PSPhD

I hope everyone is doing as well as possible under the circumstances. With the April 15th date past, I wanted to share a brief description of the application/interview process for anyone who might be looking at this thread for information while applying next year. I applied to the MA at NYU, and the PhDs at Tufts, Brown, and Stanford. Ultimately, I decided on Stanford (so excited!), but ALL of the programs I interviewed with/visited were incredible and I could not recommend them more highly. I will include the dates that everything happened for me, as well as some info on the process, and some of the interview questions that were asked, below. Tufts, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies) The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 11. The interviews took place January 16-22. Questions were sent out beforehand and included: “How do you see a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies as part of your personal trajectory?”, “What are major topics or themes in Theatre and Performance Studies that you are excited to explore and why?”, “Can you tell us about a cultural object, event, text that you are really excited by or interested in?”, and “Describe a collaborative exercise you worked on (theatre could be one) and how you saw your role in that collaboration.” Acceptances came out January 27th. Admitted students (4 of us) were invited to visit campus in early March to attend classes, meet with faculty, and tour the campus. Brown, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies) The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 22. The interviews took place January 27. Questions ranged from the general (Why Performance Studies? Why Brown?) to very specific and in-depth questions about my research. An invite to visit campus for a final interview was sent out January 31st, and the visit took place mid-February. The visit (6 candidates invited) included student and faculty panels, tours, the opportunity to attend a class and speak with faculty one-on-one, and a longer interview. Results came out around 10 days after the visit with some accepted and some offered waitlist. Stanford, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies) The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 17. The interviews took place in late February, and questions included: “If you were given a small budget to create a performance, what would you do?”, “What is the best and worst performance you've seen recently?”, as well as more general questions such as “Why TAPS?”, “What period is your research grounded in?” etc. Invites to visit campus at the end of February were sent out February 7th. The visit (5 candidates invited) included tours, student panels, and the opportunity to speak with faculty, including 5-6 one-on-one interviews/info sessions. Results came out on March 10th, with some offered spots and some waitlisted. NYU, MA (Performance Studies) No interview, acceptances came out March 16. Best of luck to everyone in this and future application seasons!!!

I know a couple people who have also been invited to campus interviews by Northwestern PS this week (21-23, I think?). Not sure when their invites were sent out, but Stanford sent theirs out on the 7th to visit the 26-27. I’m also not sure if either school does any kind of waitlist, but it might be worth it to reach out if you haven’t heard anything by maybe early March?

TUFTS Theatre & PS has sent out acceptances. Brown TAPS on-campus interviews are February 13 and 14. Has anyone heard from Stanford TAPS after the "semi-finalist" round? Or from NYU?