coonskee

I think she may ask "Have you looked at my research?", which I think is totally fair. I think asking questions about her research will be good because it will show you want to learn and are curious - but don't ask "silly" questions. By that, I don't mean ones that may seem simple to her -- I mean ones that you can easily google the answer to (so, if I were reading her paper and came across a word I don't know [say morpheme] and a methodology I don't understand, I'd make sure to look up for myself what a morpheme is, but the methodology may be more difficult to figure out on my own, and would therefore be a valid question, imho). Papers should be available through university and library computers - if you don't have a uni account right now, maybe one of your friends do and could look these papers up for you? Good luck!!

Does anyone have any more stories with which to update this thread??

Probably culinary school or working at a publishing house (my chosen field is biology, so I guess those are pretty far removed!). I know I'm going to write down the road, but that'll be an eventual thing - I don't think I'm ready to do it now

...talking to myself to practice interview question answers. Nope, nothing to see here. Please, someone, tell me something to make me feel a smidge more normal....

Seconded on the cutesy anecdote on why you got into Field X (if you have that) - it's totally not necessary. Also, you can see what parts of relevant coursework you can relegate to your CV. I feel like mine was 1/4 Why I Like Fields X and Y, 1/4 Why I Want To Transfer Here, and 1/2 Fit/Professors I want to work with/etc. If you kicked butt in your program, then mention that you worked 20-30hrs a week in your CV. If you didn't do so well (or don't have as much research experience / whatever), then I'd say mention the heavy work schedule as an explanation, but don't go into ridiculous detail. It doesn't have to be more than a passing mention. just imho

YES to The Smiths - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. Haven't really bothered creating a playlist - the only things I've been listening to recently are podcasts on the areas of biology in which I'm interested

Quick, move to Canada!

Had my first *actual* grad school nightmare last night... I was gonna get up at 6:00am to get to the lab today, but upon waking up at 5:45 after that dream, I decided to let myself have another 45min of actually restful sleep Anyway, long (and very weird) story short (you know how dreams are), I dreamed that I forgot to go to my interviews I got an email from a PI with whom I'm interested in working (who also taught me during undergrad) saying "Ummm...where were you? You should probably stop by and talk to people. Not that you have a chance at getting into the program anyway - sorry for getting your hopes up." Awesome.

I think that, should she reply to your emails, you should definitely email her with a comment or two about the reading materials she sent and comments relating them to her own work, if appropriate. Nothing ridiculously long, because then it will seem like you are trying (possibly too hard) to redeem yourself. Rather, take the opportunity to show her you've read what she sent you (so she knows sending you the stuff wasn't a waste of time) and that you can think critically about it (hey, doesn't hurt to try to show how worthy you are of being in the program!) in a few sentences. It should take her less than two, three minutes to read, imho. I'm in the same boat as Gellert, so do take my advice with a grain of salt as well - I just think that showing you're engaged with what she sent you would be polite and only show you in a good light

Dark jeans are the wonderful gray area between casual and business casual - it depends on how nice a pair you have and how neat they look, but I'd venture to say they're okay, since the secretary stated 'comfortable clothes'. Do *not* wear super-high-heels - boots will definitely be fine as long as they're not stilettos. I feel like I've heard people on this forum say ecology is pretty casual (not my area), so i think you're ok with what you planned, but definitely wait to hear from people who know more about your particular type of program

Hey all, I figured it would be useful to have a thread kind of like the admission stats + results thread in another part of this forum as an easy reference for people looking for advice, especially if a program throws you a curveball. Partially because I could really use a thread like this right now Suggested format: -Program (Master's or Ph.D.) -Area -School [only if desired] -Formal or informal -Interview duration -General format (e.g. had to do a presentation, they made me dance the hokey pokey, casual discussion about research, etc) -Any other pertinent details (e.g. wore _____ and was totally over/underdressed) ---- As for me: -Master's program (currently attending) -Pharmacology -Formal; phone interview -30 minutes (ended up being close to 1hr) -Discussed myself, my education and research experience, why I wanted to attend this school/pursue this program, what research I wanted to do. The guy spent a bit of time selling the program and also answered any questions that I had. It was a formal interview (applicants were screened from an initial pool and an interview was required by the program), but it was pretty laid-back in general. -PhD program -Biology -Formal; weekend -Several rounds of 30 minutes each -Not sure what to expect!

I interviewed for a Master's program in Pharmacology (phone interview), so I'm in a slightly different field. That being said, the format I had was generally similar to what I read for PhD interviews - perhaps just a little less "intense." I'm going on my first PhD interview soon, so I can't compare directly Basically, we went over the "tell me about yourself question," about my research interests, about why I want to go into that program and why at that particular university, about previous lab experience, and any concerns (e.g. they noticed I had never taken a purely Molecular Biology class, so I explained a lot of the advanced classes in Bio that I took covered areas of it and I don't think I would be behind, but I would be happy to look at a textbook over the summer to get me up to speed if they felt that would help). Because it was a phone interview, I had a list of PIs and what they did in front of me just in case (I have a tendency to blank on names) and that definitely helped. I knew I would get into the program when the interviewer warned me that the interview would under no circumstances go over 30 min to be fair to all applicants, and we ended up talking for almost an hour I think general tips would be to stay calm (easier said than done, right?), look presentable, know why you want to study Clinical Mental Health Counseling and why exactly you like GWU (and by that, I mean actually write your answers out or practice them out loud. It will REALLY help you figure out how to phrase everything). People with more experience in the area will be able to answer a little more specifically than I can of course. Good luck!

Not that I've been on any interviews yet, but I definitely think it's better to play it safe. You don't need to go three-piece suit for the first day, but definitely try to look put together - first impressions still count. Ktel's advice sounds really good for an occasion like that. I'm going for a two-day interview - the Friday is interview with faculty etc, the Saturday is hanging out and exploring with everyone. Even though Saturday will definitely be more casual, the email about the weekend said "no jeans or sneakers" for (it appears) the entire duration of the trip - which, I think, is a nice hint that we're still being "interviewed" on Saturday. People will probably ask your grad student host about general impressions of you, and your potential advisor will definitel be asked - don't give them any reason to say anything negative, and good luck!

Same with me!

Thanks fuzzylogician! I suppose you have a good point...

When I studied for the GRE, I used the 1,014 questions book from either PR or Barron's (I think?) and just did a bunch of those (sorry I can't remember the company, but the book has a number over 1,000 in the title ). They got me into the swing of things. Also if you have an iPad, iPhone or iTouch (or maybe an android phone?) there's a great vocab app with flashcards that may come in useful. It's free and really good to have for "on the go" studying - I know that's not what you asked for but I figured I'd add it just in case you forgot you wanted to review vocab too **Edit: I studied for three weeks; two casually and the week before the test slightly more intensely (ended up memorizing 300 vocab words in four days ._. Ask me what I remember now.

I have a follow-up question that may be kind of silly. I have a Bio PhD interview at Big Name East Coast U in a few weeks. I have my wardrobe together (yay!) except for one item (well, two, but I'll be able to find a nice Social Gathering Shirt somewhere). See, I've had my wonderful tote bag for five years. It's served me very well, but it's a) a fabric bag and been patched up half a dozen times and its life is at an end ( ). For Christmas, I asked my parents for a sturdy tote bag to replace it - one that would also last me many years and be able to take the weight of books etc etc. They got me a beautiful bag - but it's *very obviously* a Designer Name Bag. Like, lots-of-logo Designer Name. I love it, but I'm worried that this might send the wrong message at an interview - I don't know exactly *what* kind of message it would send, but I'm still paranoid it would be negative. Does anyone have an opinion/any warning stories? I don't think I can muster up the $$ to get a new professional-looking bag (something leather or leather-like that doesn't look cheap), so I think it's either this one or my old raggedy tote. Which is the lesser of two evils? Thanks guys! Also, maybe we could put together a sticky of Suggested Interview Garb for this forum at some point, including accessories for men and women?

I'd say apply! From what I understand, many (if not most) PhD applications leave room to attach a CV. I'd suggest that you highlight your current Master's GPA in it, as well as relevant coursework etc. Also, highlight not just your separate undergrad GPAs (to show improvement in second go) but also specific subsets (e.g. if you're applying for an English Lit PhD, you can say 'English Lit GPA' and just calculate your average from courses you took in undergrad specific to that major if it's higher than your cumulative GPA). I guess for you that would mean highlighting courses in, e.g., religion or sociology. For me specifically, my undergrad GPA was almost a 3.6, but I had a very strong upward trend, and my senior year GPA was a 3.85. For this reason, I had "Undergraduate GPA: 3.6 (Senior year GPA: 3.85)" written on my CV. I had two hiccups in science courses from my first year of college that made my science GPA lower than my cumulative GPA - so I conveniently left that subset grade out. Only display the subsets that will help your case!

I definitely agree with that - also, for me, the practice tests I took (powerprep and kaplan) were a lot harder than what I actually saw on the GRE. I memorized about 200 new words in a week before my GRE and do you know how many of those I needed on the lit section? One. I'm still positive the reason I did "poorly" on the quant section (161, which isn't awful, but I was expecting 165+ from my performance on practice tests / the fact I'm good at math) is because the two sections I got following my first quant (one obviously being experimental) were so much easier than anything I'd had in practice tests before that I was freaking out the entire time that I had done awfully. I definitely got distracted because of that... I'm still upset with myself for it. For those still to take the test: don't let yourself freak out like I did! Sigh.

I'm fairly certain they're final. The scores I received after taking my test (end of November) were the exact same as the official scores that I received last week. Congrats on the great scores, by the way!

Thanks!

First post here since I was stalking these forums like mad before I took the test/received my scores, for the benefit of those who are doing what I did. My V and Q ones were the exact same as what showed up on my screen after having taken the test Nov...19? Maybe? I've lost track of time. V 169 (99th percentile) - 3 questions wrong (1st section: 1 level 3; 2nd section: 1 level 3, 1 level 4) Q 161 (86th percentile) - 7 questions wrong (1st section: 1 level 2, 1 level 3, 1 level 4 - ugh!!; 2nd section: 2 level 4, 2 level 5) AW 6 (99th percentile) My advice: Q was always my strongest section in ptests, but I started freaking out on the actual test because the questions in the 2nd and 3rd sections seemed *SO* much easier than the ones that I had been studying - so I was stressing the entire time that I had failed the test, instead of fully focusing on the task at hand. Don't let that happen to you! Good luck to everyone taking it in the future and congrats to everyone else for finishing! HDPFDan - totally get what you're feeling with the Quant. I was super disappointed with my score until I realized it's a 770 - which I would be really happy with otherwise!