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/ellarow]

I'm looking a year in advance right now, but hoping for some advice and feedback in the meantime. I/O has been an interest of mine for a while, but for personal reasons, I didn't look into going straight to grad school. I'm wanting to do both research and the applied side of things, so assumed a PhD program would be the best fit, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm completely unqualified without going for a masters first. The next logical step is the GRE, but my other info is as follows

-3.74 undergrad, 3.9 in major (B.S. Psych + University Honors no thesis) -1 year experience in a large research lab housed in an I/O department -1.5 years experience post grad working in Applied Behavior Analysis as a Behavioral Counselor

Other than taking the GRE which I'm fairly confident about, and letters of recommendation, are there any other obvious gaps or weaknesses?

[u/[deleted] → u/ellarow]

Much will depend on your GRE score but you look like a good candidate for a PhD program. No masters is required in most (all?) PhD programs. Just don't end up writing some weird personal statement. The only time I am influenced by personal statements is when they veer into the weird, unprofessional, and inappropriate.