Better luck next Fall?

[nini312]

So I have come to terms that I will most likely get rejected from the two (yes only two) schools I applied to for fall 09, and I want to know from others out there, what can someone do to boost their experience and application for next fall?

Here are some stats:

no cumulative undergrad GPA, but estimated GPA in Psychology major 3.0

GRE verbal 460, quant 620, writing 5.

experience in research within the field I want to enter: 1.5 years so far in Organizational Behavior (aka I/O Psychology)

BA in Psychology 2005

That's all I got so far, but I am interested in taking graduate courses in San Francisco (where I live) to boost my credibility. Only issue is, still should be looking for work and classes may be only available during daytime.

I don't plan on taking the GREs again. Did it twice, scored the same twice.

Suggestions?

[fuzzylogician]

The application process usually requires a SOP, writing sample and recommendations besides the obvious GRE and GPA scores. You could work on improving any of those. Get more research experience that's relevant to your intended field, try to get published or present at a conference; build on your relationship with professors to secure even stronger LORs than you had this year. Work on your writing sample. Take graduate level courses in psychology, get good grades to improve on your 3.0 GPA.

[nini312]

True about the SOP and letters of rec. I got great ones this year, but it still didn't cut it. Feeling like the emphasis on grad level courses and more research experience is the only measurable way to go for now. Thanks.

[Stories]

Also, truly find faculty that make your potential research a good fit for that program. That and an eloquent personal statement will greatly enhance (and sometimes) override a poor GRE scroes or mediocre GPA. Although at some schools, they simply won't overlook those.

[blue]

You don't plan to take the GRE again, but my advice would be to do it. Of course, you can take a few classes and get As and that is going to help but your GPA would still remain pretty low. GRE is the easier one to fix! My scores were similar to yours the first time I took it but then I practiced a lot, learned vocabulary and now my GRE is above the 90th percentile. It's all about practice and learning more words whenever you have a few spare minutes.

[fortiesgirl]

You don't plan to take the GRE again, but my advice would be to do it. Of course, you can take a few classes and get As and that is going to help but your GPA would still remain pretty low. GRE is the easier one to fix! My scores were similar to yours the first time I took it but then I practiced a lot, learned vocabulary and now my GRE is above the 90th percentile. It's all about practice and learning more words whenever you have a few spare minutes.

I agree with this. The first two times I took the GRE my scores were pretty awful. I scored in the 500s for both verbal and quantitative, and I'm pretty good with languages so it didn't make much sense. I practiced quite a bit for my third try, and I raised my verbal to the 95% and my quantitative to 620. For me it wasn't that I didn't know the vocab (but I learned even more!!) but that I always picked the wrong answer choice among the two similar answer choices. I really worked on my strategies, especially for the reading comp section and the analogies, which I find to be god-awful sections.

It takes many classes to raise a GPA. I'm not sure that a few classes would make that much of a difference. You could try enrolling as a non-marticulating student somewhere and taking a grad class and then having that transcript transfer. That way, you should show your credibility that you are capable of doing graduate level work.

[glasses]

You don't plan to take the GRE again, but my advice would be to do it. Of course, you can take a few classes and get As and that is going to help but your GPA would still remain pretty low. GRE is the easier one to fix! My scores were similar to yours the first time I took it but then I practiced a lot, learned vocabulary and now my GRE is above the 90th percentile. It's all about practice and learning more words whenever you have a few spare minutes.

Seconded. You say you've taken it twice already, but did you study more or study differently for the second time? Maybe you could give it a go again, with several months of prep under your belt. The way I see it, how you do on the GRE is just one more thing that is somewhat under your control. If you give it a shot again, having studied more or differently, and you do what other posters have suggested (taking more graduate classes, finding professors, forging connections, and strengthening your writing sample and SOP), then you'll be working on improving everything that's in your power to improve to put you in a better place next year.

[Reinventing]

A prep class really helped me improve my verbal score. I was amazed at how well I did--cracking the analogies was key for me (I didn't realize I was approaching them wrong). I did a lot of work with vocabulary, too--the memorizing was a little difficult at first, but it paid off--200 points.

[gwydion]

So I have come to terms that I will most likely get rejected from the two (yes only two) schools I applied to for fall 09, and I want to know from others out there, what can someone do to boost their experience and application for next fall?

First off, I'd apply to more programs. divide your choices into "top" schools and some contingency programs that you are reasonably sure you can get into.

I'm not sure how you went about applying initially, but I get the impression from your post that you, like a lot of people, are hung up on the application process as a numbers game. It's not just about your stats. Lots of people get good GPAs and score well on the GRE. If you want to get accepted, you need to stand out. Did you research the programs you applied to? did you talk to the professors to see if your research interests and skills matched up with what they are looking for in prospective grad students? Did you write this information into your SOP?

I got accepted into my program with a good, but not stellar GPA and so-so GRE scores. What made me attractive was that I had a set of skills and research interests that dovetailed with a perceived deficiency in the program that they were looking to fill. You can take the GRE all you like, (and make no mistake, the scores can be important) but if you are not looking at how you fit into the program, and arguing that point, you may still get rejected.