Admissions Interviews

[Des Grieux]

I've had a look at the results search engine and noticed that some universities organize admissions interviews, but there doesn't seem to be a single method (and even a stage of the application process) to interview candidates. I'd be curious to find out more about the interview process and to hear your stories (or expectations).

 

1. Do all universities interview candidates? I am particularly interested in the ones I've applied to but others might find it useful to find out about any other schools you might know of.

 

2. What kind of questions are asked during an interview? Which universities choose to interview candidates in person and which prefer/allow a phone/skype call? Does it make a difference?

 

3. What happens when you're an international applicant?

 

These are quite a few questions but if you can answer at least one/some of them, that would still be great! Thanks in advance.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Des Grieux

[moody]

Typically departments (rather than universities) make decisions about if, when, and how to interview candidates, and linguistics departments vary in exactly what they do.  Most American departments (but not all) have open houses (usually over some "visiting weekend") where all of the admitted candidates are invited to visit the department, meet with faculty and graduate students, etc.  This is really the department trying to convince you that you should accept their offer of admission (they're courting you).  Departments will typically pay either the full cost or the cost up to some dollar amount (maybe 400 or 500 USD), and attendance is optional.  UCSD, USC, and UCLA typically do this, along with many others.

 

Some departments have "open visiting" for admitted students.  The department will typically pay, again, but they will let you choose if/when to visit (often within some particular time period).  You would go to classes, meet with faculty and students, etc.  This is also a "courting" kind of situation.  This has traditionally been the practice at MIT and UMass, among others.

 

 

Some departments will have open houses for the "shortlisted" applicants.  The structure is similar to what I described above, but there is more pressure on the candidates because the department is also "interviewing" you.  Stanford has done this in the past, but I don't know if they have now changed to the more typical open house format (maybe someone else knows).

Various departments may contact certain students for phone interviews before making offers of admission.  This is usually to get a better sense of a candidate's areas of interest, ability to talk about linguistic topics, and /or facility with English (especially for international students).  Unless a department has a general practice of interviewing all students before admitting them (and I've never heard of any linguistics departments that do), you shouldn't read anything into not being contacted for an interview; many people are a admitted without any prior contact at all.

[fuzzylogician]

1-1.5. I got interviews from UC Santa Cruz, UPenn, Brown. The first two were phone calls, and were informal. The latter was an invitation for an on-campus interview day which I declined. I know Harvard and (I think) Stanford have interviews (phone for Harvard). I was also accepted without an interview by MIT, UMass, NYU, UCLA and Rutgers. In-person interviews can be more intimidating and you know you're a finalist if they bring you there but the general idea and questions you get asked are the same.

2. Tell us about yourself, tell us about your work, tell us what you hope to study at X, why X. Anything on your application is fair game and you might get asked to talk about some work you've done or interest that you talked about in your SOP. There are good advice threads for interviews in the interviews forum and the questions linguists get asked aren't different from other fields.

3. Several universities have open house events for admitted students and if you get 2-3 of those the total reimbursement you'll get from the universities (usually in the range of $300-500 for international students) can cover the cost of an international flight. If you can't make that, you can talk to potental advisors on the phone. Same holds for interviews, Skype/phone is always an option. I think that there is less funding for reimbursement for interviews than open house events but it depends on where you applied.

[Des Grieux]

Wow! Thank you both for your detailed replies! I've got a much clearer picture of what to expect now.

[ladyling]

UCSD's open house is for shortlisted students, not admitted students. Many departments conduct phone interviews, either in lieu of an in-person interview or as a precursor, when the department is whittling down its shortlist. I had phone interviews at UCSC and Stanford, in-person interviews at UCSC and UCSD, and was admitted without an interview to Indiana.<br /><br />In addition to the advice above, I'd suggest coming up with a list of questions for each department. Some departments use interviews as a way to gauge a candidate's interest as much as anything else. Having a set of thoughtful, tailored (i.e., not just "What's the funding situation like?" or "How much will I have to TA?") questions goes a long way to demonstrating that interest.

[languages-etc]

Fuzzylogician, regarding the interviews you had (that you mentioned in #1 above), do you remember what dates these interview requests came in? I'm specifically wondering if they'd do interviews in January/early Feb before finalizing their acceptance lists.  Or did it seems like the interviews were for their shortlist applicants only (Feb and later)? 

[fuzzylogician]

Fuzzylogician, regarding the interviews you had (that you mentioned in #1 above), do you remember what dates these interview requests came in? I'm specifically wondering if they'd do interviews in January/early Feb before finalizing their acceptance lists.  Or did it seems like the interviews were for their shortlist applicants only (Feb and later)? 

I think they were in late Jan/early Feb but the acceptances were all around the same time, too. I wrote a detailed post with dates a couple of years ago on this forum, try looking it up (sorry I'm on a phone with limited search options).

[languages-etc]

Regarding what you might be asked during an interview, this thread was started under Social Sciences: 

 

I don't want to duplicate posts, but if anyone has specific linguistics-related questions that they were asked during interviews, please post them. (Anticipating possible interviews later this month!) 

 

Thanks!