jnah Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 FYI - Just called Oregon (social) to confirm the interview date posted on their site. They have sent all invites out at this point. I knew I was reaching a bit with this one since they have a strong, competitive program. Oh well. I'm not sure if I've been waitlisted or not, but I am going to treat this as a dead-end at the moment. Wow, that is really disappointing. I had high hopes for Oregon. My immediate thought was—perhaps they don't interview everyone they accept. But that just seems like a delusional attempt to not be incredibly devastated right now.
AnomalousApplicant Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) I feel pretty stupid for only applying to four programs, but even finishing those applications was very difficult. I ended up taking a lot of time off from my minimum wage job to work on them, so much so that I almost got evicted recently, and even then I only just barely got my four apps done. I don't understand how y'all have time to work on 10-11 apps, honestly. Did you finish half of them by October or something? Rando, Do not feel stupid. I had to apply to just 3 programs last year because of time constraints. However, this time around, I started very early with several of the letters of recommendations, personal statement, etc., so that by the time all of the applications opened, all that I had left to do was fill out the basic background information. I did find some schools at the last minute though, so I had to hurry and get some stuff done. It is very time-consuming. Luckily, I do not have a job that takes up a ton of time at the moment, so I was able to do a lot. As PsychandPhilo stated, applications were very, very expensive and by the time I finished sending transcripts, GRE scores, and application processing fees, I spent around $800 dollars for 11 programs. I cannot afford that again. . . Edited January 22, 2015 by JLS912
TXInstrument11 Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 Wow, that is really disappointing. I had high hopes for Oregon. My immediate thought was—perhaps they don't interview everyone they accept. But that just seems like a delusional attempt to not be incredibly devastated right now. Yeah, they were one of my top choices too. The grad admissions coordinator I spoke with said some professors were keeping waitlists, but the tone in her voice made it seem like she was grasping for straws. Did you apply to Illinois-UC by any chance? If so, I have some good news. I called them today as well and confirmed that the adcom for social hasn't met yet. She said only 3/9 programs there have actually sent out decisions. I may call UT-Austin and FSU tomorrow as well. If I find out any more info about interview invites, I'll post it here.
FinallyAccepted Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 Seriously, so expensive. I was building up my savings account for months; I set aside roughly a thousand dollars to apply, deal with ETS, and order transcripts from two colleges. Can I ask (I've never gotten a great answer), but what exactly do application fees fund? Is it really used to pay people to look through applications? Is it really used to offset the cost of travel to interview weekends for those invited? Even the schools without interview weekends have pricey app fees, so it can't be that. I'm just curious because after 2 years of applying (20 schools total) x 3 transcripts sent for each school that needed official transcripts x GRE scores for each school (minus the 3 that saved my scores from last year), it really adds up. I know the app fee is the only thing that goes to the school, but that's generally the most expensive part. Anyone have good insight?
VulpesZerda Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 Can I ask (I've never gotten a great answer), but what exactly do application fees fund? Is it really used to pay people to look through applications? Is it really used to offset the cost of travel to interview weekends for those invited? Even the schools without interview weekends have pricey app fees, so it can't be that. I'm just curious because after 2 years of applying (20 schools total) x 3 transcripts sent for each school that needed official transcripts x GRE scores for each school (minus the 3 that saved my scores from last year), it really adds up. I know the app fee is the only thing that goes to the school, but that's generally the most expensive part. Anyone have good insight? I think to some extent the fee is used to make sure only serious applicants apply. If it was cheaper/free, they would be getting a lot of garbage, lol
FinallyAccepted Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 I think to some extent the fee is used to make sure only serious applicants apply. If it was cheaper/free, they would be getting a lot of garbage, lol Well then for that amount, I wish someone would provide me better feedback for why I wasn't accepted. My application is not obviously terrible, so I wish $75-100 would merit an actual e-mail, rather than a mass mailing. Sorry. Rant done. Schizo-Neuro enthusiast 1
TXInstrument11 Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 Well then for that amount, I wish someone would provide me better feedback for why I wasn't accepted. My application is not obviously terrible, so I wish $75-100 would merit an actual e-mail, rather than a mass mailing. Sorry. Rant done. No, seriously. It's ridiculous. Also, it's patently unfair and seems to be an ineffective way to weed out applicants. They have app completion, LORS, and GPA/GRE cutoffs to do that with. Requiring upwards of $100 application fees only punishes people with less money. Schizo-Neuro enthusiast 1
psych face Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) Over 600 applicants... sheesh. Meh, I applied to worse, so they ain't impressing me with that. Now, If I get rejected from a school that had ten applicants, that would be unfortunate. I don't understand how y'all have time to work on 10-11 apps, honestly. Did you finish half of them by October or something? As VulpesZerda said, I also gave heads up to letter writers months prior (summertime or sooner) and created a statement that had set parts and then parts I changed for each school. Also, I probably did a really crappy job of giving each school's application the attention it deserved, which made it easier to apply to several. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be funny. If funny, then laugh. Also as stated by VulpesZerda - I saved up for it. The key is preparation. And if you want to apply to that many it's only fair to have heads up to your letter writers months in advance and spend the summer looking at websites. Can I ask (I've never gotten a great answer), but what exactly do application fees fund? Is it really used to pay people to look through applications? Is it really used to offset the cost of travel to interview weekends for those invited? [...] Anyone have good insight? Gin. Whisky. (?) I think it's funny that cheaper schools have cheaper application fees, like it's so much harder to click buttons and flip over a piece of paper if you're at a bigger or more prestigious school. I think they get soft at the top tier schools, their muscles are feeble, so it requires more energy to look at apps. This takes a lot of time, because they are weak, so apps read per hour is down and therefore more hours are required. This requires more imbursement to choose appicants. This has been my best guess at a plausable, although totally lame, explanation. I think to some extent the fee is used to make sure only serious applicants apply. If it was cheaper/free, they would be getting a lot of garbage, lol mmm... I think they get a lot of garbage anyway. And I think there's a joke about the correlation between how much money you have and how worthless you are. Something from a movie? Well then for that amount, I wish someone would provide me better feedback for why I wasn't accepted. My application is not obviously terrible, so I wish $75-100 would merit an actual e-mail, rather than a mass mailing. Sorry. Rant done. This is the best suggestion ever. I forked out all this dough. To what? 600 applicants X $80(?) = $48,000 WTF!!??? Is this how they pay for their office staff or what? That's just one department, think about how much a graduate college office makes off of application fees each year. Holy F@#$%! Edit: I just remembered, it was the first Michael Keaton/Tim Burton Batman, when Kim Basinger was in the hall of weapons with the Jimmy dude. Edited January 22, 2015 by psych face gellert and psych face 2
FinallyAccepted Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 I forked out all this dough. To what? 600 applicants X $80(?) = $48,000 WTF!!??? Is this how they pay for their office staff or what? That's just one department, think about how much a graduate college office makes off of application fees each year. Holy F@#$%! That's what I'm saying. When I saw all those people on the Results Search posting that there had been 600 applicants to Michigan, I started trying to tally up what that would mean in terms of funds for the department. Maybe they give a special "application season stipend" to the assistant in charge of responding to oh so many "Have invites gone out?" "Am I in?" "Does my POI like me?" e-mails.
MyDogHasAPhD Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 I can totally relate to the posts about the financial burden of applying. I actually had a lengthy conversation with my letter writers about this and his view was that it is actually a way to keep those in lower SES out of the application pool. Granted, he's a social psychologist! So take that for what it is. But I will say that just the financial nightmare that applying put me through alone was enough to deter me from doing this again. I am still recovering and will be for quite sometime. Between taking my GRE FOUR TIMES in the span of 5 months, sending the scores, sending the fees, GRE tutoring and prep courses, it killed any savings I remotely had. I guess it's the game we have to play though. I hope to whatever higher power that I do not have to go through this again but I am starting to realize if that's the case, I wouldn't be alone. Seems it does take a few application seasons to get it right. I have two schools left, one I had an unofficial interview with nearly two weeks ago and haven't heard anything, and one that the application was due last week so I will be waiting a while there. My poor nerves are shot, as I am sure everyone else's are as well. This whole process is a true test of tenacity and I commend all of us for going through it. Not only is the process it's self tedious, but getting to the point where you're a viable applicant is no easy feat. Rejections or not, we still all should be proud. Schizo-Neuro enthusiast 1
mb712 Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 I could be completely wrong, but is it possible schools have to pay to maintain a relationship with ETS? I mean, obviously it doesn't cost $40k a year but that could be a cost associated with this process. Plus paying to fly people out for interviews could add up pretty quickly. I still can't believe Michigan received 600 applications. Those poor admissions people.
mb712 Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 I can totally relate to the posts about the financial burden of applying. I actually had a lengthy conversation with my letter writers about this and his view was that it is actually a way to keep those in lower SES out of the application pool. Granted, he's a social psychologist! So take that for what it is. But I will say that just the financial nightmare that applying put me through alone was enough to deter me from doing this again. I am still recovering and will be for quite sometime. Between taking my GRE FOUR TIMES in the span of 5 months, sending the scores, sending the fees, GRE tutoring and prep courses, it killed any savings I remotely had. I guess it's the game we have to play though. I hope to whatever higher power that I do not have to go through this again but I am starting to realize if that's the case, I wouldn't be alone. Seems it does take a few application seasons to get it right. I have two schools left, one I had an unofficial interview with nearly two weeks ago and haven't heard anything, and one that the application was due last week so I will be waiting a while there. My poor nerves are shot, as I am sure everyone else's are as well. This whole process is a true test of tenacity and I commend all of us for going through it. Not only is the process it's self tedious, but getting to the point where you're a viable applicant is no easy feat. Rejections or not, we still all should be proud. I needed your optimistic ending tonight! My nervous are definitely shot, you're probably right about that being true for everyone. We all found a way this time, I'm sure we can all find a way again.
MyDogHasAPhD Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWyzwo1xg0 This song just keeps playing my mind.... rower92, TXInstrument11 and mb712 3
TXInstrument11 Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Oregon was a top pick of mine as well. Hopefully, there are a few waitlists rolling around. I believe they do have a lot of applications every year.
jnah Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Hopefully, there are a few waitlists rolling around. I believe they do have a lot of applications every year. I emailed my POI at Oregon earlier, and he said that the lack of interview invite meant I was "out of the running for admission"—which seemed to be a pretty definitive statement to me, i.e., no waitlist. This may vary by POI though.
TXInstrument11 Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 I emailed my POI at Oregon earlier, and he said that the lack of interview invite meant I was "out of the running for admission"—which seemed to be a pretty definitive statement to me, i.e., no waitlist. This may vary by POI though. Ah, I did not email my POIs, but I suspected as much. Thank you for posting that info. Good to know.
coffeeaddict29 Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Hi! This is my second time applying and so I applied to 9 programs: UC Irvine(Psychology and Social Behavior), UC Davis, University of Oregon, University of British Columbia, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Toronto, Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale. I was rejected from WashU, and I am fairly certain that I'll get a rejection letter from U of Oregon (I didn't get an invite to the interview), I had a Skype interview for Toronto, but other than that it has been radio silent. Has anyone heard back from UC Irvine, UC Davis, Arizona State University, Yale, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, or University of British Columbia? I'm especially interested in UC Irvine because it is my top choice and their website said that applicants will hear about interviews by end of January.... And now's the end of January... Which makes me super nervous.
smbtuckma Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Well, looks like NYU and Chicago are starting to come out. This is starting to actually affect my sleep, ugh.
TXInstrument11 Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Hi! This is my second time applying and so I applied to 9 programs: UC Irvine(Psychology and Social Behavior), UC Davis, University of Oregon, University of British Columbia, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Toronto, Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale. I was rejected from Wash U, and I am fairly certain that I'll get a rejection letter from U of Oregon (I didn't get an invite to the interview), I had a Skype interview for Toronto, but other than that it has been radio silent. Has anyone heard back from UC Irvine, UC Davis, Arizona State University, Yale, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, or University of British Columbia? I'm especially interested in UC Irvine because it is my top choice and their website said that applicants will hear about interviews by end of January.... And now's the end of January... Which makes me super nervous. I've also lost all hope on Oregon. For UIUC, there is some good news though. I called the admissions coordinator at UIUC yesterday and she said that the social-personality division hasn't met yet and was adamant that we should hear something definite (admit/reject) in late February and for interviews a good time before that.
Impatiently Waiting Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Would the person who posted their result from Rutgers mind PMing me which campus/POI they applied to? Congrats!
Illvm Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Hi! This is my second time applying and so I applied to 9 programs: UC Irvine(Psychology and Social Behavior), UC Davis, University of Oregon, University of British Columbia, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Toronto, Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale. I was rejected from Wash U, and I am fairly certain that I'll get a rejection letter from U of Oregon (I didn't get an invite to the interview), I had a Skype interview for Toronto, but other than that it has been radio silent. Has anyone heard back from UC Irvine, UC Davis, Arizona State University, Yale, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, or University of British Columbia? I'm especially interested in UC Irvine because it is my top choice and their website said that applicants will hear about interviews by end of January.... And now's the end of January... Which makes me super nervous. All the invites have been sent out for UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Yale
VulpesZerda Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Would the person who posted their result from Rutgers mind PMing me which campus/POI they applied to? Congrats! Me, too, please!
psych face Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWyzwo1xg0 This song just keeps playing my mind.... That's weird, I've got Taylor Swift's Blank Space... MyDogHasAPhD and psych face 2
tha1ne Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) That's weird, I've got Taylor Swift's Blank Space... I've got this song on repeat for days now: Edited January 23, 2015 by tha1ne
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