WTF Do Interviews Mean?

[perpetualalligator]

In a futile attempt to reduce anxiety and speculation a few people thought it would be useful to create a thread where we (present and future Anthro applicants) list schools that interview as part of the application process. As some of you might have figured out, programs do interview for many different reasons: some do it as part of the selection process (which means that if you do not get an interview request, you might as well expect a rejection), others just use it as a way to get to know the applicant either because they're kind of on the fence about them or they are just so impressed by them that professors think that if they reach out early in the process the applicant will be more likely to choose them, or many other reasons I haven't mentioned here. Anyways sometimes it is not the end of the world if you do not get an interview. Feel free to use this space to talk about (Anthro) interviews, share experiences you've had interviewing at different schools, and any information what is the purpose of the specific interviews.

With that said, if you do not get an interview request from these schools you have (probably*) been rejected:

WUSTL (Washington University in St. Louis)

UC Berkeley

UVA (University of Virginia)

Notre Dame

Duke

Harvard (?)

Johns Hopkins

NYU (intermittently)

UPenn

Yale (?)   

*This list is not exhaustive, add schools that are not included and this is not definitive. Sometimes admissions policies change or it depends on the discipline.

[LetsGetThisBread]

Hey, 

You can add:

Emory (notified about two weeks ago and on campus interview is part of admissions)

Stanford (hasn’t notified yet) 

Chicago (hasn’t notified yet) 

MIT HASTS (hasn’t notified yet) 

Columbia (hasn’t notified yet)

 

[GenericResearcher]

Sorry; this is a slight digression, but does anyone know the vague time period for interviews and/or admitted visit days? 

I’m sure I’m not the only one trying to make Spring plans and I haven’t a clue if it’s safe to commit to plans in April or not. 

Thanks so much! 

PS- I’m so glad someone started this interview dataset! Only grad students would collectively make a website for data sharing...

[Mofanthrooo]

@LetsGetThisBread Hey can you tell me more about Emory? Did they send out interview offers already? I'm asking because it seems like some people got rejection letters (or interview offers based on what you said) but I haven't gotten anything from Emory so far....

 

[LetsGetThisBread]

Hey Mof,

 That’s weird, see rejections but no interview invites, but schools almost never send out no’s before Yes’s. So I’m assuming the on-campus interview invites went out. I could have sworn I saw some posted as well. But Emory invites their short list to campus as part of the selection process, and chooses the finalists based on that weekend, so for logistics purposes they send out those invites quite early. 

2 hours ago, Mofanthrooo said:

@LetsGetThisBread Hey can you tell me more about Emory? Did they send out interview offers already? I'm asking because it seems like some people got rejection letters (or interview offers based on what you said) but I haven't gotten anything from Emory so far....

 

 

[perpetualalligator]

@GenericResearcher That depends on the programs you apply to. If you check out the results section you can get a general idea of when schools usually release decisions and interviews. Also considering that April 15th is the general deadline to accept or reject an offer I would assume that it is safe to make plans then. I wouñd assume too that most admit visit days would have happened by April but it really does depend on the program. I would check on that before making any plans.

Btw update un NYU interview: Around the top 5 BioAnth applicants are invited to an interview weekend, and any Skype interview is usally informal so if you don’t get an interview request from them there’s still hope!

[AnthroScopic]

14 hours ago, LetsGetThisBread said:

Hey, 

You can add:

Emory (notified about two weeks ago and on campus interview is part of admissions)

Stanford (hasn’t notified yet) 

Chicago (hasn’t notified yet) 

MIT HASTS (hasn’t notified yet) 

Columbia (hasn’t notified yet)

 

Hey LetsGetThisBread,

I think that MIT HASTS did, in fact, notify.

Check out this link. https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=HASTS

[LetsGetThisBread]

With all due respect, the result you linked to didn't exist when I posted. Seeing as this is your only post, and in years prior multiple people have posted, it's probably spam. ?

And If MIT did notify, it wasn't before I posted so I'm afraid it is still not a valid disagreement, as you intended it. Grad programs almost never notify on Fridays, Saturdays, for obvious reasons. 

If MIT has notified, we would likely have more than one result to go on. Also, MIT has historically not posted so early, so I can't help but assume your post is spam. 

Edited January 26, 2019 by LetsGetThisBread

[LetsGetThisBread]

?

Edited January 26, 2019 by LetsGetThisBread
delete

[synthema]

2 hours ago, HealthyAnthro said:

Hey LetsGetThisBread,

I think that MIT HASTS did, in fact, notify.

Check out this link. https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=HASTS

Stanford, too, based on your sig. Looks like we applied to the same programs, as well. A colleague was invited by HASTS, so they have sent invites out. 

[Psyhopeful]

2 hours ago, LetsGetThisBread said:

With all due respect, the result you linked to didn't exist when I posted. Seeing as this is your only post, and in years prior multiple people have posted, it's probably spam. ?

And If MIT did notify, it wasn't before I posted so I'm afraid it is still not a valid disagreement, as you intended it. Grad programs almost never notify on Fridays, Saturdays, for obvious reasons. 

If MIT has notified, we would likely have more than one result to go on. Also, MIT has historically not posted so early, so I can't help but assume your post is spam. 

I'm not sure why you're accusing @healthyanthro as a spammer? There appears to be five people that got interviews for HASTS from January 22-24 last year and the year before. I don't see anything questionable about their post. (Also, perhaps you are just feeling the stress of application season, but healthyanthro did not even appear to be "disagreeing" with you, instead they were doing what you asked and informing you of another school who has sent out invites.) Just because it's their first post to the forum doesn't mean they're a spammer. Everyone has a first post sometime , and this post about HASTS interviews appears entirely legitimate. In addition, @synthema also knows someone who received an invite.

Edited January 26, 2019 by Psyhopeful
mistake

[AnthroScopic]

42 minutes ago, synthema said:

Stanford, too, based on your sig. Looks like we applied to the same programs, as well. A colleague was invited by HASTS, so they have sent invites out. 

I got a Knight-Hennessy interview invite, so I'm just assuming that I'm going to be invited to interview by Stanford, but I haven't received formal invite yet from the department of anthropology.

Good luck to you in the programs synthema!

Too bad about the HASTS interviews though (at least for me).

Edited January 26, 2019 by HealthyAnthro
added comment about interviews and rejection

[woop]

48 minutes ago, synthema said:

Stanford, too, based on your sig. Looks like we applied to the same programs, as well. A colleague was invited by HASTS, so they have sent invites out. 

Thanks for sharing this info, Synthema! Do you happen to know what kind of interview/invitation your colleague received--for example, was it from an individual faculty member or from the department head? I guess I'm trying to figure out if this invite was representative of a finalized shortlist of sorts or if there's still some chance for people to join the shortlist. 

[sierra918]

Vanderbilt is also bringing candidates for on-campus visits/interviews now. This is a new system they started last year.

[synthema]

1 hour ago, HealthyAnthro said:

I got a Knight-Hennessy interview invite, so I'm just assuming that I'm going to be invited to interview by Stanford, but I haven't received formal invite yet from the department of anthropology.

Good luck to you in the programs synthema!

Too bad about the HASTS interviews though (at least for me).

Congratulations on the Knight-Hennessy interview! That sounds promising! Good luck to you on that, and the rest of your applications.  

1 hour ago, woop said:

Thanks for sharing this info, Synthema! Do you happen to know what kind of interview/invitation your colleague received--for example, was it from an individual faculty member or from the department head? I guess I'm trying to figure out if this invite was representative of a finalized shortlist of sorts or if there's still some chance for people to join the shortlist. 

I'm not sure who it came from, but he said that it was an invite to campus. It was individualized though, so there might be more going out still. 

[perpetualalligator]

3 hours ago, sierra918 said:

Vanderbilt is also bringing candidates for on-campus visits/interviews now. This is a new system they started last year.

Do you know when they’ll send out invites?  Is one does not get an interview email is that an implied rejection? 

[LetsGetThisBread]

5 hours ago, HealthyAnthro said:

I got a Knight-Hennessy interview invite, so I'm just assuming that I'm going to be invited to interview by Stanford, but I haven't received formal invite yet from the department of anthropology.

Good luck to you in the programs synthema!

Too bad about the HASTS interviews though (at least for me).

Sorry! I don’t know why I used the word disagreement. 

I meant to say just that I only saw the one MIT result, so I always assume it’s spam when it’s only one. 

Congrats on the KH interview! No clue how that process works but it’s definitely competitive.

[Nisaba]

Hello all,

I had an interview with Duke and I thought I might share some of the questions/topics. 

First, know your topic very well. I was asked historical, practical and conceptual questions. Ex. what conceptual tools will you draw on to carry out your research? Where would you begin your fieldwork? 

Then, there were the easier questions:

How did I come to study what I am proposing to study? Why Duke? Some background information ( I gave both academic background and personal background as it coincided with research topic). 

I hope this helps. 

[AnthroScopic]

15 hours ago, LetsGetThisBread said:

Sorry! I don’t know why I used the word disagreement. 

I meant to say just that I only saw the one MIT result, so I always assume it’s spam when it’s only one. 

Congrats on the KH interview! No clue how that process works but it’s definitely competitive.

Oh that makes much more sense.

Thank you! I'm not sure if I'll get it, but I'll keep you folks up-to-date if I do.

Still anxiously waiting to hear back from the rest haha.

[GenericResearcher]

On 1/26/2019 at 8:39 AM, perpetualalligator said:

@GenericResearcher That depends on the programs you apply to. If you check out the results section you can get a general idea of when schools usually release decisions and interviews. Also considering that April 15th is the general deadline to accept or reject an offer I would assume that it is safe to make plans then. I wouñd assume too that most admit visit days would have happened by April but it really does depend on the program. I would check on that before making any plans.

Btw update un NYU interview: Around the top 5 BioAnth applicants are invited to an interview weekend, and any Skype interview is usally informal so if you don’t get an interview request from them there’s still hope!

Thanks so much! That's very helpful! :) 

[GenericResearcher]

19 hours ago, perpetualalligator said:

Do you know when they’ll send out invites?  Is one does not get an interview email is that an implied rejection? 

@perpetualalligator I'm at Vandy now and apparently the committee has just barely started into the admission process. I've asked around about the interviews/visits, but haven't heard much back. 

[pmcol]

4 hours ago, Nisaba said:

Hello all,

I had an interview with Duke and I thought I might share some of the questions/topics. 

First, know your topic very well. I was asked historical, practical and conceptual questions. Ex. what conceptual tools will you draw on to carry out your research? Where would you begin your fieldwork? 

Then, there were the easier questions:

How did I come to study what I am proposing to study? Why Duke? Some background information ( I gave both academic background and personal background as it coincided with research topic). 

I hope this helps. 

Hey @Nisaba your post is very helpful, thank you!

If I may ask one more question, how did you prepare yourself for your interview to ensure you were ready?

Congratulations and I hope you make it into Duke!

[sierra918]

19 hours ago, perpetualalligator said:

Do you know when they’ll send out invites?  Is one does not get an interview email is that an implied rejection? 

I would guess they will send them out late February or early March. Based on past years, I would assume if you don't get an invite, you will not be accepted. Best of luck!

Edited January 27, 2019 by sierra918
Spelling error

[Nisaba]

@pmcol Thank you! I was nervous and made a few mistakes, so I'm not too sure if I will in fact be accepted. I prepared as best as I could by knowing how to further elaborate on my research questions, and conceptual points. I also prepared and answer for why I was interested in Duke, my specific research topic and summarized my previous research projects concisely.  

Good luck on your applications!! 

[Mofanthrooo]

It seems like Stanford sent out interview invites too (according to the results page). Haha I'll just give up my hope on this cycle.