Interviews for humanities PhD programs?

[earlyamerican]

Hi everyone, good luck surviving the waiting.

So I want to know what the deal is with interviews. I've never really heard of humanities programs calling applicants for phone interviews, but it seems I saw a couple updates at one of my schools that indicated profs were calling some students (though I've seen no decisions either way). It seems the hard sciences and business are more into interviews than history.

Does this vary completely by school, department, and faculty member, or is it a tool for when they can't decide between Person A and Person B, or what?

[fuzzylogician]

I'm in linguistics and had always heard the process doesn't include interviews -- but I've had 3 interviews already.

One interview was purely about the money (with a UC school, apparently funding is a big issue for international applicants this year); the other two interviews were with my two worst fits, both basically wanted to know why I wanted to attend their school. I haven't heard back from either, but I'd actually be a bit surprised if they both accepted me.

All of my interviews were with potential advisors, so maybe it just depends on the faculty members you want to work with.

[limeinthecoconut]

I guess they call you up, if there is something about your application that intrigues them, but has not been addressed sufficiently in the application. I guess this can range from stuff like language proficiency, change of majors, etc.

It probably is a good thing. If they call, it probably means that your application got pretty far.

[synthla]

It truly reveals the idiosyncratic nature of the review process. The first interaction I had with any school after submitting applications was a request for an informal interview. After completing that I was of course thinking that if so much in my application was unclear to School A, surely the same questions would occur to every other school, but they may not bother to ask, but just reject me instead. Apparently that's not the case - my one admission so far had no follow-up questions or informal interviews; just an acceptance.

[GenderMediaGrad]

I'm confused about interviews for humanities programs too. So far, I have 1 acceptance from a school that did not interview me. I haven't heard a word from the 7 other programs. Yesterday, I read on gradcafe that another applicant has been invited for an interview weekend at my top school (I have not). I have been neither accepted nor rejected (this school is also my alma mater, I know many of the profs there and feel I have at least a respectable shot at getting in). What does this mean for me? Are only the top candidates invited to an "interview weekend" or is it for borderline candidates or candidates they want more information from? Is not being invited the kiss of death, or is it neutral or even a good sign? Anyone know more than I do?

[wazi]

I'm not sure interviews are always about an application being unclear. That's what I thought going into my first interview, and I got ready to clarify my research interests. But it was really more about talking about the program and what was different about that particular school, and they didn't seem to have many questions about my SOP or WS. I think it varies from department to department.

I'm confused about interviews for humanities programs too. So far, I have 1 acceptance from a school that did not interview me. I haven't heard a word from the 7 other programs. Yesterday, I read on gradcafe that another applicant has been invited for an interview weekend at my top school (I have not). I have been neither accepted nor rejected (this school is also my alma mater, I know many of the profs there and feel I have at least a respectable shot at getting in). What does this mean for me? Are only the top candidates invited to an "interview weekend" or is it for borderline candidates or candidates they want more information from? Is not being invited the kiss of death, or is it neutral or even a good sign? Anyone know more than I do?

Normally, I think it would be a bad sign. But since they already know you, maybe they just wanted to meet other applicants they weren't sure about.

I bet we overlap on some schools. Good luck and congrats on the acceptance!

[earlyamerican]

For those of you with interviews where they actually want you physically on campus, I certainly hope they're giving you some kind of travel stipend. If this were common practice, and I had to fly to even *some* of the 7 schools to which I applied just to keep myself in the game, I'd be pissed. Frankly, my credit cards can't take any more abuse like that now that I'm done with applications.

[psycholinguist]

Of the two schools I've heard from, I got a full stipend for one, and about a half a one for the other! This whole 'prospective grad student' thing is pretty awesome sometimes. Okay, or more like 'very occasionally'. But still.