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Fall 2019 Psychology PhD Applicants!


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What is a good way to respond positively to an interview invite? I missed the phone call and was told to send my response via email since the POI would be busy most of the day, but am unsure how to phrase my "yes" without sounding either flat/boring/serious or overly excited/totally insane?

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3 hours ago, honeyrue said:

What is a good way to respond positively to an interview invite? I missed the phone call and was told to send my response via email since the POI would be busy most of the day, but am unsure how to phrase my "yes" without sounding either flat/boring/serious or overly excited/totally insane?

I would do something starting along the lines of "Dear XXX, I am pleased/delighted/etc to accept your offer." and ending along the lines of "I look forward to meeting everyone!" and maybe/probably an extra sentence or two to personalize it but still keep it short and polite

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7 hours ago, psychizkool said:

Does anyone have examples of questions in interviews you've experienced or heard about that were unexpected? I am trying to prepare myself for as much as possible to prevent nervous rambling if an unforeseen question catches me off guard. 

I know most are pretty straightforward (research experience, interests, etc.), but I would love to hear about any trickier questions to be prepared for.

For example, someone posted earlier in this thread about being asked to name specific publications with authors/dates/etc they had read recently (or something very similar to this). 

Most of the questions I experienced were pretty normal/expected (explain your previous research projects, what do you expect to get out of graduate school, what types of techniques would you like to learn in my lab, etc). Two questions definitely stand out though:

1. Tell me about a paper that you've read recently that is unrelated to your thesis project. Summarize the rationale, methods, results, and any conclusions, and tell me why you found this paper to be interesting. 

2. (and I quote) I see you have done MDMA research in rats, but the literature shows that rats do not self-administer MDMA. How does it make you feel that your project lacks clinical relevance? - she definitely could've asked this question nicer, but I guess be prepared to defend your research!

Also, I always struggled with the easiest question, "do you have any questions for me?". I recommend walking into all interviews with a list of quality questions that can asked during this time to avoid awkward silence at the end. 

 

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Hello GradCafe and greetings from the Caribbean!! Guess who got her first PhD interview offer???

(It's actually for the education PhD program I applied to and I should probably post over there, but I wanted to share with you all since I've been giving you all so many other updates.)

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1 minute ago, ResilientDreams said:

Hello GradCafe and greetings from the Caribbean!! Guess who got her first PhD interview offer???

(It's actually for the education PhD program I applied to and I should probably post over there, but I wanted to share with you all since I've been giving you all so many other updates.)

Yipeeeeeeeeeee

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On 1/4/2019 at 12:17 PM, psychizkool said:

Does anyone have examples of questions in interviews you've experienced or heard about that were unexpected? I am trying to prepare myself for as much as possible to prevent nervous rambling if an unforeseen question catches me off guard. 

I know most are pretty straightforward (research experience, interests, etc.), but I would love to hear about any trickier questions to be prepared for.

For example, someone posted earlier in this thread about being asked to name specific publications with authors/dates/etc they had read recently (or something very similar to this). 

My strategy for any unexpected questions is to take a few seconds to gather thoughts and try to stay calm!

     - One question that I definitely was not expecting during my last phone interview was: What’s the one movie/book/event that is the most influential for you? I guess my POI wanted to test how well I react on my feet? 

     - I’ve heard of another question my labmate got asked during her in-person interview: If you can have any super-power of your choice, what would you choose?

Edited by Fi19
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I am applying to the human factors program at Wichita State. I currently work in one of the labs at Wichita State so I am hoping that puts me in front. But if I am not accepted I will just find a dozen or so programs for next cycle ?

If anyone else that is following this thread is also applying to human factors programs I would love to hear about yourself and what your research interests are ?

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Hey! I’m waiting on GaTech (Cognition and Brain Science) and The University of South Carolina (Clinical-Community). I haven’t heard anything and my portals still say pending or under review. Have the programs already sent out interview invites? I know I have pretty terrible GRE scores so I’m really reaching lol.

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14 hours ago, wrongpathos said:

Hi, that was me. It's non-clinical track general psychology w/ my specific interests being more cog-sci related.

Hey, if possible, could you please PM me your stats? My GRE and GPA are super low and I’m suuuper nervous about the the profiles that they’re looking at. 

 

It it would be great if you could! 

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12 hours ago, soparanoid said:

Hey, if possible, could you please PM me your stats? My GRE and GPA are super low and I’m suuuper nervous about the the profiles that they’re looking at. 

 

It it would be great if you could! 

Sure -- I've sent you the specifics, but my GRE and GPA were by no means great, mediocre at best.

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Hey everyone, I need some advice. So when I was filling out an app to a program, I (very very stupidly) answered that I had committed academic dishonesty when of course I never have - I think I was just going too fast. Meanwhile, back in Sept. and then right when the app was submitted, I had some email contact with the POI that sounded extremely positive (e.g., he said my GPA/GRE and research experience looked great and was looking forward to receiving my app). Fast forward to Dec. 17th, when I was looking through this app and noticed the mistake. I immediately called the office and got it corrected and asked if apps had been reviewed yet, and the program assistant assured me they didn't get looked at until early Jan. However, I saw some interview invites posted on the results page for this university's clinical program on Dec. 18-19... basically, do you think I should contact this POI and alert him to the fact that I made the mistake in my app, just in case he threw it out based on seeing that one mistake? 

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Hi everyone! 

Does anyone know if Stanford is still sending out interview invites? I am specifically interested in non-clinical programs (developmental especially). I've already been contacted for interviews from other schools and am starting to get very nervous, haha. 

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1 hour ago, canstudent13 said:

Hi everyone! 

Does anyone know if Stanford is still sending out interview invites? I am specifically interested in non-clinical programs (developmental especially). I've already been contacted for interviews from other schools and am starting to get very nervous, haha. 

Following.. I did not get any info from Stanford yet.. 

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57 minutes ago, Jessica W said:

Following.. I did not get any info from Stanford yet.. 

In past years Stanford sent their interview invites mid-January (at least for developmental psych)

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3 hours ago, rainydaychai said:

Hey everyone, I need some advice. So when I was filling out an app to a program, I (very very stupidly) answered that I had committed academic dishonesty when of course I never have - I think I was just going too fast. Meanwhile, back in Sept. and then right when the app was submitted, I had some email contact with the POI that sounded extremely positive (e.g., he said my GPA/GRE and research experience looked great and was looking forward to receiving my app). Fast forward to Dec. 17th, when I was looking through this app and noticed the mistake. I immediately called the office and got it corrected and asked if apps had been reviewed yet, and the program assistant assured me they didn't get looked at until early Jan. However, I saw some interview invites posted on the results page for this university's clinical program on Dec. 18-19... basically, do you think I should contact this POI and alert him to the fact that I made the mistake in my app, just in case he threw it out based on seeing that one mistake? 

I can’t speak for all programs but I know some POIs don’t look at that section. As in they literally don’t even see it. It goes straight to the school or admissions council. I would first contact the dpt to see whether POIs see that info and try to correct the error through them. 

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