fluttering

It depends on whether the conference will publish proceedings (i.e., full 6-8 page papers, not just an abstract). If yes, then you shouldn't submit the same material to a journal. Plenty of researchers do/did this, especially when it was harder to track down conference papers - so the work in the conference paper and journal paper would be identical. Now it's much more likely that a journal will catch you doing this and reject your submission, so people tend to put preliminary analyses or a subset of the analyses in the conference paper and save the full details for the journal paper, so there is still sufficient originality. If the conference is only publishing abstracts, or is not publishing anything at all, then go for it.

Does your department/university have a policy regarding using published material in your dissertation? I know of some departments that encourage students to do their degree "by publication" so it is a series of journal articles (with some added material that ties it all together) and in these cases you can literally copy and paste the content of the journal article as a chapter of your dissertation/thesis. Then at the beginning you have a statement noting which work has already been published, and providing the citation for each chapter. Other departments are happy for students to publish as they go, but expect them to write a slightly different version of the paper for their dissertation/thesis.

The ERA (Excellence in Research in Australia) previously had a journal ranking system that classified journals as A*, A, B, C or unranked. This ranking system was dropped last year. The idea was supposed to be that the ranks would indicate the best journals in each subject area, since other rating metrics such as impact factor have different standards in different fields.

There is a difference between a literature review (of the type Behavioral is describing) and a systematic review - eco_env seems to be referring to the latter, where you use set keywords and pick up everything that fits those keywords and then sift through it with set criteria for including/excluding papers. Systematic reviews can include meta-analyses, and there are very detailed protocols on how to conduct both systematic reviews and meta-analyses. For a literature review, I take my stack of papers and sort them by topic, then make notes on each of them - in varying levels of detail depending on how relevant they are. It often helps to put things in some sort of table/spreadsheet, so I can easily find all the papers using population A, population B, etc.

Regarding teaching, what Arts subjects does your university offer? Perhaps you could tutor for international studies or poli sci. You might also be able to guest lecture in some courses that are about international law / human rights law or subjects that touch on these issues for whatever reason.

Are you from US, NZ, or somewhere else? Unless you're from NZ, and/or the NZ university/dept/supervisor is held in much higher esteem than the US equivalent, I'd probably recommend US. On the other hand, you'd get much better food in NZ...

What area of psychology are you interested in? Because there are not many Masters programs in psychology in Australia - many universities are even gradually phasing out their clinical masters (in favour of DPsych degrees). But if you want to get into clinical psych programs in Australia, you are right that you will need an Australian 4-year honours degree or equivalent degree that is accredited by the Australian Psychological Society. US degrees are not accredited by the APS so you will need to do, at minimum, 1 extra year (i.e., Honours year) - however depending on your degree it is possible that you may not even meet the requirements for Honours, in which case you will need to complete a Graduate Diploma in Psychology in order to be eligible for Honours. On the other hand, if you are ultimately interested in a research PhD, then you may be eligible with your US degree. This is because research PhDs in psychology do not require an APS accredited undergrad degree in psychology. To get into a PhD, typically you need a first class honours degree. If your undergraduate marks aren't high enough you can get into a research masters (e.g., MPhil) but not many people do those - since you don't do coursework in most MPhil degrees, it is just like doing a PhD on a smaller scale, but there are very few scholarships available for MPhil students.

Most cognitive psych people I know end up in jobs that are either in academia (researching topics related to their PhD) or in human factors or other applied research settings, including for the dept of defence. Most social psych people I know end up in jobs that are either in academic or government jobs. The government jobs tend to be either stats, social/health related research, or policy.

Yes, I know a few people who have had their luggage damaged by TSA. Use a TSA lock or no lock at all.

Look at what your potential advisor's past/current students are doing. Have the current students published? If so, where/what? (What is particularly important if you don't necessarily agree 100% with your advisor's stance - I have heard of people not letting their students publish in such situations.) Where did the past students get jobs? One con of having a controversial advisor can be that it's a "niche" and that you will only get jobs in certain departments... but that can also be a pro, as well, because it means fewer people are "qualified" for jobs in those departments.

After.

If you truly think your GRE score will keep you out, perhaps consider applying to some overseas institutions - Canada, Australia, UK, Germany. Very few (if any) would care about your GRE scores.

Several of my friends have been in situations where their supervisor was dating a current/former student. All of them resented it. People will perceive you as having an unfair advantage due to the relationship, regardless of whether it is true.

Contact the graduate admissions departments at each school to see how they want it handled (e.g., leave it blank, put the score in your home institution's scale, convert it yourself). When I applied to a US university, they wanted me to convert my own GPA but had no set scale so they suggested that I Google GPA conversions and simply add a document explaining the conversion systems that I used.

Make sure you book your flight all the way to Texas on the same ticket, so it counts as international the whole way. Most airlines will still allow you 2 checked bags for international Australia-USA, but within the USA you have to pay for ALL checked baggage - unless you're on a domestic leg of an international ticket. Don't take too much hand luggage because the US has quite strict regulations and security, especially through LAX (the security for domestic flights through LAX is more intense than international flights through Sydney or Melbourne). Don't pack too much - with the current exchange rate, many things are cheaper in the USA (electronics, cosmetics, jeans, etc). Happy shopping!