Fall 2016 Cognitive Neuroscience (Psychology Departments)

[Gvh]

Hey all, 

It seems there isn't yet a cog neuro thread for 2016, so I thought I'd start one! =) Specifically, I thought I'd target fellow cog neuro enthusiasts applying to psychology departments, as opposed to neuroscience or biology programs (integrative/interdisciplinary neuroimaging program applicants welcome)!

As this is my 2nd time around applying, I recently retook the GRE so I'm a little late to the game in doing research on schools, but aiming to reach out to POIs in the coming weeks.

Where you applying? Have you contacted POIs yet? Taken the GRE? First time applying?

Here's to a successful application cycle!

 

 

[EdNeuroGrl]

*wavehi*

[Jay's Brain]

I'm not in Cog Neuro, per se, but my field of study, and my advisor's research is very much cognitive neuroscience, so a warm greetings from Canada
Good luck to the Cog Neuro applicants this year!

[Gvh]

 

So, not many cog neuro applicants yet huh? In any case, I thought I'd bump this thread for any newbies  Also, if any neuroimaging people want to swap SOPs sometime, PM me. 

[DrexelACBS]

Hi! I'd like to announce our cognitive psychology/neuroscience doctoral program call for applications, if that's okay with forum rules.

We're the Applied Cognitive and Brain Sciences (ACBS) doctoral program at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), inviting applications for Ph.D. students for the 2015-2016 AY!

Learn more here:
http://drexel.edu/coas/academics/graduate-programs/psychology-applied-cognitive-brain-science/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/drexelACBS/

Faculty research interests in the ACBS program span the full range from basic to applied science in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. The ACBS core and supporting faculty are experts in leading methodology such as computational modeling, Bayesian inference, SPM, high-dimensional statistics and data mining. Accepted students will work closely with their mentor in a research-focused setting, housed in a newly-renovated, state-of-the-art facility featuring spacious graduate student offices and collaborative workspaces. Newly acquired equipment this year includes two high-density active electrode EEG systems; a high accuracy motion tracking environment; high accuracy head-mounted and table mounted eye trackers; and extensive lab space.

All core faculty are considering applications and we have several open funded slots this year. The ACBS core faculty are:

*** John Kounios, Creativity Laboratory
https://sites.google.com/site/johnkounios/
Program director; core research interests in creativity and insight, intelligence, memory, dopaminergic reward system. Specialization in electrophysiological methods (EEG, ERP), and other behavioral and neuroimaging methods (e.g., fMRI)

*** Chris Sims, Drexel Laboratory for Adaptive Cognition
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~crs346/
Research interests in visual memory, perceptual expertise, decision-making under uncertainty and learning from feedback, sensorimotor control and coordination, computational modeling. Specialization in motion tracking, eye tracking, and bayesian cognitive modeling.

*** Dan Mirman, Language and Cognitive Dynamics Laboratory
http://www.danmirman.org/
Research interests in recognition, comprehension, and production of spoken words; organization and processing of semantic knowledge; computational models of brain and behavior. Specialization in eye-tracking, brain stimulation (tDCS) and growth curve analysis.

*** Zoe Fengqing Zhang
http://drexel.edu/coas/faculty-research/faculty-directory/ZoeZhang/
Research interests in neuroimaging data analysis; data mining; bayesian inference; high dimensional data analysis.

For a full list of faculty members in the ACBS program, along with brief research descriptions, see the following webpage:
http://drexel.edu/coas/academics/graduate-programs/psychology-applied-cognitive-brain-science/faculty/

Graduate students will also have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty in Clinical Psychology, the School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, the College of Computing and Informatics, the College of Engineering, the School of Medicine, and the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center. ACBS also has strong collaborative connections with UPenn, Temple and other nearby Universities.

Drexel University is located in the University City and Center City neighborhoods of Philadelphia, a major metropolitan area with numerous cultural, medical, educational, and recreational opportunities, as well as easy access via high speed rail to New York City, Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas of the Northeast Corridor. Drexel University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The College of Arts and Sciences is especially interested in qualified students who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community.

To apply:
Applications are now being accepted, and the closing deadline is December 01, 2015.
For complete application instructions, please see the following website: http://drexel.edu/coas/academics/graduate-programs/psychology-applied-cognitive-brain-science/application-instructions/

To learn more:
http://drexel.edu/coas/academics/graduate-programs/psychology-applied-cognitive-brain-science/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/drexelACBS/

You are also welcome to contact me at Brian Erickson at bae25 [at] drexel [dot] edu with any questions.

 

[TommySotomayor]

I'm a first time applicant.  Should be sending out apps within the next couple of weeks, and I'm applying to eight programs.  I hope to study emotion-cognition interactions and their neural underpinnings.  

[Gvh]

I'm also planning to start sending some apps out in the next few weeks (most of my deadlines are December 1st)! Also applying to 8 programs :)

[LwT]

Just finished my 10 apps! just waiting on 2 of my LORs. I feel like 10 has to be enough schools, it's sure enough money out of my pocket anyway. Based on the schools that give admissions stats I know my GRE and GPA are at least near their averages, I have the course requirements,1.5 years research experience in a S&P lab... I gotta get into at least 1 program, right? Not sure about anyone else but freak-out mode is ensuing. Not sure what I'd do with my life for the next year (I've already been working as a Quality Control tech at a pharm filter factory), or forever for that matter if I don't get in somewhere.

Anyone know how important your undergraduate institution is? I went to a small public school in Wisconsin. Its not as competitive as Madison, but I know we like to tout ourselves as being right beneath them because our PA, PT, AT, Mycology, and OT programs are all rather competitive. I guess I'm worried they'll see my 3.9 GPA and be like, "so if he went to a D1 school he'd have like a 3.25" or something like that- which I really don't think is true. I think I would have done just as well at a larger institution, I just wanted an environment where I knew I could interact with my professors and they'd actually like teaching rather than viewing it as an obstacle to doing their research.

[EdNeuroGrl]

My freak out moments have been in all the preparation and writing. Now that those are 90% done I feel like I can dig back into my work without having these applications CONSTANTLY on my mind. BTW submitting my last one today!

[Gvh]

Woot I'm excited we are wrapping up the application stage and finally getting to...well, wait. haha, yay?

@LWT: From my understanding previous institution doesn't have a major impact. I would hazard a guess that having a prestigious institution on your resume can't hurt, but I doubt a smaller/unknown school is going to be a hindrance. In other words, I wouldn't worry too much about it!

I'm going to be submitting my first app today (first deadline tomorrow) and definitely freaking out slightly. I've already gone over the app 100 times but still feel compelled to keep rechecking everything. Sigh, here goes nothing... 

[cemeterydr1ve]

Hello everyone, 

I'm not really applying to cog neuroscience programs per se, but one behavioral neuroscience, one systems neuroscience, and a bunch of cognitive psych programs. The labs I'm applying to are all in visual perception, with a focus on computational modeling. It is my first time applying and I'm hoping I get into a good program. Like the person who began this thread, I come from a relatively small state university in California.  I'm also applying straight from undergrad. 

I began emailing PIs in June just because I knew it would be hard to get ahold of them during the fall semester. I have a strong application, but I know I will be up against a bunch of other strong applicants who likely have more research experience than myself (I have 1.5 years of independent research experience at my home institution and I did a summer internship at Harvard, so hopefully that helps).  

[Gvh]

Welcome mircakes! 

Has anyone else (compulsively) made notes of when their schools start sending out interview invites? I noted that over half my schools have historically sent out invites in December. Yikes.

...my winter holidays will either be very merry or very depressing. 

[cemeterydr1ve]

Thanks!  

I haven't really paid much attention to when my schools send out invites, but I know from other peoples' experiences that many programs do begin inviting people as early as December. I just think about what that means for the admissions committee ! I guess they spend their break reviewing applications. 

My first deadline was Nov 15th, so I am sort of expecting to hear something from them in December. 

 

[Gvh]

@mircakes, I don't suppose you applied to USC, by any chance (my only Nov 15th deadline)?  

[cemeterydr1ve]

I did  I got an email saying that they only suggest that deadline because the website gets bogged down after that date, but I suspect that they also begin reviewing applications before the Dec 1 hard deadline. 

[Gvh]

Yeah, I kept getting emails "strongly" urging me to apply on Nov. 15th or soon after, so it felt necessary to oblige! From my scouring of the results section it seems they have two waives of interview invites: mid/late December and mid/late January, so maybe people applying by the earlier deadline get first dibs for the December invites? 

Can you PM me your POI? (I'm assuming you're applying to the Cognitive subfield as well)?

Edited November 19, 2015 by Gvh

[LwT]

@mircakes what programs are you applying to!? I have equivalent experience, about 1.5 years doing individual research while also a research assistant in a Vision Science Lab. No Harvard experience though so you probably have a pretty big brownie point there! I also applied to quite a few programs because of the strong number of professors with visual neuroscience specialties. Also I doubt most people have more than 2 years of experience unless they entered the university absolutely positive of what they wanted to do. I don't think professors would expect people to have more than 2 years of experience unless they already have a masters.

@Gvh totally just started looking at interview information. A lot of places are rather ambiguous with their interview dates, most seem to say they give "at least 2 weeks notice". Also a lot of places that seem to say interviews start in January and February and sometimes continue into march and April. It's like they want me to have a panic attack hah. Quite problematic not being able to plan for that kind of thing because I only get a week of vacation at my job and need to submit requests rather early.

[cemeterydr1ve]

@LWT Yeah, we're pretty much the same in terms of GRE and GPA, too. I'm applying to a bunch of the UCs (University of California), as well as U Washington and U Oregon. Judging by the list of schools you're applying to, I think U Washington is the only program we have in common. I'm not applying to Berkeley. 

[LwT]

Awesome well I wish ya the best of luck! Maybe even see you in Washington...unknowingly hah.

[mylifeinshambles]

Anyone applying to social neuroscience programs?

[passenger47]

I've been lurking around Grad Cafe for awhile but made an account when I saw this!

Second time applying, retook the GRE (twice) this time around. I also improved basically every aspect of my application so I'm getting my hopes up (probably too high) this time around!

I'm applying to cognitive and behavioral neuroscience programs.

I'm trying to figure out how to make a nifty signature, but until then:

Submitted: 8/12

Interviews: 0/12

Accepted: 0/12

Rejected: 0/12

[Gvh]

Welcome @passenger47! Yay for 2nd time applicants. Let's hope we have better luck this time around!  Now that deadlines are upon us, where are people applying? I'm gunning for UCLA (psych), UC Berkeley (Neuro), USC (psych), Duke (CNAP), Northwestern (Neuro), Columbia (psych), NYU (psych), UChicago (psych). 

[passenger47]

I have a couple of those in common! U of Washington, U of Oregon, UT Austin, Boulder, U Chicago, WashU St. Louis, Boston College, Johns Hopkins, Duke CNAP, Stony Brook, NYU, UMass Amherst. A few of those are behavioral neuroscience programs, but close enough.  I'll also probably apply to a few Master's programs in Jan/Feb.

[fritzbeh]

@xEB0511 Yep, I'm applying to social neuro (although only a couple schools actually call their area that, most are cog neuro or just social). There don't seem to be all that many of us! Where are you looking at?

[Asimio]

Hey guys! I've applied to mostly Neuroscience programs, which have a strong quantitative aspect (Computational/Modelling/etc). Some of them are cognitive psychology programs; I've applied to Penn State, Colorado Boulder, Boston University and will be applying to U of Rochester.

Everyone on gradcafe has such amazing profiles, makes me incredibly insecure; especially considering my unorthodox academic background and lack of experience (not to mention my age, sigh).

BTW, Masters programs aren't funded correct? And quite pricey from what I've heard?