Meeting with non-POI faculty at interview

[neuropsych76]

From what I've gathered, the main things POI's want to talk about during an interview is the research you want to do with them. What then, do other faculty members look for in applicants? Just the overall potential you have to be a good graduate student? I just found out that I'll be meeting with each cognitive neuroscience faculty member at my interview (this weekend!!!) and I was wondering what to be prepared for for the other faculty members. Should I know their research as well?

Thank you!

[eklavya]

yes, have a fair idea about their research, but it's not a requirement as they tell you what they are/have been doing anyway. for example, if they are not your PoIs, know that dude A is working in field 1 whereas lady B is working in field 2 and similar. and that's usually enough because they end up explaining a lot more regarding what they do. you are arranged to meet with many people in the department because the department is looking for an overall fit between you and the program. if most/all profs agree that you can excel in their program, then you will be offered an admission. also, since it is likely that some of them will be in your future committee if you decide to go there, being professional and building bridges is what the other-than-PoIs interviews are all about. i met with 5 profs who were not my PoIs, and i had a great time... the review i got few days after the interview was really good. so, utilize the opportunity, and get to know some awesome people in your field!

congrats on the interview. am sure you will do great!

[eucalyptus]

Chances are they'll ask you about what research you want to do and what kinds of questions you're interested in, and then they'll tell you about whatever aspects of their own research they think you might find interesting. So when you're talking about your research interests and experience, you want to frame it in a way that they might find interesting, which is where knowing their general field/interests ahead of time is helpful. In my case, if I was talking to a languagey person, I'd frame my interests in terms of that. Anyone who studied animals would get a mention of my chimp work, so we could talk about that. And if there was someone with whom I really could not see any connection, I would just tell them about my research anyway and more often than not, they'd tell me something about their own work that, regardless of whether it was relevant to my stuff, was super interesting. A lot of profs (particularly older ones) have very broad interests and will be able to tell you neat things or ask you insightful questions from a different perspective than the ones you've considered, so just be ready to talk about your work and think about new exciting things! Also, it doesn't hurt to have a list of generic questions to fall back on in case you run out of things to talk about.

[GNC]

From my experience thus far, some ask you about your research, they talk about their research. And then it branches off into random subjects especially the faulty whose interests are very different. I've talked about everything from sports, to family, to city life, to their graduate experience and so-on. Just have questions ready, because they all ask you if you have any questions for them.