SL52

Reassuring to hear, I'm also an international applicant waiting to hear back from Vanderbilt's IGP

I'm also an international student and found the Skype interviews (2 for the same school) really laid back too! In the second, the only question was 'tell me about yourself' and the rest a general discussion about PhD life etc. Pretty enjoyable, and all my prep of reading the prof's papers seemed pretty unnecessary in the end haha. my only question would be, how do you know if you've done well? As no difficult or technical questions were asked really. cheers, and congrats on your interview(s) also! ?

Thanks for the info, waiting to hear from that program myself!

thanks for the input. I assumed it was less formal due to the general tone of the email, and the fact that I was just asked when I was free, rather than being asked to choose between specified dates/times. I also assumed that it could be a just be a preliminary interview before a larger/more formal one, as generally any interview other I've had was in front of a panel of 4-5 people. Great news to have an interview regardless, will be preparing to the best of my ability!

Thanks for the info mate, definitely best to over-prepare as you say! Best get studying I guess Would this be most likely a preliminary interview, or the first of multiple interviews, as I assume there would have to be one with multiple interview panel members etc? Bit vague on the details, and I'm not that familiar with how these things generally work in the USA.

Thanks for the info, I haven't checked the results database in a while.. doesn't look like many/any other international applicants have heard yet either . Congrats to your daughter on the interviews! On another note, I just received my first interview invite! It was in the form of an email from a professor at the University, arranging a skype interview and asking when I'd be available. Any idea of what kind of interview this will be? will I have to read up on his publications etc? It wasn't anyone I mentioned in my SOP, so is it likely just to be a more informal chat kind of deal? Cheers!

Assuming by the amount of invites posted here, and if the first interview slot is already full as a previous poster mentioned, that no news from Vanderbilt at this point means rejection?

Is there a general consensus that international applicants tend to hear back/be offered interviews later than domestic applicants? Beginning to get nervous that I haven't heard anything yet, though I did only apply to 3 schools. Anyway, best of luck to everyone! :-D

Yeah I'm pretty annoyed at that GRE score tbh, as it seems ridiculous that could pretty much relegate me straight away, whereas in the uk (where the GRE doesn't exist) I could get into a top tier school anyway... Here it can vary, sometimes you'll be applying directly to work with a PI on a specific project for three years. Other cases, such as many welcome trust funded or other 4 year programmes, you just apply to an umbrella programme, do rotations in the first year, then pick a project to work on. Generally I think if it's a 3 year programme, I would contact the PI of the specific project you're applying to and focus the personal statement towards that work specifically. Some unis will have an online application system, others will just ask for materials (LORs, cv, personal statement ROTC) to be sent to a specific person. cheers

Hi everyone, I just submitted an application and upon opening the word document that contained my SOP, I noticed a glaring mistake. I'm not 100% sure this was in what I submitted, but it's quite likely. Having proof read it many times though i'm not sure it could have escaped my attention. Anyway, the first sentence of the first paragraph was supposed to read 'Ever since......' but appeared to have got changed to 'rtEver since.....' I have absolutely no idea when or how this happened, but assuming I did submit like this, would it be likely to affect my chances? Would the admissions committee not take my entire SOP seriously after seeing that right at the start? Thanks, stressing out big time because this was my priority school