Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience

[Skinnerian]

I haven't seen much at all from people applying to Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience programs. Is anybody else out there? The following are the programs to which I applied:

Washington University (WashU)

Binghamton University (SUNY)

Harvard University

American University

Boston College

University of Memphis

Hope to hear from someone!

[nertperson]

Don't go to Binghamton.

[LaraAnn85]

I applied to 11 Behavioral Neuroscience programs. The only one on that list is WashU, have you heard from them? I heard they are interviewing next weekend, and I haven't heard back, so I'm guessing that's a no! I am interviewing at ASU next weekend and Purdue a few weeks later, still waiting to hear from UT Austin, UNC Chapel Hill, Tufts, and Northeastern. Good luck to you! PS What specifically do you want to study?

[ngold004]

I applied to Washington University in St. Louis.  I haven't heard anything so I guess that means NO for me :evil:

[FastForward]

I can confirm that Harvard hasn't responded.. UCSD and Berkeley both have invitation-only open houses (UCSD last weekend, Berkeley in ~2 weeks) for which I haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming that's bad news for me (should I listen to my waaaay-too-quiet-inner-optimist and think "maybe they don't invite over international candidates with a US college degree / reside in the US ?)

As I placed some significant weight on location as well :oops: , the remaining schools on my list include Stanford, NYU and Columbia. I would be happy to hear back from anyone who knows what's going on there...

Finally, I am not aware of any websites for the schools mentioned above to check admission status (the few they have were only for application package completeness).. I am not utterly misguided here, am I ? :?:

[sigh] I really regret not having a back-up plan at the moment. It would be good to know for sure that I am quitting my job in 3 months.

cheers & good luck,

[astorian]

I applied to the cognition/ perception program at NYU, the psychology program at Columbia, the cognitive studies program at Teachers College, and the cognition, brain & behavior at CUNY Brooklyn- I haven't heard back from any yet. I was accepted to the educational psychology program at Fordham. Now I'm just waiting for the rest of these

[FastForward]

E-mail from Berkeley. I wish there were a bit more direct about saying no. :roll:

"In early December of 2007, we sent an email message to you stating we would reply

to the message(s) you sent to but it may take up to six

weeks. Unfortunately, due to a recent change in our admissions process, we were

unable to thoroughly check each application file for completeness and reply by then. Please

note, however, that the admissions committees reviewed both complete and incomplete

applications, and already have invited candidates to visit the Department. We

expect the committees to make final decisions in late February or early March

(between February 25th and March 7th). Official letters will be sent through

the United States Postal Service within two weeks after the final decisions have

been made.

The Department of Psychology would like to thank you for your application to

our department. We wish you the best of luck and appreciate your patience and

understanding.: "

6 more to go... Not started off on the right foot though

[aggie-hater]

I applied to Cog, Developmental, and Clinical programs at:

Stanford (heard these people have been invited already from a current post-doc there...but haven't seen anything on this site)

University of Chicago

USC

Pitt

Columbia

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

NYU

WashU

Harvard

UCLA

Northwestern

Wisconsin

I feel like my email is null and my phone is dead...no response from anyone about anything...(not that I want to hear bad news oh great and powerful grad school gods ). Seriously though, twelve schools and not a peep! I know others have heard from at least a third of these so I'm hoping that I've been second-stringed for those schools. Ahhh the silly flimsy thoughts we hang our hopes on!

Blah blah blah,

Put Me Out of My Misery

(with good news though!) :roll:

[FastForward]

Hi Aggie,

I got some overlap with your school list, and it has been all too silent for me too... Silence as in weird silence. Too silent. Anyway, I will defn share my status on NYU, Columbia, Harvard and Stanford once I hear from them. In case I decide to hate my life as a result of what I hear, there might be a slight delay so be warned :shock:

[macaquemaniac]

Is this everyone's first year of applying? This is my 3rd (yea, i know, I must be insane) and I havent heard anything yet. Only applied to three though: Emory, Georgia State, and University of Georgia in Athens. I know Emory has already had its first round of interviews (Congrats K!!!!).

I tell myself that each time I apply it will be easier and that if I dont get in I won't be as crushed but Im really lying to myself. I have pretty good stats: 3.5 GPA from competitive school, 750Q 560V GRE, 710 psych GRE. Good LOR (one with ties to UGA and one with ties to Emory), 2 years of excellent non-human primate research experience first at a pre-clinical tox company, then at the NIH.

At any rate: THIS WAITING IS KILLING ME. On another posting somebody suggested reading books about graduate life, which is nice for the first timers, but for me I dont think that is such a good idea. Is anyone else in the same boat :?:

Keep everyone updated and good luck!!!!

[LaraAnn85]

Is this everyone's first year of applying? This is my 3rd (yea, i know, I must be insane) and I havent heard anything yet. Only applied to three though: Emory, Georgia State, and University of Georgia in Athens. I know Emory has already had its first round of interviews (Congrats K!!!!).

I tell myself that each time I apply it will be easier and that if I dont get in I won't be as crushed but Im really lying to myself. I have pretty good stats: 3.5 GPA from competitive school, 750Q 560V GRE, 710 psych GRE. Good LOR (one with ties to UGA and one with ties to Emory), 2 years of excellent non-human primate research experience first at a pre-clinical tox company, then at the NIH.

At any rate: THIS WAITING IS KILLING ME. On another posting somebody suggested reading books about graduate life, which is nice for the first timers, but for me I dont think that is such a good idea. Is anyone else in the same boat :?:

Keep everyone updated and good luck!!!!

This is my first time applying, it's been pretty hellish I can't imagine doing it again. What program did you apply for? Based on your stats I can't imagine why you wouldn't have gotten in anywhere! I applied to 10 schools, so far I've gotten in to 2, waiting to hear back from one after an interview, wait listed at another, 3 are "still reviewing," and I didn't get an interview at 3 others (including Emory as well). You should definitely contact admissions secretaries and/or the person you applied to work with if you haven't heard anything. You must be going crazy, I know I am!1

[aggie-hater]

Hey FastForward - sorry to hear you are experiencing the same silence I am...though mine was temporarily broken by rejections from two schools not mentioned in your post. This is nuts and I agree, oddly silent. From what I've heard there were a number of interviews this weekend so wait-listed notifications should start to wrap around now. Stay hopeful though, a once wait-listed Stanford grad student (now a post-doc!) I know didn't hear until mid-April! ? Stanford is awesome and I've heard great things about WashU, not much about the departments at Harvard or NYU though. I queried everyone I wanted to work with and spoke with almost all by phone or email before applications were due, NYU never responded along with Northwestern. A small percentage of professors do not communicate with prospectives until applications are in and offers are made, but they usually advise you of this rather than just not responding. I usually take that as a bad sign. I totally understand that they may not want to speak with the huge volume of students looking to work with them, but not responding is rude. Anyway...blah blah blah once again ?

Oh and Macque...I'm in the exact same boat...this is my third year applying and my sympathetic nervous system is shot, probably non-responsive now after three years of this. It almost starts to feel like you're blacklisted, though that sounds paranoid and delusional...lol. Yes, delusions of grandeur that these schools actually see us as people and not just their next inflated application fee payment. I'm really not as bitter as I sound ...fees just drive me nuts. I will say that the one thing I did differently this year was applying to 12 schools, not just a few like I've done in the past and contacted multiple professors within those programs that I would like to work with. The only downside is that I don't really have any 2nd or 3rd tier schools since those guys don't generally have the funding or resources to do the kind of research I'm interested in, which sucks.

Anyway, best of luck to you guys, hang in there! The avalanche is coming ?

[macaquemaniac]

Yea...the first year I applied to 4, then 8, then 3 this year just because I didnt have the umph (or dinero) left for another 8 applications. Ive contacted faculty prior to applying with very little response. Most of the programs are either behavioral neuro or cog/social psych. Ultimately I want to do something social behavior or communication/vocalization based with NHPs. Its nice to hear that Im not the only crazy one.....I felt like my posting was a little bitter too lol, so dont feel bad. You know, the thing that gets me the most is that I have friends who are way less qualified than me that got into med school. COME ON NOW. I say to friends and family Im applying for the third time and they look at me like Im illiterate. How come the general public doesnt know how hard this is? Not that I care that much what everyone else thinks, but still.

This is therapeutic.

Im keeping my fingers crossed for everyone!!! (or at least those who are really passionate about it).

[FastForward]

Looks like Stanford starting responding to ppl.... (re: results section) Not me though.

[FastForward]

As of now ---------- First "official" rejection award goes to.... UCSD

I am sad but my relief outweighs my disappointment. Congrats to all who made it. I would appreciate any stats if you hear any (total # apps?)

neeeeext .....

[LaraAnn85]

As of now ---------- First "official" rejection award goes to.... UCSD

I am sad but my relief outweighs my disappointment. Congrats to all who made it. I would appreciate any stats if you hear any (total # apps?)

neeeeext .....

Who did you apply to work with?

[FastForward]

hi LaraAnn-

I want to research emotion-memory interactions with neuroscientific tools. Had Adam Aron, Tim Rickard and Larry Squire on my SOP. I got a quant background (but I don't really want to do computational neuro) but given the rejection, I regret not having applied to a computational neuro track to increase my chances. I wonder how many ppl can switch trackes after they begin the program / if it's all about getting your foot in... :?:

[LaraAnn85]

I have no idea about switching tracks, I don't imagine it would be easy but who knows. I had Dr. Rickard for stats sophomore year, he was cool, I have no idea what he does his research on though. Our experimental program is like #2 in the country, don't feel badly, I wouldn't get in and I'm here for undergrad. Where else are you waiting to hear/have you heard from??

[tashagirl]

As of now ---------- First "official" rejection award goes to.... UCSD

I am sad but my relief outweighs my disappointment. Congrats to all who made it. I would appreciate any stats if you hear any (total # apps?)

neeeeext .....

Do you mind me asking, were you invited to their interview weekend?

[FastForward]

Do you mind me asking, were you invited to their interview weekend?

Nope, I didn't interview... so I kinda knew this was coming :|

[astorian]

Has anyone here been accepted to the Teachers College Cognitive Studies in Education program, or the Fordham Educational Psychology program? I've been accepted to these two, and am still waiting on three more (CUNY's Cognition, Brain, Behavior program, Columbia's Psychology program, and NYU's Cognition and Perception program). If I don't get good news from Columbia or NYU, I'll have to figure out whether I'd rather go to Teachers College or Fordham, and have no idea which would be a better program.

Still no word from Columbia or NYU for anyone?

[FastForward]

Astorian,

As of March 4th 2008 11am EST, I've got no news from NYU or Columbia.

[astorian]

Anyone hear from NYU yet? I've heard that they had interviews, and also that they are notoriously secretive about their admissions process. Could they be accepting anyone without an interview? If not, why wouldn't they have sent out rejections yet?

Ahh going crazy waiting here.

[LaraAnn85]

astorian said:

Anyone hear from NYU yet? I've heard that they had interviews, and also that they are notoriously secretive about their admissions process. Could they be accepting anyone without an interview? If not, why wouldn't they have sent out rejections yet?

Ahh going crazy waiting here.

A lot of schools haven't sent rejections, or at least not to everyone. I haven't heard an official word from WUSTL, Tufts, Northeastern, or Emory but I know that they are all interviewed. I guess I didn't make the interview pile but I'm on back-up in case people don't accept. The only place I really want this to happen is OHSU (I'm on a wait list :? )!

[FastForward]

Status update:

3 confirmed rejections (Princeton, UCSD, WUSTL)

2 unofficial rejections (had interviews, i wasn't invited): Berkeley, Stanford

3 will-soon-become-official rejections: NYU, Columbia, Harvard

cheers,