Top 10 Interview Questions

[doctorate83]

What are the most common interview questions you've been asked in grad school interviews? Post your questions here!

This site Grad School Heaven has an excellent article with a top 10 list of grad school interview questions, but I wanted to get your thoughts too.

Thanks.

[thelost]

The list seems accurate. I only had one interview, but I was asked most of those questions. It's like a job interview.

[starmaker]

Aaron: It's a field-specific thing. Interviews are common in life science and psychology programs, for instance.

[Sigaba]

It's like a job interview.

I respectfully but strongly disagree with this comparison. Today, job interviews center around an employer trying to figure out if a potential employee can do a job effectively with as little training as possible. In this regard, job applicants understand that they imperil their own chances if they admit outright that they are deficient in one area or another.

By contrast, an interview for admission to a graduate program centers around the assumption that the applicant doesn't know everything and that even the most qualified applicant is going to be a 'work in progress.'

Moreover, the collegiality of an academic department is, IMO, drastically different than that of the work place. (Not better, not worse, just different.)

My $0.02.