lypiphera

I had a similar experience and ended the phone interview thinking that it went poorly and he didn't think that I was interested in his line of work. However, he emailed me a few days later inviting me to the official interview weekend. He actually mentioned that he was a bit distracted during our interview thinking about a grant due soon, so I think that may have been why I was getting a negative vibe. Obviously that's just one case - it is possible that the professor just wasn't seeing the fit. However, I wouldn't assume that what seems like a bad interview will ruin your chances. They may just need to get to know you better, or they may have been having a bad time on their end, making them sound less interested. On another note, at one school where I applied to 2 different POIs, I had a phone interview with each of them the same night. The first went very well and lasted about an hour and a half. The second POI started the conversation by asking which of the two professors I mentioned, her or the other, I was more interested in. I didn't want to have to answer it, since then I knew that would severely limit my chances of getting in with the second professor if they first didn't work out, but there was no way to not answer it (since their areas are fairly different). I told her the the truth, that I was very interested in both but considered the other professor to be closer matched to my primary interest. That conversation lasted only about 15 minutes. She was very nice and talked to me a bit about the school, but it was clear that if I was going to get in, it would only be through the other professor. Which is good, since I'm more interested in him, but lowers my chances if he picks someone else. In your case, you might find that this POI has decided you're not a good match, but you still have just as much chance with the other POI. Maybe even more so, if when they are sitting around discussing applicants, she mentions that you seemed a good match for the other professor.

I got an official rejection letter from UCLA (Social) today. If you haven't gotten one, that may be a good sign! However, if like me you weren't invited to the interview weekend, you probably already knew unofficially that you weren't accepted.

The toughest question I got, right off the bat, was "So, is there anything I should know about you that isn't in your application?" My response was a slightly more elaborate version of "Um.....no?" I really didn't feel like there was anything I needed to explain or anything that I left out, so I didn't know how to respond. It threw me off a bit, so it may be good to have an answer ready for this. Also, all of the informal phone/skype interviews I've done so far (n=5) wanted me to ask them questions much more than they asked me questions. Just something to keep in mind. I thought I would have a chance for a few questions; I wasn't expecting it to drive the interview. The formal interviews will likely be different, but I won't know for a few weeks.

Note: I added ones that other people have posted since the last merged list in red, and my own additions in blue. Has anyone heard anything about official interview weekends from Stanford or UC Berkeley? Also, for anyone interested in UC Santa Cruz, the professors said in a phone interview that they would be deciding on invitations for an official interview weekend in the next 10 days, and that it would be in late February. Interview Weekends UCLA (Social): January 10-12 Notre Dame (CBB/Dev/Quant): February 7-9, 2013 UBC (Social): Feb 7-10 Vanderbilt (Quant): Feb 14-16 UNC (Quant): Feb 15 UT Austin (Social): Feb 22-23 UT Austin (HDFS): Jan 24-26 Duke (Social): Jan 24-26 Yale (Social): January 27-28 KU (Quant) : Jan 25 ASU (Quant) : Feb 20-23 USC (Social): January 24-25 UC Irvine (Social): January 28-29 UC San Diego (Social): February 7-8 Phone/Skype/Conferences Notre Dame (CBB): December 7, 2012 Washington University in St. Louis (Social): December 12, 2012 Notre Dame (Dev): December 22, 2012 UNC, Chapel Hill (Social): November 1, 2012 (Unofficial chat) UT, Austin (Social): January 10, 2013 UC Berkeley (Social): January 4, 2013 UC Riverside (Social): January 7, 2013 UC Berkeley (Social): January 3, 2013 UNC (Social): December 18, 2012 Penn State (Social): January 14, 2013 University of Alabama (Social): January 18, 2013 UCSB (Social): January 10th, 2013 UC Santa Cruz (Social): January 8th, 2013 UC San Diego (Social): December 27th, 2012 USC (Social): December 20th, 2012, January 10th, 2013