teehod1982

Actually I had to withdraw my name from consideration. I found out they don't offer any additional aid to M.A. students. And I simply cannot afford to take out $40,000+ in loans. So I'm gonna attend UMKC next fall. I'm pretty excited about that program. So that's one less person you'll have to compete against. I think they plan to accept about 20-25 students though. Good luck! Tee

Djsing Yeah, I was wait listed around the same time. I e-mailed the graduate director, and he said the wait list would be ranked two weeks from April 13, which was last Monday. He also said that the program accepts 20-25 people and that there are about 20 people on the wait list. I'm not sure what that means for our chances. But hey, it's a lot better than being rejected out right! Actually, my biggest concern is funding. I know I won't be able to afford to go to American unless I get some sort of funding package. Do you know how likely it is for them to include funding in their admission's packet for M.A. students? Good luck! T

Has anyone been accepted to this program? If so, do you plan to accept or turn down the offer? When is the decision deadline? I'm on the wait list there, and I'm just trying to gauge my chances of getting accepted off the wait list. Any help/feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Tee

Good point. I wish I'd said it myself. But I think we both agree that there is more to getting into grad school than GPA/GRE, and applying to the right places is right at the top of the list. I, myself, am glad the process is over.

I think it's important to realize that there is just no good way to accurately measure your chances of getting into grad school. So much of it has to do with things that are out of our control (funding, fit with faculty, whether faculty are accepting students, etc.). Also, I think it would behoove everyone to remember that high GRE/GPA aren't necessarily your ticket to grad school. Good programs look at the whole package. Sometimes applicants come off as arrogant or entitled because they think having X GRE or Y GPA automatically gets them a spot in a program. That attitude is really unattractive to adcoms who want students who are humble enough to be able to take advice and work well with other people in a collaborative environment. Those things are just as important, perhaps even more so, than some numbers on your application form. I have a pretty low GPA/GRE quant score, and I felt really bummed about my chances. But my adviser (who is the chair of our psych department) gave me this bit of advice, and I feel like it really helped during this process. It's good that you have research experience, and if your mentors can attest to your creativity and people skills then I'd say that would have a greater impact than your quant scores (which seem fairly high). Lastly, though this might sound cheesy. I think finding a specific topic withing political psychology that you're really passionate about goes a long way when you're writing your statement of purpose. See if it's possible to come up with small, exploratory study of your topic of interest. It will help get your creative juices flowing, and also help you narrow down your POI when you apply to grad school. But most of all, GOOD LUCK!

I'm still waiting on GWU. I, too, was told that decisions would be sent out this week. However, "this week" could mean that they sent them out Monday (not likely) or Friday (more likely). So I suspect that we'll get something in the mail this coming week. Also, a couple of people on here said they received interviews with their POI at GWU, which made me nervous since I received no such request. But I e-mailed the graduate coordinator of the department asking whether they did interviews for the social program. She said that the only program that does interviews is the Clinical program. Following that, her final words in the e-mail were, "so don't freak out yet." That cracked me up. So anyway, I was wondering if other people had any thoughts on that, or were concerned about not getting an interview. I'm not really sweating it after talking to the grad coordinator. Best of luck!

I'm new to this forum. But it''s been very therapeutic for me to read some of these posts. Anyway, I also received a financial aid offer from SFSU last week. I contacted their financial aid office, and they said that the package was made independent of my admissions status. That didn't make sense to me, so I asked my current advisor what she thought. She told me to call my department of interest, which is psychology, to see what was up. They told me that my application is still under review, and that I was probably admitted to the university, but not the department yet. Another good sigh was that I received an e-mail the night before from the department coordinator saying that my application is still being reviewed and that a decision would be made in a couple of weeks. Agh! So agonizing!. Hopefully I should hear something soon!