The Interviews

Well hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast Resilience in STEM. I hope everyone has had a good beginning of the year so far. For me, it’s been quite hectic. I think with the title of this episode and everything going on I think it’s good that I get into the life update and we just jump right into the episode. 

 

Based on this episode’s title, which is “The Interviews”, I got a couple of interviews for graduate school! This past month has been trying to balance everything. This includes my activities and my classes. I’m not doing research since I’m not doing much anymore, but I’m also balancing all of the interviews making sure I can attend as many as I can, and figuring out all of the schedules. It has been quite a challenge since I’m graduating this year from my undergrad and I can finish everything. But overall I applied for 18 programs, which is a lot. I remember in the advice I gave you guys I told you all to apply for 8-10 programs. I did not listen to my advice, which was not a great decision. Fortunately, I got 14 interview offers, which I am incredibly grateful for. But there is a reason people tell you to apply for 10 programs if you get the majority of interviews (so like 7-8), you’re not traveling as much. Because of that, I had to select the top 10 interviews I would like to attend. 

 

I was going to have the episode out in January instead of picking the best graduate program for you. When I was recording that episode, I realized I had not done any interviews. Even if I had, I wanted to experience a virtual and in-person interview. At that point, I was preparing for my first interview, which was virtual, and my first in-person interview was the week after. I decided I should experience a couple of interviews, come back with my experiences and knowledge, and provide some advice. 

 

I think we’ll get into the overview of the interviews. As you have heard me say before, there are both virtual and in-person interviews. Before COVID-19 happened, a lot of the programs offered in-person interviews. But now half of the programs still keep virtual interviews and the other half went back to in-person interviews. The format is pretty much the same. You will have to apply to all of your programs by the necessary deadlines and documents needed. There are two options. 

 

For the virtual interview, they will offer to host it via Zoom or another platform. Then in 1-2 weeks, the admissions committee will give you a decision. If accepted or waitlisted from the program, you will be invited for in-person recruitment. So they will fly you out to the institution, meet the current graduate students, and be with everyone in person to see if this place is a good fit for you. 

 

Whereas the in-person interview (which is historically been the more common option), will fly you out for your interview. This will serve as a joint interview and recruitment session for the program. Then 1-2 weeks after the event, the admissions committee will give you a decision of whether you are accepted, waitlisted, or rejected from the program. Usually, you will hear if you get an interview, based on my experience, from late December to the middle of January (unless you are told otherwise). If you’re not sure when the program will get back to you, contact the program coordinator and they will tell you a good estimate of when you will hear from them. It just depends on each program. 

 

Here is what the overall structure looks like. To preface, this is all paid for. Nothing is coming out of your pockets and if you do pay for something, the program will offer to reimburse you. This looks like meals, travel to and from the airport if you took an Uber, hotel, air travel, and any activity they host. In addition, you are also provided a graduate student host. From what I noticed, you get an individual host that is currently within the program and they are matched to you. The host can answer any questions you may have, guide you around the buildings for the interview, and introduce you to other students or faculty members. It’s a great resource to talk to; they have a wealth of information about the program. 

 

I divided the structure of the interview into 3 main categories: the interview, seminars/informational sessions, and socials. 

 

Let’s first get into the interview process. So typically these interviews will be a 1:1 conversation either with admissions committee members or faculty of interest. Typically before the interview process, you provide a list of faculty you are interested in meeting with. Then the admissions committee works to match you based on the faculty’s availability. Some advice I got is to know your experience, the things you’re involved in, and the research experience of the interviewer. That way you can ask questions about their lab if it’s someone you’re interested in working with or about the program. This can lead to a more engaging and casual conversation. The interview is not meant for the prospective student to be grilled about their experience. It’s just an opportunity for them to see how well can you communicate about your experiences and see if you fit the vibe of the program. Based on my experience, I have had 4-5 interviews and they have ranged from 20-40 minutes each. So they will take a significant portion of your time. This is quite different from applying for a job where you are in front of a panel of people only for an hour. 

 

Some good advice I want to share with you all is to know your pitch. This is similar to a job when you tell them a condensed version of what your experiences are. That way it leaves the interviewer to guide the conversation and ask certain questions, and you’re not ranting for 10 minutes straight. Have a 2-3 minute pitch about your experiences, why you want to be in that specific program, and how you are a good fit. I had to work on that during my winter break and practice. Once you get it down for the first interview, it personally felt like second nature for the rest of the interviews. It didn’t feel as forced later on. 

 

Next are the seminars and informational. This is going to be the overview of the program. The admissions committee is going to tell you about the specific required coursework, community resources both the program and institution provide, requirements you need to graduate, specific milestones, and specific contacts. Some advice I have is just to have a couple of questions if you want to ask them. You don’t need to ask questions for this portion. Typically what I did was if there was anything unclear I asked. Usually what I did was ask if we could get a copy of the slides because it is a lot of information. Another piece of advice I have is to make sure you take some notes because although you’re going to be at similar programs, there will be very slight differences for each program. Sometimes these differences aren’t as noticeable. If you see something that looks more specific to that program, I would take a general note of that. I don’t suggest writing everything down since they give a lot of information, but that is something to keep in mind. 

 

The last thing is socials. This is going to look like the provided meals they have, parties around town or at a student’s house, neighborhood tours of the surrounding area, and hosting fun activities. This is a time when you can see what it’s like being at the program, seeing the student’s vibe, and thinking if you can be in this environment or the surrounding area. A big piece of advice I received well before my interviews was to ask graduate students about the program. They will not lie and will be very honest about the program. They will tell you if there are any faults you should be made aware of and what they love about the program. I would also add on and ask why they chose their program over others. If you’re at the interview, it’s not going to be a surprise that the current students had to decide on similar programs as you are. For me, I asked the graduate students what other programs were they considering and it was programs similar to mine. So it was nice to hear their rationale for what they were looking for. It also gave me a great new perspective on a specific program. Often time the recruitment visits are trying to paint the most positive picture of the program, which is understandable, but it’s good to know the whole picture before signing on to it or getting attached. This is also a great opportunity for getting to know the recruits who are being interviewed or at these in-person events. They actually may be part of your cohort, which is going to span 5-6 years. Try to see if you blend well with their personalities. 

 

The last piece of advice for socials is that sometimes there will be an open bar because everyone will be over 21. This applies to in-person interviews or recruitment. Don't get too crazy. Even if there are only students there, the current students are still taking notes of you. They’re making sure you’re not acting inappropriately or being weird. Though these events are socials or parties just know you are still being evaluated. Even if you did get an offer, I have heard stories that people who have gotten offers from programs come to recruitment events, they do something they regret, and their offer got rescinded because of that. I would be very cautious, especially if there is an open bar, to limit your alcohol use and don’t dress too crazy. Make sure you have fun, but don’t go crazy. 

 

So those are the main components and structure of the interview weekend. I keep saying weekend, but it’s going to be in 2-3 days they’re giving you this information. This is not going to be one afternoon. So for in-person interviews, that is why they fly you out and they have all of these events for you. 

 

Now we’re going to get into the overall advice I’ve gotten from being at the interviews and from others. 

 

The first piece of advice is to prepare things ahead of time. By that, I mean that in a lot of different ways. In terms of making sure you have your pitch down practice that ahead of time. I made a document for each program I was interviewing with and put a couple of bullet points for why I wanted to be at that specific program. That reason should differ between each program. I wanted to make sure that I had this written down before I went into my interviews so I wasn’t making it up on the spot or I didn’t know what to say. Another thing about preparing ahead of time is to make sure you are doing all of the required items they are asking from the program. This may look like booking flights, getting onto a Slack page, or sending a Google form the program needs. They will send you many things to fill out so don't put it to the last minute because they do have deadlines to consider. If you may miss them there is a chance there you won’t get the experience you want or you may not attend the interview. Another thing is to let others know if necessary. In my situation (since I’m still in undergrad) I had to let my professor know I am going to be gone for a decent amount of days so they can keep an eye on that and it wouldn’t be a surprise for them. These are things to keep in mind as you are preparing for the interview so there aren’t any consequences along the way. 

 

I probably mentioned this early, but I’m going to restate it. Research the faculty you are interviewing ahead of time. That way you can ask them more specific questions about their research or what they do. Even if it’s something you’re not interested in, faculty love talking about their research and what they do. If you can give them a more specific question refer to their biography or ask a follow-up question, they will see you took the time to read their stuff and they enjoy that. I would research them ahead of time even if it’s faculty you’re already familiar with. Just read their articles and see what they’re working on. I personally just read the faculty profile and just got the questions from there, but you can do whatever you see fit. 

 

I would pace yourself. These events are very long and there will be a ton of information thrown at you. As I said before, they’re going to tell you the stipend information and benefits, the community, the organizations, the vibe of the students, and things about living in the location. This will be a lot. I remember when I first interviewed, even though it was virtual, I was so tired that I laid on the couch for like 20 minutes because my brain could not function properly. This is normal. During the interviews, they give you breaks for you to rest. So please take advantage of all the breaks they give you. 

 

The last thing is you need to have fun. Especially with this year, more students are applying for Ph.D. Programs and this group of applications have more research experience due to COVID-19. Typically, more undergraduate students apply. But now there is a huge surge of research associates or post-baccalaureates who are applying. That’s great, but it does make the competition a little more challenging. You have earned this spot and gotten through the hardest stage. At this point, you are also interviewing the faculty and program. If something is not a great fit, then that’s okay. Usually from what I’ve heard you will hear a decision from the program 1-2 weeks after the interview. Typically the acceptance rate ranges pretty widely. It’s like from 50% to even 95% acceptance rate. Even if you get to this stage and you get waitlisted or rejected, that is okay. At the end of the day, there is another opportunity waiting for you and there will be another program that says yes to you. From what I’ve heard, you will not get rejected from all of your interviews. I’ve never heard that happen unless the person was doing something crazy. Just make sure you are well composed, dressed appropriately, asking your host questions, being engaged with the faculty, and it should go well in your favor. If not, there will be another opportunity for you. That also just means it wasn’t the right fit for you.

​