Welcome! If you have gotten this far, then you are potentially interested in joining our group here at Cornell Psych for your graduate studies.

The wall of text that follows is meant to help potential candidates cultivate their application for this lab, or other like-minded labs. Apologies that there are so few graphics to liven the page.

 

Things you should know if you plan to apply:

1. It is a good idea to contact the PI of the lab to inquire if the lab will be able to accept students in the coming year. It is also a good idea to correspond with the PI (either via email, at a meeting/convention, virtually or by phone, or in some other form). Contacting the PI sooner rather than later is highly suggested. Typically first contact should happen in the summer, but early fall is okay too.
2. Cornell University uses a (somewhat confusing) structure called the Graduate Fields, for graduate admissions and studies. Based on this system, there is not always a 1-to-1 relationship between Department faculty members and ‘Field’ faculty members. Thus, someone might be in a Field, but not a member of the department. Applications are submitted directly to the Cornell University Graduate School. To apply to work in the Ophir lab, you will need to indicate you are applying to the Field of “Psychological Sciences and Human Development“. If you apply to a different field, your application will not be accessible or reviewable by Dr. Ophir.
3. Application requirements currently include: a CV*, a transcript (unofficial) of the undergraduate record, three letters of recommendation*, an academic statement of purpose*, a personal statement of interest*. (*See below for more on these). Currently GRE and GRE subject area are not required.
4. You should speak to trainees (past and present) of my lab (or any lab you are giving serious consideration to joining). A list of my trainees and their contact information can be found on the People page on this website, and I encourage you to contact them to discuss their experiences.
5. You are potentially committing to a 4-6 year relationship with a PI, their lab members, and their research community. Ensure that you are finding the right fit based on your needs and wants, and those of the community that you would be joining. You are also committing to living in a new city and you will want to think about how you can thrive there. I believe that Ithaca, Cornell, the Dept of Psychology, the BEN group, and the Ophir lab have a lot to offer, but you should investigate for yourself. Some information is provided at the bottom of the page to help in that effort.

 

What I weight more and less in an application and applicant:

In my lab, priority for candidacy is given to relevant research experience, articulation of understanding of the field and the research questions that the candidate wants to conduct, writing quality, and evaluations from letter writers. Much of this information is gleaned from the CV, the essays, and any correspondences with the candidate (interview, and/or previous contact). GPA is considered, but weighted relatively low so long as the GPA is in the 3.0+ (or equivalent) range. Note that GRE scores are currently not required and we are blinded to the scores if they are submitted with an application. However like the GPA, if GRE scores are available to me, I will consider them, but I do not heavily weight them in the evaluation process because they are notoriously culturally biased, associated with financial and neurodivergent inequity, and rarely predictive of success in academics. Ideally, a candidate would score in the top 50% of their testing cohort. Exceptional scores on the GRE or GPA are notable, but even then, I do not prioritize these metrics in the evaluation process. Transcripts are helpful to demonstrate you have been exposed to some topics as an undergrad and to get a sense of what kinds of topics you have done well in. But much of the foundation upon which you will build for yourself as a graduate student will not come from those classes, but from the intense reading and thinking you will do as a graduate student. Therefore, I view transcripts simply as windows into some of what you know (or should know), even though I anticipate this knowledge-base will be rounded out during your graduate studies.

 

What I look for in a CV:

A CV should be well organized, formatted well, and free of typos. It should provide information about your professional experience, like what lab(s) you worked in, what skills you have mastered, what conferences you have attended (and presentations you have given), any papers you have authored, and any other research experience you might have. You can also detail other aspects of your professional experience like i) outreach you have participated in or have benefited from, ii) what honors, awards and grants you have accumulated, iii) any teaching or teaching assistantship experience you have, iv) what professional development workshops you have attended, v) any mentoring you have done, vi) any departmental or scientific societal service you have performed, vii) any professional societies that you belong to, and viii) any other information that you wish to convey that speaks to your professional accomplishments. Note that not all things you list will be universally recognized, so very brief descriptions or explanations (e.g., programs you’ve been involved with or research projects/labs you have contributed to) can be very helpful to contextualize your experience to a naïve reader.

 

What I look for in an Academic Statement of Purpose:

There is a lot one can pack into this relatively short essay. Fundamentally, this essay should convey your writing style and writing quality, your research experience (what you’ve done), and your academic sophistication (your understanding of what you’ve done and why it’s important, and your understanding of the current state of the field). So these essays should cover your past, present and future. Skills you have acquired and mastered are useful to know because it might fit a potential project I have in mind or an area I want to explore. It also helps evaluate what procedures you already know, what new things you might bring to the lab, and what things you will need to be trained to do while here. Although I do not expect every candidate to explicitly articulate experiments they would like to conduct if they were to join my lab, I am interested to understand what kind of research you want to do (in general) and what your motivations for wanting to do that kind of research are. Ideally it should be clear how they are complimentary to the work our lab is known for and/or currently working on. This essay is also a great opportunity for you to demonstrate the depth of knowledge you have about the work you’ve done and want to do, and your creativity and insights into questions and approaches you want to address as a grad student and over the course of your career. Writing is the kind of thing that takes many years to cultivate, but assessing writing ability is also important because at the end of the day, successful graduate students must become strong writers.

 

What I look for in a Personal Statement of Interest:

There is no ‘right formula’ for this essay. Some of the things that I mentioned above can also be covered in this essay. However, I view this essay as an opportunity to also talk about your personal experience and how it has shaped your development as a professional or how it impacted your desire to pursue graduate training. What kind of professional trajectory are you currently on and what do you want to do when you are done? What sort of experiences (personal, professional, social, or any combo therein) have shaped the kind of person you are and the kind of graduate student you will be? What sort of values drive your science and professional efforts? What kinds of experiences or programs have you benefited from and what do you plan to contribute to looking forward? What challenges have you overcome (personal, professional, systemic, or acute)? Or what else do you think an evaluator should know about you and what you bring to the table? Any of these kinds of questions can be addressed in this essay. The things discussed here may or may not have much to do with the things you’ve discussed in the Academic Statement of Purpose, that is going to vary on the candidate and the kinds of things the candidate wishes to discuss. But this is a second opportunity to showcase your writing skills and how you think and organize your thoughts.

 

Letters of Recommendation: 

Endorsements from recognized colleagues are an excellent form of assurance for success in graduate school. A minimum of three letters is needed, but additional letters will be accepted. Letters should come from people that can speak to your strengths. Typically the most relevant letters will be from a PI that has closely worked with you and supervised you, so they can speak to your suitability for graduate school and likelihood of success in graduate school. If you wish to showcase other aspects of what you offer, then letters from other sources can also be helpful. For example, perhaps you want to highlight your work in science communication by having a managing editor from a publisher write you a letter, or you want to highlight your administrative skills by having a Dean speak to work you did in supporting a Deans office, or you want to highlight your potential for translational work by having someone from a clinic speak to your experience in that kind of setting. Although letters from professors who’s class you have taken can speak strongly to academic potential, you will not be taking many classes as a graduate student so these kind of letters should really highlight your ability to think critically rather than simply excel in a course. At the end of the day, letters from people that know you well, will often be more beneficial than letters from people that don’t, and the most influential letters will be able to speak credibly to your potential to conduct scientific research because you will earn your degree by doing research.

 

About our program (in brief, more details can be found here):

Our program places a strong emphasis on research as you earn your degree. That said, some benchmarks and courses are required. First year PhD graduate students are expected to enroll in PSYCH 6001 (Graduate Professionalism Seminar) in the Fall, PSYCH 5750 (Quantitative Methods 1) in the Fall, and PSYCH 5760 (Quantitative Methods 2) in the Spring. Students should have an advisory committee (made of a Committee Chair/PhD Primary Advisor, and at least two other faculty members with expertise in the student’s research area (they can be from outside the department, but it is advisable to have at least two members of the special committee from the Psychology Department). Committee meetings should be held at least once a year. At the end of the first year, a writing sample must be turned into the committee, ideally before the first committee meeting. Second year and Fourth year students are expected to give a public research talk to the department as part of the Graduate Research Seminar. Students are also required to take two other classes, one of which should be outside your area of expertise, by the end of the 3rd year. These are typically discussion-based seminars or journal clubs, but can be traditional lecture courses as well.  Qualifying exams (a.k.a. “A-Exams”) are to be taken in the second or third year. The PhD defense (a.k.a. “B-Exams”) is expected to be taken when the Student and Committee agree the student is ready, typically in the 4th or 5th year (occasionally students will take longer than 5 years to complete their degree). Beyond these requirements, students are strongly encouraged to attend departmental seminars and colloquia, journal  clubs (for credit or not), enroll or audit courses, and/or join the lab meetings of other labs, as long as it serves their interests and academic development. These can be within or outside the Dept of Psychology and it is advisable to discuss this with your advisor before enrolling because it can be easy to overload yourself. Our department also emphasizes the value of teaching and expects every student will serve as a Teaching Assistant or Instructor of their own course for at least two semesters. In our lab, I also encourage students to get involved in science communication and outreach efforts, or other service-based efforts based on personal motivations and interests to provide a well-rounded training experience. Many amazing opportunities exist here and I work with my students to find these opportunities when they need or want help.

 

About the Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience (BEN) group within the Department of Psychology:

The Department of Psychology at Cornell has a longstanding tradition of research that respects and engages the natural complexity of cognitive and neural systems. Our Department is known for embracing an ecological approach to understanding brain and behavior. We strive to advance theory and discovery through training undergraduate and graduate students in ways that don’t always conform to dogma. Neuroscience is undergoing a technical and methodological revolution (including here at Cornell; the Cornell Neurotech initiative), that has vastly improved capacity to observe and directly manipulate large-scale activity in the brain. However, techniques are only as good as the questions they are used to answer. The members of the BEN group embrace the idea that technical developments must be accompanied by sophisticated approaches to behavior, questions should be embedded in the natural world, and experiments mush consider the evolutionary pressures that have shaped the intact animal if we are to ever understand the fundamental dynamics between the brain and behavior. Given our history of embracing naturally complex systems, the BEN concentration is well poised to train the next generation of leaders in behavioral neuroscience. We have a strong and tight core of talented and well-funded faculty members, ranging from early to mid- and late career states. We are a collaborative group that leverages the skills and strengths of each other to invest in our trainees and to build a supportive community within and beyond our department.