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hey i'm going to take the GRE psychology this year. Right now i'm using the Kaplan's prep book. Anyone use the same book? What are your strategies of studying it?

Hey everyone, I thought it would be interesting to look at programs that for one reason or another are slept on. Basically, admissions-wise, they aren't as competitive as they should be or the department isn't balanced (like most programs outside the top 20-30). At the same time, it could be used as a good compilation of information on what fields lower ranked schools are strong in. I tried to use the search function to find field rankings. There was one post attempting to make top 5 lists for every field but the same group of schools kept appearing in every field list. This is of course because the top schools are good in everything but not every applicant is applying to top 10 or 20 programs. Also when people ask about field rankings, they are usually given links to the Grijalva and Nowell paper which is a few years old now (and also suffers somewhat from the same flaw that the previously mentioned thread had) or the econphd rankings which is even older. The thread title is misleading because I don't think a ranking should be created, rather just a list of programs that applicants have come across that are much stronger in a certain field than others. We can also include programs that are highly ranked but receive less applicants than other top schools (what the poster Nanashi called the "location effect" in a few other threads) Wow, sorry about the long post, and I hope everyone understands what I'm saying

I just finished the UCSD flyout and wanted to start a thread for attendees to post their impressions and things they learned. Here are some of mine: 1) There was an impressively cooperative/colleagial atmosphere, both among students and between students and profs. 2) They have really expanded their development program in recent years, both in dedicated faculty and other faculty with development interests. 3) No one seemed overly down about the financial health of the department or the ability to keep junior or senior faculty. 4) I think overall attrition is about 1/3 (if anyone has better info, please correct!), but across the board people said it was really never due to failed comps. Apparently most people pass by the second try, but they are very accommodating of people who want to continue. 5) Development, environment, and conflict seem to be some of the better-funded topics at the moment (I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I heard about). There are also options for working with profs at Rady and IRPS. 6) They are working on a placement list that shows the primary and additional fields associated with placements. 7) There is probably some room to negotiate funding if you present your other offers. 8) Grad students said that TA work is generally light, especially for 1st years, and most thought the stipend is livable. 9) The grad student housing most available is the furnished "single grad housing" on campus or 1 Miramar nearby. The others seem to have long waits. Most students live in grad student housing their first year. 10) Two of my favorite presentations were Berman and Andreoni. I left wanting to do behavioral lab work and conflict. :) 11) They said there is a fairly even split between people taking five and six years to finish. 12) There's obviously a major selection issue with which grad students show up for recruitment activities, but everyone I talked to seemed really happy with the program. And the weather, of course. I'll add more as it comes to mind, and hopefully others will add more substantial comments on research and profs they talked to.