Fall 2018 Quantitative Psychology PhD Applicants

[Quantitative_Psychology]

Hello all!

I'm looking for fellow Quantitative Psychology PhD applicants (so what- like 30 people :D). I thought it would be cool to make a thread and maybe get in contact with some other people going through a similar application process. Personally I am in a Master's program right now surrounded by Clinical Psychology applicants. There must be someone out there like me! Current quantitative psychology people are welcome to drop by and impart their wisdom as well. 

 

EDIT: Found a thread for this year. There must be some out there somewhere!  

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by mav160

[wnk4242]

On 2017/2/9 at 10:26 PM, mav160 said:

Hello all!

I'm looking for fellow Quantitative Psychology PhD applicants (so what- like 30 people :D). I thought it would be cool to make a thread and maybe get in contact with some other people going through a similar application process. Personally I am in a Master's program right now surrounded by Clinical Psychology applicants. There must be someone out there like me! Current quantitative psychology people are welcome to drop by and impart their wisdom as well. 

 

EDIT: Found a thread for this year. There must be some out there somewhere!  

 

I sent you a message. Please check it out. Thank you！

[lisalisalisa]

Hello! I am currently a master's student in research evaluation and methodology and am applying to PhD this fall for fall of 18'. I'm definitely interested in quant psych, am not really sure. I'm also really interested in applying to educational eval/measurement programs that combine some quant methods but focus more on ed.assessment/policy. 

[Quantitative_Psychology]

On 3/30/2017 at 3:59 PM, lisalisalisa said:

Hello! I am currently a master's student in research evaluation and methodology and am applying to PhD this fall for fall of 18'. I'm definitely interested in quant psych, am not really sure. I'm also really interested in applying to educational eval/measurement programs that combine some quant methods but focus more on ed.assessment/policy. 

 

From what I've seen many people apply to both Education Psychology Measurement programs and Quantitative Psychology programs. Personally, my interests lean a little more Quantitative, but I bet I could be happy in an Education program as well. I'll probably apply to a couple as well.

Out of curiosity, is your Master's program under psychology or education/school psychology? Currently, I'm in a Psychological Research Master's program and having to go outside the department for the more advanced/interesting measurement and statistics courses.

[lisalisalisa]

On 4/2/2017 at 10:22 PM, mav160 said:

From what I've seen many people apply to both Education Psychology Measurement programs and Quantitative Psychology programs. Personally, my interests lean a little more Quantitative, but I bet I could be happy in an Education program as well. I'll probably apply to a couple as well.

Out of curiosity, is your Master's program under psychology or education/school psychology? Currently, I'm in a Psychological Research Master's program and having to go outside the department for the more advanced/interesting measurement and statistics courses.

After posting this and doing some insightful introspection, I realized that I'm more interested in the educational psychology aspect (with quant methods mixed in) versus a purely quant program. I realized that as much as I enjoy quant methods, I wouldn't be truly happy in studying such topics for 4+ years (or however long the PhD program would be); I need some sort of theory and practical application mixed in there...

 

But I digress. Anyways, my master's program is under the education department, and they are very good at providing (within their area) a variety of quant/qual, mixed method classes. If I wanted to take more purely stats and programming classes, I'd have to go to other departments like stats and bio stats. What kind of classes make up your program? 

[tj1864]

Hi there!

I'm not actually applying to phd programs, just masters. But there are no quant psych masters threads so I figured I'd use this one.

I'm worried about my applications because I have a pretty low GPA (3.1) and I'm concerned that will throw me out of the running for any programs. I'm hoping my background will make up for it because I feel like a good fit for quant psych (Undergrad double major in Statistics in Psychology, pretty strong GRE scores, 2 years experience doing data analytics in psych research lab). Masters programs seem a lot more realistic for me at the moment so I won't be applying to any phd's. I really feel like I'd be qualified for a lot of these masters programs, but I'm not sure what my chances are of being admitted given the low GPA. Anyone have thoughts on this?

[spunky]

On 7/10/2017 at 9:17 AM, tj1864 said:

Hi there!

I'm not actually applying to phd programs, just masters. But there are no quant psych masters threads so I figured I'd use this one.

I'm worried about my applications because I have a pretty low GPA (3.1) and I'm concerned that will throw me out of the running for any programs. I'm hoping my background will make up for it because I feel like a good fit for quant psych (Undergrad double major in Statistics in Psychology, pretty strong GRE scores, 2 years experience doing data analytics in psych research lab). Masters programs seem a lot more realistic for me at the moment so I won't be applying to any phd's. I really feel like I'd be qualified for a lot of these masters programs, but I'm not sure what my chances are of being admitted given the low GPA. Anyone have thoughts on this?

I think you should be OK. I mean, most people don’t start Quant Psych programs with a strong technical background (Mathematics, Statistics, computer programming, etc.). With that being said, however, it’s important to focus on which courses are bringing down your GPA. Like, for instance, if your upper-level Statistics courses are also your lowest grades, it kind of begs the question of how well you can handle mathematical research and stuff like that.  Just some stuff to think about. 

[tj1864]

21 hours ago, spunky said:

I think you should be OK. I mean, most people don’t start Quant Psych programs with a strong technical background (Mathematics, Statistics, computer programming, etc.). With that being said, however, it’s important to focus on which courses are bringing down your GPA. Like, for instance, if your upper-level Statistics courses are also your lowest grades, it kind of begs the question of how well you can handle mathematical research and stuff like that.  Just some stuff to think about. 

Okay thank you, that's good to hear. I've gotten A's in almost all of my upper level stats courses so I really feel like I can handle the graduate level math. It was mostly just gen ed classes and freshman year courses that brought down my GPA a lot, and I was worried that would make quant psych grad programs not a realistic option for me

[spunky]

3 hours ago, tj1864 said:

Okay thank you, that's good to hear. I've gotten A's in almost all of my upper level stats courses so I really feel like I can handle the graduate level math. It was mostly just gen ed classes and freshman year courses that brought down my GPA a lot, and I was worried that would make quant psych grad programs not a realistic option for me

I see. Well, in that case I'd say you even have a decent chance at PhD programs. I mean, you know your application better than I do but if your freshman (non-technical) courses are the ones bringing your GPA down, I don't think they'd be that big of a deal.

One of the advantages of applying to "unpopular" programs like Quant Psych is that potential advisors receive a lot less applications than say Clinical or Social/Personality, so they can actually spend time reviewing your stuff and not toss it aside if you don't meet certain GPA or GRE criteria. Last year in my program I think we only had like 4 people apply? We consider ourselves lucky if we get more than 10!

[sc9an]

Hey thanks for starting this thread. I am currently shadowing in a quantitative psychology lab and planning to apply for the 18 Fall quantitative psychology program.

My main concern now is a lack of coherent quantitative psychology research experience. I finished my bachelor degree this May with a psychology and business double major. My undergrad research experience, besides scattered research papers in politics and a thesis in finance (with a longitudinal data set I built with R), involved doing social psychology RA briefly and shadowing at my current quant psyc lab. While I can see myself weaving these diverse or rather piecemeal experience into my PS, I am now still making up knowledge in the quant psyc area, stumbling among papers and textbooks related to the topics that I am supposed to discuss with my interested potential advisers and with people at my current lab. Besides, my undergrad transcript does not have many quantitative courses aside from introductory stats, research methods classes from psychology department and an IRT class, in which my grades were fine. 

It would be great if anyone could comment on the overall expectation I should hold regarding my application positioning, and possibly also how specific my research topic has to be in the personal statement. I do believe in the strength of better methodology and is currently taking online MOOCs such as mathematical statistics, Bayesian and linear algebra to make up quantitative courses as well. I imagine for my application I have to be able to at least comment on the related (Bayesian methods, multilevel modeling with SEM ) quant psyc topics? First post on gradcafe and many thanks!

[Quantitative_Psychology]

@schenar You have no idea how awesome it is to hear from someone else who is applying to Quant Psych programs for the Fall. I'm happy to give you my thoughts on your questions. However, I would put a bit more stock in @spunky's thoughts because he has made it to the other side of the application process unlike me who is also in the process of applying.

As far as research experience goes, I don't think it is inherently a problem that it is scattered. I've always been a firm believer that you just need to spin it the right way. For example, all my research has been substantive in nature, not so much quantitative. However, I can talk about how in each project I've been in the data analyst role (e.g., I did the SEM, factor analysis, etc), and I used different statistical programs (e.g., R, SAS, SPSS) to accomplish it. So for that reason, I would think scattered research experience doesn't really need to be a problem depending on what you did in those projects (Finance thesis sounds promising). On a side note, I've never actually heard of shadowing a lab. What does that entail?

As far as your previous math background, this may be enlightening.

On 7/11/2017 at 6:55 PM, spunky said:

I think you should be OK. I mean, most people don’t start Quant Psych programs with a strong technical background (Mathematics, Statistics, computer programming, etc.). With that being said, however, it’s important to focus on which courses are bringing down your GPA. Like, for instance, if your upper-level Statistics courses are also your lowest grades, it kind of begs the question of how well you can handle mathematical research and stuff like that.  Just some stuff to think about. 

 It is unclear to me how much your math background matters. It could be lab dependent, but I've seen plenty of people get accepted with just a psych degree and no math degree. So perhaps it isn't a problem at all.

Just like with any application for a PhD program your research topic doesn't really need to be all that specific. Most of the time you end up changing what you want to do research in any way. Your research interests should align with the advisor your applying to though. So you will have to know enough about the quant topics to know what you're interested in. This also helps you figure out who and where you're applying to.

As far as your position as an applicant, I honestly have no idea. It is worth noting that there are hardly any applicants in this field. That could certainly benefit you. Hope this helps! If not, I hope @spunky can offer some insight.

[sc9an]

@Quant_Psych_2018 Sure I was certainly much glad to see such a relevant thread as well (I couldn't believe this thread was opened in February). Many thanks for your advice on spinning the experience. It does look like a good understanding of the application of quantitative methods from past projects would help. I will see what I could do here, and if @spunky wouldn't mind, please feel free to comment on my status in any way convenient. The  opinions you shared before have been insightful. 

Regarding my current "lab shadowing", it is really my way of calling a research assistant position. I do RA work almost full-time under a quantitative psychology lab, which essentially comprises of looking into literature, shaping ideas and attempting to realize them with codes. I call it shadowing because my involvement so far is largely observational as I couldn't contribute a whole lot yet and have been mostly listening to other people. My professor is kind enough to allow me some learning time before I could pick up actual implementation work. 

It is true I have not see much avidity around me into the quant psyc area. On the other hand, many APA materials regarding the growth potential of this area were almost ten years old. I am not sure how many incoming students these programs actually plan to have  now (e.g. it seems to me Notre Dame's website only updated two new grad students in the quant psyc area, but I might be mistaken), but let's keep up with the preparation.

[Quantitative_Psychology]

1 hour ago, schenar said:

@Quant_Psych_2018 Regarding my current "lab shadowing", it is really my way of calling a research assistant position. I do RA work almost full-time under a quantitative psychology lab, which essentially comprises of looking into literature, shaping ideas and attempting to realize them with codes. I call it shadowing because my involvement so far is largely observational as I couldn't contribute a whole lot yet and have been mostly listening to other people. My professor is kind enough to allow me some learning time before I could pick up actual implementation work. 

 

That's really awesome. I wish I could work in a Quant lab, but I've pretty much been stuck in a data analyst role. There is one Quant professor at my University (she taught me R), but she now mostly does substantive research. Your whole shadowing experience sounds pretty standard for undergrad/new researcher. Pretty much all the undergrads in the labs I've worked for just get to do lit reviews and run participants.

1 hour ago, schenar said:

It is true I have not see much avidity around me into the quant psyc area. On the other hand, many APA materials regarding the growth potential of this area were almost ten years old. I am not sure how many incoming students these programs actually plan to have  now (e.g. it seems to me Notre Dame's website only updated two new grad students in the quant psyc area, but I might be mistaken), but let's keep up with the preparation.

4

It is pretty interesting to look at how many quant people actually get picked up, but you have to look at in perspective. I actually managed to find out how many applicants there were for quantitative psych at one university. There was only 18 I believe for the entire quant area next to 400 in clincial. In all likelihood, those same 18 people were probably applying almost everywhere. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that most programs have hardly any incoming grad students. I would definitely believe Notre Dame only picked up 2. I know the University of Washington hasn't had one in a couple years.

[sc9an]

3 hours ago, Quant_Psych_2018 said:

That's really awesome. I wish I could work in a Quant lab, but I've pretty much been stuck in a data analyst role. There is one Quant professor at my University (she taught me R), but she now mostly does substantive research. Your whole shadowing experience sounds pretty standard for undergrad/new researcher. Pretty much all the undergrads in the labs I've worked for just get to do lit reviews and run participants.

It is pretty interesting to look at how many quant people actually get picked up, but you have to look at in perspective. I actually managed to find out how many applicants there were for quantitative psych at one university. There was only 18 I believe for the entire quant area next to 400 in clincial. In all likelihood, those same 18 people were probably applying almost everywhere. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that most programs have hardly any incoming grad students. I would definitely believe Notre Dame only picked up 2. I know the University of Washington hasn't had one in a couple years.

Thanks! It's true this is equivalent to undergraduate RA role.  In my undergraduate time I did run participants for a while in a social psychology lab. Hopefully this current role could help to get myself more familiarized with the setting. Though from what I see people do pay attention to how the models developed by the quant people were applied and where the inadequacy is in practice, so substantive works I suppose could better facilitate new ideas. Literature reviews in quant areas only tell me what has been done, but it is hard to see where the need still rests (unless maybe an advanced person could reason from the literature review or simulation what theoretically could be improved.) I also had not realized that quant psyc was important before getting involved in that social psychology lab mentioned above.

Regarding the application pool, that indeed looks like a telltale head count.. the 3 or 4 quant psyc graduate students I checked online consistently have pretty strong profiles though (graduate with honor, research projects, etc.) So I guess at least the status quo might not concern us much for being crowded but possibly remains quite competitive as other areas.

[spunky]

From what you described, I feel like your profile is pretty decent for a candidate applying to Quant Psych programs. Like I shared on my previous post (and quite a few other threads in this forum) this area is still “Psychology’s best kept secret” (that is changing fast though. I’ll elaborate further towards the end) so there isn’t really an expectation that any given candidate should be proficient in it. A traditional 4-year undergrad training in psychology usually gives you exposure to most of the major areas within psychology (social/personality, abnormal, clinical, etc.), but rarely do you get to learn anything about Quant Psych as an actual subfield of psychology, with a research programme beyond the mandatory research methods classes. Professors know this and I feel what they look for, more than anything, is just people who are enthusiastic about research methods or statistics and who have demonstrated to be numerically inclined (usually through good grades in stats classes, a good quant GRE and maybe some data analysis sample writing where you did something beyond a 1-way ANOVA or a multiple regression with 3-5 variables). With that being said, the more you can demonstrate you have training in Statistics, Mathematics and programming (programming being VERY important, especially in a statistical environment like R/SAS/STATA/etc.) the better your chances will be of impressing potential committee members. 

The fact that you’re RAing in a Quant Psych lab is priceless in itself. From what you describe, I feel that is your strongest selling point and it will make your application stand out. Even if your role is mostly observational, profs know that you’re simply not well-trained enough so early in your academic career to start making substantive contributions. But they see you’re being exposed to the field, the terminology, the methods being used, etc. and that is invaluable. The thing is, although it is true that we resemble Statisticians more than Psychologists, it is also true that the methods we use, the lingo in which we speak, the issues we concern ourselves with, etc. are almost exclusively the province on the social sciences.  Knowing some of this before you start graduate school so you can jump into the literature without having to google every 2nd technical term is very good, so kudos to you for doing that. In our Quant Psych lab we also have a few undergrads every now and then and it’s pretty standard for them to stay mostly quiet, taking notes while the rest of us do most of the substantive discussion. They key point here is that you’re showing interest and you’re ready to learn new stuff. 

Regarding competitiveness and size of the program here are my thoughts. Although we are not (and I’m sure will never reach) social/personality or clinical psych type numbers, the number of applicants *is* increasing (and doing so fast) every year, for multiple reasons. The most obvious one is simply that more people are going to college. Because of this, the value of an undergrad degree keeps on shrinking (like a bachelor’s degree today is the new high school diploma of 20-30 yrs ago) and more people need to get more and more credentials to position themselves in the job market. The second (and much more interesting) issue are the particularly exciting times we’re living in. First of all, ALL statistics/data analytics/etc. programs are experiencing a newfound popularity. Professor Xiao-Li Meng, the head of the Statistics Department at Harvard, has commented on this very often, noting that ever since the word “data science” became popular, most quantitative-anything university programs have experienced a boost in applicants. I mean, you hear how companies like Google or Facebook are interested in employees capable of making sense of large amounts of data and willing to pay six-figure salaries for it and you’re *obviously* gonna get people from all corners on the word trying to get a piece of that. So… yeah, there’s that incentive right there. The other exciting aspect that pertains mostly to Psychology is the Crisis of Replicability and the weird, “wandering through the wilderness” stage in which we find ourselves into. The Ioannidis article on Why Most Published Findings Are False became popular almost at the same time as Brian Nosek hit the world of social psychology showing that half of some of the most prominent findings in his field do not replicate. Psychology obviously enters in panic wondering when things went wrong while those of us who exist in the world statistics/research methods/data analysis start pointing to articles from the 70s and 80s that were heralding this type of crisis while being mostly ignored by the majority of substantive/applied researchers... until they couldn’t ignore us anymore. But now that the crisis took hold, psychology (and many social sciences) is looking to their methodologists in search for answers in terms of best data practices and proper ways to conduct analyses. And that pushes the demand for people trained in methodology/statistics and for people who may otherwise not consider themselves “number savvy” to become interested in our field… increasing its ranks. Now that whole situation opened a different other can of worms, of course. We’re in the 2nd phase of the p-value war now (mostly being fought on Twitter and Facebook) where you have people advocating to lower the p-value threshold from .05 to .005, Bayesians saying we should just get rid of the Neyman-Pearson paradigm altogether, older frequentists saying there is nothing wrong with .05 but we need to train people better… I dunno, it’s a mess. But a fun one, because it is the kind of mess where methodologists, statisticians and data analysis type people are sorting themselves out to make sure we can present a coherent message to applied researchers. 

So yeah, I foresee Quant Psych programs will steadily become more and more popular the deeper we go into this change of paradigm so at least you know you’re making the right choice by jumping in early. A few universities are either opening Quant Psych type programs or expanding them to tackle whatever changes come into be so enjoy the ride!

[sc9an]

Much appreciated your input! @spunky Your opinions should be able to help people viewing this thread with positioning the application. I managed to get in touch with my current lab and participated post-baccalaureate after realizing that it has to be this way in order to verse myself with the field..Glad to see that it is an agreeable phenomenon in your lab as well.

It is interesting that you mentioned employment prospect and the "statistical crisis" in psychology as catalyst to the growth of the quant psyc area. I would second by saying that this area reconciles the enthusiasm in social science (psychology) research and the concern about finding opportunities afterwards. It is unclear to me if people purely attracted to the data science industry trend would view this area as an equivalent option as some more pragmatic programs like MS in data science or Statistics. Regarding the search for more cogent methodology in applied research, I guess it would mean more involvement for the quant people in others' applied research projects? In my experience at least, these applied experience could be the trigger of searching for and developing new methodology ideas, and that's why I liked OP's substantive project experience. But again, many thanks for sharing these thoughts here.

[spunky]

Thank you @schenar. When I first encountered this area of Quant Psych (almost a decade ago) I felt really alone and almost like I had to re-invent the wheel all by myself every time. My undergrad profs didn’t know much about it, online resources were scarce, the field seemed rather obscure, etc... That’s why I’ve stuck around this forum. I realized that, although things have changed, a lot of newcomers in the field need some extra guidance that people in more “mainstream” areas of psych can get from almost anywhere. 

Depending on which area of Quant Psych you specialize on, you can be very technical or more applied. There are certain PhD programs (I think OSU and UCLA are good examples) where Quant Psych peeps take master’s level courses in Statistics and Mathematics so that, by the end of your PhD, you can also claim an MSc in Statistics. So whereas a Quant Psych degree wouldn’t automatically make you a “data scientist”, the work you’re doing can get you sufficiently close to it so that you might as well pass for one. After a few years being into this whole programming (mostly in R and Python) world, I’ve concluded it is very much like being an artist. You keep an active online presence with a portfolio (e.g. a webpage, a github account, etc.) and you show your chops there (share your code, blog about programming/data analysis stuff) and people eventually will find you out. If you prefer to go the industry route (which I’m personally considering at the moment), people won’t care whether or not your degree is in quantitative social sciences VS statistics as long as you can demonstrate (via your online presence) that you have what it takes.  

Being involved in an applied research project is the best thing to fish around for ideas on what to do research on that’s more methodological/theoretical. Every idea I’ve had comes from someone asking me a question about regression or ANOVA or SEM or the t-test or something like that and me taking that “seemingly simple” question and logically extending it to its natural consequences. I remember I once had an undergraduate student asking quite innocuously whether or not a 1-way ANOVA would let him compare as many group means as he wanted without inflating Type 1 error rate. “Sure” – I said - “that’s why we do ANOVA instead of multiple t-tests. That way we can compare an infinite number of….” And my voice started trailing off. Can we compare an infinite (not finitely large, that’s trivial to show), but actually infinite number of group means? (Spoiler alert: we can but, it depends). So what started off as your typical 3rd year bachelor's student question became a really cool theoretical investigation of the asymptotic properties of Analysis of Variance. You never know when inspiration’s gonna hit. 

In any case, good thing is that you’re still in time to make an interesting career before the field begins to experience saturation
 

[wnk4242]

Hi! I'm going to apply to quant programs this year. My concern is that my interest only lies in the field of meta-analysis (and I have done a couple of years of research in this area) and I only found 5 advisors study meta-analysis in quant programs in the U.S. I noticed that most of the quant scholars study structural equation modeling, item response theory, etc., but I have never done any research in those areas. So I worry that if I only apply to those five programs, my chance of getting accepted into a program might be relatively low? Should I apply to other quant programs without a clear area of interest or goal in mind (personally, I don't think this is a good idea)? 

Edited October 21, 2017 by wnk4242

[Quantitative_Psychology]

5 hours ago, wnk4242 said:

Hi! I'm going to apply to quant programs this year. My concern is that my interest only lies in the field of meta-analysis (and I have done a couple of years of research in this area) and I only found 5 advisors study meta-analysis in quant programs in the U.S. I noticed that most of the quant scholars study structural equation modeling, item response theory, etc., but I have never done any research in those areas. So I worry that if I only apply to those five programs, my chance of getting accepted into a program might be relatively low? Should I apply to other quant programs without a clear area of interest or goal in mind (personally, I don't think this is a good idea)? 

 

You mentioned 5 advisors. Are they each at different programs? Five programs isn't that small of a number in quant honestly. This is especially true if you're a strong applicant (good GRE, good grades, research experience, etc.). There aren't that many people applying to these programs, and your odds could be very good if all your potential advisors are taking applicants.

On the other hand, you don't actually need to have done research in the specific areas you apply to. It's not really an expectation considering there are very few opportunities for undergraduates to do quantitative research; therefore if it doesn't show up in any substantive research you've done, you won't be exposed to it. However, I would certainly make sure you are interested in it prior to applying by reading up on the literature and major concepts.

Ultimately, your approach is up to you. If you are super into meta-analyses, only apply to those 5 advisors. If you are interested in other areas, but you haven't had the opportunity to do research, still consider applying to other advisors that match those interests.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Quant_Psych_2018

[lisalisalisa]

@wnk4242

 

Hi, I am currently on my 2nd year as a master's student in a "quantish" style program (research, evaluation, and methodology). From my experience, meta analysis isn't something that is done a lot in the field; it seems to be more common in medicine and pharmaceutical studies. With that being said, in a quant program you will have several opportunities to take a plethora of quant classes and complete papers and projects within these classes. In doing so, you will gain better insight into what kind of quant analyses you are interested in. For your applications, I would focus more on why you want to get into the quant field and how doing so will further your goals of doing xyz or researching xyz. It doesn't necessarily have to focus on a particular quant method per se, but relaying how you will use your future quant skills to further you is a good place to start for your essays/objectives. 

 

I hope this helps!!

[wnk4242]

4 hours ago, lisalisalisa said:

@wnk4242

 

Hi, I am currently on my 2nd year as a master's student in a "quantish" style program (research, evaluation, and methodology). From my experience, meta analysis isn't something that is done a lot in the field; it seems to be more common in medicine and pharmaceutical studies. With that being said, in a quant program you will have several opportunities to take a plethora of quant classes and complete papers and projects within these classes. In doing so, you will gain better insight into what kind of quant analyses you are interested in. For your applications, I would focus more on why you want to get into the quant field and how doing so will further your goals of doing xyz or researching xyz. It doesn't necessarily have to focus on a particular quant method per se, but relaying how you will use your future quant skills to further you is a good place to start for your essays/objectives. 

 

I hope this helps!!

@lisalisalisa

I think that's a good idea. Thank you. But I wonder If I say that I know why I want to get into the quant field because in doing so I can reach my goal of doing xyz, but I haven't decided which area or method I want to specialize in, wouldn't that sound suspicious or unconvincing?

Edited October 26, 2017 by wnk4242

[lisalisalisa]

@wnk4242

 

I see what you're saying, and honestly I don't think it would. Personally for me, when I applied, I had very little insight about the field. I merely talked about my interests (standardized testing, large scale assessments, etc) and why I wanted to know more about the theory/construction behind them and how it would relate to my future goals, etc. 

I completely understand where you are coming from and can see that it is kind of hard to write something about yourself and your future when you're not really sure what that really entails  

You should go back to asking yourself why you like meta analysis and from there think about the bigger, overall picture and how that relates to the quant field. 

 

Another good place for info is this thread 

I was just reading it today and the information provided there (although from a different program) is extremely relevant and useful! 

[wnk4242]

26 minutes ago, lisalisalisa said:

@wnk4242

 

I see what you're saying, and honestly I don't think it would. Personally for me, when I applied, I had very little insight about the field. I merely talked about my interests (standardized testing, large scale assessments, etc) and why I wanted to know more about the theory/construction behind them and how it would relate to my future goals, etc. 

I completely understand where you are coming from and can see that it is kind of hard to write something about yourself and your future when you're not really sure what that really entails  

You should go back to asking yourself why you like meta analysis and from there think about the bigger, overall picture and how that relates to the quant field. 

 

Another good place for info is this thread 

I was just reading it today and the information provided there (although from a different program) is extremely relevant and useful! 

Thank you for your answer! I'm going to take a look at this thread now.

[Legend111]

Hello all,

I am heavily considering applying to a few quant programs here in CA (UCLA and Davis mainly) and I am wondering what you think may be my chances for acceptance. Right now I am in my second year finishing my MS in I/O psychology, where I have taken courses in graduate ANOVA, regression, psychometrics, research methods, and multivariate methods. In addition to my coursework, I am running an experiment on campus (for my thesis); however it is an I/O related topic. I am also a tutor in statistics and facilitate workshops on campus. My graduate GPA is pretty good (around 3.8). My only concern is that my GRE score isn't especially high (I only scored around 60th percentile in V and Q), although I did get a 5.0 on the AWA. 

Do I seem like I would be a viable candidate? Applications are due soon, so I need to make the decision on whether or not apply as soon as possible.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2017 by Legend111

[wnk4242]

3 hours ago, Legend111 said:

Hello all,

I am heavily considering applying to a few quant programs here in CA (UCLA and Davis mainly) and I am wondering what you think may be my chances for acceptance. Right now I am in my second year finishing my MS in I/O psychology, where I have taken courses in graduate ANOVA, regression, psychometrics, research methods, and multivariate methods. In addition to my coursework, I am running an experiment on campus (for my thesis); however it is an I/O related topic. I am also a tutor in statistics and facilitate workshops on campus. My graduate GPA is pretty good (around 3.8). My only concern is that my GRE score isn't especially high (I only scored around 60th percentile in V and Q), although I did get a 5.0 on the AWA. 

Do I seem like I would be a viable candidate? Applications are due soon, so I need to make the decision on whether or not apply as soon as possible.

 

 

I think it also depends on your LORs and SOP. Maybe share some information about those?