UBC - Recruitment weekend question

[ciix]

Hello, everyone!

 

I'm applying to the University of British Columbia and got two informal interviews with potential supervisors. One of them said he'll be selecting 1 or 2 applicants to move forward to the recruitment weekend. My question is: what happens then? If you're the only student picked by a supervisor, can UBC reject you? Because then the supervisor wouldn't get any new students. If so, how commom is that?

Basically, I'd like to know if being selected to the formal interviews is almost the same as being accepted to the program (considering that everything goes well during the interviews, of course)

 

Thank you!

[SocDevMum]

On 1/11/2021 at 3:17 PM, ciix said:

Hello, everyone!

 

I'm applying to the University of British Columbia and got two informal interviews with potential supervisors. One of them said he'll be selecting 1 or 2 applicants to move forward to the recruitment weekend. My question is: what happens then? If you're the only student picked by a supervisor, can UBC reject you? Because then the supervisor wouldn't get any new students. If so, how commom is that?

Basically, I'd like to know if being selected to the formal interviews is almost the same as being accepted to the program (considering that everything goes well during the interviews, of course)

 

Thank you!

I can't speak for UBC in particular, but usually the candidates invited to the recruitment weekends are the top choices for an open place at the Uni.  They may pick one or two applicants to come out, generally they would be ok with either candidate accepting the spot, but also knowing that many applicants get multiple offers and may not choose their lab. So, in short, while being invited doesn't guarantee you a spot, it does mean that you are at the top of their list, and as long as you don't completely blow the weekend by being rude, inattentive or otherwise show yourself to be incompatible with the existing lab members, you should not be surprised to get an offer. He may use the weekend to decide between the two of you which to offer first if he only has one spot, so make sure you are on your A game the whole weekend!

[ciix]

It makes a lot of sense! Thank you so much. This specific supervisor may select more than one applicant to join his lab, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news. He's my first choice among all the programs I've applied to, so it would be really amazing to move forward to recruitment. I'll be sure to keep my A game in every single step, for sure!