Bring notes to the interview?

[georginazhou]

Hi guys,

I am invited to the open house day for a Phd. Psychology program. I was told that I will have three interviews with three different professors at this program, and I had the opportunity to rank the faculty in the program from the most to the least that i want to work with. The truth is, I applied to this school was only because of this one professor's work, which I absolutely loved. Anyhow, i was wondering has anyone interviewed with faculty other than your stated POI in your PS? And also, I was wondering if it would be weird or unprofessional if I open my binder for some notes during the interview? Any comments will be appreciated! 

[Developmental33]

I've been to two on campus interviews and 3 on the phone. This isn't indicative of all of all interviews so take it with a grain of salt, but, you probably wont need notes. Convos were very organic. Tell me about your current research? Why do you like this program? Only once was I asked "what assets would you bring to this program" but I tried to bring it up in every convo I had. You'll find that they will ask the same basic questions and most of the time they will either be asking you if you have any questions or telling you cool things the program has to offer. But you won't be seen as weird if you pull out notes that are questions but you really shouldn't need them. 

DO NOT HAVE NOTES THAT PERTAIN TO YOUR RESEARCH OR WHY YOU LIKE THE PROGRAM! HAVE THESE MEMORIZED. 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Developmental33

[psych0]

Yeah notes would be weird and it's completely normal to interview with multiple faculty members.

[georginazhou]

35 minutes ago, Developmental33 said:

I've been to two on campus interviews and 3 on the phone. This isn't indicative of all of all interviews so take it with a grain of salt, but, you probably wont need notes. Convos were very organic. Tell me about your current research? Why do you like this program? Only once was I asked "what assets would you bring to this program" but I tried to bring it up in every convo I had. You'll find that they will ask the same basic questions and most of the time they will either be asking you if you have any questions or telling you cool things the program has to offer. But you won't be seen as weird if you pull out notes that are questions but you really shouldn't need them. 

DO NOT HAVE NOTES THAT PERTAIN TO YOUR RESEARCH OR WHY YOU LIKE THE PROGRAM! HAVE THESE MEMORIZED. 

 

28 minutes ago, psych0 said:

Yeah notes would be weird and it's completely normal to interview with multiple faculty members.

Thx for the insights!!! I will not bring notes for sure now.  why does the program want to get multiple faculty involved in the interview tho? Is it possibly because they want multiple faculty to agree on one candidate, and so to make decisions on which ones are more "favorable"? 

Edited February 23, 2018 by georginazhou

[kitcassidance]

3 hours ago, georginazhou said:

Thx for the insights!!! I will not bring notes for sure now.  why does the program want to get multiple faculty involved in the interview tho? Is it possibly because they want multiple faculty to agree on one candidate, and so to make decisions on which ones are more "favorable"? 

My guess is this is to make sure you’re a good program fit and not just a good PI fit. AdComs are made up of more than just the faculty you applied to work with, and you’ll be expected throughout the program to work with faculty outside of your specific lab (in class, maybe research collaboration m, etc) 

More than this, I’ve found it SO helpful to have interviews with faculty other than my POI. This is a great opportunity for you to get more of a feel for the program as a whole, and not just for the lab you’re applying within. The more research heavy programs I’ve applied to actually do a lot of collaboration across labs, and I was able to see which programs I could realistically explore several areas of interest vs where I would need to hone in on one area of speciality. I’ve only heard back from one program thus far, and I was actually accepted to a lab I initially didn’t apply to work in. As many have said more eloquently, interview days are meant to be for you as much as they are for the program. Good luck with your interview! Keep us posted  

Edited February 23, 2018 by kitcassidance
4:30am mistypes

[rising_star]

10 hours ago, Developmental33 said:

DO NOT HAVE NOTES THAT PERTAIN TO YOUR RESEARCH OR WHY YOU LIKE THE PROGRAM! HAVE THESE MEMORIZED. 

Agreed with this. That said, if you have specific notes you want to make about the professor's research or questions you want to make sure you don't forget, write them down and bring them with you. I use that same sheet to take notes on what they say. If someone looks at you askance, just say that you wanted to make sure you didn't forget their response given how hectic interview day is so that you can look back on it later as you're making your decision. At that point if anyone thinks you're weird, then it's probably a sign of bad fit. 

[georginazhou]

11 hours ago, kitcassidance said:

My guess is this is to make sure you’re a good program fit and not just a good PI fit. AdComs are made up of more than just the faculty you applied to work with, and you’ll be expected throughout the program to work with faculty outside of your specific lab (in class, maybe research collaboration m, etc) 

More than this, I’ve found it SO helpful to have interviews with faculty other than my POI. This is a great opportunity for you to get more of a feel for the program as a whole, and not just for the lab you’re applying within. The more research heavy programs I’ve applied to actually do a lot of collaboration across labs, and I was able to see which programs I could realistically explore several areas of interest vs where I would need to hone in on one area of speciality. I’ve only heard back from one program thus far, and I was actually accepted to a lab I initially didn’t apply to work in. As many have said more eloquently, interview days are meant to be for you as much as they are for the program. Good luck with your interview! Keep us posted  

Thank you for the explanation! Much appreciated

[georginazhou]

5 hours ago, rising_star said:

Agreed with this. That said, if you have specific notes you want to make about the professor's research or questions you want to make sure you don't forget, write them down and bring them with you. I use that same sheet to take notes on what they say. If someone looks at you askance, just say that you wanted to make sure you didn't forget their response given how hectic interview day is so that you can look back on it later as you're making your decision. At that point if anyone thinks you're weird, then it's probably a sign of bad fit. 

Oh yeah, that is a very good idea!!! Thank you!

[lewin]

To add, having a list of questions that you want to ask people isn't too weird either. "Just so I don't forget anything..."  e.g., funding, typical accommodations, grad student life

 

About notes, it can be really useful to make a cliff's notes page with faculty names/photos and 2-3 bullet points of their research interests. But use this to study on your flight and avoid letting people see it on interview day itself.

[psych0]

34 minutes ago, lewin said:

To add, having a list of questions that you want to ask people isn't too weird either. "Just so I don't forget anything..."  e.g., funding, typical accommodations, grad student life

Eh, just memorize it. It's so competitive don't take the risk that someone will interpret you as rude or unprepared. 

[lewin]

26 minutes ago, psych0 said:

Eh, just memorize it. It's so competitive don't take the risk that someone will interpret you as rude or unprepared. 

Personally I think that having a ready list of general questions indicates preparation, not a lack of it. (Notes on your own research, or your POIs on the other hand...)

In any case, clinical psychologists should be well versed in the benefits of the structured interview      

 

[psych0]

38 minutes ago, lewin said:

Personally I think that having a ready list of general questions indicates preparation, not a lack of it. (Notes on your own research, or your POIs on the other hand...)

Maybe, but it's not like you'll be competing against people without any questions at all—you'll be competing against people who have memorized their questions and can work them into the natural flow of conversation.

That said, I definitely recommend writing down notes about the interviews the night or day after just to keep everything in memory. 

[PsySul]

On 2/23/2018 at 11:19 AM, rising_star said:

That said, if you have specific notes you want to make about the professor's research or questions you want to make sure you don't forget, write them down and bring them with you. I use that same sheet to take notes on what they say. If someone looks at you askance, just say that you wanted to make sure you didn't forget their response given how hectic interview day is so that you can look back on it later as you're making your decision. At that point if anyone thinks you're weird, then it's probably a sign of bad fit. 

Seconded. I had a small notebook that I brought with me that had questions ready to go, along with an outline of each professor's research (Not my POI, I knew their research). I didn't find out what other faculty I was interviewing with until about 15 mins before I went in, so both of those were definitely helpful for me. After asking one interviewer a handful of questions that I thought of off the top of my head, I referred to my notebook for the last few and they didn't seem to mind at all, especially since the question was way better than if I had thought of more on the spot. Additionally, I had my notebook open with POI-specific questions at the end of our interview and I don't believe it was interpreted as rude. I am currently #1 on my POI's waitlist if that brings any merit to what I am saying. 

16 hours ago, lewin said:

About notes, it can be really useful to make a cliff's notes page with faculty names/photos and 2-3 bullet points of their research interests. But use this to study on your flight and avoid letting people see it on interview day itself.

Also, this x100, I wish I had done this and printed it out before traveling. Instead, I hand-wrote all of my notes the night before the interview, which ended up working fine, but I would've preferred it typed out. 

[metalpsychperson]

On 2/25/2018 at 11:58 PM, psych0 said:

Maybe, but it's not like you'll be competing against people without any questions at all—you'll be competing against people who have memorized their questions and can work them into the natural flow of conversation.

That said, I definitely recommend writing down notes about the interviews the night or day after just to keep everything in memory. 

Based on my experience interviewing at a few programs and being on the opposite end of interviews at my program, this really does not seem to be an issue at all. Plenty of people bring notes with questions and what-not. I referenced a list of questions during interviews myself and it didn't hold me back.

[oddity]

I've been bringing a notebook to all of my interviews. I have notes on questions to ask and and outline of things I want to mention. However, I've found that I mainly check this on breaks and I haven't needed it too much. I think it could look bad if you're constantly referencing notes, but I've had my notebook out at most meetings so I can write down ideas or details that the faculty mention. I quickly glance at my notes on talking points sometimes, but I make sure not to be obvious about reading from them directly. My current advisor said this would be okay, and I've received several offers so far so it can't have hurt me too much!