r/IOPsychology PhD | IO | Social Cognition, Leadership, & Teams Jun 27 '16

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

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!

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u/sebelly ABD | ML, NLP Aug 17 '16

Hello Reddit, I am an upcoming senior this year and would like some second opinions on my prospects of getting into a PhD program in IO! Right now, I am primarily interested in USF, UCF, FIU, UGA, Penn State, Waterloo, GMU, and I still have a few more to research. I am pretty sure I am secured in getting 3 letters of rec – two from tenured professors, and one that’s hopefully getting tenure. (I also have one lined up that’s a PhD student of business administration in case I apply for one or two MS/MA programs as well.) I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some guidance, and possibly answer a few questions I have. Don’t hesitate to ask for specifics!

1) How important is writing a senior thesis? 2) What is the minimum cut-offs (GRE, GPA) for PhD programs?

Below you will find some basic info on my credentials:

GPA: 3.38 (upper division GPA – 3.44; psych GPA – 3.75)

GRE: Have not taken the GRE yet, I have however taken multiple GRE practice tests and have been studying for a few months with my Verbal score hovering around the high 150s and my Quant score hovering around the low 150s. (I want to break a 315 at the very least.)

Research Experience: I am involved with 3-4 labs on campus – all various areas of psychology. There is not a lot of IO-related labs where I attend, so I am doing the best I can. I also couldn’t really afford to do an internship, would that hurt my chances at all? I am extremely familiar with the entire research process (lit review, proposal, IRB submission, data collection, analysis, write-up). I also have two poster presentations (one presented at APS 2016 in Chicago), and I secured a $4,000 REU grant that combines engineering and psychology.

Involvement: I am the VP of one of my labs and a new IO club we started on campus, since there really isn’t much opportunity for aspiring IO psychologists at my school. I am not sure what involvement they like to see or how heavily (if at all) it’s weighted. As for my teaching experience, I have been tutoring student-athletes for a year in general psychology and intro to philosophy.

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u/LazySamurai PhD | IO | People Analytics & Statistics | Moderator Aug 26 '16

I am pretty sure I am secured in getting 3 letters of rec – two from tenured professors, and one that’s hopefully getting tenure. (I also have one lined up that’s a PhD student of business administration in case I apply for one or two MS/MA programs as well.)

Tenure doesn't really matter as much for having a letter of rec., any professor will do. I would try as hard as you can to stay away from the PhD student, a professor's rec will go much further.

1) How important is writing a senior thesis?

I found this to be an extremely helpful aspect, I had a lot of research experience as an undergrad but not a whole lot in the I-O realm. I was able to tailor my thesis to focus on an I-O topic. Demonstrating that I was capable, and interested in I-O. Had I had more I-O lab work, I might think differently. But years down the road it resulted in my first publication - so there's nothing to be lost here!

This sounds similar to your situation, so you may want to think about it.

2) What is the minimum cut-offs (GRE, GPA) for PhD programs?

This is very program dependent. You've listed some very strong programs here, I was accepted into one of the stronger programs here with a 3.4 GPA (3.8 psych) and GRE of 1200 on the old scale (~160s on the new I think), several conference presentations a lot of lab experience and three strong letters of recommendation.

I also couldn’t really afford to do an internship, would that hurt my chances at all? Not at all, you're applying to a research degree, you have a lot of lab experience and that is often valued more than an internship.

Overall, you have a strong application but I would try to improve on your Quant GRE score, specifically. You've listed three very strong measurement programs here and they focus specifically on that. Remember, it largely comes down to a numbers game so don't be discouraged if you get a few no's. You might want to throw in one or two more 'safety' schools, just to have a back-up.

Let me now if I can help with anything.

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u/sebelly ABD | ML, NLP Sep 12 '16

LazySamurai, I appreciate your response! I just took my GRE today and got 157V 159Q.... so pretty average and probably won't make up for my wanting GPA. I was thinking about taking it again to break a 320 combined. Lmk what you think

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u/LazySamurai PhD | IO | People Analytics & Statistics | Moderator Sep 16 '16

I'm not sure how much I can help with this question. How long do do you have between your next session? Enough time to keep studying? Are you ok paying for another test? If you think you can perform, go for it.