A bit of finesse...and a bit more

[awvish]

I've got a bit of a dilemma, and was hoping people might have suggestions on sorting it out.

I was just contacted for a phone interview at one of my top institutions--so far, so good. (YAY!) In my field, it's required to apply to a specific lab, and so in my SOP, I talked about two labs I was interested in. Lab A is one subdiscipline and lab B is another subdiscipline. There are, obviously, related aspects.

My personal background (life and job experience) falls much more strongly into B, but my research experience and direction of interest is in A. My problem is, I'm almost overqualified for B, and for that precise reason, would much rather go into A (it interests me more, I'm getting burned out on aspects of B, it will be easier to switch from A to B than from B to A if I later decide that my life is not complete without more B in it, etc).

I want to convey this to my interviewer (who is in neither lab and neither subfield, just a member of the adcomm), but just strongly enough that I get admitted to lab A instead of lab B. And, of course, not so strongly that I won't get into either. I suppose it's always an option to try to switch advisors once I'm in, but that seems slimy and seems like a great way of making advisor B into an enemy (or at the very least, fairly unhelpful).

Help?

[MoJingly]

I don't really understand. If you strongly indicate your interest in lab A, what is the danger? Maybe they will think you are not interested in B? That's not the case. You already told them you were. Just be honest and let them know your thought process. You want to work in lab A. PIs want people who want them.

[newms]

I don't really understand. If you strongly indicate your interest in lab A, what is the danger? Maybe they will think you are not interested in B? That's not the case. You already told them you were. Just be honest and let them know your thought process. You want to work in lab A. PIs want people who want them.

I think the OP is concerned that the PI from lab A might not want them or not have space for them and then the adcomm or PI B might think that the OP is not too interested in lab B and so they just reject the OP. It can be a delicate situation, but as MoJingly said, just be honest and let them know that you'll be happy at both labs and that you're very interested in both, but that you would prefer to be based in A if possible because of your experience and current interests. Easier said than done, I know. Best of luck and congrats on getting the interview!

[awvish]

I think the OP is concerned that the PI from lab A might not want them or not have space for them and then the adcomm or PI B might think that the OP is not too interested in lab B and so they just reject the OP. It can be a delicate situation, but as MoJingly said, just be honest and let them know that you'll be happy at both labs and that you're very interested in both, but that you would prefer to be based in A if possible because of your experience and current interests. Easier said than done, I know. Best of luck and congrats on getting the interview!

You got it in one. Sorry that wasn't the clearest wording...

Thanks so much for the advice, too. Best of luck with your applications!