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@systematic pep, I'm not in clinical psych, but I am aware of how competitive it is and generally what is needed to get into a funded program. This is probably not news to you, but I think seriously investing in retaking the GRE (to get to 80+ percentile ideally across sections) and applying to MANY more programs will stand you in better stead. If both your GRE scores and GPA are on the lower end it can make it difficult to get through the first rounds of review. Best of luck!

It think it's obvious that the advice given by @FeelTheBern's LOR writer makes sense, but I also think simply "aiming high" can be misleading because it's hard to know what that means. In other words, placement rates for schools can depend on a number of factors, including departmental reputation which can be at odds with overall school name/brand. From where I'm standing, I think it makes most sense to see where prior grad students have ended up going and what they are doing, both at the departmental level but also at the level of the advisor you would be working under.

I really liked Magoosh too, and credit it for helping to raise my score. However, I did find that although solving the quant questions were fantastic practice, I didn't love the solution strategies the Magoosh tutors used to solve them. I personally found them unnecessarily mathy and algebraic when for like 90% of the questions on the actual test I could solve the math questions using simpler strategies like plugging in the answer choices or plugging in a simple number (e.g 100) for the variable. I probably only answered a handful of questions algebraically on my exam and still ended up with a 80th percentile score. This was a caveat of Magoosh in my opinion. But for $99 for so many questions it's still a great deal!

That's awesome @overdetermination, you must be psyched! Similar to you and @FeelTheBern, I'm also coordinating with my SO, but for him it's finding a post-doc where I end up for grad school (he's finishing up his PhD in virology in the next year or so - hopefully!). It's tough going being in an academic in a relationship.

@overdetermination Random tangent: I interviewed at Brown's CLPS department last year! Ended up not being a great fit with POI, but it's solid department especially if you're into psychophysics and visual perception stuff

School Name: University of ChicagoInterview Invite Received: January 22ndDegree: PhDType: CognitionNotified via: Email/Phone from POIInterview Date: February 20-22Additional Info: Was asked to phone chat on 1/22, so I waited for the actual invite to post on here. Invited me to interview weekend during phone chat! Waiting on departmental email.

Hey guys! Call went great -- he was super welcoming and nice and basically just wanted to invite me to the weekend. Lol, my 4 pages of notes and "insightful" comments will be useful for the actual visit I guess!

I wouldn't say I've "nailed it", I'll be lucky with 2 acceptances, but I'll take it Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I'll post on here after it's done!

Oh, trust me, the amount of tears I've shed for the GRE has matched all tears I've shed for any boy! I had similar feedback last year, hence I had decided to fight it to the bone.I ended up with 80th percentile across sections, starting from 28th percentile in Q the 1st attempt. When I saw my scores on the screen during the final attempt, I cried like a baby in the testing center. Needless to say I got some decidedly odd looks. Power through it! You can do it!

Sure. Between attempt 2 and 3 I only experienced a 1 point difference because I took them within a month of each other. The 4th attempt my Verbal decreased (which has always been relatively high and stable) but my Q (which was the problem) increased by 5 points. Finally, the 5th attempt I superseded all my previous scores in both sections and decided to call it a day. I will note, however, that I did in the end decide to take a (exuberantly expensive) prep class which helped IMMENSELY. So take that as you will

FWIW @beyondnervous, I feel the exact same way. Last year I was shut out because of a 50th percentile Q score. By the time this application season had come around, I had taken the GRE 5 (!) times in my life. Yes, FIVE. It was an uphill battle, but if you do get shut out this year and want to reapply next year, know that others have conquered the GRE in spite of everything. Don't give up!

@FeelTheBern, my guess is these chats pre-interview are to gauge whether to invite you or not, especially since it seems 1 or 2 people on GC have already received formal invites for this program! Re project ideas -- that is a good point but since he initially wanted to give me a 6 hour warning before our call (I ended up delaying it til tomorrow), I would assume he wouldn't expect me to have concrete project ideas already in mind, but I could be wrong! I guess we will find out, haha.

Thanks @St0chastic! This is good advice. I am currently going over some of the more recent publications. Something tells me this call is going to be about fit in the program/lab since it's a non-rotation program. So yeah, trying to put some coherent elevator pitches down. And yes, it is over phone so I can have notes Congrats on your invites btw, you rocked it this season!

So I have a pre-interview "chat" tomorrow with a POI from UChicago. He didn't say much other than he read my application and wanted to "chat about the program". Any words of advice?? Ugh.

If you end up admitted and are thinking about attending, feel free to PM me! Happy to answer any other questions I can

I applied early on and didn't have a problem. I know there is some sort of preference system where people who live furthest away get dibs on student housing before say, Massachusetts residents. But I don't know more than that. Some people got put into the GSAS housing across the yard, which I heard wasn't as nice but it's still doable. Overall, from my experience most people who wanted student housing could get it, but don't quote me on that!

Yeah I lived at Cronkhite. I mean, I think the rent was about 900/month, which is not particularly expensive for Cambridge. Plus you get a meal plan 5 days a week. I don't remember the exact details of the costs and plans but basically it didn't really turn out to be all that much more than living in your own place, unless you want to live way out there, which I don't recommend. It was worth it for me, especially being so close to classes and all my friends. Ultimately it's personal choice, but definitely explore all options

The incoming masters class each year at HGSE is around 700 among the 13 (14?, I can't remember) different masters cohorts/divisions. So it is a big group all together, HOWEVER I found that everyone found their niche, either within their own cohort or within some other community/network/group. It can be overwhelming at the beginning, but it was pretty life-changing and inspiring to meet so many like-minded and awesome people doing incredible things. If you end up attending, I recommend living on campus, because you got even more of that community feel! I feel like I made some lifelong friends in the program!

I can vouch for this too, @Heather1011. They really are great. I went to them a few times and found the experience very helpful!

When I was applying for Masters studies (in Education, too!), I was admitted to Penn, Harvard and Columbia. Columbia ended up not leaving a great impression on me when I visited, and also offered $0 in grant or assistance, but I loved Penn and Harvard both of which offered me similar grant/scholarship money. Ultimately, I decided on Harvard and I'm so happy I did. Now, I can't say what my life would have been like had I gone to Penn, but all I can say that my life completely changed when at Harvard, and hasn't been the same since (in a good way!). I agree with the others that at this point, I'm sure you'd get to wherever you need to be with Penn. But, there is something about Harvard -- the resources, the people, the opportunity (such as the ability to work and take classes at MIT) -- that opens up that extra door. Just my $0.02. PS: FWIW, I got an internship while still in school that ended up hiring me when I graduated. When I quit that, I found another job within a month. I don't know anyone from my program who had issues finding work upon graduation.

I hear you @passenger47. Based on historical data, interviews go out at the end of next week....fingers crossed!

I know right. The eye-rolling part is that s/he probably would be "at liberty" to tell me if I had been selected to interview.

So after inquiring about one of my apps to the admin, I received this response: "Unfortunately I am not at liberty to tell you the status of your application. At the moment, all applications are still being reviewed." Does anyone else feel like this is a massive cop-out? Just tell me I'm rejected already!

Unless your school doesn't interview or it does and you have already interviewed, it is likely to be a rejection.

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) - Clinical: January 19-20 Brown University - Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences: February Carnegie Mellon - Cognitive: February 19-20 Cornell University - Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience: February 26 - 27 UC Davis - Social & Perception, Cognition, and Cognitive Neuroscience: February 1 UC San Diego - Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience: February 4-6 UC Santa Barbara - Clinical: January 22 University of Central Florida (UCF) - Clinical: January 29 University of Colorado – Colorado Springs - Clinical: February 1 University of Connecticut - Clinical: February 10 or 12 University of Delaware - Clinical: January 29 or February 1 Duke University - Cognitive Neuroscience (CNAP): February 25th-28th Georgetown - Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience: February 18-19 or 25-26 University of Houston - Clinical: February 12-13 Indiana University - Bloomington - Social: February 5 University of Iowa - Clinical & Cognition and Perception: February 6-8 Johns Hopkins - Biopsychology: February 11 or 18 University of Kansas – Clinical: February 12 Louisiana State University - Clinical: January 28-29 University of Louisville - Clinical: January 25 University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Clinical: February 19-21 NYU - Cognition and Perception: February 5 or 19 UNC Chapel Hill - Cognitive: February 12 UNC Charlotte - Clinical: January 29 Northeastern University - Cognition: February 13 Northwestern - Feinberg School of Medicine - Clinical: February 8 Ohio State University - Clinical: January 15 University of Oregon - Counseling: January 28-29 University of Pittsburgh - Cognition: February 18 Princeton - Cognitive: February 4-6 Sam Houston State University - Clinical: February 12 USC - Social: January 15 Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) - Clinical: February 7-8 Texas A&M University - Clinical: January 10-12 Vanderbilt - Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience: February 11-13 Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) - Clinical: January 29 or February 26 Virginia Tech - Clinical: February 5 WashU/WUSTL - Clinical & Cognition: Feb 11 & 12 University of Washington - Cognition and Perception: February 25-27