The lab is currently admitting new graduate students for the 2024/2025 academic year!
If you’re considering applying to graduate school, make sure to check out our compilation of resources to help you with all the decisions. In terms of our lab specifically, here are a few things to think about:
1. Me + MAGIC = …?
If you’re an enthusiastic and dedicated student with a strong interest in social psychology, that’s a great start. Here are some things that will make your application competitive:
- Past research experience in a psychology lab, particularly a social psychology lab
- A unique set of experiences, skills or point of view that is different from what’s already represented in the lab
- Strong letters of recommendations from past professors and research advisors who can speak about your past experience, performance, and abilities–if there are ways you’ve shown initiative and gone above and beyond your assigned duties, those are good things to gently remind them to mention!
- Research interests that connect with the lab’s focus. The MAGIC lab’s focus is quite broad, so it’s best if there are two, three, or more of our research topics that align with your passions. You’ll have a much better time in grad school if your supervisor is an expert on the things you want to study!
- Solid scores on all sections of the GRE (there is no strict cutoff, but scores above the 80th percentile are typical of most accepted students)–currently these are not required for our program, but taking the GRE is probably one of the cheapest and most efficient ways you can make your application stand out (compare test prep to the hours and hours of volunteer work likely required for each of your letters of recommendation)
2. What’s it like being a graduate student?
Graduate students design, conduct, and publish their own research projects. They also attend lab meetings, where we discuss everyone’s projects, area meetings, where students practice presenting their projects, and national / international conferences, where the presentations get real. Exciting stuff! When you first arrive, we’ll try to get you involved in a project that’s already underway, so that you get your hands dirty ASAP. But you’ll be working on your own brilliant ideas soon enough.
Graduate students are also closely involved in the training of undergraduate research assistants. You’ll want to start supervising volunteer RAs as soon as possible so that your projects run smoothly. As soon as you feel ready, you’ll also be able to supervise students in the kinds of directed studies / honours courses that you should be taking right now to increase your chances of admission!
3. Ok! I think I want to apply!
Awesome! Here are some important links:
- Details, FAQs and application for prospective students
- UBC Psychology MA and PhD requirements
- Specific information about the social / personality area in our department
- Graduate Student Handbook (first linked document)
We accept applicants from around the world. If you happen to be Canadian, though, you should definitely apply for a Canada Graduate Scholarship, since external funding can make you a more attractive applicant.
If you are planning to apply to graduate school in the MAGIC lab, please send a CV, transcript, and brief description of your research interests, to the lab director at klaurin@psych.ubc.ca.
I generally do not do phone / zoom interviews with candidates before the application date, but I will reach out to a shortlist once I’ve had a chance to review all candidates! A small number will ultimately be invited for in-person interviews.
Looking forward to hearing from you!