Graduate Application Steps: Interviews

I’ve written this article as a part of an extended article which summarises the essential steps that a student applying for graduate programs would generally go through. I draw from my experience with making PhD applications in 2019. This article particularly focusses on the interviews which one has to give as a part of the application process.

Interviews

Once your application has been considered, you’ll have an interview with a professors representing the department or programme. These arrive anytime between January to April so be patient. Your peers (who might have applied to the same programme, or may have a similar application to yours) may receive calls before this or after this. It is very natural to consciously or unconscioisly compare with them, but please try not to do that, since your applications, however similar they look, are two entirely different entities, and will naturally be processed differently. When you receive a decision on your application is not an indicator of its quality. And even after your interview is over, your admission letter may take some time to come as they may have other candidates scheduled for interviews as well.

The interviewer might be someone whose research you have expressed interest in, or it might be someone from the admissions committee (or perhaps someone else entirely). The aim of the interview is to get to know you better, in terms of your previous research work and further interests and your expectations from the programme, and also for you to understand the programme better and be able to ask any questions you might have. This helps them determine your fit with the programme. Treat it as another interaction with one of your peers, but in a more formal setting. Since you have already established your competence through your SoP and CV, don’t think of it as a stressful job interview where you have to answer a barrage of technical questions to prove your ability. Yes, some people may ask you technical questions or give you a problem to solve, but they would not be too concerned about your exact answer as long as your approach was fine. Even if you falter you won’t be instantly pounced upon or rejected and you can always email them later with the correct answer. Here are a few concrete suggestions for the interview:

• Take notes during the interview. They will help you later if you have multiple offers.
• Be prepared with an answer to “tell me about yourself”, since this is typically the opening question. Include a summary of your relevant work (research, coursework, technical projects). It should be a walkthrough of your resume. Try to keep it to 5 minutes. Make sure to emphasize details which you would like to highlight about yourself, which could be difficult coursework you have undertaken, your perseverance, or anything else.
• The professor may ask you what you want to work on next. Have an idea of what you want to work on. It could also be that you are open to exploring new areas that you find interesting. You could as well have a specific area in mind. It could be a mix of both wherein you have a broad area in mind but are open to specific topics. It would be good if you could justify some motivation for any area that you quote. The motivation could also be that you want to explore that area and you haven’t before. In that case show how you are a good learner and can pick up that topic quickly.
• Be prepared with questions for them. Ask them questions which will affect your stay in their lab or group. Ask them about their advising style, research group culture, projects, collaborations. A few examples are:
  • Ask about their current research. Ask about their collaborations.
  • Ask about the freedom they typically give graduate students with respect to their research topics. Do they expect the student to come up with ideas and drive the research or do they have preset areas in their mind where they would like you to work in? This will give you an idea of what their advising style is and if it suits you.
  • Ask about meeting frequency and times. Whether they have individual or group meetings.
  • Ask if they require their students to take a particular set of courses or are students free to choose.
  • Ask them about their view on internships.
  • Ask them about funding, and whether they nominate their students for fellowships (fellowships are generally considered prestigious since you get paid by funds other than your advisor’s funds and that way you needn’t even TA).
• Have an answer to why the university, department and professor. They may ask about your other applications. Be honest there. If asked about priority, it’s best to be honest, since even if you decline their offer, you may interact with them sometime later in the future.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all my family members, relatives, friends, seniors and professors for their help during my PhD application period. I would like to specially thank Karan Chadha (who was one amongst those) who suggested quite a few the ideas presented in the articles on graduate applications to me. My thanks to Riya for reviewing the article.