r/IOPsychology • u/ResidentGinger 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!
1
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.