Questions about recruitment event

[Supe]

Got invited to a university recruitment event but have not been contacted by any of the POIs yet. I applied for a PhD program, so I'm really concerned that I haven't had any interactions with potential advisors. The recruitment event does include meetings with faculty (but you have to select them rather the other way round, so that is quite worrying). Would this be the same as a formal interview with faculty, or would this just be a generic undergrad style event? I'm a little confused about recruitment events in general since I got invited to one for another school after I interviewed with faculty and received an email that they will recommend me for admission.

 

 

[Phoenix88]

@Supe Have you emailed or reached out to any of the professors that you are interested in working with? 

During my application process in 2019-2020, I never had a professor that I was interested in working with contact me directly from the application process. Even if you list them directly, most of the time they are too busy to scan through and reach out. They may not even know your specific interests, depending on what part of the application they saw (if any)! To hear from them, I would have to email them, and hope they would get back to me. I got about 70% of them get back to me even after an email, and a follow up if needed. 

I will say that you have to do super thorough research into your advisor's interests, and it would have been way better if things were in person this year, as some people can meet new advisors that way. I actually hadn't heard of my advisor until the PhD visit weekend at my school, but the open sign up times were a lifesaver for me, as his research fit my desires way better than the others who I was considering working with. 

Anyway, if you have emailed and haven't heard back from any, that's worrying. If it has been at least a couple weeks, do follow up, sometimes emails get lost. Additionally, expect a more formal event, most advisors are looking for students who are good fits for their labs at these events. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by Phoenix88

[Supe]

22 minutes ago, Phoenix88 said:

@Supe Have you emailed or reached out to any of the professors that you are interested in working with? 

During my application process in 2019-2020, I never had a professor that I was interested in working with contact me directly from the application process. Even if you list them directly, most of the time they are too busy to scan through and reach out. They may not even know your specific interests, depending on what part of the application they saw (if any)! To hear from them, I would have to email them, and hope they would get back to me. I got about 70% of them get back to me even after an email, and a follow up if needed. 

I will say that you have to do super thorough research into your advisor's interests, and it would have been way better if things were in person this year, as some people can meet new advisors that way. I actually hadn't heard of my advisor until the PhD visit weekend at my school, but the open sign up times were a lifesaver for me, as his research fit my desires way better than the others who I was considering working with. 

Anyway, if you have emailed and haven't heard back from any, that's worrying. If it has been at least a couple weeks, do follow up, sometimes emails get lost. Additionally, expect a more formal event, most advisors are looking for students who are good fits for their labs at these events. 

Thank you for responding, this was really helpful! I had assumed that POIs always reach out to students for informal interviews prior to these recruitment/visit/interview events (at least that has been my experience with other schools). I didn't reach out to the POIs at this school before applying, mostly because I wasn't 100% sure that I would be applying, and haven't emailed any of my POIs directly yet. One of my concerns prior to applying was that I didn't see a very obvious match in research interests, but thinking about what you said, the recruitment event format might actually be much more helpful than the alternative. Thanks again for all the advice, I was getting paranoid and almost thought that the invitation email was a mistake!

[Phoenix88]

I'm glad that I was able to help you out!

I'm surprised that POIs at other schools are reaching out to you though! Maybe it's a field-dependent thing. Engineering professors definitely pride themselves in being too busy for their own good. But yeah, it's good that you see the value in networking at the recruitment event, it should really help you out as long as you put the energy in. Emailing the profs should double up on the efficiency as well. 

Best of luck, and feel free to reach out via PM if you need more help! 

[Jessica2020]

Hello,

I’ve got invited by my potential supervisor to attend the PhD Recruitment Event (at the University of Toronto). She also connected me with her lab to have a Zoom chat to meet one another.
 

Does that mean I have been admitted or shortlisted? Any ideas about the purpose of a Recruitment Event?

 

Thank you.

[Supe]

On 1/25/2021 at 4:44 AM, Jessica2020 said:

Hello,

I’ve got invited by my potential supervisor to attend the PhD Recruitment Event (at the University of Toronto). She also connected me with her lab to have a Zoom chat to meet one another.
 

Does that mean I have been admitted or shortlisted? Any ideas about the purpose of a Recruitment Event?

 

Thank you.

That's good news, you're definitely shortlisted! I suppose the faculty will be more explicit about admittance (or if the faculty plan to recommend you to admission, which means that you're almost admitted). From what I've learned, recruitment events after admittance are mostly for the faculty to persuade you to join whereas recruitment events pre-admittance would involve interviews with faculty, so you'll have to convince them (and they you) about how you would fit into the program.

Congrats and good luck!

[Phoenix88]

Congrats @Jessica2020 ! 

I'd totally agree with Supe's viewpoint there, you'll have to put your best foot forward at the recruitment event before admission. Try to connect with the faculty that do the work that excites you and let your passion shine through. 

Best of luck! 

[Jessica2020]

Thanks so much everyone for giving me an idea about what to expect during the event. You raised my hopes ? 

yes I have already connected with a potential supervisor and we have a good relationship. Last week, she emailed me and told me that she would like me to meet with her lab members via Zoom. And so we did! 
she either did that to take her lab’s opinion about me or get to meet one another as a newcomer! Right ? I think this is positive because not all potential supervisors introduce their entire lab to a potential candidate.

[lapomegranate]

On 1/18/2021 at 5:29 PM, Supe said:

Got invited to a university recruitment event but have not been contacted by any of the POIs yet. I applied for a PhD program, so I'm really concerned that I haven't had any interactions with potential advisors. The recruitment event does include meetings with faculty (but you have to select them rather the other way round, so that is quite worrying). Would this be the same as a formal interview with faculty, or would this just be a generic undergrad style event? I'm a little confused about recruitment events in general since I got invited to one for another school after I interviewed with faculty and received an email that they will recommend me for admission.

 

 

Hi, I am curious to know what your recruitment event was after the interview. I am confused because I had an official interview with faculty after which they notified me that I was selected for their recruitment event. Does this mean that I will have to do another interview? In the email invitation they also included the few other prospective students that will attend the event and we are called the "finalists". I cannot believe I will have to have another interview, is this at all possible?

[Supe]

Just now, lapomegranate said:

Hi, I am curious to know what your recruitment event was after the interview. I am confused because I had an official interview with faculty after which they notified me that I was selected for their recruitment event. Does this mean that I will have to do another interview? In the email invitation they also included the few other prospective students that will attend the event and we are called the "finalists". I cannot believe I will have to have another interview, is this at all possible?

Hi @lapomegranate, I don't think there is a standard notion of what a recruitment event should be. For instance, this school invited me to their recruitment event weekend without any interviews, and all my interviews were conducted over the course of a single day. However, for another school, I got invited to the recruitment event after I had been admitted. I think the timeline is crucial for understanding what would be expected. If you've been admitted, then the recruitment event will be to persuade you to join them; however, if it is pre-admittance, then both you and faculty are trying to assess if you can work together, so this might be like a second round of interviews with additional events such as (virtual) campus tours, chats with grad students etc. That said, compared to your previous official interview, there will be a little more onus on the faculty to convince you that their department will be good for you since you're a serious contender for admission.

This is good news, congrats and good luck! 

[lapomegranate]

24 minutes ago, Supe said:

Hi @lapomegranate, I don't think there is a standard notion of what a recruitment event should be. For instance, this school invited me to their recruitment event weekend without any interviews, and all my interviews were conducted over the course of a single day. However, for another school, I got invited to the recruitment event after I had been admitted. I think the timeline is crucial for understanding what would be expected. If you've been admitted, then the recruitment event will be to persuade you to join them; however, if it is pre-admittance, then both you and faculty are trying to assess if you can work together, so this might be like a second round of interviews with additional events such as (virtual) campus tours, chats with grad students etc. That said, compared to your previous official interview, there will be a little more onus on the faculty to convince you that their department will be good for you since you're a serious contender for admission.

This is good news, congrats and good luck! 

Thanks! I cannot believe the stress is not yet over. I have not been admitted, I am only a finalist so I assume the recruitment weekend will somehow include another interview. I thought this was all over and all I had to do was wait for a decision ?

Edited February 12, 2021 by lapomegranate