Interviews: what to expect

[danielm43]

I have never had an academic interview; my first is coming up next weekend. However, several of you may have had some experience with this in the past, or perhaps gotten good advice from profs about what to expect. I was hoping that this thread could become a useful resource for those of us who have applied to schools that have some sort of pre-admission interview process.

One of my professors (who did not have to interview for his PhD program) had the following advice: be able to give a clear and concise answer for the following questions

1) Why theology and why this school? 2) Be able to define theology--its nature and purpose--and explain your reasons for believing this school is the right place for your theological pursuits. 3) What are your present research interests and what are your long-term goals as a scholar/educator/etc.?

Those seem a bit obvious, but I like having articulate, thoughtful (and hopefully memorable) answers ready for those basic questions. Of course, having ruminated on these topics throughout the application process will certainly help.... He also advised me to be ready for typical job interview types of questions (strengths/weaknesses, and so on). Have questions ready for the faculty regarding the school, the program, where recent graduates have gone, etc. The final bit of advice my prof had was to research the faculty thoroughly--have the names connected with faces, and become as familiar as possible with their work; be able to express knowledge of and genuine interest in their work.

That's all I have, and I truly don't know if it's particularly good advice. As I said, I have no experience, and this information came from someone who went to a school that didn't have an interview process.

I look forward to hearing others' ideas!

[demondeac]

I have never had an academic interview; my first is coming up next weekend.

Which interview do you have coming up? It could vary based on whom you will be speaking with and in what subdiscipline you will be interviewing.

[danielm43]

Good point, demondeac, I should have included those specifics. I'll be interviewing at Baylor, Religion dept., systematic theology.

[demondeac]

Good point, demondeac, I should have included those specifics. I'll be interviewing at Baylor, Religion dept., systematic theology.

I would make sure you're up to date on Baptist life nationally and globally; Baylor has claimed it wants to be the "Baptist Notre Dame", so I would try to be familiar with their recent history (their presidential issues, the ID controversy, the time PETA made them quit feeding the bear in the quad Dr. Pepper all the time, etc.). Be able to talk about the glory days at Southern seminary before "the fall" in the 80s and 90s; there are always some good stories there .

More generally (the business degree suddenly becomes useful) try to keep the interviewer talking about him/herself substantially. I know it sounds odd to not want to talk as much as possible (since they are interviewing you), but interviewing is more psychologically effective when the interviewer talks about him/herself more than the interviewee. Studies have shown that they attribute more "likeability" to the candidate after talking about themselves for 45 minutes. Don't allow dead air time, and remember that when you do talk, you are trying to sell your project (or at least the one you put on your SoP). So be excited, because you will conceivably be doing this project for the next 7 years!

[danielm43]

thanks for the good advice, demondeac! It's good to hear confirmation that the tactic of getting the interviewer to talk about her-/himself could be helpful...I love doing that! Then, when they do ask questions it feels more like a conversation than "oh man, they're grilling me."

Also, I know very little about Baptist and/or Baylor history, so I'll be familiarizing myself with that for sure. I'm vaguely aware of the ID thing, and know that they've had some controversy surrounding their former president; I'll be sure to have a good handle on all that. I'm hoping that those controversies haven't had too much of a negative impact on the Religion/Theology department, but I suppose I'll find out this weekend.

In any case, thanks for the input--it's greatly valued.

[Sinope]

I just discovered this forum this morning, while mildly panicking preparing for my first formal interview, with Emory. I tried to do all the standard prep things (preparing answers for why I wanted to attend there, why I thought I'd be a good fit, what their department's personality was, what books the professors had written, etc.), but I think that the most helpful prep I did was to a) relax, and prepare articulate answers about myself. For instance, in the notes I made myself to prepare, I made sure to write out the names and authors of books I'd been reading and thinking about lately, issues that have been interesting me of late, etc. It meant that I could use those as concrete starting points to talk about things that I'm genuinely excited about, which is definitely important.

Also, for what it's worth, both this and the other (informal) interview I've had were really enjoyable experiences, with professors who wanted to talk about interesting things in my field, not just grill me for the Right Answer. I'm sure that the latter kind of interview happens too, but I don't think it's the norm.

Best of luck!

[danielm43]

Thanks, Sinope, and welcome to the forum! It's encouraging to hear about your interview experience with friendly and interested interviewers. I am hoping for the same, but I'd like to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, too. Writing out recent authors and books is an excellent idea.

Here's some other advice that I got from a friend who also interviewed recently:

1) actually contact the school/faculty (admissions dept., prospective supervisors, etc.) asking them details about the interview: length, number of interviewers, types of questions to prepare for, etc. Also, get into contact with current students in the program to try to glean the same sort of information and gather advice.

2) he reemphasized the need to articulate why THIS school and department is the right school and department (this is especially good for me to remember since I'm hoping to study Kierkegaard who can be treated as a theologian, philosopher, and/or literary figure).

A prof at Baylor told me the following:

Name-dropping or pretending to be more interested than you really are isn't helpful, but it's good to know who you're talking to--respect your prospective conversants by knowing who they are. The best way to prepare is simply to know exactly what you want to do and why.

On a side note, I noticed a few of you on other threads were either accepted or invited for interviews...congratulations!