phdhopeful27

Hi! I got an interview for TLL and went to the weekend. I don’t have any info for sure, but I can say two things that don’t really give any clarity for sure but are interesting. The learning sciences program is relatively new (I think one of the professors I talked to said in its first year as its own official branch? Not totally sure..). If it’s new, maybe they aren’t doing things exactly the same as others. That being said, there were a good chunk of candidates interviewing for learning sciences. There were 18 for TLL and LS and I think 8ish were LS and I think there were 3 or 4 professors for that program. A current student I spoke with after the poster session said about half of the folks at the interview weekend end up at penn. Some get offers and go elsewhere, some don’t get offers, and about half (20ish) end up there. Also, for future readers sleuthing in coming years, I found the interview weekend to be much easier than anticipated. All 5 of my interviewers (20 mins each scheduled over three hours) basically just asked why a PhD, why penn, why now, and what do you want to study? They were kind and curious and inviting. It was as much a recruiting tool as an interview tool. They were pitching their school pretty hard. I expected to be scrutinized and grilled and have harder questions, but it really was just about getting to know each other. Still do your homework and know who you’re talking to, but they aren’t trying to trick you or challenge you. I haven’t heard back yet, so I’m guessing it’ll be the 4th Friday of feb this year. Trying to distract myself while I wait (clearly unsuccessfully as I logged into here ?)

Unfortunately I’d agree. We have to RSVP by Monday at 5, so they’re probably all out by now. I think working on your gre is a good idea. Were you able to talk to your prospective PI before submitting? I emailed the professor I want to work with and was able to chat for ~30 mins in nov. I don’t know for sure, but I think that helped too. I did it with some other PIs at other schools and was able to get a better idea of fit from them. If you weren’t able to do that this time, I’d definitely recommend that next round. And lots and lots of people read my statement for edits. But you’ve still got another app out! And there’s still so much time for stuff to happen this round.

An invitation to doctoral weekend. It said we’ll get the details of our interview on Wednesday, but gave an agenda for some other stuff (speakers, a panel, etc) too. Unfortunately, but predictably, it’s all virtual this year.

Thanks! I applied for Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education. My GRE was 164 (verbal), 155 (quant), and 5.5 (writing). I did practice about 20-30 mins a day minimum and when I could I did more for about two weeks. I used one of the Barron’s review test books and the free stuff I could get with Magoosh. I also did one of the practice tests online when you sign up. I was going to apply next year but my school district is handling covid reallllllly poorly so I tried to squeeze in a few apps this year. Normally would’ve spent more time on it but just didn’t have it since I made my mind up Nov 1 ?

I got an email this afternoon at 3:49pm that I got an interview!! Good luck to everyone else! Hope you all got good news too! Anyone know approximately how many people they interview? I know there's only 15 PhD spots each year, but no clue how many get interviews.