PhD Fall 2018 Applicants

[PsyZei]

4 hours ago, pataka said:

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!

Yup, that was definitely a freak out moment! First year here, as well.

Plan B is a research focused psychology masters program that will hopefully get me the research experience to be more competitive along with another degree to boost competitiveness. Then you'll see me back on a thread like this in a year or two ;-) I got called with the acceptance for it yesterday =) So, no matter what I have a fall 2018 destination plan I'm excited about.

[PsyZei]

51 minutes ago, j_clapemoji_k_clapemoji said:

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.

 

Got a similar email from Wisconsin-Madison,

"Thank you for your interest in our program.  I wanted to let all applicants know that it takes time from when you submit your application to match your GRE scores.  It could take up to 10 days to complete the process.  If it appears your GRE scores are missing it is not a problem. Faculty will not begin reviewing applicants until all GRE scores are matched with your application. Once we are done matching scores I will contact all applicants with missing scores or any other missing required material to ensure all applications are complete before they are reviewed."

Good to know about!

[pataka]

7 minutes ago, PsyZei said:

Plan B is a research focused psychology masters program that will hopefully get me the research experience to be more competitive along with another degree to boost competitiveness. Then you'll see me back on a thread like this in a year or two ;-) I got called with the acceptance for it yesterday =) So, no matter what I have a fall 2018 destination plan I'm excited about.

Congratulations!!! That's got to be a relief. Rooting for you to get into plan A though!

[Centre2012]

Hey, all! I figured I'd join the conversation since I'll be stalking these forums for the foreseeable future and I figured it would be much more enjoyable if I'm interacting with you wonderful people. 

Program of interest: Clinical Psychology-Child/Adolescent Concentration 

Schools I've Applied to: (14) U of Lousiville, U of Houston, East Carolina U, U of Florida, Vanderbilt, St. John's, U of South Alabama, UMass Boston,  WashU, U of Hawaii at Manoa, Virgina Tech, DePaul, U of Alabama Birmingham, Virginia Commonwealth 

Research Interests: Stress and coping related to pediatric accidental trauma and life-limiting illnesses. 

Number one worry about applying:  Is everything an option? lol. I'd say my Quant GRE score (157) is my biggest worry, but I've taken multiple graduate level stats courses to balance that out. 

Not Worried About: My cumulative GRE score is okay (322), I have 4-5 years of research experience at both undergraduate and graduate levels, currently in a research-focused Masters program at Vanderbilt, strong letters of rec, solid personal statement. 

[vallaboop]

22 hours ago, FluffyPancakes said:

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

Good idea! It'll be a hit here in the forum! Haha 

[vallaboop]

19 hours ago, pataka said:

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.

That's a good idea!

Haha, I look a recipes to distract myself too! Pretty soon it will morph into a cooking/baking frenzy to distract myself in my free time

[psytillidie]

Program of interest: Clinical Psych (trauma/ anxiety focused)

Schools you have looked at: I looked at SO many schools, but I ended up applying to Kentucky, Arkansas, Denver, Montana, Idaho State, and Nevada, Reno

Number one worry about applying: Pretty much all aspects of my app. My GRE is okay, GPA not great. My SOP and LOR are good. Research is decent.

My biggest fear is having something happen like what occurred last year when I was applying to schools. I applied to a MA psych program, and about a month after the May 1st deadline I still hadn't heard anything so I checked social media and at least one person had been accepted the week before. So I called the program coordinator and she told me that she recognized my name and that I should've received either an acceptance or a rejection email (wow how comforting!) because I definitely was not on the waitlist. She said she was going to check with the admission committee before resending my email. After two days I didn't hear from her, so I called again. This time she told me that I was on the waitlist and I'd be notified within a week. To recap: was told I was definitely either accepted or rejected but was not sure which and definitely not on the waitlist but then after a couple days I was definitely on the waitlist and they had not made a decision about me over a month after the deadline and after acceptances and rejections were already handed out. A week later I was officially rejected off the waitlist. After talking with some of my prior psych professors about this experiences they felt certain they'd mishandled my application. I just laugh about it, though, because of course it would happen to me! 

Has anyone else ever experienced something like that?

[Logan B.]

hows everyone doing?  Friends keep saying "Well if it's meant to be it will be" and I'm here thinking "OK, THANKS for that philosophical advice, but I'm still going to be a nervous wreck" (lol)

@psytillidie I haven't experienced that situation, but I have experienced a weird situation where I was all set to go to England for my masters in dance therapy and 1 DAY before I left they decided to cancel the program entirely? It was super confusing. I had gotten accepted and suddenly all my planning and visa and everything was cancelled. I had the similar thought as you "This WOULD happen to me!"

I instead got into CIIS for masters in expressive arts therapy and it turned out to be an amazing program and I am so glad it all happened the way it did. 

 

[vallaboop]

Is it inappropriate to ask the people that wrote your LORs if you can read them? I had a professor tell me once that just because you waived the right to read your letters doesn't mean you can't after the fact.

[vallaboop]

12 hours ago, Logan B. said:

hows everyone doing?  Friends keep saying "Well if it's meant to be it will be" and I'm here thinking "OK, THANKS for that philosophical advice, but I'm still going to be a nervous wreck" (lol)

@psytillidie I haven't experienced that situation, but I have experienced a weird situation where I was all set to go to England for my masters in dance therapy and 1 DAY before I left they decided to cancel the program entirely? It was super confusing. I had gotten accepted and suddenly all my planning and visa and everything was cancelled. I had the similar thought as you "This WOULD happen to me!"

I instead got into CIIS for masters in expressive arts therapy and it turned out to be an amazing program and I am so glad it all happened the way it did. 

 

RE: what your friends keep saying - I hate that! I also hate "you're smart, you will get in!" I will that was all it took 

[loffire]

Jumping in here late cos now there's not much else to do but ruminate and worry ahahah :'(

Program of interest: My interests are in affective neuroscience, psychopathology (drug addiction and schizophrenia) and cognitive architecture.

Schools you have looked at: so i have a few schools from each of the reach, within ability, and safe categories

Number one worry about applying: almost everything tbh. I have a mediocre GPA (3.63), an alright GRE (322), quite a bit of research experience, hopefully solid recommendation letters (1 from undergraduate research supervisor, 1 from my current boss/PI, and 1 from an undergraduate professor I kept in contact with).

The undergraduate professor said my research experience makes me competitive but I've applied to progs where neuroimaging or translational research is big and I don't have hands on experience with these. Some I spoke to have told me grad school is for you to learn, otherwise they'd be looking for post-docs. Some others told me they got rejected because they didn't have relevant experience. i'm not sure i'm competitive anymore

Now cherry on the icing on the cake, three schools have not received my transcipts, gre scores, or both. I double checked addresses and codes and they still havent received them. Berkeley just told me "Not all GRE scores automatically matched applications. I'll ask our Graduate Admissions tech support team to look into this and get back to you. Your application will be reviewed without the official score report." so yay. fingers crossed for the rest!

[Logan B.]

@loffire ahhh good luck to you! I was told multiple times it comes down to clinical fit. It sounds like your research experience is strong and will be competitive. 

 

I also applied to Berkeley and I'm freaking out hoping they don't look at my horrible GRE scores and just toss me out--- I have (and I am bias) quite an interesting background and strong SOP and LoR.... I really don't want to take that GRE again-- I did WAY worse the second time than the first and studied so much. That is my only worry on my application. 

 

[courtnord]

Hello everyone! Also joining the party late so we can all support each other in our surmounting anxiety as we wait....

Program of interest: Clinical Psychology - Adult Populations

Schools I've Applied to: (6) University of Vermont, University of Southern California, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Maryland - College Park, Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University (note: this isn't a psychology program, but a public health PhD in mental health [relevant SUD research])

Research Interests: Substance use disorders, particularly opioid use disorders, in disenfranchised populations; substance use disorders and associated health disparities; improving accessibility and linkage to evidence-based treatment approaches

Number one worry about applying: I graduated from undergrad in 2012 and have been working ever since, so my "gap year" became a gap of 5 years  I also took my GREs in 2012...

Not Worried About: I've been working for clinical research trials at a multi-disciplinary institute for a number of years and I feel good about the experience its provided me (e.g., face-to-face assessments with participants, publications). Good SOP and LOR. 

 

Good luck to everyone! 

 

[vallaboop]

22 hours ago, loffire said:

Jumping in here late cos now there's not much else to do but ruminate and worry ahahah :'(

Program of interest: My interests are in affective neuroscience, psychopathology (drug addiction and schizophrenia) and cognitive architecture.

Schools you have looked at: so i have a few schools from each of the reach, within ability, and safe categories

Number one worry about applying: almost everything tbh. I have a mediocre GPA (3.63), an alright GRE (322), quite a bit of research experience, hopefully solid recommendation letters (1 from undergraduate research supervisor, 1 from my current boss/PI, and 1 from an undergraduate professor I kept in contact with).

The undergraduate professor said my research experience makes me competitive but I've applied to progs where neuroimaging or translational research is big and I don't have hands on experience with these. Some I spoke to have told me grad school is for you to learn, otherwise they'd be looking for post-docs. Some others told me they got rejected because they didn't have relevant experience. i'm not sure i'm competitive anymore

Now cherry on the icing on the cake, three schools have not received my transcipts, gre scores, or both. I double checked addresses and codes and they still havent received them. Berkeley just told me "Not all GRE scores automatically matched applications. I'll ask our Graduate Admissions tech support team to look into this and get back to you. Your application will be reviewed without the official score report." so yay. fingers crossed for the rest!

I have similar interests to you - what were your "safe" schools? I have a hard time figuring this out with grad programs. I've looked at rankings on usnews.com but I'm not sure if there is a better place to look? 

I've had similar problems with my GRE scores! Some schools seemed to have received them immediately while one is still telling me they don't have them but I sent them over a month ago  super frustrating. 

[Clinapp2017]

On 12/11/2017 at 7:41 AM, cindyboop said:

Is it inappropriate to ask the people that wrote your LORs if you can read them? I had a professor tell me once that just because you waived the right to read your letters doesn't mean you can't after the fact.

I'd say it's not totally abnormal. However, given that you asked these people to write the LORs in confidence I don't see what the benefit of asking to read the LORs would give you. Having asked for LORs (and written them for several junior students), I value the confidence to give you fair evaluation. Of course, I'd always ask LOR writers if they can write a good letter for you, not just any old letter. 

[vallaboop]

6 minutes ago, Clinapp2017 said:

I'd say it's not totally abnormal. However, given that you asked these people to write the LORs in confidence I don't see what the benefit of asking to read the LORs would give you. Having asked for LORs (and written them for several junior students), I value the confidence to give you fair evaluation. Of course, I'd always ask LOR writers if they can write a good letter for you, not just any old letter. 

I guess there is no real benefit I am more just curious. I suppose it wouldn't really help, it would just add to me judging myself and assessing my chances of getting accepted - which would obviously be inaccurate and not help. I understand where you are coming from. I will leave it alone. Thanks!

[Psychapplica]

It kills when I see posts that some one got an interview in the specific program and concentration that I applied to... eagerly waiting. I really hope I get an interview ? how are others coping?

[eieioh]

Hi all -- If the person who got the Princeton invite is on this thread, would you mind PM'ing me the name of your POI? Thanks so much!

Fingers crossed that we will all get good news soon!

[Psychologyandpizza]

Looking for the people who got phone interviews for UW Madison’s counseling psychology program? Would you mind emailing me who you’re POI is and if you know if it is typical that everyone who gets in person interviews always gets phone interviews first? Thanks!!

[Centre2012]

So I totally get eagerly waiting and going crazy not knowing if we have interviews yet...but even getting an interview or not getting one doesn't mean anything but more waiting, over the long run, because of the way admissions to these programs work. People can be and have been admitted into programs as late as July. Don't get me wrong, I'm still eagerly/stressfully waiting along with the rest of you...but am I wrong for thinking ahead beyond this initial wave of interview invitations and being slightly comforted by that?

[Psychedoutbypsych]

To the person who received an interview with Ole Miss mind pm'ing me with your POI and stats.  Thanks!!

[psychsavvy]

Yes, to the person who received an interview with Ole Miss please PM me with that info too! Thank you! 

[pataka]

1 hour ago, Centre2012 said:

So I totally get eagerly waiting and going crazy not knowing if we have interviews yet...but even getting an interview or not getting one doesn't mean anything but more waiting, over the long run, because of the way admissions to these programs work. People can be and have been admitted into programs as late as July. Don't get me wrong, I'm still eagerly/stressfully waiting along with the rest of you...but am I wrong for thinking ahead beyond this initial wave of interview invitations and being slightly comforted by that?

I don't know of any programs admitting after April, at least for PhDs. But you're not wrong, and I'm right there with you! This initial wave of interviews (and phone screenings) might not mean a WHOLE lot in the long run. And I think a lot of the programs I applied to don't start sending out invites until at least the end of December, if not weeks/months later.

I did have a PoI reach out to me for a really informal/informational skype audio chat, and to me it was validation that my application wasn't just lost in the void, you know? But I know it's not everything when it comes to the admissions process.

[Meroona]

Hello Everyone,

 

 

                                       I am prospective student for  Phd psychology with especial interest in cognitive social neuroscience, i am intended to apply in fall 2018. i havenot taken GRE still, i have shortlisted universities like Harvard, Stanford and columbia. i want to know any one else is applying to these schools and your suggestions about GRE scores for these institutes.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Meroona

[vallaboop]

People are receiving interview invites already??!!