MakeYourself

I took the GRE on no sleep and did well. I think it depends on the individual. You know yourself best, but are you sure it was the sleep that was hindering you? Maybe it was anxiety.

I would definitely say stick to it. Especially if you are in Canada, an Honours thesis can be crucial for psychology programs. And like another poster said, I think that it can look very bad on your part if you were to suddenly drop it so close to the finish. After all, a big part of grad school is completing a thesis. Good luck

Waiting sucks

$20,000 is not a lot to you? I envy you.

I disagree with this advice. I think it is quite selfish and one-sided to ask someone to drop everything in their life and move across the country with you. Who is to say that her boyfriend doesn't have a career that he needs to think about too? Getting your pHD isn't the most important thing in the world that outweighs everyone else's hopes and dreams. How are you both going to take care of yourselves on a graduate student's stipend? I think there are way more factors that need to be considered than just "this is my life and I'm going to do what I want and if you're not willing to change your life for me then I'm leaving you". Anyway, now that I've ranted... I agree with the posters who mentioned that being in debt is not fun. And I also encourage you to think about this: there is a possibility that you could stay at the same school and have more 'fun' than if you go to a new school. And there is the possibility that you go to a new school and you end up being bored out of your mind and hating everyone. I know this is an exaggeration, but I 'm just giving these examples because I don't think you should be making your decision based on 'new' and 'old' and 'fun' vs. 'boring'. I think your decision should be based on your research interests, your advisor fit, and also financial and living costs. And if relationships are important to you, then of course consider your relationship as well. Good luck!

If you're that worried you can send an email to the grad secretary just letting him/her know that your letter is on the way. But I wouldn't worry, if your POI knows you've accepted then you should be fine.

If you're that worried you can send an email to the grad secretary just letting her know that your letter is on the way. But I wouldn't worry, if your POI knows you've accepted then you should be fine.

I have no clue if misdemeanors can be held against you, but I was under the impression that all schools have a 'right' to do a background check once you've been admitted into the program, whether or not they actually do one, I don't know.

Oh and I also forgot to ask, if I get a card, what should I write in it? "I wanted to get you a card, but I waited until now because I didn't want to suck up?' ..... haha, help please

Admissions aren't solely ranked on your GPA or other 'face-value' credentials. They are also based on your research interests and if there are faculty at the time who are willing to work with you. In a way, you can get 'lucky' depending on which year you apply. You might have happened to apply during a year when there were a lot of strong applications. There are numerous reasons why you would get accepted at one school and not another. It's not just black and white.

One of my LOR writers was an advisor who I applied to work with for my Masters. I have now accepted an offer to work with him for my Masters as well. I've written a short 'thank you' email to him, but I never got him a card or wrote him a formal letter. During the time of applications, I gave cards to my other 2 LOR writers, but I felt awkward getting him one cause I didn't want him to think that I was 'brown-nosing'. But I'm wondering since now I've accepted his offer if I should get him a card? I kind of still feel like it will be awkward because I will be working with him and I don't want to seem like I'm sucking up, but he really has done so much for me over the past couple of years that I feel like I should get him something to show my appreciation. Any suggestions?

Some Canadian programs do require the GRE, such as Psychology.

And I'll just add to this that people should stop being so concerned with judging others on their grad school choices and focus on their own lives.

I agree with the first part of your post, but not with the second. Being a 'truth-seeker' and being devoted to your work doesn't mean you have to be an asshole. That's also pretty irrelevant to the topic at hand. I agree with you that people should not be so sensitive over what others say to them on the internet, but making an assumption that the OP will be terrible in grad school because she got offended over someone's comments on a GradCafe forum is kind of a far stretch don't you think?

I'm not so sure if the OP was upset because someone was telling her accurate information. I think it was moreso because they were doing it in a rude way. You might be OK with that, but not everyone can handle rude sarcasm.

Lol welcome to online forums. I have to say that gradcafe is one of the most tame forums I've ever been on. So maybe that's why the OP is being so sensitive, because she's not used that kind of hostility on these boards. But if I've learned anything from geeking around on forums, it's that they all turn nasty at one point or another. Best thing to do is to just remember that it's the internet, brush it off, and move on.

Thank you both!

Thank you captain obvious. Typically all online forums have a general theme, but also have a 'lobby' area to discuss any unrelated day-to-day topics. I am pointing out that on this particular forum, the GRADcafe forum, people still manage to mainly talk about grad school in the 'lobby'.

I recently declined an offer from a school, however, during my visit at the school, I met with a faculty member (who was not my POI) that I really got along with. We had many similar research interests and I actually got really excited talking to him about potential projects we could collaborate on. Would it be out of line for me to contact him to let him know that I accepted an offer at a different school but that I am still interested in possibly collaborating with him in the future? I feel kind of uncomfortable doing this because the POI at that school who I rejected went out of his way to try to get me to come to that school (we met personally on 3 different occasions and had 2 phone conversations, and emailed back and forth constantly for about 2 weeks while I was making decisions). Is it just nonsense for me to feel awkward about this? I just don't want to sound like "hey, I rejected the school cause I didn't want to work with the POI, but I really like you so we should still keep in touch". I feel like if word got out to the POI that he would perceive me as being disrespectful? Or do you think he probably won't care? Thanks!

I guess a pro will be that you'll get more attention, but the con is like you said - there won't be other students that you can vent with who will be going through the same things. I don't think it will be so bad in terms of getting advice and support. You can always ask other students who have gone through what you are going through to help you out.

This is just an observation I made, but... This forum is supposed to be about 'random chit-chat'. Yet, we grad students (and prospective grad students) have still managed to fill up about 90% of this forum with grad school-related talk. So should I be prepared to pretty much be talking about grad school/research for 90% of the remainder of my life? I just bring this up cause I think it would be healthy for us to talk about something unrelated

My best advice is to switch to Mac Sorry.

LMAO. Thanks for the laugh. The unfortunate thing about academia is that it is filled with pretentious people who love to take any opportunity to argue that they are superior to you in any number of irrelevant ways. It is best to learn from here on out to ignore these people because you will be running into them A LOT in your academic career. As for your question, unfortunately, there is a stigma in the academic world for this so-called 'academic inbreeding'. I personally think it's ridiculous and mainly an arrogant way for people to put themselves above others. But, in reality, if you do go to the same school for your undergrad and grad you probably will have to deal with this stigma. But I don't think it's as big of a deal as some people make it seem. And, of course, there are ways to combat the stigma. You could do an exchange, internship, or semester abroad. You could do your pHD at a different school, and you can do a post-doc. But as another poster mentioned, I think that in Canada it is much more normal to go to the same school. Personally, I had a choice between 2 Canadian schools. One that was a top-tier school and one that wasn't top tier and was my undergrad school. I was surely tempted to pick the top-tier school because it was DIFFERENT than my undergrad, and because it was more 'prestigious'. But after a lot of researching and meeting with the faculty at the top-tier school, I realized that my undergrad school really was the better fit for me. And the only reason I was straying away from it was because of this 'stigma' that I was afraid of. I decided to take a risk and continue my graduate career at my undergrad school and I'm so glad that I did. I followed my heart and what I really wanted to study. And I think ultimately, that is way more important than what others think about your career. Plus, a lot of these people who think you should go to a different school are folks that are INCREDIBLY out of touch with reality. They have filled up their lives so fully with academia that they don't have meaningful relationships in the "outside world", hell, they don't even know how to talk to people outside of a University setting. (this is a really weird observation that I've made over the years). I don't think these people really value relationships and having a family as much as their career (unless it somehow worked out miraculously for them and their partner just followed them along everywhere they went, but that's pretty rare). And as for the whole 'you will be closed-minded' argument. That's such bullshit, and such a naive claim to make (especially by people who should know not to make such far-out claims based on no supporting evidence). It is ABSOLUTELY possible to go to a different school and end up more closed-minded than to stay at the same school, and vice versa. It all depends on the program, who you're working with, and a whole crap load of other factors. So I guess in the end my advice is that I'd rather put up with a few academic snobs acting superior to me than to just plan my career around what everyone else thinks I should do rather than what I feel I should do. Peace.

Do not go to graduate school just because you don't have anything better to do. You will end up resenting it and will hate your life. Plus, it's not like the job market for people with PhDs is any better than for those with BAs. Only do it if you truly love academia and science.

I picked the open program. For me personally, having freedom to study what I want in the way that I want is of huge importance to me. In general, I have the mind-set that academia and knowledge should never be firmly structured and rigid. I think that the best programs encouage freedom of thought and freedom to pick your own path. That being said, it is still very important to have support from your advisor (i.e., it shouldn't be a completely open program in the sense that your advisor doesn't even care what you're doing). I think your second option sounds great in terms of being able to pursue your own interests but at the same time have support from your mentor. Also, if your'e worried about not being able to create your own structure, I'm sure that the mentor in the open program would be helpful if you went to them for help. They might give you suggestions for how to structure your program but let you decide in the end what to do.