feedback on resume, am I second guessing myself?

[grimmiae]

Just looking for some honest feedback on this, sometimes I feel really confident and then other times I feel like I don't stand a chance to get into grad school for a PHD in social psychology.

Working Resume

-End of the spring 2012 I will have my BA in psychology

-tutored and assisted with teaching in stats 1 and 2, and tutored for physiological psychology (1 year)

-2 and 1/2 years of research experience, one summer as a paid research assistant. My first year of research experience involved finding sources and formatting sources for a professional research paper (not published, name not on it because my professor saw it as grunt work) I also wrote my own study on variables determining relationship satisfaction in second life and real life, in non-BDSM and BDSM defined relationships (not presented or published, just my first go around with research), In my second year of research (way more serious and professionally based) I am currently working with an eye tracker assisting in all aspects of research, testing/recruiting/data analysis. I have several projects in the works (reviewing literature now), one relating to morality and helping behavior, a second research study on prejudice and helping behavior/ or morality. I will be working under the supervision of one professor, also hoping to validate a helping attitudes scale and submit for publication, which my name would be on. Lastly, with these three research projects I plan to present them both at two research conferences (maybe three if they get accepted else where, this is largely unknown). So that is a total of three finished research studies that would be presented at, at least two conferences, one highly likely to be published. (This could easily be a whole page long, trying to condense this)

*Psi Chi Honor Society

*Vice President of Psych. Club 1 yr

*Organized a local psychology conference

• New Leadership Institute: program encouraging leadership roles in women of diversity, I am somewhat diverse I suppose because I am lesbian/queer (I was wondering if this is a good thing to mention? or not?)
  
  *4 years of working with mentally disabled adults
  
  *1,000 Scholarship for good grades and financial challenges
  
  *Research Focus: Primarily my interest is in moral psychology and how prosocial attitudes/behaviors are related to how we conceive of the concept of "morals", I am also interested in examining how the "intuitive primacy of morals" functions when we encounter two moral intuitions simultaneously or a moral dilemma an example of this would be when we encounter a situation like "Sally lied to her friend Maria to avoid hurting her feelings" Some of us intuitively feel that is more moral to tell the truth verses hurting a friend, however others intuitively feel that avoiding harm is more moral. My question is if reasoning plays a role in this moral dilemma or if one type of intuitive primacy takes precedence over another honesty vs. harm. I am also interested in how prejudice interacts with our moral intuitions, because in the world that we live in today, it is clear that to some individuals certain prejudices appear to be morally justifiable, but to others they are not. I could go on and on about my specific ideas relating to these concepts.
  
  *GPA: 3.65 cumulative, GPA psychology: 3.85
  
  
  • I want my Phd in social psychology because I want to do research in an academic setting. I would however like to teach maybe one class that I am exceptionally passionate about- like a seminar or something. But other than that my main focus and interest is just in doing research, publishing/presenting.

*Lastly I will be taking the GRE in the fall, I have about 3 months to really prepare so I do not see this as a big issue. I am a fine test taker, and with preparation I do not doubt my skills.

Feed back please?! I would be delighted to hear about anyone's experiences in grad school and advice, if you are interested in doing some nerdy psychology conversing please message me and perhaps we could communicate via e-mail or something.

Thank you so much for any replies to this post. I guess I just really want this more than anything, research is my passion and I hope that I am doing well enough to stand a chance!

[neuropsych76]

Welcome to the forums!

I think your resume is pretty solid but it's really hard to estimate admission chances in general for grad school. If you clearly identify your research interests and match up well with the faculty you are applying to work with then I think you will have a good shot. But again, its really hard to predict if you'll be accepted or not. You just have to prepare as much as you can and it looks like you are doing so

Good luck!!

[grimmiae]

good point, all of the schools that I am applying to have a professor that is within the area of moral psychology and/or an additional professor that has a research interest in either prosocial behavior or prejudice. I think my sincere interest will be reflected in these topics since one of my papers will be concerning morality and prejudice, and the second will be considering morality and helping behavior. Looking back on what I have written, it seems as though I have the perfect plan of attack. I certianly hope so, because I really thought about why I want to do this. But at the same time, I am practicing letting go of my expectations...I figure if all else fails I will go into the peace corps or go teach english in China. Haha how is that for a plan B?

[yubby]

not to be a downer (as your stats look decent), but some profs don't like seeing research-irrelevant ECs being emphasized (ex. psych club, organizing conference) - they might see it as a reflection of poor time mgmt

[t_ruth]

not to be a downer (as your stats look decent), but some profs don't like seeing research-irrelevant ECs being emphasized (ex. psych club, organizing conference) - they might see it as a reflection of poor time mgmt

I don't see how it can be an example of poor time management if you managed to get the other stuff done too. If you get those presentations submitted before the applications are due, then I think you've got a strong file!

[yubby]

yea, the argument isn't really clear to me either; i suppose it means the applicant could've spent more time on research/school related things (Ex. maintaining high gpa)

[grimmiae]

Yes, I can see where all of the different perspectives are coming from. However I am happy to say that I feel more confident about my application. Resolving to write a killer Sop, and to put the extracuricular activities in an appropriate place, but not emphasizing them as a primary part of my application. They were valuable to me- as in it guided me towards what I am really interested in. And- since I posted this my research interests have become MIORE narrow and defined. I decided to drift away from morality and lean more towards research topics considering why we attempt to justify our prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. I think that was part of the reason why I was interested in morality in the first place...I was interested in it because of those issues.

Secondly, replying to the post above, I realize that my cumulative is a little bit low. Fortunately, it is skewed due to my freshman year, I got two Cs in silly classes, personal defense of everything to to get a C in, and Math 102. In my last two years of school, my cumulative is considerably higer, 3.8. Which, I hope that Adcomm committees will see that I improved greatly after taking a semester off, which was when I really got my "shit" together.

It really is an insane process, and I re-wrote this pseudo working resume all over again, and it sounds three times better, however I am not going to bore anyone to tears with that.

I realize in this process all you can do is control what you can, and try your best. I am studying like a freak for the gre, and I am reading many articles a day to make sure that I get those two independent projects in the works, by September. It is busy, but I am motivated enough to be an insomniac to get through the application process if this is what it takes.

Coffee IV Baby.

I think the hardest thing at this point is my SoP everything I write I feel like a cliche.

I appreciate all the feebback, and I love this forum to tears. Crazy how much I feel as though I am maturing through this process.

Thanks!

[t_ruth]

Based on your interests, I think you may be missing someone to work with at my university...PM me and I will share