ChivPowers Posted January 6, 2009 Posted January 6, 2009 Uh oh ya'll, I'm about to teach my 1st hour-long discussion section as a TA in a week. I'm excited and anxious. Any good advice? (I've never taught anything in my whole life)
IvyHope Posted January 6, 2009 Posted January 6, 2009 Kind of a strange place for such a question, but I'll bite. Be prepared! Know the material. It's not that hard.
ChivPowers Posted January 9, 2009 Author Posted January 9, 2009 Ok, did the TA thing this week.. not so bad.. Anyway, I have questions for other Cog. Psychees out there... If you're in, what kind of packages are you getting? I'm getting 20,xxx + benefits and 5 years 4 summers guaranteed at NU. I'm curious what others were offered. I'm a first year now, but last year was offered lesser packages from CU-Boulder, UW-Seattle, UI-Chicago, and UC-Riverside. Also, any Cog. Psychees get an NSF? Javits? APA Neuroscience? Ford? (I guess this would be directed to those who are already in programs...) Care to share you essays or have any good essay advice? I'm stumped writing this one I'm workin' on for the 15th deadline.
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 That sounds like a lot. Could it have anything to do with the fact that NU is privately funded? How are you liking the program, by the way?
rising_star Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Or that the cost of living is really high wherever this NU is?
misterpat Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Or that the cost of living is really high wherever this NU is? If NU is Northwestern, then you are correct. Chicago's a bit expensive.
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Yeah, but shouldn't the cost of living be somewhat lower in Evanston (which is where the grad program in Psych is located)? I wonder if that stipend is what all prospectives are offered in that program?
ChivPowers Posted February 5, 2009 Author Posted February 5, 2009 Hi folks, Apologies for the long delayed reply. So, yes, NU is Northwestern, and yes, the psych. program is based in Evanston. However, Evanston is actually much more expensive to live in than Chicago proper (unless you're living in Lakeview or Gold Coast or something...). Also, yes, that stipend is what every entering Psych. grad student gets unless you're externally funded or get a special incoming fellowship. I received a special incoming fellowship, but it was the same amount as everyone else's "University Fellowship." I REALLY love my program and my mentor and my lab on the whole. To follow up on some comments as well, I think that $20,000/yr is a normal-high stipend. I've got friends who are getting close to $30,000 (Penn) and friends who are getting $17,000 (Temple). Good luck to all of you who are applying this year! It's one of the best decisions I've ever made, so I truly hope you all end up feeling the same way.
icantdeletethis Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 anyone hear from psych programs at WashU, Duke, or Columbia?
cupcake_phd Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 I got an interview invite from Pitt a few weeks ago. Interview weekend starts 2/27.
highhopes Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 I've got an invite to the recruitment weekend at Duke starting 2/27.
cupcake_phd Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Why do all the recruitment weekends happen to occur on the SAME weekend??!
liszt85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Yeah, but shouldn't the cost of living be somewhat lower in Evanston (which is where the grad program in Psych is located)? I wonder if that stipend is what all prospectives are offered in that program? I got accepted to the Linguistics program at NU with the same stipend. I think its a university fellowship (1st and fifth years). So yes, if you get a university fellowship, it will be the same stipend ($20,500).
ionightmare Posted March 17, 2009 Posted March 17, 2009 I applied to one PhD in Cognitive and many in IO. I've heard from most of the IO programs, but not the cognitive program. Has anyone heard back from some cognitive programs?
liszt85 Posted March 17, 2009 Posted March 17, 2009 I applied to one PhD in Cognitive and many in IO. I've heard from most of the IO programs, but not the cognitive program. Has anyone heard back from some cognitive programs? I've heard from some (negative) but on prompting them via email. Some of them are cog psych @ UCD, UCSD (formal, without any prompting), UCB(upon heavy prompting),Minnesota. BCS @ MIT and Rochester also turned out to be negative. Info from these places also came after I bugged them big time.. I've never received anything official from any of these places. I wonder what they spend the $80 on. (I understand some of that goes into compensation for manual processing of the applications, but they get salaries for doing that too! It is only fair that they send official notifications to everybody regardless of acceptances and rejections).
cogneuroforfun Posted March 17, 2009 Posted March 17, 2009 I applied to one PhD in Cognitive and many in IO. I've heard from most of the IO programs, but not the cognitive program. Has anyone heard back from some cognitive programs? UCLA Cognitive is probably done. They already had their recruitment weekend (like an interview but we were already accepted, so no pressure!). Maybe they have a waitlist though?
MajorPsych82 Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 If you don't mind me asking, what was your GRE breakdown, each of you who have been replying to this thread, in order to have been admitted into these PhD programs? Thanks
liszt85 Posted August 9, 2009 Posted August 9, 2009 GRE Q: 780 V: 610 AWA: 5.0/6.0 TOEFL: 118/120 (speaking 28/30)
cogneuroforfun Posted August 9, 2009 Posted August 9, 2009 The GRE is probably the least important part of your application. Its also one of the easiest to find info about. Almost every school and department I looked at had GRE and GPA of their accepted and matriculating students, at the least, and often scores for all applicants, too. Its things like letters and research experience that are hard to find info about and are much more important. Then ago, I know its hard not to worry about every little part of your application
psydd Posted October 19, 2009 Posted October 19, 2009 I have a question about Cognitive psych: I'm applying primarily to Social psych PhD programs for the fall 2010 semester. But there is one Cognitive program that I am really loving, perhaps even more than any Social program I've found, specifically based on the faculty research match as well as the research match I have to some of this particular lab's members, as well. My question is, with absolutely NO prior undergraduate experience with Cognitive psychology, will I be completely lost if I jump into a Cognitive psych PhD program? Or will I learn the basics there anyway? Someone in the specific department I'm considering recently told me that Cognitive psych is essentially a sub-discipline within Social psychology anyway, but I'm still not convinced. I don't want to set myself up for disaster. Any thoughts?
psycholinguist Posted October 19, 2009 Posted October 19, 2009 (edited) They're pretty different in most places. Some researchers are really into 'social cognition', which straddles the divide, but I wouldn't say that one of them includes the other, or even covers most of it. In cognitive-psych, you'd be looking at a range of phenomena from psychophysics/perception to higher-level cognition such as attention and information-processing. However, I don't think you'd be too lost if you went for that; I'm working on an MA in cog-psych coming from an undergraduate background almost entirely outside psychology, and the only thing I'm really feeling behind on is statistics. Edited October 19, 2009 by psycholinguist
psydd Posted October 19, 2009 Posted October 19, 2009 That's reassuring, because the lab I'm wanting to join is actually called Social Cognition. My fears are mainly regarding the coursework I may face. Unfortunately, the program I'm interested in doesn't have a list of required core coursework or anything like that. But, for all I know, it may actually be extremely elective-based, in which case I could gear myself more toward the Social psych end of things anyway. It's such a good fit research-wise, I'd hate to be scared off by something like that. I plan on applying regardless. I'm just thinking into the future, if it came down to me choosing between programs I've potentially been accepted into. Thanks for the info.
psycholinguist Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 No problem! Is there anyone in the program you could email in order to find out about requirements and such?
liszt85 Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 I have a question about Cognitive psych: I'm applying primarily to Social psych PhD programs for the fall 2010 semester. But there is one Cognitive program that I am really loving, perhaps even more than any Social program I've found, specifically based on the faculty research match as well as the research match I have to some of this particular lab's members, as well. My question is, with absolutely NO prior undergraduate experience with Cognitive psychology, will I be completely lost if I jump into a Cognitive psych PhD program? Or will I learn the basics there anyway? Someone in the specific department I'm considering recently told me that Cognitive psych is essentially a sub-discipline within Social psychology anyway, but I'm still not convinced. I don't want to set myself up for disaster. Any thoughts? Hi there. I'm in Cog Psych myself and I had NO background in Psychology prior to this. I completed a 5 year integrated Masters in Physics and jumped straight into Cognitive Psychology. I'm doing fine so far. Doing some language stuff for my project, doing memory models for my coursework and its all good. So don't worry about the lack of background. Cognitive science is highly interdisciplinary in any case. I don't understand how somebody could classify cognitive psychology under social psychology. In my opinion, they should be classified separately and one is not a sub-discipline of the other. At least where I am, we have two different areas entirely devoted to each of these disciplines. Which program you want to apply to entirely depends on the kind of research you want to be doing in the future. I wanted to do music cognition. I can use a good broad education in cognitive psychology (memory, language, etc + a few projects related to music specifically) to attain that goal which is why I ended up applying to cognitive psychology programs and a few linguistics programs which had strong collaborations going on with cognitive sciences depts. Hope this helps.
psydd Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 psycholinguist, that's my next step. i had been waiting to e-mail the department head about it because he had still not responded to me regarding another question i had. but he just got back to me yesterday, so now i can hit him up for another question, or five liszt85, it does help. thank you. now that i'm thinking about it, the person i spoke to who said that cognitive psych is essentially a sub-discipline within social psych may have actually been referring to social cognition, specifically. either way, it's good to know that both of you have cognitive psych experience and don't think it would be so detrimental to get into a program like that without much prior experience. my goal was to take an undergrad cognitive psych course next semester, but by that time my applications will already be in. hopefully, by the time i need to accept an offer (if i get an offer, that is), i'll have a solid idea of whether or not it's really for me. thanks again.
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