Am I reading too much into this?

[AnxPsych]

So I heard today that the POI I'm interviewing in-person with in a couple weeks invited 13 other people for an in-person interview. Isn't this pretty rude considering the program does not reimburse travel expenses and this gives me a <10% chance of getting an offer? Apparently this is not the norm for this school and this PI is a special case. Would this give anyone else red flags? Like you really couldn't whittle your choices down to even a top 6? I don't even know how I could stand out from 13 other probably very talented people. How does this help the PI make a decision? The whole thing seems so bizarre. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by AnxPsych

[SoundofSilence]

4 minutes ago, AnxPsych said:

So I heard today that the POI I'm interviewing in-person with in a couple weeks invited 13 other people for an in-person interview. Isn't this pretty rude considering the program does not reimburse travel expenses and this gives me a <10% chance of getting an offer? Apparently this is not the norm for this school and this PI is a special case. Would this give anyone else red flags? Like you really couldn't whittle your choices down to even a top 6? I don't even know how I could stand out from 13 other probably very talented people. How does this help the PI make a decision? The whole thing seems so bizarre. 

13?!? that is bizarre yes. Do they have multiple spots open? Sometimes POIs want to add 2-3 incoming grads, so that would make sense. 

It would be difficult to stand out from 13 other people if they only have one spot - and honestly, it doesn't speak well about their ability to decide.

Maybe there are other factors there? Because if all POIs did this, then most programs would invite their entire applicant pool.

[taacc]

I'm not in clinical psych so my comment may not be very valuable or accurate, but from my understanding of clinical interviews, the idea of anywhere from 5-10 other people being interviewed isn't that uncommon given how competitive clinical is. However, this is a little on the higher end of applicants being interviewed. Additionally, it is worrying that you know this is not the norm for this school/this PI is a special case. Do you happen to know if the POI is admitting more than 1 applicant to their lab this year? Are they maybe early on in their career and more eager to admit multiple students in a cycle?  
In any case, while it's frustrating, I would try not to take it personally (which I know is easy to say and hard to do). Instead, think about this interview offer along with other offers you may have at the moment and evaluate whether or not it's worth doing. Because you're right that you'll need to compete with 13 others for a spot, so you'll want to think about how much resources/effort/time you want to invest in this opportunity. 

[PsychPhdBound]

I was one of five this past weekend at an interview, and that was mentally brutal. So sorry that you're going through this! Fingers crossed for all of us!!

[PsycUndergrad]

That’s definitely odd. Many faculty will do 10+ preliminary/Skype interviews to narrow down their list, but I’ve never heard of more than 5-6 invited to an in-person interview. It might be nothing, but I would evaluate this person and program carefully while you’re there. Talk to current students and find out what kind of advisor he/she is. My initial concern is that the PI has little consideration or respect for students’ time and money, or is expecting a lot of students to turn down the offer for some reason. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by PsycUndergrad

[hopefulgrad2019]

2 hours ago, SoundofSilence said:

13?!? that is bizarre yes. Do they have multiple spots open? Sometimes POIs want to add 2-3 incoming grads, so that would make sense. 

It would be difficult to stand out from 13 other people if they only have one spot - and honestly, it doesn't speak well about their ability to decide.

Maybe there are other factors there? Because if all POIs did this, then most programs would invite their entire applicant pool.

I agree with this. It makes sense if there’s multiple spots but for only 1 that’s definitely weird. In my program, the most a faculty invites is 4 students but 2-3 is the most common.