eucalyptus

Yeah this has happened to me as well. One of the profs correctly guessed who I would be working with at every other school I applied to (except 1, which was for a different project). He's friends with several of them, including his old PhD supervisor, so he gave me some details about them and kind of jokingly trash-talked them so I would be more inclined to go to his program. With one of the departments, he actually told me straight out not to go there - he didn't give me the exact reason, but he'd spoken to several students there who were trying to get out. While I know that his opinion is obviously biased, I really enjoyed hearing his take on the places I'm applying to. He also mentioned that my list of schools looked like I really knew what I wanted and I'd put some thought into where to apply. In that sense, I think asking about where else you're applying really does say something about how committed you are to your project and how much thought you've put into your applications.

Hey I just wrote not sure if you'll find it useful...

When I went for my visit weekend, I had 5 interviews, 3 of which were really quite unrelated to my interests. One of them was the chair of the subfield, so I asked him general questions about the program. One was with a neuro researcher, but he was interested in my research ideas and gave me some ideas on how to put a neuro spin on them (which I don't really plan to do, but it was an interesting conversation nonetheless); we found we had some interests in common when we spoke, even though they weren't listed on his website or anything. With the final prof, I told him about my work, he told me about his, and there really wasn't much overlap at all. I just asked him questions about his work and other questions about the department atmosphere, program, colloquia, etc. It's a bit strange to interview with someone who has wildly different interests than you, but you just have to do with it - even if they study something very different, they can get an idea of what kind of student/person you are by talking to you, and they'll still have useful information for you.

Actually, there really wasn't any indication of any of those things! I did find out from the grad student that I was staying with that the lab really only had space for 1-2 more grad students, when 3 of us were interviewing for it, but they could still accept the 3rd person off the waiting list if someone decided to go elsewhere. In general, I've heard that at non-clinical psych interviews, almost everyone (80-100%) interviewed will be getting an offer. I really have no idea, though! At another interview I'm attending, I simply asked about the "mechanics" of the interview and a prof volunteered the information that they're interviewing 6 people for 2-4 spots.

The only way you'd attend this safety school is if your potential advisor at the other school got hit by a bus and you didn't get it anywhere else, right? That seems like a small enough possibility to safely decline this interview invitation, unless you have some particular reason you'd like to attend it. For example, I'm going to one of my interviews pretty much solely to meet my POI there - I'm no longer seriously considering attending, but he's a big name in the field and I wouldn't mind a 1-on-1 conversation with him. Besides, I'd already bought my plane ticket when I realized I would likely have some better choices. Another very good reason to do this interview would be if you haven't yet visited the top choice program you're accepted to; what if you visit and hate it?

One of my actual computer-based applications was submitted a day late, and I'm pretty sure that my supplemental materials arrived a day or two late to a couple of programs. These places have still interviewed me, so it doesn't appear to have mattered.

I was quite anxious before my first interview, so I scoured this site for detailed descriptions of what interview weekends are like. I found a lot of information about the interviews themselves, but I wanted all the nitty-gritty details: what do people wear, what events are there, etc. I only found a couple, so I thought I'd write my own account for people who have interviews in the future and are as neurotic as I am! I had an interview for Developmental Psych last weekend, from Thursday to Saturday. Since I bought my flight last-minute, I arrived quite early during the day (1pm versus everyone else's mid-late afternoon arrival), but my POI knew I was getting in early and had planned my afternoon for me! I was picked up at the airport by a current grad student who drove me to campus and dropped me off at my POI's lab meeting, which was almost over. Then my POI bought me some lunch since I hadn't eaten all day and we went to her office to chat for about 45 minutes. It was a bit strange because she didn't want to talk science: she said we'd save that for our official interview the next day. So instead, she told me about her students, how the lab works, and answered some of my questions about her advising style and whatnot. For the rest of the afternoon, she'd set up individual meetings for me with everyone in her lab (grad students and post-docs), each of which lasted 30-60 minutes. Everyone was super nice and told me about their work, showed me videos, walked me around the lab facilities, and asked me questions. They were all very willing to answer questions about the department, city, lab, and POI; I think they were answering them candidly! I did kind of run out of stuff to talk about with the last guy, with whom I had an hour-long meeting and not very much in common. However, we just started talking about music and traveling and stuff and it was cool. After my last meeting, one of them drove me to another grad student's house where there was a dinner for all the applicants and the grad students who would be hosting us, so I finally got to meet them. There were 13 of us in total, and nobody knew anyone else coming into it. We started with somewhat awkward introductions but it soon became pretty relaxed and fun. We were all in normal casual wear and were eating take-out pizza, and everyone was equally nervous and excited and nice, so it was very chill. My host (a student in the lab I was applying to, although many applicants were matched with different-lab hosts) then took me back to her place where I chatted with her a little, met her cats, and then fell asleep on her couch extremely early (I'd been up since 4am to catch my flight!). Friday was interview day. We'd been told to dress "business", but I don't own a suit so I went with a black "proper" skirt, grey striped collared shirt, and black V-neck sweater. I'd say about 2/3 of the applicants were in suits (I was quite surprised at this, actually!) and the rest were wearing things similar to me (or sweater vests, business-y pants, etc). We all had breakfast together in the Psych building and had a talk from the program head. Then from about 10-12 and 1-3, we had interviews. Everyone had 4 or 5 interviews, including an hour with their POI. The other interviews with 30 minutes with the program head, 1-2 research-related profs, and 1-2 random profs. The interviews actually ended up being a lot less scary and a lot more fun than I was anticipating. In almost every case, you introduced yourself and your research, they introduced themselves and their research (particularly aspects of it that you might find interesting), and then there was some talk about overlapping stuff or questions about the research or whatnot. Then there was a fairly long time to ask general questions. In most cases, the 30 minutes sped by! Some of the interviews were in different buildings, and in all cases there was someone to walk you to your next meeting: either the prof you'd just spoken to or a grad student (I thought it was quite sweet that some grads were really just ferrying people around all day!). After the interviews, me and the 2 other girls applying to the same lab as me were given a tour of the lab facilities by a grad student and the lab manager. Following this, we had a couple of free hours on the schedule... however, our POI wanted us to feel "welcome" and so she made sure we had stuff to do! We went to a random social that was happening in the building, then my host took the three of us on a driving tour of the city. We stopped back home to change clothes (switched to dark jeans and a funner collared shirt, kept the V-neck and nice shoes) and then went to a dinner at the head of the department's house. All the faculty, applicants, and grad students were there, so we had a chance to meet literally everyone. My POI made a point of having some 1-on-1 conversation with the 3 of us applying to her lab, which was nice. She was really trying to get to know us. My host and I left around 10, when the party was breaking up. I'd gotten to know her by then so when we got back to her place, I had a chance to get some inside information on the lab, the POI, and the admission process; a benefit to staying with someone in the lab you want, I guess! Finally, on Saturday we were all back in casual clothes for breakfast and campus tours. The grad students walked us around campus, and some of us were driven out to another research facility we might be using as well, before they started shuttling people out to the airport. All-in-all it was a really great time! I feel like I learned a lot about the department, city, and lab. It was great to meet everyone in person and get an idea of the atmosphere of the department, which is really difficult to judge from afar. I don't usually love hanging out with tons of people I don't know for long periods of time, but the grad students I met were super cool and all the applicants were in the same boat, which makes it really easy to get along! Wow, that ended up longer than I expected! I hope this helps future interviewees who are looking for ridiculously detailed descriptions of interview weekend!

Most of the questions I've heard were very general, and were along the lines of "So tell me about your Masters thesis" or "What research do you see yourself doing here?". Sometimes, they'll interject with more specific questions about methods/results/theory etc, but not in "testing" way, mostly because they're curious! You can usually count on the fact that they've read your application, but you have to fill them in on the details. If you talked about some substantive research in your SOP, they'll almost certainly ask you about it (or about your research experience in general, to which you can talk about it). I've never had any questions that sounded like they were testing me; it's usually just a case of them trying to get an idea of what you've done, what you want to do, and what kind of person you are. I'm not sure what you mean here, but one thing that happened a lot at my in-person interview was people asking "So tell me about yourself". You get pretty good at a 2-minute spiel about your background and research interests when you have to answer this 5-10 times in a day! Make sure you include both your general and specific research interests when you're answering this. If they're interviewing you, they already think you're a good candidate. Just try to sound reasonably confident, curious, and as if you know what you're talking about with regards to your prior and future research. You don't have to be incredibly eloquent or anything like that, but sounding capable is never a bad thing. I've read a handful of abstracts before each of my phone calls, which has never turned out to be necessary. In all cases, the prof told me about relevant and exciting research they're doing and didn't expect me to already know about it (especially since most on-going research isn't yet published). For my in-person interview, however, I read a couple of papers and it did turn out to be helpful: it helped make me sound interested in their work and I was able to ask questions about them. I think this varies by discipline. They wouldn't bother interviewing you if they weren't interested though so congrats!

I would tell future applicants not to freak the hell out during the application process. I didn't study for months for the GRE. Nor did I rewrite my SOP 13 times - I wrote it over a couple days, read it over once with my boyfriend, and then changed it a little for each school. For my writing sample, I sent in a paper I'd written without revising it further at all (although I wasn't actually required to send a writing sample). I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't work hard on their applications and do the best they can, simply that the amount of obsessive preparation that is seen as "normal" on gradcafe is not necessarily required to get into a great program! And also, from my own experience and who I've seen at interviews, it's a good idea to get some experience before applying to PhDs, rather than coming straight out of undergrad (at least in psych). Nothing helps you write a great SOP like actually knowing what you're talking about... and I found it very hard to get there without gaining some post-grad experience.

It might be a longish talk (i.e. 45-90 minute unofficial phone interview), or it might just be a quick chat in which they invite you to an in-person interview, or it might be somewhere in between. I've had all of these, and it's really hard to tell the difference ahead of time! Either way, make sure you're ready to talk about your interests, research, and proposed project. And have some questions ready for that inevitable time when they ask if you have questions. Congrats!

If the areas that these two profs research is fairly similar, it shouldn't be a problem to incorporate both of them into one research proposal. If they're quite different, you still might be able to find an angle (say, doing a behavioral study with one and an imaging study on the same subject with the other). The good news is that in most dev psych programs, although they'll admit you with a particular PI/lab in mind, they really love the idea of collaborations with other faculty members.

One data point: I went to an interview last weekend where there were 13 people interviewing for my subfield, and only one of them was still in undergrad. Everyone else was either working on a Masters or doing some other related research work (usually working in a lab). One of the profs said they tend to like people with more experience. There are definitely some programs that have an unspoken rule about not coming straight from undergrad, and I bet you could find that out by looking at the CVs of current students!

In my experience, the phone call will either be an informal phone interview (aka long chat with a prof about research, the program, etc) or a fairly quick call (with a prof or the DGS) to set up an in-person interview. It is a good thing. Since you're not sure exactly what it will be, have some questions ready and be prepared to talk about your proposed research. Also, have your calendar available so you can check dates for interviews!

My data points: I got invited to 1 interview the day after the meeting, and 1 interview the day of the meeting (in fact, it was scheduled online from 11:00-1:00 and I got an email at about 12:30). Not sure about the timing of my third interview invite. So, at least in some cases, the process is pretty quick!

First off, congrats on the Harvard interview! Did you get flown out or was it over the phone? Based on the results page, I'm fairly sure Yale accepts and then has their visit weekend afterward. That's the only one I know of, though I'm sure there are more.

Is anyone else going to Duke's recruitment weekend next week? If so, did you get your official email yet / do you know if we're staying in a hotel or at grad students' houses?

I applied to CPD at Cornell (Cognition, Development, & Perception) so we're not in the same subfield. Not sure how they sent out invites though - I just got mine from an email from my POI. We'd been writing short emails back and forth for a little while and he'd hinted at it before (asking where I lived, etc). The official email was also from a CPD prof.

I've heard from three (interview invites), and I'm trying not to freak out about another two because I don't think anyone's heard from them yet (based on the results page, and results from last year). Departments have different timelines, so I doubt it means anything at this very early stage.

Send an updated CV - the worst that will happen is they will throw it out and use the old one anyway. Doesn't hurt, right?

Sorry, I've done that a few times! I've heard about interviews at Cornell, JHU, and Duke and I applied to Developmental Psych. Didn't bother listing the subfield because I assumed all the non-clinical people were lumped together anyway (although I don't know if that's true).

I don't think submitting at the last minute is a problem: I submitted almost all of my applications on the evening they were due (one of them I submitted the day after), and my supporting material was probably either right on time or a couple of days late. So far, I have 3 invitations to interview weekends from 6 applications (including the one that was late), so I'd say I've been hearing back both positively and quite quickly! At least in psych, it seems like they divvy up all the applications to the professors you say you want to work with, then the profs each pick their favorites. They get together to have a meeting, and if everyone agrees with a prof's pick, they email or phone the applicant to let them know almost right away (every prof I've heard from contacted me the day of or the day after the meeting). So in this case, I don't think having your application in early would help much in terms of hearing back early, since you have to wait for the meeting date anyway. Other departments probably have different procedures, though.

I think it'd be cool to post on interviews and other contact... we could have more detailed info than what's on the results page. I'm pretty interested to see what other peoples' experiences are (especially in a few weeks when we can hear about peoples' impressions of interview weekends).

One of my POIs called me to invite me to interview weekend and to persuade me to attend his program. He followed up with an email sending me a couple of papers, and he wants to talk about them over the phone or video chatting (panic!). I didn't mean to stay in touch quite this much, but it looks like I have no choice! I do like the idea of engaging over intellectual material right now, since it's what I'd be signing up to do with him for 5 years.

7 PhD programs: 6 submitted so far, and if I hear something favorable within the next 10 days I'm not submitting the last one! I decided to drop U Washington at about 9 pm on the day it was due.

I took both of them once. I wanted a 1450 on the general and I got a 1460, so I was satisfied (although the scores didn't break down how I thought they would). I signed up for the psych GRE at the last possible date, crammed for a couple nights, and got a 790 - I wasn't sure what I was aiming for there (mostly not to embarrass myself) but it turned out to be easier than I was expecting.