3point14
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Posts posted by 3point14
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I'm not really sure what is expected from me in meeting with faculty who may be outside my area of interest.
Hey, I did this at all my interviews. It's really not so bad. I mostly got asked fairly general things. Questions about my past research, why I wanted to work with Professor X, what I was interested in studying, and of course random "what do you like to do for fun" type questions. Basically, after the interviews are over, all the faculty will get together and discuss the interviewees, and see what the general consensus is. It's actually kind of advantageous to you, so if you make a few mistakes in an interview with one faculty member, but rock your other interviews, they're more likely to just attribute it to nervousness since it wasn't an across the board type thing.
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I had to go for a second round of apps as well. It wasn't too fun to have to re-apply and rewrite all those statements of purpose, but worth it in the end. Good luck to everyone here!
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Also be prepared for questions about your past research (if applicable) as well as more open-ended questions. "What do you enjoy doing in your free time?" came up at every single interview I had...not a difficult or trick question, but it can kind of throw you for a loop if you get into that one track INTERVIEW MODE mindset like I tend to do. Remember the interview isn't necessarily so much of a way to assess your credentials (which they can get from your application/CV) but perhaps more of a way to asses you as a person and see if you're the type of person they want in their program.
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With my experience, R, SAS, and JMP are almost useless for me (SPSS's user interface is the easiest by far). The only thing I like better is JMP's graph building feature. Honestly, I only took that class because one professor (who seems to dislike SPSS) said that R is up and coming in psychology, but I have yet to see that anywhere. The only other package I know some of the grad students at my school are picking up is STATA.
My professor this semester encouraged us to use R. I really love it, but I agree that the SPSS interface is quite polished.
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it's pricy, but this book is a good next step in stats. he uses a lot of examples and it's not as bad to read as most math books.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1111835489/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00
Haha, this book was both my undergrad stats book, and now my first year grad stats book. Like you said, it's not nearly as dry or boring as math textbooks. I also like that he doesn't put his sole focus on SPSS (which I hate).
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Aw, I wish this thread had been around last year when I was applying! Good luck everyone!
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For the most part, no one really cares about AW
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1. I'm not really sure, but yay NC schools! I did my undergrad at Wake.
2. Research experience certainly helps, but lack of it is not necessarily a dealbreaker like it usually is with PhD programs. You say you're a junior though, so you still have time to get involved in research, if you haven't already. This is also an excellent way to form relationships with professors who will write you letters of recommendation.
3. ~9 seems pretty standard. My undergrad adviser told me to apply to about 10 (though I was applying to PhD, and he suggested applying to a mix of Masters and PhD programs just in case)
4. Yes, adcoms take the rigor of your undergraduate school into account when looking at GPA. Keep in mind though that there will be other applicants from equally good or better schools with top GPAs. But a lower GPA isn't necessarily an application killer if your other credentials are good! I had a 3.1 cumulative..
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With regard to letters of recommendation, I'd have the MD's write my letters. Two of my three letter writers weren't from my undergrad institution and had no clue about my academic abilities. I just attached a CV and a transcript to my requests for letters.
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I'd imagine you have a pretty good chance.General Psych MA programs (especially the unfunded ones) tend to be slightly less selective (in terms of GPA/GRE) than PhD programs. Not that your scores are bad at all, but you're in a good position with regard to GPA/GRE for MA programs.If you're worried about not having taken many psych classes, a lot of General Psych programs are designed for people like you who weren't psych majors but eventually want to have a psych-related career. If you're really worried about it, you could take the psych GRE subject test if you think you can do well.
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You do it on test day. No, you don't have to memorize them.You can look them up.
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What do you mean practical? It's the same as with any other exam. You learn the material you don't already know and you practice. Is that unrealistic? Well, it depends on how much material you have to learn, how good you are at it, and how much time you have for completing the task.
Agreed. I know non-native speakers who have done much better on verbal than native speakers. That said, one thing that might help you is to just read. Memorizing words is all well and good, but honestly knowing the definitions of a bunch of random words that might or might not be on the test probably won't help you that much. Reading will improve your vocabulary and understanding of the English language and sentence structure.
Also, this is completely unrelated, but fuzzylogician, for some reason your profile image is what shows up for every single thread in my notification feed, regardless of if you've actually posted in it.Weird.
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Also more expensive, but I have a breadmaker which I love. It's great to be able to make yummy bread with nuts and seeds, or olives, or whatever.
As for small luxuries, I'm planning to buy an electric kettle and a teapot for my office so I can stay warm with tea all winter!
We have the same luxuries. Bread machine is so awesome. Throw some ingredients in, and fresh bread in a few hours. Also good for pizza dough.
Love my electric tea kettle. Not just for tea, but also for quickly boiling water for rice or pasta (or whatever else). I also keep one in my office for when I'm starving and want to make myself ramen noodles.
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I've been told by a couple advisers that, although it varies greatly from school to school, some places frown upon this kind of thing. They see it as you not really knowing what you want to do. But, like I said, this varies. A lot of the applications I filled out asked if I was applying to multiple programs within that school.
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I'm in a PhD program (full funding through TAship). Here's what I've observed so far.
- The quantity of work is a lot more, but for me that is mostly coming from lab work and reading papers. My program emphasizes that yeah, you need to do well in your classes, but it's really the lab that's the most important thing
- my classmates are hard workers as well, but that's not really a change for me from undergrad
- Agree about less guidance. You kind of just have to jump right in and not worry too much about being wrong. It's also different because when my adviser asks me to read up on X topic, he's not just asking me as a test to see if I know the answer, he's genuinely asking me because he doesn't know. He's a mentor, but it's also something of a collaboration.
- The quantity of work is a lot more, but for me that is mostly coming from lab work and reading papers. My program emphasizes that yeah, you need to do well in your classes, but it's really the lab that's the most important thing
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Apply as early as you want to. If it's an online app, just make sure the application for this season is open. You never know what can go wrong with sending transcripts, letter writers, etc, so it's best to get stuff in early just in case. Turning an app in early certainly won't reflect poorly on you.
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I agree with Usmivka. I have talked to advisers in various fields who often actually prefer slightly older grad students who have more maturity and life experience. Not to say that you don't have these things, it might just be how some PIs view a younger applicant. I too have a friend who started college at 15 and, like Usmivka's peer, brought up her age as little as possible during the grad app process.
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I also agree with Quant_Liz_Lemonn and psychdork. This is the same advice I've heard from several undergrad advisers.
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Sorry to bud in but I want to apply to as many school as I can. I just want to know if I have about 3-4 people as references, how easy is it to ask them for 5 LORs for each of the schools I want to apply to?
Professors expect you to apply to more than one school. I used the same three letter writers for all my apps (I think it ended up being about 9ish)
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um no. GPA is in up the top 1 or 2 parameters under consideration with LORs. GRE is at the bottom. I'm a STEM major, but I believe GPA should be a even more valuable indicator for non-STEMs.
Oops, I did meant to delete the "For the most part" part of my post. But like I said, it is different for different areas. I didn't mean it's not important at all, I definitely think my GPA kept me out of some of the programs I applied to. BUT, for at least one of the programs I applied to, I'm 100% sure GPA wasn't ranked with LoRs
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1. Different programs put different weight on GPA. For the most part, excellent GRE scores can sometimes allow a lower GPA to be overlooked. I'm not in your field, but my GPA was a 3.1, and my research experience and LoRs were more important. I'm pretty sure my adviser didn't even look at my GPA when he was reviewing my application.
2. Honestly, it's up to you. My undergrad adviser told me to apply to ~10 schools to maximize chances of getting in without killing myself with applications. I've heard 9 as a recommendation with 3 schools you're sure you can get in, 3 probably, and 3 reach, but as I say below, I don't necessarily think there's any definite safety/reach schools for grad programs.
3. Personally, I think it depends on the type of program. I think there can be safety/reach schools in more class-based programs (like law or med school), but there's more of a gray area with lab/research based programs. For research-based programs, "fit" with the faculty/program is such an important thing. I was rejected by my "safety" school and accepted by my "reach" school.
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GPA will matter, but it's not necessarily an application killer. My GPA ended up being a 3.1. Most of the schools I applied to didn't specify a minimum GPA, but some do and this cutoff is usually lower for masters programs. In my applications, my research experience and LoRs carried more weight.
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I have a question about doing a MSc. at BU, instead of starting a new thread I think I can just post it here.
What can an MSc. do after graduation? apply to PHD? or find a job?
Thanks!
I didn't end up attending BU, but if I had, my intention would have been to continue on to a PhD. If you're interested in finding out what other people do, that would be a good question for the graduate adviser of the program.
class List help for college Senior (Behav/cog neuro)
in Psychology Forum
Posted
You seem like you already have a good decent background. As someone in a behavioral neuro program, I agree with the other posters that class A vs. class B isn't going to make or break you. I'd recommend stats if you haven't taken it (or even if you have. you can never have enough stats) and keep up with the research. But, if you're set on the options you listed, I'd take the upper level neuro class. A good bio-based neuro class is never a bad idea.