Fall 2016 Social Psych Applicants

[Mystic_Fog]

27 minutes ago, lbierstedt said:

Alcohol, mostly  

 

Trying to balance between continuing to live my life and realizing that Plan B may turn into a reality if things don't work out. Lots of self-care. And spending time with my cats

Animals are fantastic support - I'll be spending time with friends who have dogs so hopefully that will help!

[Gradulate]

Hi everyone!

It's Christmas Eve and I cannot help but ruminate over how I didn't get any e-mail from Berkeley  (they said they would contact potential candidates around Dec the 23rd). I was wondering, has anyone applied and received an invitation? If so, lucky you!

This is my first post here, so, let me introduce myself:

International student, majored in Psychology (BA) and Master of Science in Psychology in the Netherlands. 2+ years of research training, out of which 2 in social psychology.

 

Applying to: Berkeley (we all know how that went), UTA, UCLA, NYU, NYU Steinhardt (Psy & Social Intervention), UPENN, UVa. 

Research interests: I. racism, discrimination, stereotyping, extremist behavior. 

Willing to apply to other universities that accept later applications. 

 

Nice to meet you and hope we can keep each other company in these moments of anguish. Good luck everyone! And Merry Christmas to all celebrating!

[Mystic_Fog]

Have you checked the results page? People typically post about their invitations and such there. You can get to it by going to 

thegradcafe.com and selecting "results" and tyoung in psychology or your specialty (e.g., cognitive psychology) 

[Tahlain]

@Gradulate Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and good luck on all of your "apps"! 

 

I got an invite for a Berkeley Neuroscience interview. I'm interested in social, affective, and personality neuroscience... so I guess that counts as Social Psych, kinda. I applied to UCLA's social program too. Getting a big antsy about the interview invite (or rather the lack thereof) for that one. 

[HIMJoel]

On 12/23/2015 at 6:59 AM, RD said:

Is it standard practice for social programs to do admissions interviews? I've been through the application process once before for clinical psych programs, and I've never heard of a clinical program that didn't interview. But I applied to the social psych program at UC Santa Cruz, and past results on gradcafe are all accepted/rejected with the exception of a few "informal interviews." I tried contacting the program about a week ago to ask about it, but all I have is an email address and I haven't heard back. Does it make sense that they wouldn't interview at all?

UCSC does not typically have formal interviews for their programs. That said, the interviews that do happen are typically over skype or phone. I know this because I am a current student, and have been told the basic process for admissions here. 

[RD]

On 12/26/2015 at 9:42 PM, HIMJoel said:

UCSC does not typically have formal interviews for their programs. That said, the interviews that do happen are typically over skype or phone. I know this because I am a current student, and have been told the basic process for admissions here. 

Thanks for the info! Do you have any idea how common it is for professors to conduct informal interviews? I'm just wondering if I should be waiting to hear about an interview or if I might actually get accepted without one.

[HIMJoel]

7 hours ago, RD said:

Thanks for the info! Do you have any idea how common it is for professors to conduct informal interviews? I'm just wondering if I should be waiting to hear about an interview or if I might actually get accepted without one.

It varies PI to PI, I got asked to do an informal interview in mid January.  

[RD]

11 hours ago, HIMJoel said:

It varies PI to PI, I got asked to do an informal interview in mid January.  

Ok, thank you for the info! I have my heart set on going there next year, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed  

[PsychWill]

On 12/9/2015 at 3:47 PM, Mystic_Fog said:

Mine are below. I'm going for intergroup processes/conflict and social identity, emphasizing stigmatized identities.

I'm going to guess you applied to Purdie-Vaughns?? I did as well and still waiting to hear anything!

[PsychWill]

On 12/25/2015 at 9:56 PM, Tahlain said:

@Gradulate Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and good luck on all of your "apps"! 

 

I got an invite for a Berkeley Neuroscience interview. I'm interested in social, affective, and personality neuroscience... so I guess that counts as Social Psych, kinda. I applied to UCLA's social program too. Getting a big antsy about the interview invite (or rather the lack thereof) for that one. 

Lieberman and Eisenberger? Applied to them too and haven't heard yet either.

[PsychWill]

Got my first admission to U Mich!!!  I was SHOCKED how quickly they did admissions, and without an interview!! Anyone else know of schools doing acceptances this early??

[RD]

18 minutes ago, PsychWill said:

Got my first admission to U Mich!!!  I was SHOCKED how quickly they did admissions, and without an interview!! Anyone else know of schools doing acceptances this early??

Congrats!!  

[ihatechoosingusernames]

5 hours ago, PsychWill said:

Got my first admission to U Mich!!!  I was SHOCKED how quickly they did admissions, and without an interview!! Anyone else know of schools doing acceptances this early??

Congrats! Which program area? Social or Personality and Social Contexts?

[Freudian_Slip]

Posted this in the other thread on Results Clarifications, but all Columbia interviews are likely to have been sent out already. They sent a mass email last year around mid-December, and someone posted an interview result again this year around that same time.

Michigan Social doesn't seem to send out results until mid-January, so I doubt anyone who's applying Social has been accepted yet.

There have only been about 20 results total for Social psych programs on GradCafe. Social doesn't seem to really get going until a week or so into January.

[Mystic_Fog]

On December 30, 2015 at 1:10 PM, PsychWill said:

I'm going to guess you applied to Purdie-Vaughns?? I did as well and still waiting to hear anything!

Yes. I'm still waiting to hear as well. It was definitely a reach school so I won't be surprised if I don't hear anything ! 

[Mystic_Fog]

On December 31, 2015 at 10:22 PM, Freudian_Slip said:

all Columbia interviews are likely to have been sent out already. They sent a mass email last year around mid-December, and someone posted an interview result again this year around that same time.

Michigan Social doesn't seem to send out results until mid-January, so I doubt anyone who's applying Social has been accepted yet.

There have only been about 20 results total for Social psych programs on GradCafe. Social doesn't seem to really get going until a week or so into January. 

I haven't seen anything posted in the search results page for Columbia Social PHD yet, and it looks like that will go out around mid-Jan from the results of previous years. Looks like the only thing that's Sent out this early is MA stuff through Columbia teachers college. 

Edited January 1, 2016 by Mystic_Fog

[PsychWill]

On December 31, 2015 at 9:14 PM, ihatechoosingusernames said:

Congrats! Which program area? Social or Personality and Social Contexts?

Thanks!! Personality and Social Contexts. 

[SocialHealth]

Happy New Year guys, good luck with all your applicatons this year. My email is sj534@rutgers.edu or my personal stevenjermainejones@gmail.com and I am a first year student at Rutgers University. I made an offer to help earlier this year and got swamped in my first semester but if you have any questions about my interview process or otherwise please do not hesitate to email. 

 

[homonculus]

Anyone want to claim the British Columbia interview? Just wondering when the interview weekend is and who your POI is (if you don't mind sharing!). 

[Freudian_Slip]

On January 1, 2016 at 3:20 PM, Mystic_Fog said:

I haven't seen anything posted in the search results page for Columbia Social PHD yet, and it looks like that will go out around mid-Jan from the results of previous years. Looks like the only thing that's Sent out this early is MA stuff through Columbia teachers college. 

I can say what they did last year, which was send out an email to all applicants invited for interview in mid-December. The interviews are not broken down by sub-area like Social, as some other programs may do (eg NYU). 

There was a post around mid-December again this year -- check the results again. The Social-Organizational posts from past years are Teachers College. If you applied Social to the regular Columbia Psych, I believed it's technically called General or Experimental Psych PhD. They used to have a separate Social program but not anymore

[Mystic_Fog]

5 hours ago, Freudian_Slip said:

I can say what they did last year, which was send out an email to all applicants invited for interview in mid-December. The interviews are not broken down by sub-area like Social, as some other programs may do (eg NYU). 

There was a post around mid-December again this year -- check the results again. The Social-Organizational posts from past years are Teachers College. If you applied Social to the regular Columbia Psych, I believed it's technically called General or Experimental Psych PhD. They used to have a separate Social program but not anymore

Ah I see. One of my advisors friends went to Columbia when they did have a separate Social program, so I was expecting it to be under Social, not Experimental.  I certainly wasn't expecting the invitations to go out so soon, especially since their website said January, but the more I think about it, I'm sure they just say Jan to give themselves a buffer in case they fall behind. Thank's for clearing that up! 

 

Ah well. 5 to go! 

[jdmer]

I'm not giving up on Columbia yet. 

This is the search I'm using to get rid of most of the other stuff...

 

Last year people reported receiving interviews by email on Dec 16, Dec 17, Dec 23, Jan 5, and Jan 21. The year before that was Jan 1 and Jan 8.

[Freudian_Slip]

39 minutes ago, jdmer said:

I'm not giving up on Columbia yet. 

This is the search I'm using to get rid of most of the other stuff...

 

Last year people reported receiving interviews by email on Dec 16, Dec 17, Dec 23, Jan 5, and Jan 21. The year before that was Jan 1 and Jan 8.

Not trying to dash dreams here but I attended their Prospective Day last year and am familiar with the program. 

If if you look closer, you'll see the January ones from last year you mentioned were because 1 went to Spam so was posted later and the other was Social Organizational which is Teachers College, not regular Columbia Psych.

It's probably not a coincidence someone posted around mid-December again this year, when I said the general Prospectives Day invite went out last year. Any other dates could be prelim interviews done by PIs. Also note in the results someone posted invited by admissions committee, so it is in fact a mass email inviting everyone at once to Prospective Day, not a PI-by-PI or sub area based thing as with other programs.

I can't say it's impossible but if you applied and want to know what's going on (news for better or worse) I'd say it's highly unlikely if you heard nothing from them by this point. There's some schools that waitlist you even if you don't get an interview, but I'm pretty sure Columbia only waitlists those who interviewed.

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by Freudian_Slip
Addl info

[Freudian_Slip]

MysticFog- that page with the interview time range was updated like 2012, so it might have been true at the time. On the cynical side I do though also believe especially from experience that they tend to either be very ambiguous or exaggerate toward the later dates so they don't get inundated with status checks

[Applicant 1746]

50 minutes ago, Freudian_Slip said:

Not trying to dash dreams here but I attended their Prospective Day last year and am familiar with the program. 

If if you look closer, you'll see the January ones from last year you mentioned were because 1 went to Spam so was posted later and the other was Social Organizational which is Teachers College, not regular Columbia Psych.

It's probably not a coincidence someone posted around mid-December again this year, when I said the general Prospectives Day invite went out last year. Any other dates could be prelim interviews done by PIs. Also note in the results someone posted invited by admissions committee, so it is in fact a mass email inviting everyone at once to Prospective Day, not a PI-by-PI or sub area based thing as with other programs.

I can't say it's impossible but if you applied and want to know what's going on (news for better or worse) I'd say it's highly unlikely if you heard nothing from them by this point. There's some schools that waitlist you even if you don't get an interview, but I'm pretty sure Columbia only waitlists those who interviewed.

 

I think I'm missing where someone posted that they were invited by mass e-mail from the committee (rather than personally contacted by a PI). Could you let me know where on the results page it indicates that?

I'm wondering about the person who posted that they got a Columbia interview on Dec 29th. I think I'll hold out hope for another week or two!