Call with Potential Advisor

[mcfc2018]

I've got a call scheduled with a potential advisor next week and was wondering how I should prepare. 

I plan on reading the highlighted papers as well as the more recent papers, but beyond that, not really sure what I should do or expect?

[loffire]

i've only had one skype call, so im clearly not the expert on this, but my potential advisor didn't 'test' my knowledge on the field or her work. instead she told me bout her more recent projects and asked me more about some of the projects i worked on. tbh it felt more like she wanted to get to know me as a person and see if 1) our research interests would fit 2) if our personalities would click (someone she might have fun talking to). after just chatting she asked if i had any questions and I asked about how many students she was advising, which year of grad sch they were in, how big her lab was to get a sense of how much time she would be able to spend on me. Again ive only had 1 skype call so i might be wildly mistaken but that was my experience. Hope it helps!

[BabyScientist]

6 hours ago, loffire said:

i've only had one skype call, so im clearly not the expert on this, but my potential advisor didn't 'test' my knowledge on the field or her work. instead she told me bout her more recent projects and asked me more about some of the projects i worked on. tbh it felt more like she wanted to get to know me as a person and see if 1) our research interests would fit 2) if our personalities would click (someone she might have fun talking to). after just chatting she asked if i had any questions and I asked about how many students she was advising, which year of grad sch they were in, how big her lab was to get a sense of how much time she would be able to spend on me. Again ive only had 1 skype call so i might be wildly mistaken but that was my experience. Hope it helps!

Agreed with above. 

I had quite a few phone and Skype calls when I was applying. They all went about the same. They asked what they could do for me, I told them I was interested in applying and their work in particular appealed to me. I gave a quick rundown of my primary research interests unless they asked for more background, then they proceeded to monologue about their work, with me inserting comments or questions wherever I could. Then I asked generic questions about the program or their lab. They're really not going to quiz you on anything. Bonus points if you have something valuable to say about their papers, but they really don't expect that and you'd actually probably lose points if you said or asked something about a publication just for the sake of doing so and clearly seemed like you didn't get it. 

[ResilientDreams]

Yep, I agree with all the above advice! I was not quizzed during my Skype call. It's just a good chance to get to know the POI.