<p>Hey everyone, I'm currently a 3rd year at UCLA studying sociology. My overall gpa on average will probably about 3.5 when I graduate. However I'm applying this august schools. I'm expecting GRE scores about about 1300 total. What are my chances of getting into a social psychology at schools like northwestern, uchic, or columbia without research experience? Thanks everyone</p>
<p>Nobody knows. “Chances” for graduate school are even more worthless than those for undergraduate admissions. Acceptance is much more about how your interests and experience fit with a program’s needs and desires than your generic GPA/GRE stats.</p>
<p>But your lack of research experience will make you stand out, in a bad way. Look for opportunities this summer.</p>
<p>Start making contact with professors who share your research interests. Attend conferences, if possible. Build relationships so you’re “that guy” who a prof pulls out of the application stack and says “I want him in our program.” If you can get a faculty member in your corner, you’re pretty much a shoo-in for admission.</p>
<p>thanks polar, </p>
<p>another quick question. I have taken a research methods course and have completed two research projects for that course. would that count as research?</p>
<p>yes, that will count as research experience but you will need A LOT more to be considered for the social psych schools you mentioned. also, don’t just assume you’ll get a 1300 on the GRE, it is a tough test.</p>
<p>The GRE is cake. I studied like one evening (during other people’s turns in a board game) and got a 1480 (96th percentile CR and 800 Quant). They are making the test hard soon, so take it ASAP before they change it. GPA is probably fine. Just get some more research experience.</p>
<p>Well the verbal on the GRE appears to be easier, but quant section looks much harder. I am hoping to take it before the change also</p>
<p>Are you looking for a social psychology program in a psychology department, or a social psychology program in a sociology department? I’m getting my PhD in social psychology + public health at Columbia, and I can say that if you don’t have any psychology background as far as coursework goes, you won’t get admitted to the psychology program here. You also will not get admitted without any research experience, regardless of your GPA and GRE scores. The combination of these two is going to be lethal.</p>
<p>Lacking a psychology course background would be forgivable if you had a strong record of psychological research, but without it, no dice. Having been a sociology major who switched to psychology later, the two fields are related but they are not the same, and it’s not easy to jump from an undergrad in one to a grad field in the other. The research methods are different as well. For example, here at Columbia most of the social psych research done is experimental. I also happen to know that the social psych professors in my department tend to be relatively unavailable as far as taking students goes.</p>
<p>And I def know that people do not get admitted without strong research backgrounds. The project for your research methods class will “count” but it will not be considered strong enough. My program, and most like it, look for 2+ years of continuous mentored research with a psychologist or someone in a closely related field.</p>
<p>Try to find a summer research program for undergraduates to do this summer - but you’re already a bit late, because most of the deadlines have passed already. If you will apply in the fall, I hate to say it but you probably won’t gain admission for Fall 2012. Social psych is extremely competitive especially at the places you are interested in, and your research experience is lacking. You might want to take 1-2 years off and work as a lab manager or research coordinator.</p>
<p>If you are talking about a social psychology specialization in a sociology program, well, that’s different.</p>