stereopticons

Well, of course. I could make tons of money if I'd only go in to computer science/business/statistics/whatever. But I would hate it. I haven't given up on doing something that I truly enjoy. I've made it this far on meager stipends and part time jobs. Why give up now? Yes, I'm frustrated, confused, and angry about how this application season turned out, and sure, the job prospects for a psych phd may not be stellar, but I still love it. So I won't be giving up just yet.

My advisor keeps telling me repeatedly that she is honestly surprised that I didn't get in and isn't sure why, other than the competitiveness of the field and lack of funding. She's not the type to tell me that just to make me feel better, either, so I'm not sure. I had a publication from undergrad, I have several from my masters program. My GPA and GRE aren't perfect, but they are definitely better than mediocre. I'm sure that for the ones with whom I had interviews, lack of confidence in myself might have been a problem, but that doesn't account for the ones that rejected me outright. I just don't know. When I started re-applying (I started the process last winter, because I'm insane), I completely discarded my list from the first time around and started over. I felt like I applied to a pretty good range of schools--a few reaches down through some lower tier schools--and I tried to apply to places with the best research fit.

Did you have an interview? The social program met on Friday to make decisions and my POI emailed me that night (rejection...)

I'm in the same boat, except I didn't prepare myself as well. This is the second time I've applied. The first time, looking back, I wouldn't have accepted me either. My application wasn't great, my research interests were all over the place, and I aimed too high. But this time I thought I had a chance. I'm not saying I expected people to be fighting for me. I just thought I'd get one acceptance. I have an MA. I have several publications and conference presentations. I have grants, awards, great LORs, etc., etc., etc. But I was still officially rejected from 7 of 10 schools, and I'm assuming the other three are also rejections, though I don't know for sure. And that was a huge blow for me. The thought of applying again--the financial AND emotional cost--makes me upset. I don't want to go through it again. Especially if having a strong application is not a guarantee, which it clearly isn't. I don't know what to do next year, either. I've applied to lab manager jobs. I've applied to every job I'm even remotely qualified for (EEG tech at a VA hospital? Sure!) But I thought by this time I'd know what I was doing and where I was going to be in the next few months, and I don't, and I'm really struggling with that. I agree that the system is broken. It's frustrating, it's discouraging, and it makes things extremely difficult. I mean, I guess things happen for a reason, I just wish I knew what the reason was.

I would wait a little longer, and if you still haven't heard, maybe email to ask for confirmation for the places that you sent application materials. For the ones that you asked for positions available, I don't think I would email again, but that's up to you. Some places that I applied have confirmed application materials almost immediately, others I either haven't heard from, or didn't hear from until they wanted to talk to me. I think there is a lot of variability. It's also a busy time of year.

Have to agree with this. While there's still a small chance you're on the waitlist, chances are at this point, you haven't been accepted. There are still some places I haven't heard from, but I think I've given up. Then again, last time I applied, one school didn't send me a rejection letter until October...

When I was accepted to W&M (two years ago), I was contacted around March 8. Some people who were accepted and are currently attending weren't contacted until mid-to-late March or even early April. I think the deadline was only about two or three weeks ago, though, so don't give up on them yet!

Just wanted to add that William and Mary doesn't admit MA students that they can't fund (full tuition waiver + 9mo stipend + some summer funding)

I was was wait listed at Kansas with no interview. Also, two years ago, I was wait listed at Delaware also with no interview. So it does happen.

A big problem in social psych is that researchers have a tendency to publish their results in journals and leave it at that, so that the only people who consume the research are other researchers. There are a lot of findings in social psych that could have applications in policy and education, they just never get there. Part of the reason I want to go in to social psych is to try to change this.

If they did make a point to tell me I wasn't their first choice, I don't think I would want to work with them. Otherwise, I don't think it would be a problem.

But asking how many is not the same as asking where or who. You can ask how many other people are interviewing, or they might tell you, but you can't ask "am I your top choice?" The question is inappropriate from both sides. The thing is, though, they can get away with it. You're not likely to turn down an acceptance just because they asked where your top choice was. As an applicant, though, they can (and will) reject you if you ask inappropriate questions in the interview. The other thing is, there are inappropriate questions and then there are illegal questions. It's not illegal to ask where else you've applied. It is illegal to ask if you're married, if you have kids, if you're planning on having kids, etc.

This is a really good one. I've also been asking how much collaboration is there is in the department, because my interests are varied and I like to work on more than one project.

For the ones that specifically asked for letters, I had my recommenders email the letters to the lab. For all the others, I just included names, phone numbers and email addresses of my recommenders.

You probably did, but I thought I'd ask anyway...did you email POIs before hand to check and make sure they were able to take students?Funding is a huge problem and makes applications so difficult and frustrating. I got a couple of application fee waivers for some of the places I applied--try searching for fee waiver programs, or emailing the graduate admissions office to see if they have any need-based fee waivers. Some do, some don't, but it's always worth asking.

I heard from UC Boulder. I had a phone interview on Saturday, and their interview weekend is March 1-3. It sounds like they just made decisions, though, and may still be notifying people. I applied to Florida State but have heard nothing. Not hoping for much from them. Who are your POIs at those two?

If you know exactly what you want to research, an MA/MS may not be your best bet. If that's the case, you'd be better off with a lab manager or RA position, I think. What I really got from my MA program, besides a whole lot of experience, was a more solidified, coherent idea of what I wanted to research. When I applied to programs last time, I vaguely knew...but I was kind of clueless. I applied to some masters programs with people doing research in the general areas that I wanted to work in, and went from there. So, I think if you are totally set in what you want to research, getting your MA is a great idea. I'm glad I got mine, even if I still haven't been accepted to a PhD program...

I will also be receiving my MA in May. It's hard to say whether or not it helped...I mean, at least this time I got people interested in me. I got interviews. That's more than I got last time I applied to PhD programs. But I haven't been accepted yet, so in the long run, I really just not sure. I do know it helped me focus my research interests (I was all over the map when I finished UG), gave me experience with methods/paradigms/software I'd never used before (EEG, MATLAB, EPrime, etc.), and gave me teaching experience. I was hoping that would give me an advantage, but mostly what I've gotten so far has been "Wow, we're impressed with your application! But...not enough to admit you. Sorry." I think it's very person and program specific.

I did look at the rankings--both U.S. News and NRC--but I don't think they really factored in to where I chose to apply, honestly. I created my own rating method, which I mentioned in another thread, and used that instead. I did use the US News and NRC rankings to roughly divide my list of schools into tiers, but that didn't really change my decision much.

This is a really good point. My advisor told me about how her PhD advisor moved to a different school partway through her program and there wasn't really anyone else she wanted to work with, so I made the number of people at the school that I wanted to work with part of my rating system. I also included research interests, goals of the program (does everyone go in to academia? what is the program designed to prepare you for?), general impression, location, cost of living, and crime. I imagine a better way might be to look at some articles that are about what you're interested in and find those people. That way, you can specifically look for people in your area of interest without having to go through every faculty members' profile.

I went down the the list at: http://www.socialpsychology.org/ranking.htm and looked at faculty profiles, pretty much exactly as you described. It was incredibly time consuming and my original list had 74 schools on it. Then, I created a really ridiculous and completed rating system for each school (because I'm a giant nerd), and eliminated all that fell below a certain score. Then I divided them into "tiers" based on rankings and picked the top scoring schools from each tier. Honestly, I don't recommend this method. There's got to be a better way. But I'm a maximizer and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I was the one person on the survey. I had an informal phone interview with my POI on Saturday. Interview weekend is March 1-2. She said they are in the process of contacting people.

Green is great. He was one of my undergrad advisors. I hope you get in, because he is awesome to work with! But I know how you feel...I still haven't heard from UMD and my ASF says "complete" but that's it. it's my second year applying, too, and I thought my application would be competitive this time. I mean, seriously, I have a masters, publications, experience in research, as a TA and a lab manager...what else do they want?!

Oh, who got the VCU Social interview? Who was your POI? Not because I applied there, but I went there for undergrad and I'm just curious. If you have questions, you can PM me!

Sigh. Guess that's bad news for me.