Fishbucket

I did it! With an even more unrelated background than you, I got into a PhD program in psychology this year (I had a BA in English and an MA in Spanish Lit). It took me a year and a half to prepare, I took the Psych GRE and 5 psych classes at a cheap local school, and I worked in 2 research groups as a volunteer (though one eventually started paying me). You already have some research experience, which is great. The quantitative skills will also be a huge selling point for your application, because many applicants don't understand stats very well and it's integral to psych research. You should probably keep doing the research for as long as possible before applying. I think you honestly have a good chance at getting in. ETA: I prepared for the Psych GRE by ordering 3 test prep books on Amazon and going through every single practice test. Quizlet is also great for flashcards organized by topic (social psych, neuro, history of psych). I also read a pop history of psychology to help root everything in my mind. I ended up getting a 770 (95th percentile) and had many of my interviewers commenting on my score, so it worked! Also I should specify that I applied to clinical and counseling programs.

I wore a black skirt suit with a collared gray silk shirt. One interview in the cold I wore a pant suit. Everyone not wearing a suit looked underdressed. Oh and for shoes, I wore really low dress heels with orthopedic soles.

I interviewed at Temple last year and the DCT sent out all the interview invites at once, regardless of who you applied to work with. I hope that info is somewhat useful.

which other programs are they?

Hey guys I compiled this list of all the Clinical Psychology programs in the US that give full funding. Thought it might help some people. Here it is: Uof Arizona Arizona State U of Arkansas Auburn Baylor Binghamton Bowling Green State Berkeley Clark Boulder UConn Denver DePaul Duke Duquesne Emory George Mason GWU UGA Georgia State Harvard U of Houston U of I at Chicago UIUC Indiana State Bloomington Purdue Kansas Kent State Louisville Loyola Chicago Maine UMBC College Park U-Mass Amherst U-Mass Boston Memphis U-Miami Miami University (OH) Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Mississippi State Missouri Missouri Kansas City Missouri St Louis Nebraska Nevada Las Vegas Reno New Mexico UNC-Chapel Hill UNC-Greensboro North Dakota U North Texas Northern Illinois Ohio State Ohio University Oklahoma State Oregon Pitt Rochester Rutgers San Diego South Carolina South Florida USC Southern Illinois Southern Mississippi Stony Brook Syracuse Temple Tennessee Texas A&M UT-Austin Texas Tech U Toledo USUHS Utah Vanderbilt UVA Virginia Polytechnic Washington Washington State WashU/WUSTL WVU Western Michigan Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wyoming Yale

Why not? It worked for Zimmerman's defense attorney.

how much about your educational background are you guys putting into your SOPs? I have an undergrad and master's in literature, but it just feels unnatural and irrelevant to talk much about it... any tips?

in a fit of anxiety i just increased my list to 20 i will apply to all the places

The best way is to figure out how to get access to a university library. They usually have a lot of these expensive academic books, plus the computers will give you access to databases with articles. Try to get alumni borrowing privileges at your undergrad school.

My list just shrank to 13, I hope to get it down to 12 finally because 13 feels like a bad number. Or maybe I'll add another one. As long as it doesn't remain 13.

There are a lot of schools out there. The more you look, the more schools you're likely to find that fit your needs. Especially if your needs aren't overly specific. As I said before, my interests aren't terribly obscure and I don't have a ton of other requirements for a school, besides that it fund me decently and be a nice place to live.

I don't think that an applicant who applies to lots of schools threatens anyone else, since ultimately everyone is forced to choose just one school. If it's not for you, don't do it. I'm not applying to any schools in Canada myself, mostly because I know very little about them. I suspect that's true for a lot of US applicants.

Yeah I think the main point of this discussion, as with many other discussions on the Lit forum, is that people apply to a lot of schools because they are anxious to have better job prospects down the road. The more options you have, in terms of places to get your PhD, the better you can position yourself for the eventual job hunt. As a side note, I think it's funny that moving "south" for a Canadian could mean moving to Michigan. The thought of Michigan being south of anywhere amuses me.

I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this: the vast majority of scholarship leaves me cold and bored and confused as to why anyone would spend so much time writing that? Then there are a small handful of things that get me really excited. A very small handful. Does this mean I shouldn't be going into academia? Or is this common? Or some third thing?

Why are you interested in Columbia? I'm looking at it but not feeling that spark -- or "a connection" as they say on the Bachelorette

In the US, the top departments often accept 2-5 candidates total from a pool of hundreds (my field being Comparative Literature)

May I ask which 5 schools you applied to? Because that makes all the difference. I'm applying to some very competitive programs, if I only sent in 5 applications I would have a slim-to-nil chance of getting in anywhere.

Well, this past fall I applied to only 7, then threw in an 8th app at the last minute. I got 2 interviews, waitlisted at 1 place and rejected everywhere in the end. So this year I'm trying to improve my odds by applying more widely within the top 40 programs. My research interests are not hyper-specific (comparative modernism, Europe & Latin America, phenomenology and translation studies) so I am not finding it too terribly hard to pick out professors at all of these departments. That having been said, I am kind of picky when it comes to who sounds interesting and who just bores my pants off. I will probably be narrowing this list down a bit as the weeks go by. My goal is to apply to 15 schools, with at least 5 being less-competitive programs that I have a very realistic shot at attending. Everybody has different needs as far as applications go, and my main goal personally is to balance the general desire to get a PhD at an interesting department in a livable location, with the realistic caveat that only a PhD from a certain group of schools will aid my career goals. That is my rationale.

I narrowed my list down to 16 schools and I'm really excited about this development! I thought I would tell gradcafe cuz who else would share in this peculiar form of excitement?

OK this is one of those DUH THIS IS SO OBVIOUS WHY HAVEN'T I BEEN DOING THIS ALL ALONG moments, but here is what I just realized: The BEST way to find POIs is to do this very simple thing, go on the department website and look at the past few years of courses, and figure out which courses look the most interesting to you, and see which professors teach those courses. VOILA. I mean, seriously, I'm sure many other applicants already realized this was the thing to do, but I've been parsing through those one paragraph self-descriptions instead of just checking out courses. I was doing it all wrong! Anyway, thought I would share this forehead-slapping discovery with you all. Edit: Make sure you look at only the graduate-level classes, those are the ones taught by the big guns. Another big duh, but you know, sometimes the obvious things just slip right by us.

I'm working on a new sample based on writing I've done for classes this year. Well, at least that's the plan. Right now I'm still finishing up final papers that are due... Monday! eep

So how far along are you guys with your applications right now?

I hope to never ever teach a class that way. No one should feel comfortable speaking to a small group for 3 hours straight without soliciting any participation.