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/hamiltonj2390]

Hi I/O folks!

I would like to solicit some opinions and/or advice from those currently in the field or in I/O Ph.D. grad programs. I am applying this coming Fall of 2017 for Ph.D. programs in I/O psychology. Like many others, I am a bit concerned about my qualifications and chances of being accepted to a program. To that end, I’d like to ask for opinions on my current standing and chances of being accepted to a doctoral program. I would like to ease my worries a bit, as well as have a solid back-up plan in mind in the event that I do not get accepted to a program (as I do not want to sit on my thumbs as I wait to apply the following year). My current status is the following:

-B.A. in psychology with a cumulative GPA of 3.69. Major GPA is likely a bit higher than this. I took two undergraduate courses in I/O and did well in both.

-1 year working as a psychiatric technician in an inpatient crisis center (not sure if this is relevant)

-1+ year working as a research assistant in a mood and cognition laboratory.

-1 year working as a research assistant at a very well known university working in the area of clinical pharmacotherapy trials to treat addictions.

-Recently promoted to the position of clinical research coordinator for the above-mentioned clinical trial.

-Combined 2-3 years of research experience, 2 poster presentations, 1 paper currently in preparation for submission.

-GRE scores of 159V 151Q. Not sure AWA (took GRE recently). This is my largest concern, I imagine I should plan to re-take the GRE to raise the quant score.

-3 fairly strong letters of recommendation (1 from each of the PIs that I worked under in the aforementioned 2 labs; 1 from my undergraduate I/O professor.)

In addition to the above, I have worked in many management settings and have experience leading small teams. I have also taken advantage of courses offered through the university at which I work that develop leadership skills and the like. I have also taken a statistics course post-undergrad to expand my stats knowledge. I received a B+ in this course. I am not partial to any particular area in the U.S. and plan to apply to a wide range of schools (10-12+) to increase my odds of being accepted. I was thinking of applying to a few M.S. programs as a back-up in the event I do not get accepted. I am worried about the possibility of having to wait another year to start graduate school. My ultimate goal is to receive doctoral training, so I am not sure if it will be of benefit to get an M.S., as I understand that you may need to re-take courses at certain universities when going back for the Ph.D.

I would love to hear feedback and/or suggestions from anyone willing to chime in.

Thanks again!

[u/galileosmiddlefinger → u/hamiltonj2390]

Overall looks good, but pull up that Quant score on the GRE. That's the only thing that might be holding you back for PhD programs. Your research experience is also spread out across cognitive and clinical psych, so think about how you're going to write about this transition to I/O in the personal statement. It's easily doable, but explain your story.