Sarapsy

Engali- That's funny you mention that, as a friend of mine just got done with an I/O course at her undergrad and sent her text to me. I haven't had a chance to look through it, but I will definitely take the time to do so soon. In general, thanks everyone for your comments, especially about the advice to go ahead and register for the GRE general & GRE subject exam. I am scheduled to take the General in mid-October, and unfortunately the Psych subject is only offered in April (the saturday before my final exams for this semester). So I'm really happy that I know to study primarily for the Psych Subject over the next few months. Had I tried to register later, I would have had to cram during an already stressful month.

Yes, I am doing a senior thesis as part of my honors program requirement. However, most schools will let you do a senior thesis even if you are not in such a program. I would definitely talk to your advisor about how to get this rolling. It would be an extremely valuable experience I will do some research into the faculty research areas of my top schools and try to come up with a related idea of my own. Once I have an idea in mind I will definitely schedule a meeting with my advisor so that he can see I'm motivated. I really appreciate your suggestion!

-You're right about my GPA, my professors have also mentioned that while the past 2 years are great, I can't get around my overall ;( I would really love to know about how your strategy works out for you. I have definitely considered master's, because one of my professors mentioned that it might be something I have to do. I absolutely have my heart set on a PhD program. I will really have to think about risking rejection from all of the schools I apply to. -I have had 2 semesters of DIS, but I only run experiments for my professor. He is utilizing me much more heavily this semester after being impressed with my ethic last semester so that's great, however it's not a situation where I'm conducting my own study. I have emailed him letting him know that I want to discuss how to get information regarding what it would take for me to be able to run my own study/project. I'm also going to volunteer in another lab this summer. -Your strategy sums up what the internet suggests for the GRE studying plan. I guess right now I'm not actually "studying" rather than I'm spending time learning new vocabulary. I will definitely register soon, and I do have a psychology subject GRE prep book, although I didn't realize there are only 3 times throughout the year! Thank you so much! 1) I contacted them today and unfortunately the Performance Management work they're doing right now isn't conducive to accepting any volunteers/interns etc. The person I spoke with even went so far as to tell me that perhaps I should look into moving to Atlanta to work with Dr. Aubrey Daniels for an internship and waiting 1-2 years to apply to grad school! Atlanta is a good 7 hours away, and anyways I think that was an extreme suggestion. 2) So in my clinical psych course, we have to turn in a personal statement as part of our final grade. My professor (who actually graduated from Florida Tech) promised me he would grade mine using a discriminating eye and has even suggested strategies to address my low GPA without doing so explicitly. I'm totally going to check out your book recommendation! 3) I definitely need to spend more time researching individual programs and each respective faculty member's area of research. I have looked at the requirements for each of the programs I've listed (I've made a big spreadsheet outlining the differences) but have not spent enough time on the specific research interests. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about the field though, and I do feel it has helped me learn about what my own interests are. I'm a student member of JOBM so I have access to the material on that network which has been really interesting! I knew that Stanford (which let's face it, I'm not getting into) has the business program but I didn't cross it off my list based on that (I knew a certain amount of psych majors were accepted into that program). Note the ratio of applicants who accept an offer to a school to the number who applied. In general, the higher the ratio, the lower the quality. You'll generally note a relationship between this ratio and amount of funding given as well. I would say that you should add more safety schools to your list, but only the ones that offer full funding and only the ones where the faculty research interests and program focus (are they preparing you for academia, industry, both, etc.) match yours. That should narrow the list substantially. This makes a lot of sense. I guess I have a busy weekend of making an entirely new spreadsheet. In closing, WOW THANK YOU SO MUCH!

1) Yes you're right. I guess he can only just say no! I might have to get used to hearing "no" a few times anyways, after reading through all of the past year's acceptance/rejection threads. 2) It's cool we're both applying for next year, when are you planning on taking the GRE? I'm going to revise my list of schools and then try to find out their funding situation/application requirements & deadlines. 3) Thank you for the link! I have seen that list but I've seen other lists that sometimes contradict the info found in other rankings. For instance, I didn't know whether or not to put UCF as a ranked option, but a lot of people have been saying good things about it on this forum, so I will 4) I would LOVE to do one. Is it something that you've been able to do? I will talk to my lab advisor about possible ways for me to accomplish this. Thanks so much iopsych, tauren, & mschauer!

Oh man, thanks. I thought I was being overly cautious by planning for October, so I'll definitely plan to be ready by September.

Thank you so much for your reply! I was talking to my neuro professor yesterday about funding and your comments match verbatim. I honestly didn't understand the concept of funding and assumed I would be taking out massive loans. I'll revise my list & maybe go back to look at some of the programs I originally nixed due to high tuition/not ideal location. I've heard nothing about Seattle Pacific so that can't be good I guess. I forgot to mention Portland State Uni as well. Thanks so much again, I really appreciate it!

I've been reading through the other I/O program posts, and I might have too many questions to try & tack on to someone else's post. I'm graduating from a state university this August with my B.S. (major in Psych, minor in Bio). I have to wait for the next application cycle, and will be starting a PhD program in August 2013. I will post my "stats" and questions, if anyone is able to offer me any words of advice/comments, I would really appreciate your time. STATS Overall GPA: 3.2 Psych GPA: 4.0 GPA in the last 67 credits: 4.0 Research Experience: 2 semesters running pps, doing data entry, filling in for other studies in a social lab, certainly no publications LOR: 2 very strong, trying to decide between forging a new relationship with another professor or risk a merely "good" letter (I just did really well in his course, not much interaction) Volunteer: worked as hotline counselor for 1 semester, that's it Experience: none GRE: plan to take it in October or November. I'm almost done with my GRE vocab. book, and will continue with the other prep books once I've completed the vocab. I plan on making really competitive scores, I'm a good standardized tester. Frankly, I need it to make up for my GPA as much as possible. QUESTIONS 1. The only reason I came back to school is because I learned about the I/O psych field. While my school is heavily research-oriented, there are no I/O, or Performance Management courses available, although there used to be. The professor (now emeritus) that used to teach the courses is really big in the field. The most interaction I've had with him is phone/email correspondence, although he does run a small consulting company out of this city. Should I approach him about possibly volunteering or shadowing at this company? I fear I may overstep & annoy him. 2. Can someone explain the application timeline? This is my proposed timeline: -From now - August '12: Finish my bachelors -August '12 - November '12: Study solely for the GRE, work a little bit to save up some money. Take the GRE in November & send out my scores immediately to my top 4 schools. -November '12-December '12: Send out applications to the 10 programs I am most interested in. (Is this the correct timeframe for most schools? I know most deadlines are in January) -January '13-April '13: Wait? 3. I've checked SIOP, SDN, this website, magazine rankings, but it's really hard to find good info on I/O PhD programs! I'm not sure if I have a dud in my application list or not. Please peruse my list and if you see one that you've heard rumors about, please tell me! (I know Stanford & Columbia aren't duds, but I also know there's no chance of acceptance, haha) -Stanford, Columbia, Michigan State, Colorado State, Baruch College CUNY, Uni. of South Florida, George Washington, George Mason, DePaul, Illinois Ins. of Tech, Purdue, Urbana-Champaign, Seattle Pacific 4. I know my stats are lacking, is there anything you can recommend I do since I have some time? Thanks for taking the time to read this