Information for prospective graduate students
Are you accepting graduate students?
Whether I will be taking a graduate student for 2025-2026 application cycle is undecided. Please check back accordingly. I can accept students through the clinical science, cognitive and computational sciences, and behavioral and systems neuroscience concentrations in the Department of Psychology at Emory.
Who is a good fit for the COMP lab?
People who would do well as graduate students in the lab 1) share research interests with the lab, 2) have backgrounds that provide familiarity with relevant research topics and skills, and 3) show potential to do well as a junior scholar.
Specifically:
1) For ongoing studies, please see the Current Research page. In general, we focus on analyzing behavioral and neural data, using computational modeling and other quantitative approaches, to understand and treat anxiety, trauma, and depression in adults. Prospective students with interests in some combination of computational approaches (particularly theory-based modeling); nature and treatment of adult internalizing psychopathology (particularly anxiety and related disorders and exposure therapy); neuroimaging; and behavioral assessment are a good match. The core focus of the lab is using neurocomputational theories of behavior to understand anxiety and other internalizing disorders; although this does not need to be the main focus of your graduate studies, some interest in this area is important.
2) There is no one background that best prepares applicants. I look for an understanding of your intended research areas; quantitative (especially advanced statistics and data modeling) and coding (R, Python, Julia, etc.) skills; and a desire to make meaningful research advances in psychopathology. I do not look specifically at publications, but a demonstrated ability to lead a research project from conceptualization to dissemination is important. You should describe your background in these areas in your personal statement and other application materials, particularly if you have gained expertise in nontraditional ways (e.g., non-psychology/neuroscience major, self-taught coding skills).
3) Your background is less important to me than where you are going. In particular, I look for students who are comfortable challenging themselves with new and complex ideas. Research in computational approaches to psychopathology is highly interdisciplinary with few textbooks or formal coursework. No student will start graduate school knowing most of the skills they need to in order to be a successful scientist, and openness to learning new things is key to success. Illustrating awareness and examples of how you show these characteristics in your application materials will help me evaluate your fit for the lab.
Should I apply if I don’t meet all of these criteria?
If you are unsure if you are a good fit or if your background and training would make you a competitive applicant, you are welcome to contact me (at vanessa.m.brown [at] emory [dot] edu). It’s unlikely I will be able to have an in-depth discussion with you and I will not be able to tell you your chances of admission; however, if you give me some information about yourself (particularly with regards to the above criteria of who makes a good fit for the lab), I will let you know if you seem like a good match for the lab or if there are fit aspects that may be missing. If you are worried about the cost of applying, you may be able to have application fees waived.
Should I email you or set up a Zoom call if I am interested in applying?
As mentioned above, if you have questions about your fit in the lab, you are welcome to reach out; however, contacting me is not required prior to application and will not improve your chances of admission. If you do not have any questions about joining the lab, you are welcome to apply without contacting me first. I will not be able to correspond with applicants beyond brief emails prior to the interview process.
What is your mentorship style and expectations for students?
My goal is to help you develop into an independent researcher so that, by the end of graduate school, you will be starting your own line of research. This means that, though I expect us to have overlapping interests and research goals, I welcome students bringing their own interests into their work and using these interests to craft their own research directions. Early in training, I take a more hands-on approach while I encourage more independent work as time goes on; however, I expect trainees to take ownership of their progress regardless of where they are in training. Throughout your time in the lab, we will have frequent one-on-one meetings to discuss research and career goals. I have all trainees complete and revise an individual development plan to guide your progress and help me know how to help you accomplish your goals. I expect students to publish their work, to present at conferences, and apply for funding, and will provide resources and guidance to do so.
I have heard I shouldn’t mention my interest in clinical or other non-academic careers or personal experiences with psychopathology when applying. Is this true?
I expect trainees in my lab to focus on research – that is, reading the literature, developing research ideas, collecting data, carrying out analyses, publishing and presenting their work, and applying for funding. As mentioned above, much of this will be in new areas where you may need to spend a good deal of time learning before you can actually produce any results. Therefore, applicants who are not interested in these activities as the primary focus of their graduate training would not be a good fit for the lab. Successful careers using the training provided by our lab and graduate study at Emory Psychology can take many forms and I support trainees’ career goals as they evolve throughout graduate school. Similarly, there are many routes that people take to become interested in what we study. I look for evidence of fit, as described above, rather than interests that do or do not develop through certain pathways, including personal experience with psychopathology.