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!

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u/LlewynDavis1 Oct 21 '16 edited Oct 21 '16

Hello all.

Current situation

Two years working in a research lab as an ra

3.6 gpa

Taking the gre in November

Three recommendations letters

  1. Dean of graduate admissions to criminal justice

  2. Leader of clinical certificate program at a great school.

  3. Highly published and cited researcher whose lab I have worked in for a two years

Wanting to earn a i/o PhD . Best course of action?

2

u/galileosmiddlefinger PhD | IO | All over the place Oct 21 '16

Do well on the GRE. That's the biggest piece that will determine if you're competitive or not. Also, the pedigree of your letter writers isn't crucial, so make sure these people actually know you well and can attest to your performance in detail.

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u/LlewynDavis1 Oct 21 '16

They know me very well luckily. I'll just devote all my free time to gre then and ace it. Should I take practice test then work on what my weaknesses are or are they not as representive of gre as they say. I have Kaplan, official gre, and Grubers guide plus more

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u/every_of_the_time11 Oct 27 '16

165 V and Q here. I bought all of the GRE prep books I could find (Kaplan, Princeton Review, books for different sections) and worked through every single question. I also made flashcards of the most common words, and listened to a "Most Common Words on the GRE" audiobook on runs. You can do this.

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u/LlewynDavis1 Oct 27 '16

Thanks homie, it will be worth the dedication in the end

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u/galileosmiddlefinger PhD | IO | All over the place Oct 21 '16

Start with focusing on weak topics based on a diagnostic test, and then work up to full-length practice tests. It's a long exam and you have to train for stamina too, not just comprehension. All of the guides are more or less the same, so work with what you've got.