PhD Fall 2018 Applicants

[Quantitative_Psychology]

3 hours ago, cindyboop said:

All my applications are in! Who else is obsessing even more now?? It's been less than a week since most of my deadlines and I already hate waiting! 

I'm very much in the obsessed stage. I only had a few due December 1st. Many of them are due today. I'm really trying to focus on my school work considering finals are next week, but it is hard when I have so much anxiety!

[pataka]

4 hours ago, cindyboop said:

All my applications are in! Who else is obsessing even more now?? It's been less than a week since most of my deadlines and I already hate waiting! 

Me!!! Seriously, applications were submitted on Friday, I'm just supposed to sit and wait now, and my brain cannot calm down no matter what I do. Waiting is the worst! What are you doing to occupy your time? 

[EgyPsychologist]

12 minutes ago, pataka said:

Me!!! Seriously, applications were submitted on Friday, I'm just supposed to sit and wait now, and my brain cannot calm down no matter what I do. Waiting is the worst! What are you doing to occupy your time? 

I agree. Waiting and anxiety about the outcomes are the worst. I'm busying myself worrying if I misspelled something on my SOP or if my scores and transcripts made their way to the designated departments!

I can use some advise on how to better occupy my time

[pataka]

4 minutes ago, EgyPsychologist said:

I can use some advise on how to better occupy my time

I'm pretty much just trying to focus on my job, catching up on things like laundry and dishes (I've been terrible at basic adulting lately), and making an effort to go to things my friends plan. Sometimes if I'm feeling ambitious, I read papers about my topic of interest, but that can backfire and add to the anxiety  

Find a hobby! I'm probably going to make an effort to get back into baking, especially now that it's holiday season again  

[kitcassidance]

30 minutes ago, EgyPsychologist said:

I agree. Waiting and anxiety about the outcomes are the worst. I'm busying myself worrying if I misspelled something on my SOP or if my scores and transcripts made their way to the designated departments!

I can use some advise on how to better occupy my time

I've been busy finding mistakes on my CV... six months, over twenty people editing, and no one catches the mistakes until it's too late  *Refreshing pages to check for status change now* 

[Psych_Law]

6 minutes ago, kitcassidance said:

I've been busy finding mistakes on my CV... six months, over twenty people editing, and no one catches the mistakes until it's too late  *Refreshing pages to check for status change now* 

I've put all of my documents for my applications (CV, SOP, writing samples, etc.) on a separate hard drive and am not allowing myself to look at it. I'll torture myself by finding errors. 

[pataka]

23 minutes ago, Becks_Psych said:

I've put all of my documents for my applications (CV, SOP, writing samples, etc.) on a separate hard drive and am not allowing myself to look at it. I'll torture myself by finding errors. 

Same! If I don't look at them, I can pretend they're perfect 

[PsyZei]

Last application was due today  

Program: Clinical Psychology

Schools: 7: U of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, U of Minnesota- Twin Cities, U of Wisconsin- Madison, U of Iowa, U of Kansas, U of Nebraska- Lincoln, and U of Missouri- Kansas City.

Worried: Research/publication experience

Not Worried: 4.0 GPA, really good GRE scores, some work experience that parallels career goal. 

Ambivalent: Very non-traditional student, think SOP and CV are fine.

[FluffyPancakes]

6 hours ago, cindyboop said:

All my applications are in! Who else is obsessing even more now?? It's been less than a week since most of my deadlines and I already hate waiting! 

I feel exactly the same.  I have been trying to keep myself occupied by cleaning (I may have taken a small, gross vacation from keeping my house in order while finishing my applications).   However, that doesn't keep the obsessive thoughts away.  I have one eye on my phone all day at work.  I am thinking about learning to sew to keep my hands busy (so I stop pressing refresh buttons).

[PsyZei]

27 minutes ago, FluffyPancakes said:

I feel exactly the same.  I have been trying to keep myself occupied by cleaning (I may have taken a small, gross vacation from keeping my house in order while finishing my applications).   However, that doesn't keep the obsessive thoughts away.  I have one eye on my phone all day at work.  I am thinking about learning to sew to keep my hands busy (so I stop pressing refresh buttons).

Sewing, pfft- knitting is the "in" fiber art right now  
Seriously though, I didn't realize that invites started to go out in December until I found this and the SDN forum. I was hoping to have the holiday season off from grad school application concerns 

[songofgallifrey]

I submitted my last application today, so I figured I should pop on to this thread and say hello!

This is my second time applying for PhD programs. Last round, I was going for social policy programs, in hopes that I could connect my current policy work to my research interests in language, particularly bilingualism and code-switching. My undergraduate degree is in psychology and linguistics, so I was setting myself up for failure there. After getting into only one program, and without funding, I've done a lot of soul searching, and decided that it's ok that my post-graduate career doesn't connect with the research career I hope to launch by pursuing a PhD.

I've applied to University of Maryland, Penn State, UC San Diego, Johns Hopkins, McGill, NYU, and University of Michigan. I applied to Maryland's Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program, and Johns Hopkins' Cognitive Science program, but the others are all Psychology programs. I'm interested in the neural and cognitive bases of language processing, particularly in bilingual speakers, and bilingual language control.

Good luck to everyone!

[vallaboop]

18 hours ago, pataka said:

Me!!! Seriously, applications were submitted on Friday, I'm just supposed to sit and wait now, and my brain cannot calm down no matter what I do. Waiting is the worst! What are you doing to occupy your time? 

I'm so glad I'm not alone! I'm finishing up my second to last semester in a terminal master's program and working full time as a research assistant. It's not helping though! I also need to stop rereading my personal statements, every time I do I want to edit them again! It's trying me crazy

[vallaboop]

15 hours ago, FluffyPancakes said:

I feel exactly the same.  I have been trying to keep myself occupied by cleaning (I may have taken a small, gross vacation from keeping my house in order while finishing my applications).   However, that doesn't keep the obsessive thoughts away.  I have one eye on my phone all day at work.  I am thinking about learning to sew to keep my hands busy (so I stop pressing refresh buttons).

Haha, I like your thinking! Distract the hands, good plan! I've been thinking about taking up the guitar, maybe now is a good time for that 

[FluffyPancakes]

48 minutes ago, cindyboop said:

Haha, I like your thinking! Distract the hands, good plan! I've been thinking about taking up the guitar, maybe now is a good time for that 

Your idea sounds much more epic than mine.  Perhaps you could write a song about waiting forever for grad school decisions.

[FluffyPancakes]

16 hours ago, PsyZei said:

Sewing, pfft- knitting is the "in" fiber art right now  
Seriously though, I didn't realize that invites started to go out in December until I found this and the SDN forum. I was hoping to have the holiday season off from grad school application concerns 

Thank you!  I wouldn't want to distract myself with an "out" fabric.  The shame. 

Yeah, there isn't really moment safe from worry during the application process.  What is the SDN forum?

Edited December 6, 2017 by FluffyPancakes

[eieioh]

31 minutes ago, FluffyPancakes said:

Yeah, there isn't really moment safe from worry during the application process.  What is the SDN forum?

Student Doctor Network!

They have an interview thread for clinical and experimental psych applicants as well. Here's this year's (if you dare tempt yourself with another application-related thread... ): https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2018-2019-phd-psyd-interview-invite-thread.1288337/#post-19516093

[nicokren]

Happy to have submitted everything! Now I am panicked as I just checked the GradCafe Admission Results page and some psych people have received interview emails already! Am I missing something? Hopefully the schools I applied to didn't send these out already 

[pataka]

4 hours ago, cindyboop said:

I also need to stop rereading my personal statements, every time I do I want to edit them again! It's trying me crazy

You've gotta do what @Becks_Psych did and stash them all in a separate folder so you won't/can't look at them! 

I'm also finding that focusing on work isn't helping... I'm a research coordinator and literally all I did yesterday was browse gradcafe and SDN, and look up recipes on my favorite baking blogs  we're all going crazy.

[pataka]

19 hours ago, PsyZei said:

Seriously though, I didn't realize that invites started to go out in December until I found this and the SDN forum. I was hoping to have the holiday season off from grad school application concerns 

This is freaking me out too - not that I wasn't already watching my email like a hawk, but now I'll be extra worried if I don't see something soon. This is my first year applying so I'm not even seasoned yet; all of this anxiety is brand-spanking-new! 

P.S. what's your plan b? Congrats on getting that figured out!

[LolJustAdmitMe]

Applying to the Fall 2018 cycle: 

Program of interest: Clinical Psych, Combined Clinical/Counseling Psych, Social Psych and Human Development and Family Studies (to clarify, I’m interested in research despite being a licensed therapist)

Schools you have looked at: At this point I’ve looked at any program that isn’t highly ranked. My GRE (foreshadowing) can’t compete but the rest of my app can, so the schools I’ve applied to look at candidates “holistically”. I’m looking at: Utah State, Seattle Pacific, Michigan State, USC(LOL, wish me luck), Oklahoma State, UC of Santa Cruz and Ole Miss(another LOL).

Number one worry about applying: My GRE. Scores. I’m a horrid standardized test taker and when looking at my grades in Stats and research methods, they don’t add up. I sat for the GRE and blanked out, each time. I am PRAYING programs (or at least one) can look past the score and see how good of a student I am and all of my experience and research...but that’s a prayer and I’m in need of a miracle. 

[Psych_Law]

37 minutes ago, pataka said:

I'm also finding that focusing on work isn't helping... I'm a research coordinator and literally all I did yesterday was browse gradcafe and SDN, and look up recipes on my favorite baking blogs  we're all going crazy.

I'm in the exact same position. Way too much time on my hands. 

[pataka]

Since I've got time on my hands, and I haven't done this introduction thing yet:

Programs: Counseling Psychology PhD (except for UWashington, where I applied to Psychology PhD: Clinical Science)

Schools: 6 schools listed in my signature.

Worried about: - GRE scores: 154Q/157V/4.0W
                            - No graduate school experience
                            - No first-author papers, not even a thesis
                            - Relatively low number of applications, I see a lot of people with 10+ schools!

Not worried about: - GPA: 3.83 cumulative, around 3.9 for the major
                                   - Statement of Purpose - I think my statement is pretty kickass
                                   - Research experience - 2.5+ years experience as a research coordinator at a R1 university, third author on 3 published papers and
                                     second author on 2 papers under review, third author for 3 abstracts + presentations at conferences
                                   - Letters of recommendation 

EEEEEEeeeeee wish me luck! Good luck to all of you!

Edited December 6, 2017 by pataka

[PsychPotato]

Decided to join the pool of folks freaking our about applications, at least we can all commiserate together!!!

Program of interest: Clinical Psych

Schools I've Applied to: UCLA, USC, UCSB, San Diego State, U of Houston, Northwestern, Loyola Chicago, Virginia Consortium, GWU, Clark University, Fordham, UMASS Boston

Number one worry about applying: I'm trying not to overanalyze everything about my application, but specifically I think my quant GRE is sort of low at 157. I also don't have any first author publications.

Not Worried About: I have two publications and a good amount of conference presentations, so that's hopeful - right?!

Good luck to everyone applying

[ZachOxford]

Hey, all! I'll throw my name in here, too, since I know I'll be stalking the forums for the next few weeks until I hear back from schools anyways lol. Might as well start interacting with people and cheering you all on, 'cause you're gonna do great. Anyways, let's get started:

Program of interest: Social Psychology / Social Neuroscience

Schools I've Applied to: Northwestern, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, NYU, UCLA, Stanford, WashU, Portland State, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, University of Colorado - Boulder

Research Interests: Prejudice, Stereotyping, Discrimination, Social Neuroscience. My big interest is combining nationalism and prejudice research through neuroscience

Number one worry about applying: My main worry is that I don't have any publications and haven't won any non-university grants yet. I've got one article in preparation and one to two others that will be submitted in 2018, but that does me no good for now lol

Not Worried About: My GRE scores are pretty high, 4-5 years of research experience, 3 research-based honor's theses, social neuroscience Master's Thesis on prejudice from a great school, I've chatted with all of the professors I'm applying to, and my Statement of Purpose is pretty rock-solid I think. 

I've taken to marathoning pretty much every TV show I love since deadlines last Friday lol. Parks and Rec is currently the only thing getting through my application anxiety  hahah

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

This is relevant to anyone applying to UCLA. I emailed the graduate administrator about my GRE scores being listed as "awaiting" rather than "received", and I received this response. I hope it eases some concerns.:

 

The UCLA Graduate Division has informed the UCLA Psychology Department that the application status in the UCLA Graduate Division application is not yet linked to display test scores and documents received from external sources such as official transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc.  Therefore, all applications submitted to the UCLA Psychology Department will not indicate whether official GRE General and/or Subject Test Scores, official TOEFL/IELTS Test Scores, official transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc. have been received by the Department. 

 

Our Psychology Graduate Admissions Committee has begun reviewing applications. We will be contacting applicants directly if we need any missing materials such as official transcripts, official GRE General and/or Subject test scores, official TOEFL/IELTS Test Scores, letters of recommendation, etc.