Fall 2021 Quantitative Psychology

[philoquant]

I figured I'd start a gathering place for us quant folk, so hello!

I'm a current MA student doing research in quant and I have a list of 12 programs so far. Once I email potential advisors, I'm sure that list will change.

Interests include structural equation modeling and nonparametric analyses

Who else is out there?

[amazingbutternutsquash]

I’m more on the border between quantitative and more applied research, but I wanted to wish everyone luck! Quant is awesome, 10/10 recommended
 

Also, any of you who haven’t started listening to Quantitude (the podcast) should start that ASAP!

[AvocadoAvogadro]

I'm probably gonna apply to some phd programs and some master programs. Interested in SEM and data mining!

 

 

[philoquant]

15 hours ago, AvocadoAvogadro said:

I'm probably gonna apply to some phd programs and some master programs. Interested in SEM and data mining!

 

 

How many schools do you think you'll apply to?

[AvocadoAvogadro]

1 hour ago, philoquant said:

How many schools do you think you'll apply to?

I have 9 in total on my list right now, but my list is probably going to change.  I might end up applying to more master programs because I don't have a very strong research background?

Which schools are you thinking about if you don't mind sharing?

[HopefulPsych2020]

Out of curiosity, is anyone applying to quant programs with a firm goal to prepare themselves for a clinical PhD program?

[philoquant]

On 7/15/2020 at 12:50 PM, AvocadoAvogadro said:

I have 9 in total on my list right now, but my list is probably going to change.  I might end up applying to more master programs because I don't have a very strong research background?

Which schools are you thinking about if you don't mind sharing?

I'm applying to:

• Fordham
• Manitoba
• Missouri
• Notre Dame
• Ohio State
• UCLA
• UM-Minneapolis
• UNC-Chapel Hill
• USC
• UVA

I haven't contacted professors yet, so this list could change based off of who is taking students. I originally also wanted to apply to Vanderbilt and York, but Vanderbilt isn't taking students and York isn't funding international students. Where are you thinking of applying?

[AvocadoAvogadro]

On 7/16/2020 at 1:15 PM, philoquant said:

I'm applying to:

• Fordham
• Manitoba
• Missouri
• Notre Dame
• Ohio State
• UCLA
• UM-Minneapolis
• UNC-Chapel Hill
• USC
• UVA

I haven't contacted professors yet, so this list could change based off of who is taking students. I originally also wanted to apply to Vanderbilt and York, but Vanderbilt isn't taking students and York isn't funding international students. Where are you thinking of applying?

I'm applying (still subject to change though) to UNC, UVA, Arizona State, UT Austin, University of Houston, Notre Dame, USC, Vanderbilt, and Iowa. Vanderbilt is not taking phd students, but I still think it's worth applying to the master program. I'm also an international applicant btw haha. This year has been so stressful I wish I could fast-forward it.

[AvocadoAvogadro]

On 7/15/2020 at 3:07 PM, HopefulPsych2020 said:

Out of curiosity, is anyone applying to quant programs with a firm goal to prepare themselves for a clinical PhD program?

not doing that personally, but I think quant knowledge can definitely prepare you well for phds in any area that involves research. I also heard that some people in quant were initially in clinical, so maybe the lines aren't that definite

[philoquant]

7 hours ago, AvocadoAvogadro said:

I'm applying (still subject to change though) to UNC, UVA, Arizona state, UT Austin, university of Houston, Notre Dame, USC, Vanderbilt, and Iowa. Vanderbilt is not taking phd students, but I still think it's worth applying to the master program. I'm also an international applicant btw haha. This year has been so stressful I wish I could fast-forward it.

I've gone back and forth about applying to arizona State. It's a great program, so I'm tempted. At the same time, every time I look at it, I think maybe it's not the best fit. If there's any changes to my list, adding arizona State would probably be one of them.

Also, I'm currently in a psych MA program, so I'm only applying to PhDs (which is causing lots of stress).

[AvocadoAvogadro]

4 hours ago, philoquant said:

I've gone back and forth about applying to arizona State. It's a great program, so I'm tempted. At the same time, every time I look at it, I think maybe it's not the best fit. If there's any changes to my list, adding arizona State would probably be one of them.

Also, I'm currently in a psych MA program, so I'm only applying to PhDs (which is causing lots of stress).

Good luck to all of us!!!

[wolmoth]

How the heck are you guys going about narrowing down potential advisors? Some of the stuff that they research, I've had no relevant coursework, and you can only learn so much from their papers without any basis on the subject. I've spent so much time learning stuff like Bayesian models just so I can understand what they are doing. I feel this has limited me the most in deciding on any school.

[philoquant]

11 hours ago, wolmoth said:

How the heck are you guys going about narrowing down potential advisors? Some of the stuff that they research, I've had no relevant coursework, and you can only learn so much from their papers without any basis on the subject. I've spent so much time learning stuff like Bayesian models just so I can understand what they are doing. I feel this has limited me the most in deciding on any school.

I've heard that quant is different from other areas of psych admissions in that we're not expected to have as solid of a foundation due to the lack of training pre-PhD (like you mentioned). I have broad questions that I'm interested in and part of choosing PIs is finding people whose methods fit those broad areas. There's also specific methods that I use for my research and I'm finding PIs who work in those areas as well.

 

So my advice is ask two questions. 1. What are the broad research questions that I'm interested in? 2. What methods would I like to learn more about?

[AvocadoAvogadro]

How much stats/math background (either courses or research) do applicants usually have for quant psyc phd programs? My background is mainly in psychology and computer science so I'm a little unsure about my applications...

Also is now a good time to contact POIs to ask if they are recruiting?

[philoquant]

9 minutes ago, AvocadoAvogadro said:

How much stats/math background (either courses or research) do applicants usually have for quant psyc phd programs? My background is mainly in psychology and computer science so I'm a little unsure about my applications...

Also is now a good time to contact POIs to ask if they are recruiting?

I can't answer the first one because I don't think I have enough background.

 

As for PIs, I reached out to all of them last week and only one said he'd rather meet later. I know some people say wait until fall semester, but now worked for me.

[wolmoth]

On 8/4/2020 at 5:54 AM, philoquant said:

So my advice is ask two questions. 1. What are the broad research questions that I'm interested in? 2. What methods would I like to learn more about?

Oh I can think of some methods I want to learn more about, but I have no clue on any research questions. "Broadly" I can ask something along the lines of "how can this method be further developed and/or applied more broadly." I know you can look at the latest research and see what gaps they mention, but again, I need a bit more background. I guess I have a few months before I need to come up with something more definitive for a statement of purpose. 

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by wolmoth

[wolmoth]

22 hours ago, AvocadoAvogadro said:

How much stats/math background (either courses or research) do applicants usually have for quant psyc phd programs? My background is mainly in psychology and computer science so I'm a little unsure about my applications...

From what I've been told, it depends the program you apply to. Some are much more technical and other's less so. If you are trying to apply to ASU or Notre Dame, for example, you definitely need a good background in math/stats. I can't speak for programs that aren't as demanding for those skills because those aren't the ones I have been looking at. You do need a good basis in coding regardless. I've been teaching myself some R basics like how to build Monte Carlos, for example. So having a background in CS is definitely not a bad thing as it demonstrates competency with code. That being said, you are expected to have some background in math/stats, so you can't go into it with little to none. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by wolmoth

[philoquant]

Is anyone submitting optional GRE scores? What do you think are the minimum scores to submit with? My scores are good but not great. I don't know if I should submit them. I don't want to harm my application either way.

[AvocadoAvogadro]

14 hours ago, philoquant said:

Is anyone submitting optional GRE scores? What do you think are the minimum scores to submit with? My scores are good but not great. I don't know if I should submit them. I don't want to harm my application either way.

I want to submit mine but a lot of programs I'm applying to said they are not reviewing GRE scores at all so Idk. I think 160Q and 155V would be competitive, I would send scores with at least 85-90th percentiles. 

[wolmoth]

On 9/10/2020 at 9:37 PM, philoquant said:

Is anyone submitting optional GRE scores? What do you think are the minimum scores to submit with? My scores are good but not great. I don't know if I should submit them. I don't want to harm my application either way.

 

On 9/11/2020 at 12:32 PM, AvocadoAvogadro said:

I want to submit mine but a lot of programs I'm applying to said they are not reviewing GRE scores at all so Idk. I think 160Q and 155V would be competitive, I would send scores with at least 85-90th percentiles. 

My school has a quant program, and here's what a professor told me about the GRE scores (since they are still requiring it). The purpose of GRE is mainly to get a sense of your aptitude for quantitative reasoning and your skillset in that regard. This is the main way they tell for most applications, so hence why the program at my school is still requiring them. If you do not have anything to demonstrate your capability with quantitative skills, I would recommend taking and submitting the GRE. If you have a large list of, say, math/stats classes with high GPA or some proof that you have done quant based work in the past, then needing the GRE as proof is probably not as important. Obviously, if you do it and did really well on it, it's not going to hurt you any way. 

I decided to opt out of the GRE because most of the schools I wanted to apply to weren't requiring it, and I felt my background was substantial proof enough that I am capable of doing quant-related research. Of course, there was one school that was on my list that was still requiring it, but oh well. 2020 existential dread hit me hard in the the summer, and my motivation to study for the test was completely killed to the point where if I did take the test, I probably wouldn't have done well. Also, I am busy af this semester and did not know how I would fit time to study and take practice tests. 

I'm confident that my decision won't hurt me, and I might as well take advantage of the unique opportunity given here. But you need to assess your skill set and if it demonstrates your capability well enough. How many math and stats courses have you taken and how well have you done on them? Do you have any research experience regarding statistical modeling in your past that can demonstrate you know what you're getting into and have the ability to follow through? These are important questions for these programs regardless, but the GRE is an important way these programs discard those that's aren't qualified while also giving credit to those who are qualified but just didn't have the chance to take those classes or do prior research. Everyone comes from a different background, and the GRE quant section gives many people the opportunity to demonstrate capability on-par with those who have more of a history with quant. These programs want to give people a chance, hence why they aren't down right refusing test scores. Some programs are still requiring it though because they weight the skillset demonstrated form this more heavily. 

[PsyZei]

On 7/15/2020 at 2:07 PM, HopefulPsych2020 said:

Out of curiosity, is anyone applying to quant programs with a firm goal to prepare themselves for a clinical PhD program?

So, no- but I did take a less traditional way of merging the two (which I am apparently prone to, being as I did not even start college until my 30s), but I sort of did the opposite of going quant and then clinical. BA is vanilla Psych, then MS is HDFS with a clinical MFT specialization, and I'm now in a PhD for clinical CFT in a research heavy program (housed in a Psychological and Quantitative Foundations department), where the plan is to also pick up a MA in Educational Measurement and Statistics on my way through the PhD. 

I really enjoy stats and quant a lot, so basically just took every class I reasonably could from undergrad on (and some coding/comp sci background that obviously makes stats applications significantly easier to pick up). So, I was pretty excited to wind up in a program where clinical and quant merges so well.

On 9/10/2020 at 10:37 PM, philoquant said:

Is anyone submitting optional GRE scores? What do you think are the minimum scores to submit with? My scores are good but not great. I don't know if I should submit them. I don't want to harm my application either way.

I submitted my GRE scores even when they were optional, but I had competitive scores so they (theoretically) couldn't do anything but help me out and if they were just ignored it wasn't going to hurt me. If you aren't sure if your scores will actually help you, I'd take the break on it this year of all years. 

[philoquant]

Has anyone heard anything?

[wolmoth]

11 hours ago, philoquant said:

Has anyone heard anything?

I've heard back from Notre Dame and USC for interviews. POIs from both (who've I have been in personal contact with previously, which I suspect is at least why they got back to me so soon) both reach out to me individually. The Notre Dame one wants to set up a Zoom interview next week, which is way sooner than I have prepared for tbh (I haven't prepared for interviews at all yet lol). Also, the USC message didn't outright say I had an interview but to "lookout" for the first week of February when they are doing them. So it was heavily implied. I still haven't heard back from three schools (UC Davis, UCLA, and Fordham) though and don't expect to until next month! It is still very early. Usually you don't even hear back until January. I got the Notre Dame message today and the USC one about a week after I applied (one of my LoR also was a previous student for the USC prof, so I also assume that's part of why they got back so quickly). Do not fret if you haven't heard yet!  I am sure many schools are still trying to figure out how they are going to do everything during the pandemic anyway.

I'm applying PhD btw, because that might matter for how fast they get back to people but idk on that aspect.

Edited December 23, 2020 by wolmoth

[Taro_Taro]

Has anyone received info about interviews at this point? I'm applying to educational/quantitative psychology programs but haven't heard back from any of them. 

[philoquant]

2 hours ago, Taro_Taro said:

Has anyone received info about interviews at this point? I'm applying to educational/quantitative psychology programs but haven't heard back from any of them. 

I've only heard back from Notre Dame, and the only other school listed on the results page is USC. My advisor said to not expect anything before the new year.