When do in-person interviews happen?

[coffeecoffeebuzzbuzz]

When are folks invited for interviews? What dates tend to be most common? What is generally included?

[coffeecoffeebuzzbuzz]

I just posted my odd results...(interviews later than normal). Fill in what ever your experiences have been, either this year or last.

[fuzzylogician]

You'll get more helpful information from looking at the "results" section of the GradCafe. You can define a search for your field and even for the specific schools that you applied to and see if and when invitations for interviews were sent out in previous years.

FWIW I was invited to one (pre-admission) in-person interview and I had three phone-interviews. I was initially contacted in January; phone interviews were usually set up for a few days after the initial email. The in-person interview was part of an open-house for finalists and took place in the last two days of February. I didn't go so I don't know what it included, but if it was anything like the phone interviews and the post-admission in-person meetings with faculty that I had - the interview will include questions about your background and your research interests and will give you the opportunity to ask the interviewers questions about the program. Search the "interviews" subforum, there is a lot of information there about what to expect.

ETA: for the in-person interview, the school offered to cover part of the flight (about half, for a trans-Atlantic flight), plus a grad student host and food+drinks. I imagine that there was some "misc entertainment," these events always include a party and/or an outing with the grad students.

Edited December 6, 2010 by fuzzylogician

[laurend]

For Neuroscience interview invites are usually sent out mid december (this is pretty early though) through end of January or so. Interviews begin in January and go through mid March. Usually are expenses are covered.

[MoJingly]

Do you think it is disadvantageous in the admission process to interview later rather than sooner? For example, would an early-Feb interview be less helpful than a late-Jan? Maybe it varies by school? Just wondering...

[laurend]

I cannot be sure about this and it probably depends on the program, but if a school only gives you one date in my mind it would be helpful to go for that date, especially if that is their first date. My thoughts are that they want to bring the best first and make their offers so they know how many more they have to make and have a chance to gauge your interest in them. As many "first" interviews as you can get to is probably better as far as I see it. Plus, it gets you your answer first! But, if you have to choose a different date due to a conflict, I don't think it is a big issue.