Interview advice

[M246]

Would it be possible for current life-sciences graduate students to give advice on interview weekends?

What to expect, how to dress, acceptance chances after interviews and other relevant information.

 

Thanks!! ?

[appcs2020]

2 hours ago, M246 said:

Would it be possible for current life-sciences graduate students to give advice on interview weekends?

What to expect, how to dress, acceptance chances after interviews and other relevant information.

 

Thanks!! ?

I heard the hardest part is actually getting an interview, tho I would also really like to know about the chances of being admitted after interviews!

[liamhohoho]

For the program in my current school. (2017) 25 students got the interview, 18 offers were made, 15 students accepted the offer.

 

[thelilypad]

1 hour ago, liamhohoho said:

For the program in my current school. (2017) 25 students got the interview, 18 offers were made, 15 students accepted the offer.

I really hope Stanford's numbers are like that lmao

Edited January 21, 2020 by thelilypad

[LumypySP]

I was invited to an open house and I was wondering what's the main difference between open house and interview? Does that mean that we're more likely to be accepted? Thanks!

[BabyScientist]

6 hours ago, LumypySP said:

I was invited to an open house and I was wondering what's the main difference between open house and interview? Does that mean that we're more likely to be accepted? Thanks!

Depends on the school. Some schools call it interviews, some call it recruitment, some call it open house.

Realistically, once they've chosen to give you an interview, they're just making sure you're not crazy/are actually passionate about grad school and trying to convince you to come. It's really more about trying to convince you to come for a lot of schools, so why call it interviews?

[splitmcsplit]

On 1/20/2020 at 6:39 PM, appcs2020 said:

I heard the hardest part is actually getting an interview, tho I would also really like to know about the chances of being admitted after interviews!

For some schools, the % invited after interview can be low (e.g. 33%), but for others, it's pretty high (>75%). It really just depends on the school and they can change from year to year based on their needs.

 

[DRMF]

Most programs I've heard admits more than half post-interview, expecting only a portion of the accepted applicants to actually attend (even "top" programs may have a pretty low yield rate, since the same outstanding applicants would usually get multiple offers from other top programs). However some (like mine) first admits n students where n = number of actual spots, and almost everyone else who interviewed is put on a waitlist; again a considerable number of accepted students don't come, so they sometimes go pretty far down the waitlist. If the program has only 1 interview weekend, they usually reach a decision *very* soon (like, they meet on the Monday after and call you on Tuesday) so have your phone turned on / check your emails.

Attire can vary and you can simply ask the admin/director for the dress code, but most places do business casual (though some applicants would still choose to go full on business attire). I wore a sweater dress and boots, which is the furthest I'd go to adhere to dress codes.

There's already a lot of info out there on what to expect at interviews, please use the search function wisely; you'll get more meaningful responses if you post what specifically you're asking about.

[Walfred]

On 1/20/2020 at 6:47 PM, thelilypad said:

I really hope Stanford's numbers are like that lmao

If you are international...you need to be serious with it...they at most accept one international or not at all (most of time none) . 

I did not get their BMI interview, but two of my friends (both internationals too) got it last year and last last year. Both post-interview rejections though....

[thelilypad]

26 minutes ago, Walfred said:

If you are international...you need to be serious with it...they at most accept one international or not at all (most of time none) . 

I did not get their BMI interview, but two of my friends (both internationals too) got it last year and last last year. Both post-interview rejections though....

I'm not international, I'm a US citizen. Do you know if the # are any better?

[Walfred]

40 minutes ago, thelilypad said:

I'm not international, I'm a US citizen. Do you know if the # are any better?

It would be way more better...they generally only accept domestic students because of NIH funding....

I heard domestic is more than 70% post-interview acceptance. So, yes, you are still likely to be rejected after interview...although not very high...

 

[Yas-man]

Interview acceptance rates vary as the person above said. Different programs have different strategies because they'll have a specific quota in mind (e.g. they want to take 15 students) and they look at historical acceptance rates. They also have different budgets on how many people they can bring to visit (because of program funding or how many applications they get to pay for the other students) and use different strategies on how they evaluate people post-interview. For example, some programs will re-rank candidates post-interview via committee and some are merely making sure the student is a good fit.

You can generally estimate that the acceptance rate is 50% and then it varies beyond that point. For the last program I interviewed with, one could do the math on what they said their target enrolled student count was and historical attendance rates (how many students actually attend) and it was obvious their acceptance rate was greater than 75% to be able to meet that quota. However, a previous interview mentioned their acceptance rate post-interview was more like 40%.

They also will sometimes vary from year to year because a previous class size was bigger/smaller than they wanted, so they'll raise/lower the numbers the next year to make up for that. For example, if their previous class had an unusually high attendance rate, their funding may be overburdened so they'll lower the acceptance rate of the next class.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Yas-man