Well, What Now?

[SportPsych30]

So being a first-timer, I'm hoping to gain some insight on what happens next in the process. I know every program is different, but I'd like to hear from some people who are more familiar with the process, and maybe even some current grad students.

 

Do admission committee's start reviewing apps right away? Do they wait until they've reviewed all 600 applications before they begin deciding? Do they just keep narrowing and narrowing? I could keep going, but such action would be redundant..


Any insight at all? Hopefully even generate some discussion. The board is kinda dead and since waiting is so tedious, I check the forum roughly 25 times a day

 

[kaister]

I honestly have no idea.  From my experience they varied completely.  I got a response as early as January to February and March, and also sometimes nothing at all. I know some start looking right away but others wait until after the holiday season, it all depends.

 

From here it's a waiting game unfortunately.  Check the forums and results sections to see if anyone hears anything, that's the best you can really do.

[PsychGirl1]

From my experience-

 

Usually all the applications come in, and then get filtered to the professors. The professors usually give these to an RA or grad student to do a first pass. They usually select a smaller number for the PI to review. The PI then reviews, and submits a prioritized list of people to interview, and a list to reject. Then after the interviews, the PI submits a list of accept, waitlist, or reject.

 

The part that seems to vary school-to-school is the involvement of the admissions committee. For example, at my last school, the admissions committee set standards to designate applications as high/med/low priority, and if PIs wanted to interview people with a lower priority, they had to "appeal" to the committee. I think they might have also done a final review of apps before sending out acceptances, but I'm not sure.

 

At the school I'm at now, I get the sense that the admissions committee might be more involved throughout the process. This might also be a function of # of applicants- my last school got a hugeee number of applicants. This school has a much smaller faculty and much smaller incoming cohort, and accordingly they get less applicants.

[BeingThere]

I don't have expectations of hearing anything before mid-January (if last years results board is anything to go by), so I plan on having a nice, relaxing holiday season and working on other things.

 

I check in here pretty regularly, but certainly don't expect to see results for I/O for another six weeks. 

 

I try not to concern myself with how the sausage is made, because that way lies the land of senseless anxiety. 

[JadeS]

One school I applied to [well, actually - if you see my other post, it is the one who my LOR won't send in her letter to, despite sending in to almost every other school!] - explicitly states how they determine who gets to 'level 2' and that all students who get there get an interview [ I don't know if they get a lot of unqualified applicants or they interview a lot of people - maybe by phone first?]. Some of my other schools don't even give past admissions stats OR info on the process so I don't know if I am average amongst applicants, way low or WHAT. I wish they'd tell us so we knew what to expect, even just a little bit!

[clinpsych]

One school I applied to [well, actually - if you see my other post, it is the one who my LOR won't send in her letter to, despite sending in to almost every other school!] - explicitly states how they determine who gets to 'level 2' and that all students who get there get an interview [ I don't know if they get a lot of unqualified applicants or they interview a lot of people - maybe by phone first?]. Some of my other schools don't even give past admissions stats OR info on the process so I don't know if I am average amongst applicants, way low or WHAT. I wish they'd tell us so we knew what to expect, even just a little bit!

I am really sorry to hear that - she is messing with your future. Hopefully she pulls through. 

[JadeS]

She just sent them in. I was lucky that although they require all materials by deadline, they had website issues last night so the decision was made to extend the deadline to 1pm today. Talk about lucky. I'm not complaining, though!

[jml5676]

Hey! I'm not sure which program you are applying to, but there is a really great post on Student Doctor Network on when interview invitations went out  for each school last year for Clinical and Counseling programs. Here is the link to the post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2012-2013-official-psychology-phd-psyd-interview-invite-thread.965257/

 

Hope it helps with your anxiety!

[ihatechoosingusernames]

Yeah, I'm a first timer too. I have no clue, but I did look up my schools/programs on the results search portion of GC. Some of my schools sent out notifications in January, but most were in February. 

 

Just for fun and to kill the time, I've been looking up Ph.D. regalia from each school I applied to. So far my favorite school also has the best looking gown/hoods/tams...I'm gonna look so fabulous when I graduate a million years from now

[SportPsych30]

Looks like the Results Page is showing a few interviews. Exciting times!

I wonder if they wait til the end of the process to send out Rejections, or if they send them as soon as a profile gets moved to the "reject" pile.


Also, any idea as to how many interview invites a school will send out– relative to the amount of spots open? How many don't make it through the interview phase?

[Govari]

Also, any idea as to how many interview invites a school will send out– relative to the amount of spots open? How many don't make it through the interview phase?

 

It depends on the program. I've heard that it varies between 3-8 interviewees per spot for clinical.

No idea about other programs, though.

[gellert]

I'm getting pretty antsy about interviews.  I know it's way too early to hear back, but that doesn't stop me from doing the whole constant refresh deal. 

[PsychGirl1]

^ 3-8 was pretty spot on from what I experienced last year.