Gvh

For me personally, I tried to follow the guidelines as much as possible, just as I would for any academic assignment. I also had a school state "about 1000 words" and I think that statement is around 1100 words. Another school explicitly states "must not exceed 750 characters with spaces", and I did not exceed it. I wouldn't push it either way, but if you're in doubt, email the admin assistant.

If the postdoc is in the same lab as the PI (who is also your other option), could you not have the postdoc write the letter and have it co-signed by the PI?

Yay! I'm glad we could see eye-to-eye, @TakeruK haha. Sorry OP for taking over your thread...

@TakeruK, I appreciate your point and can see how it might be the case that a LOR writer who doesn't wish to support you would not want to craft the letter. Anecdotally, when I spoke to my primary LOR writer about this (whom I've been working with for 2 1/2 years), he argued I would be the best person to write it since I know what I want highlighted and put forth. Now, he ended up reviewing it adding considerable changes (i.e. it was basically re-written), which he shared with me again to review. In other words, it could be argued that we wrote it "together". Now, telling him what to write/highlight, and actually drafting something for him to edit, to me, is a question of preference and semantics. Either way, we are both contributing to the letter in order to make it good, which to me is the best case scenario. Could it be the case that someone is asked to draft a LOR which the person simply glances at and signs due to laziness/lack of enthusiasm? Sure. But I also think it is equally possible that a professor write the LOR entirely independently and for it to be decidedly sub-par. I just think it's difficult to generalize when it comes to this type of process.

I agree, it is tricky in terms of wording and structure -- I had help from one of my good academic friends who helped distance the writing style from my own. Ultimately it was a sucky process and I do wish I didn't have to do it, but at the very least I have the peace of mind that I know what is going in the letter from a content perspective, and I know it is appropriately crafted for that school. Usually the writer adds their own flare and whatever into it after. I don't think this is that unusual though, at least not in my experience at my school and friends at other schools.

This is somewhat unrelated to the OP's question, but I'm just surprised at how many people still find this bad/surprising/unacceptable. My LORs have all asked me to send them prelim drafts for content purposes (which are usually then heavily edited), which allows me to really highlight what I think is most relevant for that program. Most people I know at top institutions have done/do this on the regular, including for postdoctoral fellows seeking academic appointments. But I guess it could be something particular to my current institution :/ For what it's worth, I don't think this particular reason is one to use as a negative against this LOR writer. But like TakeruK said, it might raise some eyebrows if you haven't really worked with him in a capacity that makes sense for grad school. Better that than nothing though!

Nice, my background is in development and educational psych so some of the labs I'm applying to have a developmental and/or lifespan angle with a focus on memory and learning. I'm so anxious for all my apps to be in already.

I'm also planning to start sending some apps out in the next few weeks (most of my deadlines are December 1st)! Also applying to 8 programs :)

I'm not sure of this either, but I've seen letters my PI has written for fellows applying for faculty or postdoc positions and they are never longer than a page...

Don't be discouraged, Phdapplicant311. No one has a perfect application - my GGPA is also my primary weakness (~3.6), but I don't think a 3.5/3.6 is going to be something that rules us out of the running as long as other aspects of the application are good. Fit is obviously a crucial measure - you can have flawless stats, but if the department can't place you then you won't have a chance! As an FYI, I applied last year with my terrible GRE scores (48% Q) and my GPA and was offered a place at a top 25 school in my field -- ended up not attending for a number of reasons, but it goes to show numbers aren't everything.

I would say this question is rather field-dependent, as it probably depends whether your acceptance is contingent on matching to a specific lab or not. If you are applying to a lab within a program, mentioning professors is not only encouraged, it is often directly mentioned in the department's SOP instructions. *shrugs*. Also, in terms of reading professor's work, I have found scouring their *recent* publications as well as looking on NIH reporter to see their active grants. Of course, this will only work with scientific fields, but I have found looking at their grant descriptions a great way to get a "summary" of their recent work.

Solomonski, I took the GRE November 21 and was fine for December 1 deadlines.

Just to add my $0.02, I took the GRE 4-5 times (!) and used every prep known to man. I struggled a lot with the quant, but finally achieved a score that would stand on its own for my field (~80%), after many months of scoring 150-153. I didn't think the Magoosh questions were MUCH more difficult than the real thing but I DO think the answers they gave were way more complicated than they had to be. Often, the Magoosh tutors suggested a relatively "math heavy" method for answering questions that could be easily (and more quickly!) solved by strategies like plugging in the answers or plugging in a simple number (i.e. 100) for the variable and solving for it. I do think Magoosh's questions are good for practice though, I just used different strategies to solve them.

I can appreciate that, but at this extremity it inevitably limits their ability to determine fit.

HOW can a PhD application have a 450 word limit for a SOP?? I mean, that is intense. Either the applicants have no experience or they don't care about your experience. Either way, it's annoying because I am actually a great fit for the program and I can't even tell them. Ugh. /rant.

Well, if you've been studying for 6 months and still receiving scores in that range would suggest to me that you're not studying correctly or in a way that is effective for you. Would it be possible for you to take a prep class? I know a lot of people on here look down upon them but honestly, I took one this summer and I managed to raise my scores considerably compared to when I was studying on my own.

Hey there! I am applying to cog neuro labs (neuroimaging) so I end up applying to the cognitive psychology "sub-discipline"s for the most part Going for PhD programs only. Would love to hear from others as well

Just to offer my $0.02 (as I procrastinate writing my SOPs...): It seems to me that IF you can include 2-3 POIs as part of your application (I like to think of them as "secondary POIs", in addition to the person you really want to work with), then GREAT, because like Eigen noted, it can definitely help your chances if something goes wrong with your top POI (funding, politics, general academia BS, etc), you have a safety net with your other two; thus, your chances of admission to program is less dependent on the judgement and availability and so on of one professor. In the same way, if you did end up working for top choice POI the other two would most likely be on your dissertation committee, like someone pointed out. BUT I do agree with EdNeuroGrl in that at times there is only one professor in a department that is a decent fit. Sure, there may be others who are related enough to be on your committee, but these aren't professors whose labs you'd necessarily want to join. Last year I applied to a program only having ONE POI indicated on my statement; I was interviewed and it turned out his research ended up going in a direction I wasn't interested in - SO, I didn't end up attending. Sure, it would have been nice if there had been others, but there weren't, and that's how it worked out for me. *shrugs*. This year I am doing my best to find multiple (i.e. 2-3) POIs for each program, but I know there is going to be at least 1 in which I am only really interested in working for one person, simply because everyone's else's lab is too different in some way or another. I would also like to add that these questions can be quite field dependent. For instance, wet lab work that involves rotations upon admittance probably likes to see applicants indicate multiple faculty. However, in some non-rotation fields like Psychology, you are admitted to a lab, not a program. This is a quote from a professor at a top California public school that I received yesterday via email: "[...] If you apply to psych, you will not be accepted to the program, you will only be accepted to a lab. So if you go that route you will have to find a lab accepting students before you apply. Unfortunately they do not make that clear on their webpage." Something to keep in mind as we talk to one another! =)

You're fine, don't retake the GREs. Since GREs are mostly used as a cut-off, I doubt raising your excellent score an extra 4 points is going to make any difference whatsoever to your chances of admission.

I'm not in Clinical Psychololgy but if you are aiming for funded PhD programs I would set your sights on private rather than public schools. Being privately funded, these schools don't have "quotas" (the most part, in any case) on how many international students they take.

Erm, I'm pretty sure you need a PhD if it says a PhD is required. I've never heard of anyone achieving the title of "assistant professor" without a doctorate. A lecturer, sure, but a professor? Doubtful. Just my $0.02.

Ha, my current PI says he does this with everyone he is considering hiring for his lab (e.g.new grad students, postdocs, even undergrad RAs). I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people do this.

I received some good answers to this question here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/69571-one-or-multiple-pois/

So, not many cog neuro applicants yet huh? In any case, I thought I'd bump this thread for any newbies Also, if any neuroimaging people want to swap SOPs sometime, PM me.

I was once a TA for a student who got so offended by my feedback on a paper (I think he got like a B+ on a prelim paper so it wasn't catastrophic for him) that he went on to send me a 5 page (!) response containing a pseudo "psychoanalytic" analysis of *my* life, (yes, my life), based on the feedback I provided. Psychology classes are fun.