the lab seem to have strong psych backgrounds. The bottom line is: would I be able to apply to the psych department but work with a PI in the comm dept? I tried emailing the school's general "grad info" email address, but I never got a reply. I don't want to contact the PI in fear of looking clueless. Any thoughts? :/
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@Ahoy_Milloy, I'm jealous. I took the GRE's for my masters back in 2011 but have decided to retake since they are embarrassingly low. Decided to just give it my all and sign up for a Princeton review class in my area (goodbye money..!)...Yeah, it's expensive but there's no way I'm taking them a third time.