I WANT/NEED/HAVE to go to grad school next year, but I don't want to apply!

[randompsychologist]

I'm just starting this thread because I see how much I am dragging my feet. I've put this off for two years now... I HAVE to do it. I've gotten to a point where I'm doing all the things I would do if I were in a doctoral program, but I'm not getting any closer to that PhD .

Anyone else here have trouble starting? Maybe we can motivate each other to get our acts together?

Happy (almost) new semester everyone! Good luck with school and the next application cycle.

[ILuvPsych2013]

I have a friend who has also been dragging his feet and I just had this conversation with him . Here's the bottom line: Applying to grad school is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes months to research schools, contact POIs, draft SOPs, take the GRE, get letter writers on the same page, etc. There are people right now that are ahead of you. Time to get it into the game. Best of luck to you!

[stereopticons]

I'm having trouble getting started, too, but mostly because this is my third time applying. I just don't feel like going through it again! But you have to apply to get in, so...

[psychdork]

I've been having trouble motivating myself to get started as well. Like stereopticons, this is not my first (or second) round of apps and facing this process again is...well rough. I've been studying for the GRE quite a bit, which is progress but as far as everything else I am no where near where I was this time last year.

On the plus side, after working on this (on and off) for about 3 weeks I finally finished researching a total of around 130 possible schools and made the first round of cuts down to 27. I still need to cut that list down to 8-10 but that's for another day.

[JessHooi]

Working full time with 2 research projects and prepping for grad school application is close to impossible but like ILuvPsych2013 said, it's a marathon! And its my first time applying for grad school so props to you guys are doing it again! Good luck!

[Sshaw9]

It can be an overwhelming process, just make sure to set small goals for yourself and to find your pace. Also make sure you really want to go to graduate school, because if it is hard to be motivated now, It is likely to get much more difficult.

[randompsychologist]

Ok. I disappeared for a while, but I needed to tell you guys what I did after posting this. So, I decided I'm delaying another year, because I need the break mentally after my totally unnecessary 5th year for a degree I didn't really need and because I had some problems in my family that made the first half of this semester near impossible. That, and I'm a chicken . This semester I'm a TA for an Intro class (that I LIKE) and an instructor for a stats class (that I LOVE) and I've covered a few sessions of 2 other courses (a seminar on environmental psychology, and a developmental class). I got a lot of diverse teaching experience. I'm not doing any research right now. I might teach next semester and join a new lab. I have a decent amount of research experience but I've never worked with ERPs and I've always wanted to. The good thing is, though, now that I have the time and not as much pressure, I'm actually researching schools, I took the psych GRE in October and got my scores back (it was good news!), and I've started studying for the general GREs so I can retake them, and writing an SOP.

The problem now is that I have an extra gap year next year that I don't know what I want to do with yet (the 2013-2014 academic year).

For the most part, it seems like it worked out. I want to be sane and not burnt out when I start and I don't want to end up in a program that I hate because I picked programs haphazardly. But then I see the people around me in programs and go... that could have been me but it isn't. I need to learn to get over that.

For those of you who plucked up the courage to do this cycle, I wanted to wish you GOOD LUCK! I'll be lurking on these boards a lot more because I have nothing better to do and I have a lot of questions. Every time I come here I am amazed at your stories/credentials and I'm sure a lot of you will have success.

Edited November 13, 2012 by randompsychologist