Fall 2015 Applicant Thread

[VulpesZerda]

I made an embarrassing mistake

 

For one of my personal statements, I forgot to remove the word "Draft" from the top. I know it's not worth losing sleep over, but I just feel like it looks so sloppy like I didn't bother to read it over. Now I feel really dumb At least I didn't accidentally submit a draft...

[isilya]

Assuming you're applying to work with Liina Pylkkanen and/or David Poeppel at NYU? Just submitted my application two nights ago!

 

Done 4 with 5 left to go. 

Yes!! I've been a fan of David Poeppel for years, I'm really excited

[kara.spinney]

I made an embarrassing mistake

 

For one of my personal statements, I forgot to remove the word "Draft" from the top. I know it's not worth losing sleep over, but I just feel like it looks so sloppy like I didn't bother to read it over. Now I feel really dumb At least I didn't accidentally submit a draft...

That really stinks!   I would be really upset, too. I wouldn't dwell on it too much, though. There's nothing that you can really do about it now, and in the end, I doubt that it will be the deciding factor in the committee's decision.

[VulpesZerda]

That really stinks! I would be really upset, too. I wouldn't dwell on it too much, though. There's nothing that you can really do about it now, and in the end, I doubt that it will be the deciding factor in the committee's decision.

Let's hope! Thank you so much for replying--it makes me feel a lot better. I know sometimes people contact admissions to change things, but this doesn't quite seem worth it, so I'll have to get over it. Oh well!

[Tolman's Rat]

Let's hope! Thank you so much for replying--it makes me feel a lot better. I know sometimes people contact admissions to change things, but this doesn't quite seem worth it, so I'll have to get over it. Oh well!

Hey. I also made a silly mistake, messing up a verb conjugation in one letter. I wrote "I believe this level of familiarity with X, Y, and Z are uncommon for incoming graduate students..."

 

I think it's unreasonable to expect an application to be completely free of errors, and I doubt there are many that are. Don't sweat it, and if your program doesn't accept you because of it, you probably didn't want to go to a school that's so petty, anyway

[VulpesZerda]

Hey. I also made a silly mistake, messing up a verb conjugation in one letter. I wrote "I believe this level of familiarity with X, Y, and Z are uncommon for incoming graduate students..."

I think it's unreasonable to expect an application to be completely free of errors, and I doubt there are many that are. Don't sweat it, and if your program doesn't accept you because of it, you probably didn't want to go to a school that's so petty, anyway

Haha, good point! Thanks

[Munashi]

At least I didn't accidentally submit a draft...

 

Maybe it will seem like you did, and then they'll be even more impressed given that the draft is so polished!    Don't think on it too much dude, I'm sure it'll be fine.

[Rose Tyler]

If your personal statement is strong, I really don't think they'll think twice about one mistake. Don't sweat it.

 

I had a moment of panic when, last week, it hit me that "VA" stands for "Veterans Affairs." For some reason, I wrote "Veterans Administration" on one SOP and I've been kicking myself.

[VulpesZerda]

Maybe it will seem like you did, and then they'll be even more impressed given that the draft is so polished!    Don't think on it too much dude, I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

Haha that's an awesome thought!

 

If your personal statement is strong, I really don't think they'll think twice about one mistake. Don't sweat it.

 

I had a moment of panic when, last week, it hit me that "VA" stands for "Veterans Affairs." For some reason, I wrote "Veterans Administration" on one SOP and I've been kicking myself.

 

They might not even notice that!

 

 

 

Thanks to both of you guys, I knew GC people would make me feel better. My mom and SO both had no idea what to say to calm me down besides "that sucks" 

[Rose Tyler]

Good luck to everyone with a deadline today!

 

I'm going crazy. One school still has my transcript marked as not received even though I sent it weeks ago. I should have sent another one but by the time I realized that there was definitely a problem, it was break. My second choice hasn't received two of my letters. I resent the notification to both referees a week ago and emailed them yesterday about it. I haven't gotten a response back yet, but one of them is out of the office so I don't even know if she'll see my email in time.

[psych face]

Let's hope! Thank you so much for replying--it makes me feel a lot better. I know sometimes people contact admissions to change things, but this doesn't quite seem worth it, so I'll have to get over it. Oh well!

 

I'd tell you what I screwed up too, to make you feel better, but it's too embarrassing. I made a table of which applications I screwed up on so I can see if they ignore it or not in the admit process.

[Tolman's Rat]

Good luck to everyone with a deadline today!

 

I'm going crazy. One school still has my transcript marked as not received even though I sent it weeks ago. I should have sent another one but by the time I realized that there was definitely a problem, it was break. My second choice hasn't received two of my letters. I resent the notification to both referees a week ago and emailed them yesterday about it. I haven't gotten a response back yet, but one of them is out of the office so I don't even know if she'll see my email in time.

I only have a scholarship application to do today! That said, I just started my research proposal last night  Should be interesting. Finished all my program applications that are due today late last week, thankfully. 

 

So you have letters due today that haven't been submitted yet? My last reccommender submitted mine yesterday and I was losing my mind. Can't imagine what you're feeling.

 

I'd tell you what I screwed up too, to make you feel better, but it's too embarrassing. I made a table of which applications I screwed up on so I can see if they ignore it or not in the admit process.

Tell us! Tell us!

[AvatarPsych]

Good luck today, everyone! 

 

I applied to programs last year and am currently attending my top choice as a first year. Feel free to ask any questions! 

 

As for making mistakes on your applications... last year I accidentally submitted a personal statement with the wrong school name in it. They were super nice and let me replace the writing after I had submitted it, and I still got in! I wouldn't suggest amending your statement for mistakes such as a conjugated verb, but just a little anecdote to hopefully lighten the stress load  

[Rose Tyler]

I only have a scholarship application to do today! That said, I just started my research proposal last night  Should be interesting. Finished all my program applications that are due today late last week, thankfully. 

 

So you have letters due today that haven't been submitted yet? My last reccommender submitted mine yesterday and I was losing my mind. Can't imagine what you're feeling.

 

Tell us! Tell us!

 

I do. One professor emailed me back and said she submitted it today (I checked and it's there) and the other one asked me to resend the notification again. I did and emailed her that I did, just to make sure. She received it and hopefully that'll be taken care of today. I'm significantly concerned about the letters that have to be mailed because I don't know if that was taken care of or not, but luckily there's only two of those and one of them insists that I don't need to send anything else.

 

I felt better when I heard two of my professors talking about a student who emailed them yesterday to submit letters that are due today.

 

Edit: I emailed the school that said I was missing a transcript and "additional requirements" over a week ago and just got a response today saying that all of my materials have been received and forwarded to the department for evaluation. I'm not entirely sure how that's true, but I'll take it.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Rose Tyler

[VulpesZerda]

My last letter is most likely not going to make it in tonight. I called the four programs today and each of them basically said it's fine but I'm psychotic and don't believe them hahaha. Why can't he just submit :'(

[gradgoal]

My last letter is most likely not going to make it in tonight. I called the four programs today and each of them basically said it's fine but I'm psychotic and don't believe them hahaha. Why can't he just submit :'(

I'm in the same boat - one of my referees submitted the reference letter but forgot to complete a mandatory "clinical form". Also some schools have it posted as my GRE scores and/or transcripts have not been received but I'm positive they should have been by now...

[VulpesZerda]

I'm in the same boat - one of my referees submitted the reference letter but forgot to complete a mandatory "clinical form". Also some schools have it posted as my GRE scores and/or transcripts have not been received but I'm positive they should have been by now...

That was the case for me over the weekend when I was checking for those things. Checked again today and it was all set. Most likely case is that your schools have the stuff but haven't had time to enter it into your online account. Though it can be hard trusting the USPS and ETS.

By the way, my letter (literally) was submitted at the 11th hour. I was shocked!

[CogPsych2015]

I work in the undergraduate admissions office at my university, and can say that it often takes up to a week to process anything we get and then reflect that we have it online. But, it goes into our imaging system right away. So, it's technically "received" whenever we physically have it and put it in our imaging system (usually <1 day), it just takes awhile longer for the student to see that we have it. Our grad school uses the same programs. Hopefully that's what is going on with your documents

[Generis]

I'm half way through! It takes an incredible amount of time to integrate the research interests of different POIs in my statement of purposes, even though they are all related... Anyone else spending a ridiculous amount of time weaving this into their SOPs???

I think it's well worth it!

[Tolman's Rat]

I'm half way through! It takes an incredible amount of time to integrate the research interests of different POIs in my statement of purposes, even though they are all related... Anyone else spending a ridiculous amount of time weaving this into their SOPs???

I think it's well worth it!

It's extremely time consuming, but I view it as essential. In fact, I didn't even consider the possibility of being admitted without demonstrating at least some familiarity with POIs' research.

[MelB]

Hey all,

 

I'm new to grad cafe, but so excited to see that there's a thread for Social Psych! I'm currently applying to social psych, management, and organizational PhD programs. Although, all of the programs I'm applying to have a social psychology research focus. My question revolves around GRE scores. Most Application FAQ pages typically reference percentiles when discussing GRE scores, which makes me a little nervous as my Quant score was 154 with a percentile of about 54. Does anyone have any idea about what kind of weight grad schools give the GRE percentiles vs. scores? I know this largely depends on where you're applying and what the rest of your application looks like, but I was trying to get a general sense of what sort of weight it would have. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

[FinallyAccepted]

Hey all,

 

I'm new to grad cafe, but so excited to see that there's a thread for Social Psych! I'm currently applying to social psych, management, and organizational PhD programs. Although, all of the programs I'm applying to have a social psychology research focus. My question revolves around GRE scores. Most Application FAQ pages typically reference percentiles when discussing GRE scores, which makes me a little nervous as my Quant score was 154 with a percentile of about 54. Does anyone have any idea about what kind of weight grad schools give the GRE percentiles vs. scores? I know this largely depends on where you're applying and what the rest of your application looks like, but I was trying to get a general sense of what sort of weight it would have. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

 

When I applied to programs last year and I applied to Northwestern social psych, they put a threshold around the 80th percentile on their website.  I don't know if this is typical, because there weren't a lot of programs that specified GRE scores when I did my search.

 

I WILL say that from what I've heard from people who know more about the application process, that GRE scores might be the lowest weighted factor for applications.  SOPs, letters, GPA, and overall fit seem to be more important overall.  I had really great GRE scores, and I STILL got shut out last year, so obviously they didn't count for too much.

 

Hope that's comforting.  Welcome to GradCafe, Mel.

[Rose Tyler]

Good luck! I'm not very knowledgeable on the impact of GRE scores. I know in clinical programs I've seen percentile cut-offs at 40 and "usually accept applicants above" at 40 and 50. My GRE score is really not good so we'll see how that affects my chances.

 

Also just found out that one of my referees never sent letters that had to be mailed. I think I'm already screwed.

[VulpesZerda]

One of the programs I'm applying to told me in an email that they are flexible about GRE but like to see at least one of the scores above 80th percentile. I think a lot of them rely on percentiles as the current scoring system is still fairly new.

[Rose Tyler]

I know some of my programs have interview dates posted already and some don't, but does anyone know about how long in advance programs contact with interview offers? I'm just curious about how much warning I'll have to set my affairs in order.