How to Prepare for Your Grad School Interview Weekend

[rahulpatel0411]

Being offered an interview is often the rate-limiting step of the admissions process, and the wait can be nerve-racking. As you wait to hear back from your top choice schools and programs, here are the important considerations to weigh.

Before You Accept an Interview:

• Prioritize your level of interest in each program. There could be conflicting interview dates, with some programs offering no alternates. It’s important to consider how likely you are to accept an offer from a program if an offer is made before you commit to interviewing for the program.

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[David Reiner]

Remember that getting an interview is, in and of itself, an achievement and something to be proud of! During an interview, keep in mind that not only is the graduate program interviewing you, but you are also interviewing the graduate program! Can you spend the next ~5 years of your life working under and with these people, on this campus, and in this city/town?

[Sampurna Chakrabarti]

I had written a blog about my experience during the interview weekends, two years back: https://sampurnabuffalo.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/interviewing-for-neuroscience-phd-programs/
Hope this is useful to some.

[Kimberly Raab-Graham]

Without saying . . . it’s important to prepare for your interview. Make sure you can speak about your previous research and what the next interesting questions are. Make sure you know about the Professors you are meeting with and what their interests are. Good luck!

[Amanda Labuza]

This should go without saying, but my best piece of advice is to remember to be nice to EVERYONE you meet. Even the secretary emailing you about your schedule or the grad student you meet for 10 minutes while they pick you up from the hotel. We had an incident where a prospective student did great during interviews, but was rude during the more casual parts and the grad students made sure the admission committee knew. I’m not saying you can’t relax during happy hours or dinners, but stay on good behavior.

[DLRobinson]

As a faculty member who interviews, I suggest the following. Pull up about 2 recent PubMed abstracts from each faculty member you will talk with during the interview to familiarize yourself with their recent work - make sure they are first or last author to ensure that it’s their lab, not a collaboration. Write down a question based on these abstracts that you have ready in case there is a lull in the conversation.

[David Reiner]

Here is a list of 10 tips for navigating the graduate school interview. Some of these have shown up in this thread so far. Please share your thoughts as these are only based on my experience!

1. Dress: Business Casual, no suits!
2. Practice several versions of your research experience and interests “speech.” Have one that’s ~30 seconds-2 minutes for casual conversation and one that is ~5-10 minutes for the interview.
3. If you want to meet someone but they are not on your schedule, ask to be introduced. The answer will either be yes, or that they are out of town/busy. Follow up with an email.
4. If you need to kill time during an interview, ask to be taken on a tour of the lab (if you are interviewing in the same building or nearby the lab).
5. Once you are on site (on campus, at the hotel), do NOT read papers. Read papers beforehand and on the plane or train, but once you check in to the hotel, your time is better spent interacting with people associated with the graduate program and getting a good night’s sleep. Minimally, just know a phrase regarding a PI’s research to get them talking. Example: “I understand you do X, can you tell me about some current projects in the lab?”
6. Do not bad mouth anyone. Do not talk bad about other graduate programs, faculty, etc. You never know who might be affiliated with that program, university, or person. Minimally, you will seem like someone who likes to complain.
7. Avoid being on your phone during the day. Check your phone when you are by yourself or if you have a break. But do not check your phone while talking with students or faculty. You can wear a watch to help you stay on time for your interviews, but usually students are there to escort you from interview to interview and keep you on schedule.
8. Send thank you emails to faculty and administrators you met within a few days of returning home. Send thank you emails to any students who you really connected with. Keep in touch with the other prospective students - you could see them at your next interview or they could be your future classmates!
9. Avoid picking a program because of one PI with whom you want to work. That PI may not have funding for you, he/she might move to another university, or you might not get along with him/her.
10. Be excited! These programs want YOU, which should be a rewarding feeling. Cherish it.

[pizbicki]

Don’t be afraid to show you’re excited and passionate about the field or a particular lab you want to join. It is SUCH a breath of fresh air in my opinion in a rather jaded environment at times.