Interviews?

[panasic]

Which top 10 programs conduct interviews? Berkeley and Stanford don't have anything on their websites about this.

[faculty]

Interviews are very, very rare. If there is an interview, it will be (or certainly should be) over the phone or all expenses paid by the institution.

Many programs will have "prospective student weekends" where they invite accepted candidates out. The bigger programs will give assistance to defray the costs and you'll likely stay for free with a graduate student. I highly recommend these, even if they're an added cost to the application process. They were instrumental in me choosing the program I did over others that I thought I would like better.

[sociology27]

The only sociology program I know to do interviews before decisions are made is Harvard.