To accept or reject?

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Marg

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Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums. I began searching online for some info about how things work in grad school and came across these forums. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how much flexibility in terms of research that grad students have. So far I have only been accepted to 1 program and I'm not sure that I'm all that passionate about my proposed supervisors research. Should I reject and try again next year? Or should I give it a try and hope to branch out with my own interests in the future? I really don't want to go through this process again but I don't want to be stuck doing something I don't have a true passion for. Any advice would be great...
 
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums. I began searching online for some info about how things work in grad school and came across these forums. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how much flexibility in terms of research that grad students have. So far I have only been accepted to 1 program and I'm not sure that I'm all that passionate about my proposed supervisors research. Should I reject and try again next year? Or should I give it a try and hope to branch out with my own interests in the future? I really don't want to go through this process again but I don't want to be stuck doing something I don't have a true passion for. Any advice would be great...
I'm still waiting to hear back from two schools I'm interested in and hope to receive offers from. However, I also interviewed at another school and decided afterwards that the research match wasn't ideal, and that even if that was my only acceptance, I would reject it and apply again next year. I also turned down an interview invite at one school b/c the professor who invited me was my secondary interest, and I realized beforehand that I couldn't see myself doing research (or any work, for that matter) for 5-6 years that I wasn't passionate about.

It's a huge decision, but I really think research match is the most important factor in the decision to attend a graduate school in clinical psychology. I think your research activities/projects in graduate school (whether they're interesting to you or not) play a large role in where you'll match for internship and pave the way for career opportunities beyond internship. If you feel like your potential mentor/supervisor is great and other strengths of the programs outweigh a less-than-ideal research match, then perhaps accepting the offer wouldn't be a bad decision. If you don't see yourself doing your supervisor's research for at least 4 years, then ask him/her more about their mentorship style. Would they be willing to help you pursue your research interests, and if so to what extent? Ask questions of both your potential supervisor and current graduate students in the lab.

If you do decide to apply again next year, then you'll not only have time to strengthen your application, but also research graduate programs that truly fit well with your interests. Good luck!
 
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums. I began searching online for some info about how things work in grad school and came across these forums. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how much flexibility in terms of research that grad students have. So far I have only been accepted to 1 program and I'm not sure that I'm all that passionate about my proposed supervisors research. Should I reject and try again next year? Or should I give it a try and hope to branch out with my own interests in the future? I really don't want to go through this process again but I don't want to be stuck doing something I don't have a true passion for. Any advice would be great...

Here's the deal, and you need to be VERY honest with yourself.

1. Do you think that you will be able to secure admission in another program next year?

2. If you believe #1, do you believe that you will be able to secure admission in a program that is better suited to your needs next year.

3. If you can't answer #1 and #2 with a definitive yes, then you might want to consider still attending this program.

It's somewhat common for students to switch advisers in some programs. If you are fortunate enough that your program allows this flexibility you might still want to consider it. Many faculty will work to incorporate something that excites you into their research but the focus will still be on their core area of expertise.

There are so many variables to consider that it would be wrong for any of us to tell you what to do with the limited information provided. However, if you believe that you are not an extremely competitive applicant, then sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I know that had I gotten accepted to Oklahoma State University my first time around I would have accepted it and I would have made the best of the situation... thankfully they rejected me! It was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I wasn't a weak applicant, but I wasn't strong either, I was average to slightly below average in the pool of applicants.

If you have a strong GRE and GPA with solid research experience and all the boxes checked, I could see you rolling the dice. I am sure you learned a lot about how the whole process worked and what is being looked for now. This does improve your chances, a lot, if you integrate the feedback well from doing it this year. I was far more successful in my applications and admissions my second time at the dance.

If you feel your application was marginal and you got admitted to a program you considered a reach or stretch, I would take the money and RUN!

Mark
 
Sometimes you can do research that is somewhat tangential to your advisor's research, as long as it fits into the constraints of the data that are available, and as long as your advisor is willing to advise you on it. It might be helpful to know exactly how far your potential advisor is from your actual interests. If, for example, you're interested in studying marriage, and your advisor studies autism, that's a bit of a stretch. But if you're interested in studying marriage and your advisor studies parenting (which marriage can affect and be affected by) or depression (ditto), you might be able to make it work.
 
if you're concerned enough to the point of not attending - you could call your POI and ask them what type of research they are doing in the future, and if they could see you branching out a little bit and looking at what you're interested in at some point.

i think the POI would welcome your questions and concerns - i wouldn't phrase it by talking about how disinterested you are in their research, more how you could combine interests or branch off. there must have been a reason you applied to work with that POI to begin with right?



....MarkP gives the best advice
 
Thank you everyone for your comments. Truth is, I don't think I'm a very competitive applicant but rather average. Rejecting the offer and re-applying next year is quite a gamble as I'm not very confident about getting other acceptances. My potential supervisors research centers around a clinical-developmental perspective with an emphasis on developmental disabilities in infants, namely visual psychophysics. I was initially interested in his research due my interests in the developmental perspective. However, after speaking with him and getting a better idea of what he does, I realized that a huge chunk of his research centers around vision and infants. I like the developmental perspective but I would much prefer to work with older children with various developmental disabilities, not just vision. In fact, the more I read his research, the more boring and banal its beginning to sound :S
 
Is it possible for you to find a student in his lab or another of his grads and see how their experiences progressed? Maybe he likes it when his students spur ideas off of his original research...

I have a friend who ended up phd cog and her mentor allowed her to go off and do her entirely own thing from 2nd year forward.

I know that can be rare but some profs would probably like their names on as many quality pubs as they can get... and to have their name on something where someone else did most of the hard thinkin... well, that's a jackpot.

Good luck w/your decision.
 
That's a hard decision. I agree 100% with the other posters - you need to talk to your POI and see what the flexibility is for pursuing different interests. Most professors are pretty open to discussing that, and will let you know what their stance is.

Remember that what you study in grad school will probably be what you will study for the majority of your career, unless you do some major legwork to change that. If you are stuck studying something you already see as banal, not only will you be miserable for the next 4-5 years (at least), you will probably miss out on important pieces of training for what you actually do want to study long-term.
 
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