Social Psychology Application Thread 2010-2011

[YA_RLY]

Anyone heard from UT Austin? I think I will be rejected, but I'd like to know so I can make a decision!

[cautiouslyoptimistic]

To the people who got the invites at Stanford (affective sciences) and Berkeley (social) can you please PM me with your POI? Thanks and congrats!

[Psyburgh]

Hey--just ran across this thread today. Thanks for creating a place to discuss this mind-numbing process. I applied to 11 social psych programs, as well as two programs that have social psychologists studying technology in other departments. I got my first offer last Saturday from University of Michigan Ann Arbor (RELIEF), but I have not heard from any of my official social psychology programs like most people here it seems. Good luck to everyone... at least we are not clinical and dying like my friend this week. Texas was Jan 1st deadline so I expect them to be a little later by the way. Anyone hear from Ohio State?

Social Psych Schools:

Florida

UNC

Florida State

UMass

Texas-Austin

Maryland

Northeastern

Toronto

Ohio State

Ohio U

Pittsburgh

Other:

Carnegie Mellon (Human-Computer Interaction)

Michigan (Communication Studies)

[canadagrad2011]

Hey! Long time lurker first time poster (LTLFTP)!

I saw a couple of other people looking at moral psychology here so I thought I'd throw my hat in with where I've applied and what I have heard.

I applied to:

Boston College

Brown

Harvard

Princeton

UVA

WashU

So far have heard back from Boston College, did a Skype interview, and am going to the grad student interview day on February 14th.

[psychapplicant2011]

Is your POI at Boston College Young?

[Psyburgh]

Hey, all. I am also new to GradCafe and this thread — seems like a great way to feed my neuroses surrounding this brutal, exciting process.

I am applying to

UVA (Wilson, Clore, Haidt, Nosek)

NYU (Kruger, Jost, Tyler, Van Bavel)

Cornell (Gilovich and Dunning; sadly, Gilovich isn't taking new grad students)

Colorado (Van Boven)

Arizona State (Kwan)

Florida State (Baumeister)

Northeastern (DeSteno, Barrett)

Princeton (Pronin)

U Chicago (Epley, Kinzler)

Waterloo (M. Ross, Spencer, Eibach)

Tufts (Sommers)

Ohio State (Libby)

U Mich (Nisbett, Kitayama, Kross)

Harvard (Wegner)

Yale (Bargh, Napier, Salovey)

Good luck to everyone here. I enjoyed reading this thread and seeing people who are going through the same thing I am.

So, thoughts on Daryl Bem? I recently got a copy of Feeling the Future but am yet to finish it. It'll be the talk of the town when we interview.

I applied for Libby and DeSteno too. I thought about going for Kwan and Baumester as well so seems like we have similar interests. Did you hear anything from Libby? She is my top choice, but I haven't heard anything in weeks. At the beginning of January she e-mailed me saying my transcripts never got there and that I needed to express them to her if I wanted to be considered... better than nothing I guess haha...

[robertmark]

I applied for Libby and DeSteno too. I thought about going for Kwan and Baumester as well so seems like we have similar interests. Did you hear anything from Libby? She is my top choice, but I haven't heard anything in weeks. At the beginning of January she e-mailed me saying my transcripts never got there and that I needed to express them to her if I wanted to be considered... better than nothing I guess haha...

Kwan just e-mailed me tonight! She was "very impressed" with me, excited about our shared interests, and wanted to set up a phone interview in the next few days.

I haven't heard anything from Ohio yet but I wasn't in personal communication with Libby. I didn't want to contact her out of the blue; it would have felt like I was leveraging our status as Williams alums or that one of her collaborators was one of my recommenders.

[robertmark]

I applied for Libby and DeSteno too. I thought about going for Kwan and Baumester as well so seems like we have similar interests. Did you hear anything from Libby? She is my top choice, but I haven't heard anything in weeks. At the beginning of January she e-mailed me saying my transcripts never got there and that I needed to express them to her if I wanted to be considered... better than nothing I guess haha...

Also, what have you heard about Baumeister? My advisor mentioned him a couple times. In an e-mail, he described Baumeister as "a generalist who likes to think big thoughts." I popped into his office during homecoming (he thought he had already sent that e-mail. he hadn't), and he told me a little more, saying "he's a weird guy, but I think you two would really hit it off." Months later, I still don't know how to take that.

But, seriously, look at his publications list on PsycInfo. Prolific.

[jayguy86]

Also, what have you heard about Baumeister? My advisor mentioned him a couple times. In an e-mail, he described Baumeister as "a generalist who likes to think big thoughts." I popped into his office during homecoming (he thought he had already sent that e-mail. he hadn't), and he told me a little more, saying "he's a weird guy, but I think you two would really hit it off." Months later, I still don't know how to take that.

But, seriously, look at his publications list on PsycInfo. Prolific.

As a person who worked exclusively with the Baumeister/Tice lab during my time at FSU, I can tell you Roy is definitely a generalist who likes to think big. Most of his research focuses on free will and ego depletion. I've heard that when Roy looks at grad applications, he places them in piles according to strength (i.e. gre scores, gpa, stuff like that) and if he has enough in his "top" pile, he doesnt look at the others. He's really laid back and he tends never to yell. Other than that, he's really a nice guy who has passion for the field and he definitely makes sure that his grad students have the same drive.

[jayguy86]

Hi ran across this site and decided to give it a try. My interest is in motivation, decision-making, and choice associated with group membership.

I'm applying to :

Tufts (Ambady, Sommers)

Cornell (Dunning, Ferguson, Gilovich)

Harvard (Banaji, Wegner)

Boston College (Young)

WashU (Braver, Baugh and McDaniel)

Has anyone heard from Tufts yet? It's my #1 choice and I'm getting nervous since I havent heard anything. Congrats to all the individuals that have heard back. Wish I was that lucky.

[jayguy86]

The the person who posted that they were accepted to Tufts, would you mind PMing me who your POI is? Thanks!

I dont believe anyone has heard back from Tufts yet. I hope not since I've applied there and I havent heard back yet. Haha. Hopefully thats good news.

[Psyburgh]

Kwan just e-mailed me tonight! She was "very impressed" with me, excited about our shared interests, and wanted to set up a phone interview in the next few days.

I haven't heard anything from Ohio yet but I wasn't in personal communication with Libby. I didn't want to contact her out of the blue; it would have felt like I was leveraging our status as Williams alums or that one of her collaborators was one of my recommenders.

Congrats on getting an interview with Kwan! ASU has a very cool program and I would love to live there... Baumeister is a monster in psych as a whole-- even my boss in clinical knows his work and he is ranked #7 in cumulative impact of current social faculty. He has so many different ideas going on that relate to a number of areas. Here is what I was told when I consulted a friend who is a social psychologist concerning my original list of POIs.

"You have some heavy hitters on your list. Roy Baumeister and Arie Kruglanski arehuge figures in social psych. If you were to interview with one of the more senior,highly productive professors, you might consider asking (either the professor orhis/her current grad students) how much face time you could expect to have. Sometimes the more senior people don't have a lot of time for new grad students soit can be a good fit for someone coming in with a Masters, but maybe not the bestfit for someone coming with a BA who will need more one-on-one training in thebeginning"I proceeded to place my focus more on other people that I liked at those schools. It would be awesome if you pulled off an interview with him. I just didn't know if I would have a shot at all.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Psyburgh

[jayguy86]

Congrats on getting an interview with Kwan! ASU has a very cool program and I would love to live there... Baumeister is a monster in psych as a whole-- even my boss in clinical knows his work and he is ranked #7 in cumulative impact of current social faculty. He has so many different ideas going on that relate to a number of areas. Here is what I was told when I consulted a friend who is a social psychologist concerning my original list of POIs.

"You have some heavy hitters on your list. Roy Baumeister and Arie Kruglanski arehuge figures in social psych. If you were to interview with one of the more senior,highly productive professors, you might consider asking (either the professor orhis/her current grad students) how much face time you could expect to have. Sometimes the more senior people don't have a lot of time for new grad students soit can be a good fit for someone coming in with a Masters, but maybe not the bestfit for someone coming with a BA who will need more one-on-one training in thebeginning"I proceeded to place my focus more on other people that I liked at those schools. It would be awesome if you pulled off an interview with him. I just didn't know if I would have a shot at all.

You're definitely correct about that. That was one point i failed to mention with Roy. You have to be extremely independent and capable of doing everything without a lot of interaction with your advisor. Since Roy is so well known and always busy, face time with him is rare. So as a grad student, you should be aware of that.

[newkidontheblock]

wegner is not taking students this year; i emailed him before my application and thats what he told me.

banaji looks like someone who's really disciplined and expects a lot from her students

[Benzene]

My friend found someone from UCSB while at SPSP and was told they are not really taking new people this year (and that they only accepted one person last year.) I thought this would be useful for anyone applying there (him and myself included)

[HyacinthMacaw]

My friend found someone from UCSB while at SPSP and was told they are not really taking new people this year (and that they only accepted one person last year.) I thought this would be useful for anyone applying there (him and myself included)

Thanks for the info! When I emailed Diane Mackie, she said that she hoped to take a new student this year, but that this was "completely dependent on the sorry state of the UC's funding". I guess the cuts have been more severe than anyone really anticipated. Which is sad, really, because UCSB has a great department and its productivity will likely decline with less money to fund grad new grad students.

[absolute1513]

My friend found someone from UCSB while at SPSP and was told they are not really taking new people this year (and that they only accepted one person last year.) I thought this would be useful for anyone applying there (him and myself included)

Thanks for this information. I was hoping to work with Dr. Cosmides, oh well. If they weren't planning on taking students, why not advertise that on their websites and not run this round of applications? Seems odd.

[NoleGirl]

Thanks for this information. I was hoping to work with Dr. Cosmides, oh well. If they weren't planning on taking students, why not advertise that on their websites and not run this round of applications? Seems odd.

Actually, I talked to two faculty from UCSB today and this is not the case, at least with them... however it wasn't any of the faculty mentioned.

[Benzene]

I just found out it was a grad student who had said that, so perhaps they didn't have full information. I was told earlier in the year by a couple faculty that they hoped to get new students, or that they were not entirely sure if they would or not until later.

[A. sesquipedale]

E-mailed POI at U Penn to ask for an update. All interview invites have been extended, he thinks, and says it is very unlikely there will be a second round.

[username123]

If one hasn't received an interview notification from Columbia or Harvard by now, would it be safe to assume that one is out of the running for these programs?

[socialpsych]

If one hasn't received an interview notification from Columbia or Harvard by now, would it be safe to assume that one is out of the running for these programs?

I don't know about Columbia, but the word about Harvard is that, yes, they have contacted interviewees. Sorry :/

[socialpsych]

Anyone heard from UT Austin? I think I will be rejected, but I'd like to know so I can make a decision!

Don't count them out yet. They have been discussing applicants but may not have sent out visit week invites yet.

[Psyburgh]

Don't count them out yet. They have been discussing applicants but may not have sent out visit week invites yet.

Yea, I am waiting for that one too... but remember their deadline wasn't until Jan 1st and clinical decisions are more urgent. I applied to Gosling and Henderson but I haven't heard anything yet.

[HyacinthMacaw]

Just stumbled upon this news that the late Jack Brehm of Kansas gave $2.2 million to the psych department to improve undergraduate and graduate training, especially in social psych.

http://www.news.ku.edu/2010/september/7/brehm.shtml

Anyone know of other programs in healthy financial shape? (Though of course, a professor who lands a lucrative grant will be able to recruit new grad students even if the university at large cuts back.)