simister

I've receive one offer thus far, and the stipend begins on August 1st, which I was surprised by, but classes do start at the end of August at this university so I suppose it makes sense. My PI has requested that I get there relatively early in the month of August to get acclimated and such. I suppose I would frame it as - what would the start time be for the position? Would there be any possibility to begin earlier to get acclimated to the lab? I would start with looking at the academic calendars and see if that gives you any hints on when you might be starting. But I'll also say - take some time for yourself! You'll obviously be excited and eager to get started, but I always worry about people burning themselves out jumping right from a stressful last undergrad semester into graduate school without any relaxing in between. Just a thought! Good luck with everything!

Just wanted to reiterate what others have said - definitely dodged a bullet there. Sounds like a negative environment to me! I think that's the beauty of these scarier interview moments, or just interviews in general. Seeing the way people truly act and handle themselves when they're supposed to be their most professional is certainly an eyeopening experience. That gathering is not the time for gossiping about things that really aren't relevant in the grand scheme of things.

Hey there - I do know that Kent State's interview weekends are 2/19-2/20 and 2/26-2/27, and that I received my invite a few weeks ago after a phone interview with my POI. I'm not sure if all their invites have been sent out at this point. I hope that helps!

I think all the advice @St0chastic gave you is great - all things I would prep. I think it's always a good thing to have these chats set up so I'd feel optimistic overall! During my couple of phone interviews/chats they seemed really interested in what questions I had, so I would be sure to have a good list of questions to ask them to show your interest in the program. My go tos are asking about future directions of the lab and what their mentoring style are like. I've found those two things typically open up a nice flow of dialogue. Good luck!

I'm not sure what the rule is, but I will say that I applied to three schools last year without directly contacting POIs and got no responses whatsoever. This year I've applied to two schools, had previous contact with POIs, and have gotten interviews at both of them. Now there are a lot of other factors involved - I feel my SOPs were much stronger this year, and I'm applying to slightly less competitive programs this time around, so who knows if the previous contact actually made a difference. Overall I feel like it's a crap shoot - if you've gotten interviews without making any prior contact, don't worry about it! Getting interviews is the hardest part, so you've already got a chance and your foot in the door. Good luck!!