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Social Psychology Application Thread 2010-2011


A. sesquipedale

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Congratulations to those who have received interviews/acceptances! To those of you who have heard from UVa and Columbia, I am interested to hear who you have applied to work with. Feel free to PM me if you don't mind sharing. Thanks!

Congrats!

Do you mind sharing when you were notified and who your POI was (either on this forum or via PM)?

Thanks!

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Please take my interpretations with a grain of salt:

"I think you'd make an excellent candidate for such and such university fellowship which will guarantee you full funding for three years..."

Very good sign but not guaranteeing anything.

"If you come to xyz school, I would like you to work with me on abc project..." at which point, POI goes on to describe project at length.

Pretty good, but not as good as the first one. The fact that they can envision a project for you to work on is necessary but not sufficient for wanting to actually give you an offer.

"You know, I can't really guarantee whether you are in or not. Professors send their recommendations out to the grad division, and then grad division makes the final decision. Although, 90% of the time, the people we recommend get in..."

This is actually the best one you posted, I think. I would trust the 90% figure over my experience, but I have never heard of anyone being recommended to a grad division that is larger than the department and not getting the offer. Especially if your profile also makes you a good candidate for a university fellowship.

Best of luck!

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Hi folks,

Hope everyone's doing OK as they await word from admissions committees. I was just wondering what you think is the fraction of grad school applicants that post on the results page. 10%? 25%? I'm only curious because if I don't see interview invites for a certain school, I'm not sure whether this is because invites haven't been sent out yet or because the few people who did receive an invite just aren't on grad cafe (or didn't post on the results page). And for every invite posted on the results page, I'm thinking there are at least 5 that haven't been posted. I guess there's no way to know for sure, but I think it would be great to come up with a ballpark figure. Thanks!

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I've had two phone interviews thus far, and I'd like to know what everyone thinks are 'signs' an interview went well.

How should I interpret the following (which was said during a recent interview)?

"I think you'd make an excellent candidate for such and such university fellowship which will guarantee you full funding for three years..."

You're probably one of the top 5 people that prof is considering, but also may have some particular thing about you or your work (i.e., you are a minority, have a particular past experience that makes the department look good, or are interested in working on something that usually garners special funding--e.g., mental health research) that makes you eligible for a particular fellowship. If that is the case then you have a better shot at getting in than the other top candidates because most likely not all of the other people at the top of his or her list qualify for the fellowship.

"If you come to xyz school, I would like you to work with me on abc project..." at which point, POI goes on to describe project at length.

This prof clearly has an agenda and is more interested in finding a capable grad student who can help him/her carry it out rather than someone who will be working on mostly their own stuff. I don't think that means you won't get to do any of your own research, but you would probably be heavily involved in her work.

BUT THEN...goes on to say...

"You know, I can't really guarantee whether you are in or not. Professors send their recommendations out to the grad division, and then grad division makes the final decision. Although, 90% of the time, the people we recommend get in..."

The key thing here is that she didn't say "I AM RECOMMENDING YOU", she said those that get recommended usually get in. So i'm not sure if you can deduce anything from this just yet. One of the biggest things that seems to be determining offers these days is funding, and if she has you pegged for a particular fellowship, then that's pretty great.

Also, I didn't get a definite timeline of when I'd be hearing back for a formal interview. More of a "in a few weeks..." response.

Should I even bother to interpret these tidbits?

Thanks so much in advance. I know I'm paranoid :unsure:

Also, as a side note, anyone heard back from UCSB yet? Or Stanford?

Overall, it seems like you had a good conversation and that just by having the conversation at all means you are on a short list. But she probably called 5 other people and is narrowing it down to 2-4. If you have a shot at a particular fellowship, then you have a leg up on everyone else and will probably get an interview regardless of how the other phone calls go. I know of someone who got into a top 10 program last year without any research experience because she qualified for a fellowship. So it definitely helps.

Best of luck!

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Overall, it seems like you had a good conversation and that just by having the conversation at all means you are on a short list. But she probably called 5 other people and is narrowing it down to 2-4. If you have a shot at a particular fellowship, then you have a leg up on everyone else and will probably get an interview regardless of how the other phone calls go. I know of someone who got into a top 10 program last year without any research experience because she qualified for a fellowship. So it definitely helps.

Best of luck!

Oops, my replied are inserted between your comments (in the green).

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Anyone hear from Cornell yet??

By the way, I've had Skype/phone meetings with profs at USC and BC. No word on any type of decision yet though.

I applied to Cornell (Pizarro, Dunning, Ferguson). I have not heard anything yet.

I am also in the same boat as you re: USC. I had a Skype interview but have not heard anything official yet.

However, I also applied to BC and still have not heard anything from them. Do you mind sharing who your POI(s) is(are)? You can PM me this information, if you are willing to share and don't feel comfortable posting it publicly.

Edited by psychapplicant2011
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I'm in the cognitive (and questionably, developmental) division, but I have heard from Cornell. I think they've started sending out invitations since they even had a sample itinerary ready for me when they contacted me.

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I'm in the cognitive (and questionably, developmental) division, but I have heard from Cornell. I think they've started sending out invitations since they even had a sample itinerary ready for me when they contacted me.

Different sub-disciplines often notify at different times.

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Different sub-disciplines often notify at different times.

That was part of my hesitation. I understand this as a general rule. But you could take it as a sign that they're going through the applications and should be done shortly.

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Hi folks,

Hope everyone's doing OK as they await word from admissions committees. I was just wondering what you think is the fraction of grad school applicants that post on the results page. 10%? 25%? I'm only curious because if I don't see interview invites for a certain school, I'm not sure whether this is because invites haven't been sent out yet or because the few people who did receive an invite just aren't on grad cafe (or didn't post on the results page). And for every invite posted on the results page, I'm thinking there are at least 5 that haven't been posted. I guess there's no way to know for sure, but I think it would be great to come up with a ballpark figure. Thanks!

In my cohort of 15 people, only myself and one other person used GradCafe, so that's 13% here. But, of course, it would be silly to generalize.

Edited by repatriate
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I'

I'm here! :)

Social psych, particularly romantic relationships.

Is anyone going to SPSP in January?

I have been debating about going to SPSP and I think I have decided to go ahead and go, but considering how expensive accommodations are near the conference I am hoping to find one or two other students who might want to split the costs. Anyone out there looking for a roommate to cut costs? If you or other students you know may be looking for a room-share PM me and we can discuss specifics.

Thanks!!

PS for those of you who have never attended SPSP is awesome...it is like Hollywood for social psychologists, but better : )

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Phone interview with a POI from UCSB. That's all I have so far but I figured I'd post it for you guys. Not sure on the specs yet, I scheduled a time for her to call me within the next few days.

Congrats to everyone above me who has already posted things. Best of wishes! :)

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I'm a master's student at the University of Oregon so I can help anyone who has questions about that.

Hi humankoko, I applied to University of Oregon. Do you know if all of the interview invites have already gone out? I haven't received one, and since interviews are in February, I'm thinking maybe it's time to allocate my optimism to other schools. I appreciate any info you can give!

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Re: NYU, Jim Uleman called me, and I'm also interested in working with Profs. Jost and Van Bavel.

He said about 20 people were invited to come interview, for 5 spots.

Does anyone know if the Cognition and Perception interviews are held along with the Social Psych interviews?

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Just thought I'd point out that many Canadian universities have January deadlines. Anybody heading north? The funding climate for social psychology is often much better than in the States. Or, any Canadians already here?

I put in an application to Brock U in St. Catharines, ON. While I'm hesitant about doing a program in Canada, the prof I want to work with is doing research that is exactly the stuff that I am into... a near perfect fit, really. I figured I'd give it a shot.

Edited by franks98
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