Resources

We typically admit students who have prior research experience and interest in pursuing topics that intersect with the research areas of our lab. You can learn more about research areas and ongoing projects in our lab by looking at the Research tab on our website and reading recent articles we have published. Most successful applicants to our lab have multiple years of prior research experience and are interested in pursuing a career in research. Most successful applicants also have evidence of prior research products in the form of poster presentations. Some, though not all, successful applicants also have given research talks or published scientific articles. Please also see our response to the next question.

As an interdisciplinary lab, students have varied interests ranging from childhood stress and adversity and family interactional processes to data science and machine learning to health disparities and equity in mental health care access. As long as there is overlap in experience and interests in some themes that we explore with our lab, it is possible to fit in our lab. Prior experience in a specific domain, such as machine learning, is not a prerequisite for admission to the lab. Generally, students should have some interest in and willingness to explore ideas that intersect with multiple topics in the lab.

No, a GPA below 3.7 will not remove you from consideration. We understand that sometimes unforeseen life circumstances interfere with academic pursuits, and we aim to recruit applicants who come from a variety of backgrounds and life circumstances. We examine each application holistically and consider many factors in our admission process. Applicants admitted with GPAs lower than 3.7 generally evidence excellence in other domains, such as multiple years of research experience and research posters, presentations, and papers.

For the past several years, the Psychology Department has not required applicants to submit GRE scores. However, admissions criteria can change from year to year. Please refer to the admissions webpage for the most up-to-date information on application requirements.

Interviews have been held remotely for the past several years. It is most likely they will continue to be held remotely in the future, although it is possible this could change. Applicants who are invited to interview will receive additional details about the time, date, and location of the interviews. Applicants who interview remotely and are accepted to the program are welcome to visit in person if desired.

No, being an international student will not remove you from consideration. Please also see our response to the next question.

Applicants experiencing financial hardship may apply for a fee waiver. Additionally, a limited number of international applicant fee waivers are available specifically for international applicants.

It is not necessary to email Dr. Timmons.

We understand it can be helpful to students to chat to learn more about the lab. Although Dr. Timmons wishes it were possible to meet with all interested applicants, she receives a large number of such requests, regrettably making it infeasible to hold meetings with all applicants. Thus, as a general rule, she does not meet with students before they apply. After an initial review, however, Dr. Timmons invites a subset of applicants to meet with her and the other lab members and discuss fit with the research lab.

We publish updates on articles published, grants funded, and other lab news on our social media sites. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter

You can apply by filling out our application form. You will be asked to complete some questions and provide a CV or resume and unofficial copy of your transcripts. Be sure to complete both Page 1 and Page 2 of the application form by clicking the “next” button. We typically have more applications than slots available. Once we have reviewed applications, we will schedule interviews and then notify applicants of whether or not they are accepted.

To streamline the application process, we typically recruit research assistants at the beginning of the Fall, Spring, and, occasionally, summer semesters. To be considered for a specific semester, we generally encourage applicants to submit their application forms by the first day of the semester for the semester you’d like to be considered. However, you may submit an application at any time. Applications submitted mid-semester will be considered for admission for the next semester.

We require a minimum GPA of 3.5 and a commitment of 10 hours per week for 2 semesters. You must also attend our research assistant general team meetings and at least one co-working session per semester (there are two one-hour slots available per week). You will also be asked to attend additional meetings, depending on which projects you are assigned to. Additionally, we encourage research assistants to attend our general lab meetings, which are currently held Tuesdays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Most of our research assistant positions are volunteer positions. Infrequently, we have limited project coordinator positions become available in our lab (approximately 1 position every 1-2 years). The project coordinator is responsible for helping coordinate our research grants and manage the research assistants in the lab. The project coordinator position is a full-time salaried position with benefits and is a good fit for recent graduates interested in pursuing Ph.D. programs in Psychology within the next few years. We generally look for applicants to these positions who can devote at least 2 years to the position on a full-time basis. When such jobs become available, we will advertise them on our social media accounts. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter to receive announcements about job postings.

We receive many requests each semester to supervise honors theses. To be considered, you must participate in the lab for at least one semester prior to beginning the thesis. Honors thesis supervision is contingent upon (1) satisfactory completion of one semester of lab participation prior to commencing the thesis, (2) availability to attend weekly lab meetings from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm on Tuesdays for both semester you are completing your thesis, (3) presentation at lab meetings 4 times per year, and (4) availability of slots. Honors thesis students in our lab are typically mentored via weekly meetings with our doctoral students. Dr. Timmons provides oversight of mentorship through individual meetings with doctoral students and honor thesis student presentations during our lab meetings. Our availability to mentor students is limited by the number of doctoral student available for mentorship and may vary from year to year. Thus, honors thesis supervision cannot be guaranteed in any specific semester, even if you meet the above criteria. We most typically supervise honors thesis students starting in the Fall each year, though starting in Spring is sometimes possible if a slot is available. In the event that more students meeting the above criteria wish to complete honor theses than there are available slots, we will select students via application.

We publish updates on recruitment of volunteer research assistant positions and paid project coordinator job postings on our social media sites. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to receive these announcements.

The TIES lab currently practices a hybrid model, which allows for a very high level of flexibility for our team members. Out of all of the possible meetings that RA’s must attend in a week, about half are virtual and half are in-person. However, all in-person meetings will still have an associated zoom link in case an RA has an extenuating circumstance that excuses them from attending the meeting physically. Additionally, RA’s do not have to come into the lab for all 10 hours and are able to fulfill their weekly requirement on their own time – we like to say that if you want to work at 5 am or 5 pm, you are welcome to.

The work that is expected for RAs is extremely varied depending on which project you are a part of. We currently have the general lab study, as well as multiple projects led by our grad students which include a study on mental health disparities, a study on conflict in romantic relationships and more. Examples of some of the tasks would be: audio transcription, thematic analyses coding, recruiting participants, running visits, monitoring and recording participant data, helping project coordinators with administrative tasks, organizing and creating files on Box, helping manage our social medias and taking meeting notes. For some projects, we even offer leadership positions for the RAs to help train, host meetings and distribute tasks between their teammates.

No previous research experience is required to apply to our lab and we do have multiple research assistants who had not participated in other labs previously. Our lab leaders will train everyone in the exact same way and encourage anyone who is lost or struggling to ask for help. We understand that research opportunities are hard to come by, especially in the early years of college, but we do greatly value recruiting undergraduates who are in their freshman or sophomore years so they are able to stay with our lab for a longer period of time.

All of the RA’s involved in the graduate students’ projects work closely with the doctoral students on a daily basis. Undergraduate RAs who are completing an honors thesis in our lab will also be heavily mentored by the graduate student they are assigned to work with. As far as posters and other research activities, we are currently offering the RAs who volunteer to continue working over the summer to collaborate with other team members on posters which will be mentored by lab leaders. Additionally, we are working on the possibility for our “RA of the year” to be offered authorship on a graduate student presentation or even paper.

Yes, credit for this lab can be applied under the course code PSY 357. In order to receive credit and enroll in this course, you must let the project coordinators and our lab director, Dr. Timmons, before the registration period ends at the beginning of each semester.

Once an RA has been accepted and begun the onboarding process, they will receive a link to a Qualtrics survey that will ask about their previous research experience, personal strengths and interests. The survey will also include descriptions of each project and its general tasks to refer to when answering “please rank the projects you are interested in from most interested-least interested.”