sumatracane

UM's interview weekend is next week (2/4-2/6). As far as I know, all invites have gone out. There is only the 1 weekend.

I've been a post-bacc RA at three different places since graduating (2012). My first two positions were part-time and very hands-on data collection/data management. I didn't really have opportunities there for publishing/presentations. I also worked full-time as a nanny. My third position (my first full-time RA position) has been completely different. I work for a psychology lab with a number of very large (multi-million) dollar grants and 3 full-time RAs/4 grad students/postdoc/12 undergrads. I spoke with my boss (the PI) early on when I first started and told her of my hopes to attend graduate school (phd in clinical psych). She was very receptive and helpful when I told her I wanted to be more involved. In the past year, I have been able to collaborate on two publications and three abstracts/posters for conferences. I am choosing not to attend the conferences because of financial reasons. I applied to 5 programs, got 3 interviews, and one offer. I'd say since you have to search for another lab anyway, try to find one with a professor that is open to helping you. I was fortunate that my boss said "this is what they look for when you apply, let's make sure you have it." Note: I did have to do quite a bit of the writing/stats/etc for those things outside my regular 40hr/week job.

I think what helped me most this year was having full-time research experience - working as a research coordinator/data manager/research assistant can be very valuable. I struggled to find a full-time position at first so I took a temporary part-time one, which I think helped me get the full-time position. Email POIs you're interested in working with and ask if they have research positions available. Sometimes labs don't post their full-time positions online, so it's good to email the professors directly. Other than that, your GPA/GRE scores are fine. Definitely apply to more schools. I don't know how the schools in Canada work, but if you are to apply to US schools, make sure they are funded programs. Most schools will tell you on the website. Also, look at the other forum topic about funding packages - you can see what those schools offer and go from there. I met people at interviews that had applied to upwards of 19 schools - that's incredibly high and very expensive, but they had multiple offers and were able to choose what was best for them.