Frequently asked questions for applicants
At this time of the year, we receive an overwhelming number of email inquiries from people interested in working in the lab. Here’s some answers to common questions.
Q. I would like to apply for a position in your lab, other than PhD or postdoc:
A. I’m sorry that we DO NOT have any openings. In particular we do not work with:
– Volunteers of any sort (Princeton allows only hired, paid positions)
– High school students
– Undergraduates at institutions other than Princeton. (The department does have a summer internship program.)
– First- or second-year undergraduates at Princeton, or undergraduates majoring in departments other then neuroscience or psychology. (We have capacity only for junior and senior independent work matched through the deparment.)
– Post-bac research assistants or lab managers
– Other sorts of internships and visitors
Q. I’m interested in postdoctoral work with the lab:
A. We are overcommitted and don’t have funding for new postdocs at the moment but if you have a relevant background (see below) I’m generally happy to chat.
Q. I’m interested in a PhD in the lab:
A. The rest of this document is for you.
Q. Please find attached my application to study for a PhD with you.
A. Just to be clear, you can’t apply for a PhD by emailing me. Admission to our Ph.D. programs is to the program, not the lab, and is by a formal, centralized application process to the department. You can find up-to-date information about procedures and deadlines on the departmental web sites. While I therefore don’t review application materials received by email, if you apply through the formal process and list my name as a potential advisor, I will see them at the appropriate time. Good luck!
Q. Can we schedule a zoom meeting to discuss my application? Can you look over my CV and materials and predict my chances or suggest readings or preparation work?
A. Sorry, no. Our programs have a huge number of PhD applications (and even more pre-application inquiries) and it wouldn’t be feasible or fair to have individual meetings or consultations at this stage. Our admissions process includes a standardized review of applications followed by a formal visit weekend in the spring for shortlisted candidates, which is where we have these types of conversations. Again, if you name me in the application, I will see it at the appropriate time as part of the standard process.
That said, please do say hi if we cross paths at a conference or colloquium or something.
Q. Will you be accepting graduate students in the upcoming application cycle?
A. I always look at applications, but this cycle I’m not expecting to accept any to my lab specifically.
Anyway, this is not the right question. If you’re a good fit to my lab, you’re a good fit to our broader program. Admissions to PNI are to the program, not the lab. Students only join a lab after a cycle of several rotations. This way, once you get here (if you are admitted), you can find the best match or matches.
Relatedly, almost all of my students are jointly advised. The best thing about Princeton is that it is an immensely collaborative place. We have a large set of labs working on related topics, and we often collaborate in many different projects that span larger groups, beyond the formal advisor-student pairs.
So depending which interests you share with me, you probably also share them with many of Cohen, Niv, Griffiths, Norman, Pillow, Witten, Brody, Buschman, Tank, Taylor, Crockett, Tamir, Webb, and Graziano — and these are just the faculty with whom I currently or recently have co-advised trainees. (I’m always open to new collaborations too!) Thus, whichever of us is taking on advisees in a particular cycle, we often all end up working together in some fashion or another. In short — even in cycles when my own lab is full — if you’d be interested to work with me, you’d likely also be a good fit to the broader program and I encourage you to apply.
Q. Am I a good fit for your lab? What kind of background are you looking for in students?
A. What distinguishes our lab is that pretty much everyone in it is engaged in theory and computational modeling at least as one aspect of their research, and has strong quantitative interest and previous quantitative training and skills.
If this is not already your inclination, our lab is not the right place for you.
Thus our Ph.D. students almost always arrive with either formal training in some technical field (computer science, economics, etc.) or substantial quantitative experience. Occasionally, we work with postdocs who bring exceptional expertise in some complementary area and are highly motivated to extend their training and collaborate on learning to bring computational methods to bear on their area.
Q. Are there openings for international students?
In general, our PhD programs are extremely competitive. We accept students from all over, but due to restrictions on some of our department’s funding sources for students, admissions tend to be even more competitive for students who are not citizens are permanent residents of the US.
Q. Which department should I apply to?
A. I am a member of both the psychology department and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and these have separate graduate programs. Most students interested in working with me would be appropriate for both. Obviously, PNI (e.g., in the coursework) includes more biological emphasis and psychology extends more in social and public policy directions, but the two programs largely overlap with respect to the main topics of my lab, e.g. human cognitive neuroscience and computation/theory.
One main difference is how admissions work: some of what I said above (rotations, etc.) is true of PNI but not psychology. Admission to psychology is also to the broader department, but to be admitted via psychology, you do need an advisor, in effect, to sponsor you from the point of admission. There are thus not the same benefits of finding the best matches via rotations. For this reason, I tend more often to accept students via PNI, and am more conservative about accepting students via psychology.