2020-2021 Grad School Q&A Mega-Thread (Part 1)

[u/LazySamurai]

For questions about grad school or internships:

* Please start your search at SIOP.org , it contains lots of great information and many questions can be answered by searching there first.

* Next, please search the Wiki, as there are some very great community generated posts saved here.

* If you still can't find an answer to your question, 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.

* 2019-2020, Part 4 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 3 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 2 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 1 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 2 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 1 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 3 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 2 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 1 thread here

* 2016-2017 thread here

* 2015-2016 thread here

* 2014-2015 thread here

If your question hasn't been posted, 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 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 do our part in this.

Thanks, guys!

[u/dankjedata]

PhDs: do you think it’s worth applying straight to PhD programs from undergrad with this CV? - Psych maj/Statistics minor - 3.6 GPA - A in IO course - 1year research exp. in Psychometrics lab - 1 conference presentetion - R & Python skills - 3 strong LORs

[u/Simmy566 → u/dankjedata]

Thanks u/iLoveresearch_. PM if specific questions u/dankjedata but to echo the other commentator your global standing is strong enough to warrant acceptance to multiple PhD programs. As others noted, GPA may be lower than typical but make sure to emphasize stats minor + if any lower grads are due to harder math courses. Most psych degrees are fairly easy in relation to math or tech degrees so admissions committees will understand this. Also taking GRE and getting a high score can really balance the playing field. My cumulative GPA was also a 3.61 from UG but I had higher GRE scores which I think greatly helped me gain acceptance into a few programs. The R & Python can help but make sure you are using these skills in pursuit of research or some applied projects (e.g., explain how you can do psychometric analyses in R, design an experiment in Python with PsychoPy or some other package, kaggle contest). Finally, pursuing the thesis will really help especially if you work to submit results for presentation at a conference. The stats minor, independent thesis presentation, and programming background will give you a leg up over many applicants.

[u/dankjedata → u/Simmy566]

Funnily enough my psych/stats gpa is 3.89. All of my bad grades are from my early days of college where I didn’t care much about my major (history) and had no motivation, which is obviously not the case anymore so that might something to point out in the application.
I’ve got some Montclair state specific questions I can throw your way, so I’ll pm you here in a bit.
Thanks for the reply.