FAQs
These FAQ are designed to answer the questions of potential and current ASFP applicants. Editors should refer to the Editor page for details about the process of editing with ASFP.
We have grouped the frequently asked questions into four categories: Who (e.g. who is ASFP for?), When (when is ASFP happening?), How (how does the ASFP process work?), and What (what about…?). Click to jump to a section, or scroll down! If your question isn’t answered here, reach out to us at team@asfp.io or via our twitter account!
WHO?
Who is ASFP for?
Anyone, anywhere, who is applying to psychology PhD programs in the United States that match categories/areas for which we can give feedback. Ideally, this is especially for applicants who identify as an underrepresented minority in the psychological sciences, and/or do not have access to mentors who can give informed feedback on psychology PhD application materials within the applicant’s specific field of interest. You can still submit your statement if you do not identify with either of these statements, and if we have capacity, we will give you feedback.
Because of our training and location in the United States, our feedback is likely only useful for applicants to US programs (and may be actively bad advice for programs in other countries, which could have significantly different expectations and unspoken rules).
HOW IS "UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY" DEFINED?
Anyone who identifies as part of a social group that has been historically underrepresented and/or marginalized in the field of psychology. This includes applicants who have experienced barriers due to: racial/ethnic background, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, disability status, etc.
Note that the above list is not intended to be exhaustive. When applying to ASFP, applicants will be asked whether they self-identify as a person from an underrepresented minority in psychology as a yes/no question. If they answer “yes,” we may ask one or more follow-up questions, but only the yes/no answer will be used to determine eligibility.
HOW IS "LIMITED ACCESS" DEFINED?
The PhD application process can be confusing for anyone, especially if you don’t have access to mentors who are informed about the process. The “limited access” option could apply to you if you are changing career paths, have no or very limited research experience, did not major in psychology, or simply don’t have any mentors in your work, school, or life who can give you detailed advice on what PhD programs are looking for. This type of informed advice makes a huge difference - people “in the know” can help you make strategic choices and better show admissions committees what you have to offer.
Does this apply to you? The answer is likely ‘no’ if you work or study with someone who holds a PhD in psychology, have or are in a master’s program in psychology, or are involved in a research lab. The answer is more likely ‘yes’ if you don’t know any psychology PhDs, haven’t volunteered in a research lab, or do not have a master’s in psychology.
On the application to ASFP, applicants will be asked whether they identify as someone with limited access to informed mentors for the PhD process as a yes/no question. We may ask one or more follow-up questions, but only the yes/no answer will be used to determine eligibility.
How will ASFP verify my identity or access to mentorship?
We won't. ASFP is a volunteer-supported organization that relies upon the good faith efforts of its editors to give supportive, actionable feedback. We ask the same of our applicants: be honest, don't misrepresent yourself, and engage with ASFP and its process in good faith. In short - we're all on the honor system here.
Can I submit a statement for feedback if I am not applying this year, or if I’m applying to a different kind of degree program (e.g. PsyD, Master’s, etc)?
Unfortunately, no. We will only review statements for this current year’s application cycle, and only for people applying to PhD programs in psychology, and specifically in the fields of social, cognitive, developmental, and/or clinical psychology. See more about the categories of psychology we support here, and for more information about how all of these degree options differ from one another, check out our Program Explainer document!
My application asks for a “statement of purpose” / “personal statement” / “research statement” / etc. Is ASFP for me?
Yes. Most of the time, these are all the same - a statement capturing your research-relevant and PhD-relevant experiences in a narrative that establishes your research interests, your maturity, abilities, and skills, and your fit with the principal investigator/program/department/university.
Note that diversity statements or other types of statements are not eligible for ASFP. We are focused exclusively on the main “statement of purpose”/”personal statement”/”research statement” - a document that describes the development of your skills, research interests, and career goals within the context of your research experiences, and establishes a mutual fit between you and a specific research mentor and PhD program. If the statement you are submitting does not fit this description, ASFP editors will likely give you actively poor advice! Not sure? Reach out to applicant-support@asfp.io and we’ll help you figure it out.
Occasionally, there may be differences; read the application instructions carefully.
WHEN?
When did ASFP 2023 happen?
In October & November: see the detailed timelines for Applicants and for Editors. To stay up to date, follow us on social media (see the end of this page!), and if you’re planning to apply to psychology PhD programs next fall, fill out this interest form, and if you want to join ASFP as an editor, fill out this interest form!
Why was the due date October 26th? Why not later or earlier?
Many psychology PhD programs have application due dates on or around December 1, and there are a number of grant deadlines (including the NSF GRFP and major NIH grants) in early October. We felt it important to hit a sweet spot in which a) editors have the capacity to turn around statements quickly, b) applicants have started working on their materials, c) applicants have enough time to work on the resulting edits and then get more feedback/do more revisions, while d) avoiding other deadlines in a packed, busy fall!
When can applicants expect to receive feedback?
If you match with editors, your statement feedback will be returned to you by 9pm PT (12am ET) on Friday, November 3rd.
How did ASFP 2022, 2021, and 2020 go?
Awesomely. No, really!
In 2022, 305 applicants from across the world were matched with 200 faculty, postdoc, and PhD student editors to provide double-blind expert feedback on application statements. A total of 717 pieces of feedback were written (reflecting a total of roughly 360 hours of work by editors!), reviewed by our Feedback Reviewers and the Core Team, and emailed to applicants roughly one week after the applicant submission portal closed. Click here for a detailed report with statistics, infographics, quotes, and summaries of applicants’ experiences!
In 2021, we had 313 eligible applicants submit their materials. We were able to match 272 of them with our 184 editors in a double-blind process on the basis of mutual interest/expertise across 4 categories of psychology (Clinical, Developmental, Cognitive, and Social). Editors provided a total of 648 pieces of feedback over 5 days, all delivered back to applicants less than 6 days after applicant submissions closed. Click here for a detailed report, featuring summary statistics and quantitative analysis of applicants and their experiences in ASFP 2021, as well as quotes from ASFP 2021 applicants.
In 2020, we had 281 applicants, and we were able to match 155 of those with our 45 editors on the basis of mutual interest/expertise across 5 areas of psychology (Clinical, Developmental, Social, Cognitive, and Affective). Applicants received constructive feedback on their statement from each of two editors within roughly 3.5 days of the submission portal closing. See here for a detailed report of the applicant experience in ASFP 2020.
HOW?
How will I submit my statement?
You will fill out a Google Form on which you will provide basic information about you and your application plans, you will confirm your eligibility and agree to the conditions of participation in ASFP, and then you will copy and paste your application statement into a text box. This means that application statements must be submitted as plain text. No files (e.g. Word documents, PDFs) will be accepted, primarily because the metadata in such files could compromise the double-blind editing process.
Check out the Applicants page for all the details about how to submit your statement, including preparing your statement, conditions of participation, and more.
If I have multiple statements to choose from, which one should I submit?
It is completely up to you. Some example recommendations include: 1) the statement that is most representative of all the programs you are applying to for the purposes of maximizing the usefulness of the feedback, 2) the statement you need the most help on, or 3) the statement for the program you would most like to attend.
How do I start writing my application statement? What makes a good statement?
It can be hard to start writing, and hard to know what to include and how to approach the statement in general. It’s very different than other application statements or writing you may have done previously! We wrote a guide to writing the application statement full of tips for starting and writing an effective psychology PhD application statement. Check it out here!
Which editors will give me feedback on my statement?
Editors will be randomly assigned based on the categories that applicants indicated on their forms. Each statement will receive feedback from two editors, at least one of whom will be a faculty member (note that applicants will be able to opt in to receive feedback from two graduate students in case a faculty editor is not available).
To mitigate potential conflicts of interest, the only exception to random assignment will be that if an applicant indicates they will be applying to work with a faculty member who is also an ASFP editor, that faculty member will not be invited to give feedback on the applicant’s statement.
All editors will be provided with guidance and/or training in effective reviewing practices. Applicants will not be able to select who reviews their statement.
What criteria will editors use to edit my statement?
This depends on several things, including the kind of programs to which you’re applying (clinical programs may look for different things than others, for example), the things you’ve asked us to focus on or evaluate, the current state of your statement (is it outlined vs. complete? polished vs. rough draft?) and more.
In general, all editors will seek to make your statement more focused, clear, engaging, and effective. They may give you feedback on the structure of your statement, ordering of its contents, clarity in your writing, conciseness, how to address weaknesses in your application, ways to play up your strengths, or advice on how to talk about your fit with the institution to which you’re applying. Our goal is to help you get closer to writing the application statement that makes the strongest case for your admission, one that represents you as strongly, honestly, and effectively as possible. This means different things for different applicants and statements.
Because our goal is to provide feedback that is most useful for you, we recommend that you specify areas of your statement about which you may be unsure or have questions. After inputting your statement in the submission portal, you will have the option to write a note to your editors in a text box. You can use this note to give additional context for the editor to consider when providing feedback or ask questions about specific aspects of your statement.
For more detailed guidance on how to start your application statement, see some of the resources linked earlier in this very FAQ.
Will the editors know my name? Will I know theirs?
No - all feedback will be solicited in a double-blind format. In other words, you will not know the identities of your editors and your editors will not know your identity. However, it is possible that you could be identified indirectly because of the content of your submitted statement, or at a later stage (e.g if you subsequently submit an application to DU, a faculty member who blind-reviewed your statement during ASFP may recognize it).
How many applicants can receive feedback?
Given current estimates, we anticipate being able to give feedback to up to 500 applicants. As mentioned elsewhere, each accepted applicant will receive feedback from two editors. While we aim to match each accepted applicant with at least one faculty editor, this is not always possible. Applicants will have the option of opting in to receive feedback from two graduate students in the case that a faculty editor is not available.
If more applicants submit their statements than ASFP has the capacity for, how will applicants be selected?
In short, we will be prioritizing statements from applicants with underrepresented minority backgrounds and then from individuals with limited access to informed mentorship for PhD application materials (see below for how “underrepresented minority” and "limited access" are defined). Within a given level of priority, we will randomly select applicants to match them to editors. We will continue selecting applicants at random in descending order of priority until no further applicant/editor matches can be made.
When applicants submit their materials to ASFP within the submission window (October 23-26, 2023, see here) will have no bearing on priority.
WHAT?
What type or level of feedback will I receive?
While many people can provide copy-editing support (i.e. editing line-by-line, fixing typos, clarifying wording, etc.), it can be much harder to get guidance about PhD-application-specific issues (e.g. the overall structure of your statement, representing yourself as a PhD-ready applicant, effectively describing the strengths of your application and addressing any weaknesses, pitching yourself effectively to PIs in Psychology, etc). We will therefore be focusing on the latter, and hope to be able to provide honest, concrete, and constructive suggestions for how to make your statement better.
What if I want to submit a statement for the home institution of an ASFP editor?
To mitigate potential conflicts of interest, we ask applicants when submitting their statement to indicate:
The single institution that the submitted version of the statement is tailored to (i.e. which university is mentioned in this statement).
Every ASFP faculty editor to whom they are planning to apply (i.e. the professor mentioned in the submitted application statement and all other professors to whom they will be applying, if they are ASFP editors).
No editors from that single mentioned institution will be asked to review that statement, nor will any of the ASFP faculty editors mentioned by the applicant. We do this to protect everyone (applicants and editors) from conflicts of interest, in which the people helping applicants could be the very ones who will later have decision-making power over that applicant.
Applicants are also welcome to submit a generic, non-tailored statement draft (i.e. that does not contain specific names of a university and PI), though note that we will still ask that applicant to indicate all ASFP faculty editors to whom they are planning to apply, and that submitting such a draft may limit ASFP editors’ ability to provide feedback on how well the applicant is discussing their fit with and interest in the proposed graduate institution and PI.
Can I submit a statement for feedback if I am not a student at …?
Yes! We encourage and welcome submissions from anyone applying to PhD programs in psychology this year (within the categories that ASFP supports), regardless of your current or previous institutions.
Does it cost anything to submit my statement and get feedback?
No. ASFP is a volunteer-supported operation. There is no cost to participants, and editors & organizing team members are donating their time and effort. The few financial costs of ASFP are currently paid out-of-pocket by a few team members.
Are there general resources available for applicants outside of ASFP?
Yes! Below are some helpful links that discuss the application process more generally:
Prof. Sokol-Hessner’s lab has written a detailed breakdown of many aspects of the psychology PhD application process, which includes a list of external resources. You can find it here.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has a large, detailed resource entitled “Applying to Grad School” available here.
Dr. Jamil Zaki at Stanford has put together some tips for applying to psychology PhD programs, available here.
Dr. Laurel Gabard-Durnam has written and compiled resources for graduate school applications, available here.
For applicants applying to clinical psychology programs:
For a list of resources related to all aspects of the application process, interviews, and more, see this resource page from UCSD’s annual Diversifying Psychology Event.
If you’re not sure what goes into a typical psychology PhD application statement, see here for advice from a professor at Yale on how to write a good statement, multiple examples from NYU PhD students here, and statement advice (along with a lot more advice!) from an NYU professor here.
The University of British Columbia Okanagan has compiled a set of successful PhD application materials from its own former students, and made them available as examples for others here.
There are more out there too! Look around on Twitter, ask friends & mentors, google around…
Are any psychology departments at other universities doing something similar?
We’re aware of a few other similar programs:
Psychin’ Out is a great resource hub for aspiring psychologists aimed at diversifying the field. In addition to their giant resource hub, they have PhD app mentorship, as well as ongoing workshops/bootcamps for those preparing grad school applications.
Project SHORT provides pro bono consulting for people applying to PhD or MD programs, with the goal of combatting socioeconomic and systemic inequalities in the medical and graduate school admissions processes.
The University of Minnesota hosts a virtual grad-student-led mentorship program called the Next-Gen Psych Scholars Program which offers 1:1 mentoring and ongoing panels/workshops on various professional development topics, including grad school applications.
The Harvard Department of Psychology’s Prospective PhD and RA Event in Psychology (PPREP) program is a free informational event for prospective PhD applicants and RAs. Applications are due in mid-September for the event in October.
The Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan runs a yearly program called the Psychology STAR Scholars Program (Scholarship, Transferrable skills, Academia & Research) that has a fall seminar series on applying to graduate school, and a winter workshop & mentoring program.
The University of Michigan also offers a Diversity Recruitment Weekend for those interested in applying to psychology PhD programs. For information, click here. Applications for this year’s program has passed, but typically begin in late summer with the program taking place in October.
Stanford Psychology runs an annual virtual event called Paths to PhD, intended for people applying to research positions and PhD programs in psychology. Applications are due in mid-September for the workshop in October.
The University of California San Diego is hosting a two-day virtual event called “Diversifying Psychology” for prospective PhD students with the goal of increasing the diversity of applicant pools. This event will take place in October.
For clinical psych students: Getting Into Grad School hosts monthly virtual meetings from July – April to walk applicants through the application cycle, and provide feedback and advice on each part of the application process.
We wrote a guide to writing application statements too which you can download here!
There may be other resources out there too! This is not an exhaustive list. Make sure to follow us on Twitter for information on the most up-to-date resources we find!
Other questions?
If you have questions or concerns that aren’t answered here or anything else you want to share with us, please reach out to us at team@asfp.io.