PhD Fall 2018 Applicants

[ltr317]

48 minutes ago, clinpsych55 said:

Anyone else started the SDSU/UCSD app? The mandatory field for "number of peer-reviewed publications" only allows you to enter a number between 1-100. Either it's a glitch or that'll be one program off my list, unless my paper reviewers hurry up... 

ROFLMAO

Edited October 5, 2017 by ltr317

[Psych_Law]

13 hours ago, clinpsych55 said:

Anyone else started the SDSU/UCSD app? The mandatory field for "number of peer-reviewed publications" only allows you to enter a number between 1-100. Either it's a glitch or that'll be one program off my list, unless my paper reviewers hurry up... 

Can you put a "-" symbol? You could put 1-1 haha 

[AGingeryGinger]

Program of interest: PhD Religion, Historical Theology

Schools you have looked at: Columbia, Wisconsin-Madison, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Fordham

Number one worry about applying: GRE scores and lack of English Reformation historians in the United States.

[PokePsych]

On 10/4/2017 at 3:30 PM, topsailpsych said:

I narrowed down my list of programs from 31 to 15 over the weekend.  Now I just need to narrow it down a bit more and then I can finally get started on the actual applications.  How are your applications going?

I'm down to 6 ATM. Contacted 5 supervisors - 2 nonresponding so far. For one not sure whether she will take new students so will email the grad office I guess. Got 1 very very good response from also my number 1 PI - so that's promssing so far :):)

[Psychapplica]

On 10/6/2017 at 12:08 AM, Psygeek said:

I'm down to 6 ATM. Contacted 5 supervisors - 2 nonresponding so far. For one not sure whether she will take new students so will email the grad office I guess. Got 1 very very good response from also my number 1 PI - so that's promssing so far :):)

May I ask how you feel about those POI’s that don’t respond? I’m contacting individuals too. I would say most are contacting me back with positive responses. I’m not sure what to think of a lack of response 

[PokePsych]

SOme schools are against PI's contacting students before application. One I guess maybe too busy? Don't know. 

Generally OK, I'd say

[EgyPsychologist]

I was wondering how negatively it would impact one's application if they applied to two different programs at the same school.

Any thoughts?

[PokePsych]

Not necessarily - if you have a clear rational of what you wanna study. Am applying to two programs at U Waterloo because I want to study culture and they have people who study that both in Organizational & Social program. 

[Logan B.]

Hi all!

Well I am also deciding to apply this year for Fall 2018. My focus right now is Berkeley's social psych. ph.d program!

I have a master's (3.7) in expressive art therapy, 5 years of various clinical experience (children's psychiatric unit in London, ABA therapist, Mindfulness therapist in nature setting for kids, school art therapist, and now program supervisor where I manage the behavioral therapists and design/implement treatment plans, assessments, etc), 2 research assistant volunteer jobs (one at Stanford emotional lab and another at UCSF emotion lab), 2 research presentations (one my independent research in the psychological and education impacts of art involvement and my masters thesis on the art therapy relational neuroscience model), a year as a teaching assistant in my masters program, and strong letters of recommendation. I retake the GRE Monday so hoping I can get some great scores to be competitive!

Some of my areas of research interests are: the role of awe in neuroaesthetics, art therapy relational neuroscience model and emotional regulation, the creative arts process in groups and emotional processing, ecopsychology and emotional awareness...

Really hoping I can perform well on this GRE. My first time around only scored in the 50 percentile on all subjects, so this second test MUST be better.

 

Edited October 27, 2017 by Logan B.

[nicokren]

Hi all! 

Wanted to join your thread! Looking for Fall 2018 admission to a Social program. I graduated with my MA in May from NYU. I aided in a lab for the length of my time there and loved the people I met! If anyone has questions about NYU, I'll be happy to help.

Otherwise...here goes.

Program of Interest: PhD Social Psychology --> Stereotyping and mechanisms of stereotyping.

Schools I'm Applying to: Stanford, UCDavis, UWisc - Madison, U Indiana - Bloomington, Tufts, Penn State, Tulane, Northwestern

Worried About: GREs ( i hate them), lack of publications.

Not Worried About: research experience, LoR, GPA.

[PokePsych]

I'm so over this.... I'm done with myt atements, but all the documentation is horrible and how every school wants it to be scanned in a different way etc.

[Logan B.]

haha @Psygeek I know what you mean....

I had to write LOR's for 3 of my therapists I manage and some of the schools need documents to be printed with letterhead, then signed, then scanned blah blah blah. That in itself seemed extreme. 

The whole application process is weird. It kinda feels like a roller coaster. At first I was SO EXCITED- then got really anxious- then sad- then excited again- then anxious.. and now I feel like I am on the upswing of excitement as I am almost done with my application. Also seems to be a level of acceptance with where I am at and having aback up plan, etc. 

I am deciding to acknowledge my low GRE scores on my SOP and to emphasize my clinical experience as better evaluation of my characters and skill set. unfortunately my best percentile range was in the 65th % from writing, which still is below average for Berkeley. mehh whatever. I'm turning in all my materials beginning of next week!

Also I did have a question---

For a writing sample, I'm thinking a 10 pager will do just fine? I have a solid paper from my masters on Autism and cultural needs/strengths assessment. 10 pages is usually sufficient?

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF US!

[PokePsych]

Well shit just happened because one of my grades disappeared from my transcript overnight and my school has been sending out the WRONG ones and I'm trying to move heaven and earth to fix it now. SOOOOOOOOOOO FRUSTRATED

In the mean time my native speaker proofreaders are disagreeing on my SOPs on many things :') Hopefully get it all done by the end of this week so my references have time to upload their stuff. And the more I read my SOPs the more retarded I think they are. 

 

My writing sample is 14 pages; including title page, abstract, 7 pages of proposal, and the remainder being references. It's a proposal I wrote for one of my classes that is relevant for all the programs I'm applying to (some more than others; but still relevant) and shows I know the field so I'm pretty OK with it. 

[nicokren]

Feeling anxious about transcripts as well! Submitted a few apps and the 'official' transcript is not showing up on the checklists even though I requested official transcripts a month ago. Hopefully just a processing issue! Now I'm deciding if I should submit diversity statements or if that would hurt me. Ugh! 

 

Good luck all!

[EgyPsychologist]

On 11/21/2017 at 6:14 PM, nicokren said:

Feeling anxious about transcripts as well! Submitted a few apps and the 'official' transcript is not showing up on the checklists even though I requested official transcripts a month ago. Hopefully just a processing issue! Now I'm deciding if I should submit diversity statements or if that would hurt me. Ugh! 

 

Good luck all!

Most programs said they don't require official transcript until recommended for admission. But  still, we re too anxious to take a risk of having an incomplete application just because an official transcript is missing! I chose not to trust their words and request official transcripts. And I ended up with the same issue of not showing up on my checklist! This is becoming too much!

[PokePsych]

I picked up all my transcripts and mailed them out by myself with the special code. Was more expensive but at least they all made it.

[nicokren]

On 11/22/2017 at 9:39 PM, EgyPsychologist said:

Most programs said they don't require official transcript until recommended for admission. But  still, we re too anxious to take a risk of having an incomplete application just because an official transcript is missing! I chose not to trust their words and request official transcripts. And I ended up with the same issue of not showing up on my checklist! This is becoming too m

On 11/23/2017 at 5:43 AM, Psygeek said:

I picked up all my transcripts and mailed them out by myself with the special code. Was more expensive but at least they all made it.

 

Agreed, the worry about being deemed 'incomplete' has me a mess! I did contact Stanford though and they said not to worry, the application will still be viewed with the attached unofficial transcript. Phew!

Glad you had that opportunity, PsyGeek! Unfortunately, my schools are too far away from where I live for me to have done that. Hopefully things will work out fine, though.

[PokePsych]

I'm so over this -  I keep editing my statements and are never happy with them - to the point that I doubt a reader would even notice what I am changing. I keep second guessing myself. I hate it all. 

[Left Skew]

Program of interest: PhD I/O Psychology, Organizational Science, Psychometrics

Research Interests: Item Response Theory, Statistical Modeling, Job Analysis, Multidimensional Constructs, Assessment and Measurement Bias.

Schools you have looked at: Univ of Maryland (2), Penn State, NC State, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, George Mason, George Washington, Old Dominion, James Madison

Degrees: BA in Psychology, MS in I/O Psychology

Test Scores and GPA:

GRE

Q: 160 (72nd)

V:162 (91st)

AWA: 4.0 (60th)

GPA

Undergrad-GPA: 3.97

Undergrad-Major-GPA: 4.0

Grad-GPA: 4.0

Research Experience: 

2 poster presentations

Research Methods TA 1 year

Teaching Fellow 1 year

100+ hours applied research (MS was heavily applied)

No thesis

No peer-reviewed publications

Work Experience:

2+ years psychometric data analyst (current)

2 years Teaching Assistant then Fellow

1.5 years Research Developer

Summer HR internship

Worried About: Lack of thesis and publications, mediocre GRE Quant, all of you awesome people

BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE!

[sc9an]

Finally joining this thread! Almost the ddl now. Hope it goes well for everyone.

I am a commerce and psychology double major as an undergraduate. Currently a lab RA in my school.

Program of Interest: PhD Quantitative Psychology

Schools I'm Applying to: UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Arizona State, UC-Davis, U of Washington 

Worried About: lack of publications, GPA(3.5-3.6 range for cumulative, 3.81 for Psyc), lack of heavily quantitative coursework ( such as linear algebra and real analysis, but I am trying to make up with online courses and quantitative projects from commerce classes and internship), third LoR from my finance thesis adviser

and finally the tax bill on tuition waiver...

Not Worried About: relevant research experience (currently a lab RA in the related area). GRE

[kierkegoth]

Program of Interest: PhD Cognitive Neuroscience/ Social and Affective Neuroscience

Schools I'm Applying to: UCLA, Harvard, Berkely, Stanford

Worried About: lack of publications, low gre score 158(80th) V 153Q(51st) (315 overall), applying to all reach schools, possibly too personal in my SOP tbh but I like to portray myself as I am. 1 shaky letter of rec.

Not Worried About: 15 months research experience as a project manager and research assistant in two neuroscience labs.Helped teach psycho physiology as an undergrad for teaching experience. 2 Great letters of rec. A average GPA for a difficult major (BS in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience) at a top tier school.

I'm shooting for my top 4 this year and applying to 8 next year with a higher gre score (only studied for 3 weeks for my most recent exam) if my dreams are shattered

I thought I'd post this as a reference next year in case anyone wanted to see if an average GRE score or one shaky letter of rec can make or break a decent application from a fresh, baby-faced graduate. 

Edited November 30, 2017 by kierkegoth

[eieioh]

Joining in at the last minute (seems only right to mirror my application strategy). Hope everyone is on track to finish by tomorrow's deadline!

Program of Interest: Social Psychology PhD (research areas: intergroup conflict, political and religious violence, and environmental resource scarcity).

Schools: Princeton, NYU, Harvard, Stanford, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Washington, University of British Columbia. A little nervous that I'm applying to so many "reach" schools, but too late to change course now!

Worried About: Lack of psych publications and experimental research experience. One shaky semester of undergraduate grades (albeit at a top university). After college, I went straight to a T-5 law school and subsequently practiced international commercial and treaty dispute resolution in the U.S. and abroad for five years. In that sense, I'm not worried about my general research/writing/analytical skills. However, my switch to psychology happened relatively recently and I therefore haven't spent as much time as most folks have working in labs (though I currently work in two) or doing fieldwork (which is my ultimate dream). I enrolled in a post-bac program to get the relevant coursework under my belt, but decided to take the PhD application plunge before finishing it because I'm getting too old and it was getting too expensive.  

Not Worried About: GRE (V-99th, Q-89th, AW-98th), GPA (with caveat above), LoRs (2 psych profs I've established relationships with during my post-bac plus a lovely professional rec from a partner at my former firm), SOP/research interests/writing sample, conference talk, demonstrated ability to succeed in a rigorous academic environment at the graduate level, professional experience, teaching experience (2 law school TAships, professional mentor/writing coach).

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!

[Logan B.]

 

Well it's official! I just turned in my PhD application to Berkeley's Social Psych program.

Program of Interest: Social Psychology PhD 

Schools: Berkeley

Worried About: GRE (45% in verbal and quant, 65% in writing), only a year research assistant experience (Stanford and UCSF emotion labs), lack of publications (but 2 paper presentations). The fact that I only wanted to apply to one school

Not Worried About: great master's GPA (MA in art therapy), 4 strong letters of recommendations (2 from close undergraduate professors, 1 from prior masters professor, 1 from senior clinical manager at my current workplace), 6 years clinical experience (including 1.5 years as a supervisor overlooking 10-12 therapists), 2 semesters of teaching assistantship in masters level courses, a strong personal history statement and solid Statement of Purpose.

Now I sit here nervous for the next 3 weeks.......

 

[PokePsych]

2 more apps to go! So happy that its almost over... this is wayyy too stressful

 

Edit: Oh god there's going to be results too..... stress is back

Edited December 4, 2017 by Psygeek

[vallaboop]

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! 

Edited December 5, 2017 by cindyboop