Hamid T.
Graduate Ambassador at Cornell University
Hometown: Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
He/him/his
Graduate Program
Graduate Program: Psychology, Ph.D.
Anticipated Graduation Date: 2021
Undergraduate
Institution: Leiden University
Major: Psychology
Graduate Ambassador at Cornell University
Hometown: Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
He/him/his
Graduate Program: Psychology, Ph.D.
Anticipated Graduation Date: 2021
Institution: Leiden University
Major: Psychology
I was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. I studied psychology (B.Sc.) and cognitive neuroscience (M.Sc.) at Leiden University, before starting my Ph.D. at Cornell.
After considering my options, I felt the strongest connection with Cornell. The program offered me possibilities to study the topics I was interested in, the other students in the program were friendly and supportive of each other, and Ithaca looked like a great community.
I study the computational and neural mechanisms underpinning attention, learning, and the hippocampal formation.
Know that it's a hard, but also fulfilling experience. You should prepare yourself as best as you can, by understanding the various aspects of a given program. So, ask questions. Grad school interviews are just as much about you interviewing them as they are about them interviewing you. In addition, keep in mind that graduate school can take a long time. So, consider the community. Do you get the impression that the students are getting along with the faculty and with each other? Can you see yourself living in that particular town or city for, potentially, 5+ years? These aspects are just as important as those pertaining to the program directly.