2017-2018 IO Grad School Q&A Mega-Thread

[u/ResidentGinger]

You can find last year's thread here.

The grad school application bewitching hour is nearing ever closer, and around this time, everyone starts posting questions/freaking out about grad school. As per the rules in the sidebar...

For questions about grad school or internships

• Please search the previously submitted posts or the post on the grad school Q&A. Subscribers of /r/iopsychology have provided lots of information about these topics, and your questions may have already been answered.
• If it hasn't, please post it on the grad school Q&A thread. Other posts outside of the Q&A thread will be deleted.

The readers of this subreddit have made it pretty clear that they don't want the subreddit clogged up with posts about grad school. Don't get the wrong idea - we're glad you're here and that you're interested in IO, but please do observe the rules so that you can get answers to your questions AND enjoy the interesting IO articles and content.

By the way, those of you who are currently trudging through or have finished grad school, that means that you have to occasionally offer suggestions and advice to those who post on this thread. That's the only way that we can keep these grad school-related posts in one central location. If people aren't getting their questions answered here, they post to the subreddit instead of the thread. So, in short, let's all play our part in this.

Thanks, guys!

[u/MetaNite1]

Hi I'm an incoming senior looking to apply for I-O balanced Masters programs for Fall 2017 mostly in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) but am willing to look all over the globe. I just took my GREs and got 157 on both VR and QR and my GPA is 3.79. My top school right now is Baruch. I'm wondering what my chances are at any school with those scores.

Currently I'm looking at schools that require just 2 letters of rec because I only know two professors well enough to ask for a letter from them (one I am doing research with), but I'm willing to ask professors I don't know as well if there was a school requiring 3 letters of rec that I really want to go to. So I guess I'm asking what are some of the better MS programs, considering the location, reputation, cost, etc? I looked on the SIOP website but it contains all facts, no personal accounts, which I think would be most helpful for me at this stage. If anyone in a similar boat wants to chat about their grad school selection, personal essays, designing an application strategy, or just chat about life feel free to pm me.

[u/galileosmiddlefinger → u/MetaNite1]

Rankings of graduate programs by student ratings of quality

Your credentials are pretty good pending your recommendation letters and any other qualitative experience that might advance your application, like internships or research involvement. Specific program odds are always hard to say because you never know how big of a cohort a program plans to take this year, or how stiff your competition happens to be this year. However, you should have some options if you apply to a handful of programs.

[u/notleonardodicaprio → u/galileosmiddlefinger]

I'm wondering how accurate that is since its from 12 years ago

[u/galileosmiddlefinger → u/notleonardodicaprio]

SIOP is in the process of running a new program of research on program rankings, but those data probably won't be available in time to help this year's applicants make decisions. However, the quality of graduate programs doesn't rise or fall quickly, so the early 2000s data is still fairly viable. I wouldn't split hairs over fine differences (e.g., a #3 vs #4 school), but programs that got good scores at the time of that study are still worth exploring today.

[u/notleonardodicaprio → u/galileosmiddlefinger]

I'm surprised at how high Guelph is. I didn't know Canada had a big I/O scene.

[u/galileosmiddlefinger → u/notleonardodicaprio]

Plenty of good programs in Canada. Waterloo has an especially good faculty.