Ameonna

It's true... We get so wrapped up in our worries and fears about moving forward that we forget how fortunate we truly are to have come so far and accomplished so much already. Virtual hugs and support for your roommate! Hoping for negative results (and positive feelings).

We should all get action figures if we get admitted and then engage in a full on action-hero BATTLE. I call dibs on Sigmund Freud! XD Should the day come that I receive an acceptance, I will be taking my close friends with me to my favorite tea shop and supplying everyone (including myself) with tea and cupcakes! I can't afford a huge dinner, but cupcakes and tea are just as good (if not better)!

I can't even look at the results page anymore after seeing someone who applied to one of the exact same programs as me get rejected. Sincere hugs and condolences for that person! Apparently, they were contacting the graduate director about something and were informed that their application was not moving to the next stage of admissions. I spent the next couple of days trying desperately to think of an excuse to contact the director before realizing that the news would either be "you didn't make it" or "you made it to the next stage, but we can't promise you're in". Better off just waiting for the final decision, I guess, but AAAAAH! What's even worse is that their GRE scores were waaaay better than mine... *Paranoia paranoia paranoia*

I guess I could count as a round 2 applicant. I was rejected by every PhD program I applied to in 2010 (all 5 of them), which were all top-tier schools. though I ended up being invited at the VERY LAST MINUTE (mid-July) to apply to a new Master's program at my undergraduate university and getting accepted there. I got my acceptance less than a week before school started!! Talk about a crazy transition. At the time, my GRE scores were decent, but I had a 3.45 GPA and not enough research experience. Hopefully, one Master's, a wonderful internship, and a graduate-level thesis later, I'll be more prepared this round. I've increased the number to 7, as well. I had no idea this board existed until this round... I'm glad to have found it!

I think this is why a number of schools ask for the GPA calculation of your final two years in addition to your total GPA; grad schools are probably more concerned with your performance in higher-level classes relating to your field as opposed to your cores or basic level classes. Also, I don't think the transition from B/C student to A student is nearly as dramatic as, say, a student who was put on academic probation in their freshman year who is suddenly getting As and Bs later on in their transcript. I could see how the latter would warrant an explanation, but as you said in your post, a gradual improvement from freshman year to senior year is actually very common.

red balloons

Book curse

"Hm, I guess she's okay... but what about this OTHER applicant who saves babies from burning buildings as a hobby, has ten publications and thirty conference presentations, AND has promised upon their admission that every member of the university will receive free pizza and donuts for the rest of the university's natural existence? I mean, the choice is obvious here..." The pizza and donuts always win in my nightmares.

You feel anxious because it's totally normal to feel that way! Seems to be happening to everybody here. It's like getting married, only you don't know if your beloved will actually be waiting for you at the altar once you arrive there, and you happen to have four or seven or ten or thirteen beloveds, all of whom you've tried to convince are worth waiting for you at the church... All that matters, though, is that you look wonderful and get cake! Yeah, I'm not the best at metaphors...

Exactly two years ago today, someone received an acceptance from one of my top-choice universities. Needless to say, I'm going to be completely on-edge for the next couple of days. There's no data for last year's acceptances, though, so who knows... GAH! I need to stop thinking about this or I'll go utterly mad!

Hehe, I bet that shout sounds like "OMG YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" You have to fight through the admissions dungeon to get it, though... and it's full of other applicants. I should've just applied to Bard's College instead... Or the College of Winterhold.

The Results Survey on gradcafe can answer that question (at least, in terms of previous years): http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=caltech+computer+science&t=a&pp=25 I did a search for "Caltech Computer Science" and this is what came up. Hope that helps!

FUS RO DAH!!! Does anyone know the shout for acceptance to PhD programs?

It sounds like you have some really good ideas already! Here are a couple of things to consider: If you need to take the GRE or any other standardized test, get some good study materials and get going on that ASAP. The earlier you start, the easier it will be to pace yourself when studying and you won't need to cram at the last second! Do you know who you're getting your LORs from? Do you have (at least) three strong relationships with faculty members and/or supervisors that you can guarantee good letters from? Consider those questions now before you're in the middle of the process and realizing your letters aren't as strong as they could be. If you do have some people in mind, be sure to maintain your relationships with these individuals, and give them plenty to write about. You may already know this, but don't just attend conferences; talk with people and really mingle. See what kind of contacts you can make. You may find professors there with similar interests who can direct you to programs you may not have necessarily thought of or found in your research. Hope that helps!

I'm using my free time to attempt to learn Japanese. Thus far, I can only say a few words (and with terrible pronunciation besides), but it's fun and challenging and it keeps me busy. The busier I am, the less I think about adcomm deliberating over my applications!

You mentioned having done a considerable amount of research through projects done in class. That's research experience, and definitely worth elaborating in your SOP! If you can show adcomms that you performed meaningful research in those classes, and it had an impact on your ability to perform research at the graduate level, that can only help you. Publishing is one way to show very quickly and immediately that you have performed research at the caliber required for graduate-level work, but if your LORs and SOP can demonstrate your capabilities, that will be just as effective, I think. The point is to communicate capability, not so much "be published".

One thing I have learned about the process of applying to graduate school is that it makes everyone second-guess themselves and their own accomplishments to some degree. It's totally normal. Even so, most adcomms look at the big picture, and for that reason, so should you. Study hard for the GREs, make sure that you have relationships with professors/supervisors that will lead to meaningful and substantial LORs, do as much research and as many papers as you can for your chosen field, attend conferences and don't ignore extracurriculars and work experiences. If you present as a strong student overall, then GPA should not be an issue unless it is below cutoff, and even then, usually when a GPA is below cutoff, it means that they will take a very careful look at the other factors I mentioned and consider whether they override low GPA. The cutoff is usually 3.0, so you should be fine!

Having actually taken the MA option for Clinical Psychology, I can certainly agree with those who have said this option is very expensive. For me, if you factor in housing and all the other expenses (and extra classes), it was a $60,000 investment. That's huge, and I advise you NOT to take that lightly. Even so, I am a firm believer in making the most of what you have, and an MA program in psychology is very much about what you make of it. What I haven't seen mentioned yet on this thread is LORs, which are a huge part of the application process; if you haven't had a lot of opportunities to create strong relationships with professors in undergrad, the MA may be your opportunity to do so. Also, you will be able to take advanced classes within the field, perform research, and work on a number of independent projects (including a Master's Level Thesis, which looks GREAT on an application). Of course, you have to make the most of these opportunities. Doing the bare minimum to graduate from an MA in psychology is a VERY BAD idea if you're going to make this kind of investment. If you do it, be prepared to work. Also, I want to dispel something that has been stated on this thread previously; a Master's completed at another school CAN be carried over to a PhD in some cases, and some of the programs I have applied to will actually consider your Master's Thesis as a replacement for their own Master's Thesis requirement. Of course, this is a moot point for me since I'm switching research focuses entirely, but it's not necessarily going to be a "waste of time" depending on the program you apply to. You do have to research each individual program and see whether or not they will accept your classes/thesis as part of the MA work you did at another school. Yes, you can go into a lab and work. It's cheaper, it can actually provide you some monetary gain AND you can get a lovely LOR from those positions. That said, what a Master's provides is the opportunity to show you can handle graduate-level work, not just in terms of research, but in terms of balancing classes, research, jobs and more. It's a lot of work; whether or not it's worth it is up to you!

1) This is an interesting question. What do you mean by "good school"? For some, this means an Ivy League or a school with an immensely high reputation; for others, a "good school" may not be the most prestigious overall, but one that has a very distinguished program for their particular field of study. Others define "good school" as a school which simply matches their research interests well. I think what's important is that you define for yourself what "good school" means, and then go to the websites of those schools, since required and preferred scores can vary from school to school and from discipline to discipline. Many program websites list minimum requirements and/or the average GRE scores of accepted students over the years, which is helpful. 2) Again, this is something you are going to have to define for yourself. I would, at the very least, advise you to become familiar with the format of the test and what the questions will look like. There are a number of resources (such as Barron's GRE Prep Book) which can help you familiarize yourself with the specific format of the GRE and provide you with sample questions. How far you will have to go BEYOND familiarity is going to be up to you. 3) I have to go with what newlbs said on this one. Write a pros and cons list and figure out which one will work best for you. I unfortunately do not have any experience in your field, so it would be ill-advised for me to direct you either way.

I entered my Master's in Clinical Psychology at the age of 21 (fresh from undergrad), and now I'm applying to PhD programs in Quantitative Psychology at the age of 23. It's surprising how much maturity and life experience I've gained in just two years. My research focus, my perspective on psychology... Nearly everything seems to have changed, and for the better, I think. I don't think age matters so much as what you're doing with your time; four years of undergrad did not provide nearly as much maturity as two years of graduate work! I imagine the same can be said for other life experiences, too!

The intense worrying and self-doubt has been the absolute worst. My mind always strays toward how my applications could have been better, no matter how much effort went into them. Or, even worse, my mind strays toward how I could have been a better student... That's the worst. I know I've worked hard, but I always feel like I could have done even more than I have. Most of all, I'm afraid of disappointing people. Everyone seems to think I have a fairly good shot of getting in somewhere, and I don't want to prove them wrong. I feel like that would be such a disappointment to the professors, family and friends who helped me so much with this process. Then again, the one who will likely be most disappointed is me!

As a Master's student in Clinical Psychology, I took Quantitative Analysis as a required course. It was a class of about 17 students, and nearly all of them were in danger of failing except for myself and one other student. We ended up doing a lot of study groups together and helping each other out. Those who understood the material well actually acted as tutors to the students who were having trouble. Even though I was one of the tutors, I learned a lot from my classmates and by helping them through their work; it really cemented my own knowledge, and as far as I know, everyone in the class managed to at least squeak by. My point is that chances are VERY good that you will not be the only one in your graduate program who struggles with math. Get to know your classmates, and be sure to ask your professors for extra help, as well; I know the professor I had for QA was more than willing to help out as long as we showed that we were trying the assignments and struggling, not just going to her for all the answers. As long as you are willing to try your best and work hard, and accept help when you need it, you'll do fine. As an aside, I struggled with math for most of my life. It was only recently that I realized that I had a talent for applied math (especially statistics). I'll be applying for my Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology for the Fall. Don't EVER sell yourself short because you've struggled with math in the past.