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How to prepare for anonymous interview?


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Is the interview coming up soon? Usually programs are still finalizing who you'll be interviewing with about a week out. If you end up being interviewed by none of the professors you requested, don't worry it happens (availability issues and all that) - just be ready to discuss your research, academic/career goals and ask the interview about the research they conduct. Pay attention and be polite and don't forget to ask questions and you should be fine. 

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Generally prepare as you normally would prepare for any interview. Read up on the department and have questions prepared about that; polish your answers to questions like "tell us about yourself" and anything to do with your research interests or past projects; read up some on the work of potential advisors so you know what their interests generally are. You don't need to read papers by every person on the faculty or even have specific questions in mind for each POI, just have an idea of what they generally do. If you are being interviewed by someone with a very different specialization they will not expect you to know the specifics of their research because it's just not relevant to why you may or may not attend their school. Keep in mind that when talking to smart people from outside your (sub)field, it's important to better define the parameters of the discussion - e.g. why is your research question interesting, what has been said about it, what technical terms mean. Assume that they will understand what you say but that they don't know the specifics of your problem because that's not what they think about on a daily basis. Being able to explain your research/research interests to a non-specialist is very important.

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