Fall 2019 Cognitive Psychology Applicants

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

I haven't seen anyone posting about cognitive psych programs and it's making me weirdly anxious, so here is a thread for that.

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

And while I'm here...has anyone applied to the cognitive program at Northwestern and heard back yet?

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@theremixtocognition I am also applying Cognitive Psychology. I also have noticed that there are very few people talking about it in on the forum. Why is it making you nervous?

I have been following the developmental, social, and the neuroscience threads because it seems far more relevant than clinical/counseling. This forum sometimes makes me wish that clincial/counseling was an entirely separate discipline. 

[neuroinformagical]

I made an account just so I could help get this thread populated!!

Yeah, I agree, the developmental psych people have much more data points on their programs and comfort in numbers. I think a number of cog people went over to that forum since they couldn't find a home like this.

I did not apply to Northwestern. Mine were Duke, WashU, Penn State, Univ. of Toronto, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford (neuroscience. not sure why I swung for that one ? )

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@neuroinformagical Did you apply to the psychology or the cognitive science program at Johns Hopkins? 

[BnTAcT]

I applied to the cognitive psychology program at Johns Hopkins. I haven't heard back from anywhere yet.

[neuroinformagical]

@PsychApplicantFall2019 Psychology! I also haven't heard back yet, but I'm expecting a yes based on POI interactions? (watch as I jinx it)

the cog sci department looked awesome too. Is that what you applied to?

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@neuroinformagical Yeah, I applied to cog sci just because of the PI although the computational track seems a little cool. 

I think that the psychology department is like a month ahead of the cog sci department, so you should be hearing soon. Best of luck! 

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

On 1/3/2019 at 1:20 PM, neuroinformagical said:

I made an account just so I could help get this thread populated!!

Yeah, I agree, the developmental psych people have much more data points on their programs and comfort in numbers. I think a number of cog people went over to that forum since they couldn't find a home like this.

I did not apply to Northwestern. Mine were Duke, Wash U, Penn State, Univ. of Toronto, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford (neuroscience. not sure why I swung for that one ? )

Yay! Glad to see some more people in here! And yeah...most of the programs I applied to were developmental, and it's been somewhat comforting that at least there was a forum to obsessively check for those. But I'm getting antsy about the 2 cognitive programs I applied to (Northwestern and WashU). Def wish clinical would secede 

[round2_]

It is weird how focused on clinical/social/development the other threads are, but I'm not sure it matters since we don't really know if they send interview invites by track or not. I've been mostly using the results list to figure out if I'm out of the running for somewhere or not.... which is unfortunately most of my options.

[neuroinformagical]

It seems like clinical psych programs are often different departments, so whether they got invites has no bearing on us. I've heard their applicant pools differ from experimental psych in various ways too.  Pretty sure if it's just a track of a general psych PhD program they send them out around the same time. It's nice to know we aren't competing for PIs with those folks though.

As long as the threads for other degree programs have comparable admissions processes.... along the lines of whether they do interviews, how much I should worry about interviews, I guess it's transferable advice? Is the process for a "pure" cog sci program the exact same deal as cog psych?

Edited January 4, 2019 by neuroinformagical

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@neuroinformagical I think  Cognitive Science programs are pretty uncommon. The reason JHU has it is for a funny historical reason that I didn't fully follow when it was explained to me. I think it has something to do with linguistics, but I don't really know. At JHU, from what I understand, the admissions process for cog sci and psych work fairly similar. The timelines are just different. 

On whether you should be worrying: Different schools have different timelines, and the particular schools you applied to may not have sent out interview invites yet. You can look at the results page to see if your programs have, but I would even be a little wary about that. I saw that one of my schools had sent out invites from the results page, so I had figured that I was rejected, but I did get one a week or so later! 

@round2_ I think you are right that for the most part the track (social/developmental/cognitive/whatever other name the department chooses) doesn't matter, but I think that for a lot of programs the clinical decisions are completely separate and on a separate timeline. 

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@theremixtocognition I have heard back from Emory, but I didn't apply to Northwestern. 

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

1 minute ago, PsychApplicantFall2019 said:

@theremixtocognition I have heard back from Emory, but I didn't apply to Northwestern. 

not to be that guy but would you mind DMing me your poi's initials for Emory? 

[neuroinformagical]

@PsychApplicantFall2019   ah yeah, because they have Paul Smolensky in JHU cogsci so linguistics makes sense. I'm so fascinated by who lands in what department. At my current institution, our cogsci department is a whole bunch of mathematical psychologists, and my undergraduate degree in cog sci was mostly psychology. And then there are the cognitive neuroscientists in the psych departments.............. I'm trying to figure out how to teach our undergrads about this craziness before I leave.

[junior313]

So glad someone made this thread! I'm applying Cognitive Psychology as well. Did NOT hear back from Northwestern yet.

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

2 hours ago, junior313 said:

So glad someone made this thread! I'm applying Cognitive Psychology as well. Did NOT hear back from Northwestern yet.

That's reassuring, but I hope we both hear back soon!

[MingjiaPsych]

I applied to the cog sci program at Johns Hopkins but I'm not going to do linguistics. There are 2 new professors joining this year who specialize in visual cognition, though their research topics somehow intersect with the semantics and involve a lot of computational stuff. I had a Skype interview(informal) and lengthy email discussions with one professor (Michael bonner). When I updated him about my application status, he gives me quite positive responses such as 'great to hear' and 'I'm glad that you will be applying', but I'm not sure  if that's just a young professor's natural way of interacting with prospective students. 

 

I regarded Johns Hopkins as my top choice over other cognitive psychology programs as I think that integrating cognitive neuroscience and machine learning (Michael bonner's work) is a promising trend in the field of cognitive psychology. I actually quite appreciate the program's focus on quantitative training, as that's a valuable skill to learn even if I don't end up being a tenure-tracked professor in the field (which is extremely hard nowadays based on statistics) . I've also heard that cog sci and PBS department closely collaborate, so I can get access to resources from both if get admitted to one. Importantly, I think applying for a vision-focused lab via cog sci program might be easier as I was told the department is actively seeking vision-focused applicants while most applicants by now only know it as a linguistic department. 

Sorry for my lengthy comment. Do you think the cog sci program at Johns Hopkins is a wise choice for me over other famous psychology department?

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

@MingjiaPsych It sounds like you have a great rational for applying to the cognitive science department, and I really hope that I get to see you at the interview. It seems that we have related interests. If you wanted to chat more, you are welcome to PM me. 

[1996kayden]

3 hours ago, MingjiaPsych said:

I applied to the cog sci program at Johns Hopkins but I'm not going to do linguistics. There are 2 new professors joining this year who specialize in visual cognition, though their research topics somehow intersect with the semantics and involve a lot of computational stuff. I had a Skype interview(informal) and lengthy email discussions with one professor (Michael bonner). When I updated him about my application status, he gives me quite positive responses such as 'great to hear' and 'I'm glad that you will be applying', but I'm not sure  if that's just a young professor's natural way of interacting with prospective students. 

 

I regarded Johns Hopkins as my top choice over other cognitive psychology programs as I think that integrating cognitive neuroscience and machine learning (Michael bonner's work) is a promising trend in the field of cognitive psychology. I actually quite appreciate the program's focus on quantitative training, as that's a valuable skill to learn even if I don't end up being a tenure-tracked professor in the field (which is extremely hard nowadays based on statistics) . I've also heard that cog sci and PBS department closely collaborate, so I can get access to resources from both if get admitted to one. Importantly, I think applying for a vision-focused lab via cog sci program might be easier as I was told the department is actively seeking vision-focused applicants while most applicants by now only know it as a linguistic department. 

Sorry for my lengthy comment. Do you think the cog sci program at Johns Hopkins is a wise choice for me over other famous psychology department?

Sounds like we have similar interests  Also interested in one of the new cog sci profs at JHU and interested in collaborating with MB. We'll see.

[aurlito]

Hi Guys,

So this is a summary of my application:

International student

Degree: Medical Degree (MD) - ( not in north america)

medschool GPA = 3.25

Toefl ibt = 112/120

GRE: Q=163(83%) - V=159(83%) - W=4

3 poster presentation in cognitive neuroscience ( I was the single only author of all)

My MD thesis is in cognitive neuroscience under publication.

Applied to :

BU ( psychology BBC)

NYU ( psychology)

albert einstein ( biomed)

uni of rochester (Brain and cognitive science)

Dartmouth (PBS)

Uni of Washington (psychology)

my only factor for choosing schools/program was faculty research fit.

Result:

Rejected from all of them with no interviews.

.....So any ideas for what was wrong with my application? What can I do next year to avoid the same tragic result?

 

PS. I am freaking out because in 2020 I will be 29 and old af to start a phd. Also I feel a bit unlucky because in the past 5 years or so the field of Cog Neuro has become dominated by computer scientists , theoretical physicist and all that ML / deep learning stuff and that's not fair !

[junior313]

Has anyone heard from Univ of Michigan for Cognition/Cognitive Neuroscience yet? If so, can you DM me your POI?

[wrongpathos]

2 hours ago, aurlito said:

PS. I am freaking out because in 2020 I will be 29 and old af to start a phd. Also I feel a bit unlucky because in the past 5 years or so the field of Cog Neuro has become dominated by computer scientists , theoretical physicist and all that ML / deep learning stuff and that's not fair !

I get the sentiment that it's not fair but that doesn't mean your app will always be overlooked for someone who studied computer science or mathematics during undergrad. Professors want people who can connect theories together and relate them to cognition and that's where having a background in psychology works to our advantage. On the other hand, in order to actually do any of the actual work corresponding to the theorizing it's simply a requirement that we know how to program and at least have a solid basic understanding probability theory, linear algebra, and calculus. That doesn't mean you need coursework in those areas, you just somehow have to show that you can implement or at least understand the underlying mathematics.

[round2_]

Yeah, I'm really regretting not taking more math or comp sci. I can do it, I've even done some, I even like it.... but I don't have the training or background yet, so it's a gamble for PIs.

[aurlito]

6 minutes ago, wrongpathos said:

I get the sentiment that it's not fair but that doesn't mean your app will always be overlooked for someone who studied computer science or mathematics during undergrad. Professors want people who can connect theories together and relate them to cognition and that's where having a background in psychology works to our advantage. On the other hand, in order to actually do any of the actual work corresponding to the theorizing it's simply a requirement that we know how to program and at least have a solid basic understanding probability theory, linear algebra, and calculus. That doesn't mean you need coursework in those areas, you just somehow have to show that you can implement or at least understand the underlying mathematics.

Well , I had 5 months research experience in a computational neuroscience lab( no pub) and I did all the statistical analysis and programming in my thesis and my other projects myself . But I was basically told by NYU psychology PI that the main reason I was rejected was because I didn't have a  more clear mathemtical background . I think that should be something which is learned through grad school and not an entry requirement for a "psychology" program