how many people have interviews before they give you the offer

[yolanda_zh]

Hello all,

 

For Ph.D. applications, will most of them have interviews before getting the offer? Or just a few will have interviews? 

[fuzzylogician]

Depends on the field, the school, how competitive you are. In my field you usually get accepted without any interview or (less frequently) after an informal phone conversation with the potential advisor. Only a handful of school have serious pre-acceptance interviews. Many schools have an Open house event for students who have already been admitted, so the meetings/interviews there are much more relaxed.

[yolanda_zh]

Depends on the field, the school, how competitive you are. In my field you usually get accepted without any interview or (less frequently) after an informal phone conversation with the potential advisor. Only a handful of school have serious pre-acceptance interviews. Many schools have an Open house event for students who have already been admitted, so the meetings/interviews there are much more relaxed.

Thanks a lot! 

[yolanda_zh]

Depends on the field, the school, how competitive you are. In my field you usually get accepted without any interview or (less frequently) after an informal phone conversation with the potential advisor. Only a handful of school have serious pre-acceptance interviews. Many schools have an Open house event for students who have already been admitted, so the meetings/interviews there are much more relaxed.

And another question is .. do I need to contact the professors? I'm applying for Ph.D. program and I have stated my research interests clearly in my application materials, without saying which professor I wanna be advised by. I really don't know whether contacting a professor now will help me get in. 

[fuzzylogician]

Well, it may be too late now. Whether or not you contact professor before applying is field-specific. In some really need to have a professor who wants to work with you lined up before you submit your app, and you do that by contacting them and verifying that you fit and they are interested in advising you before you submit the app. In other fields you're accepted to the department as a whole (as opposed to directly by an advisor or a lab) and you might not have an advisor right away. In that case, I think it's less important to contact professors ahead of time and it might not be customary. I don't know what your field is like, but either way it'd be difficult to contact professors now that the applications have been submitted - it would be very conspicuous.

[iowaguy]

And another question is .. do I need to contact the professors? I'm applying for Ph.D. program and I have stated my research interests clearly in my application materials, without saying which professor I wanna be advised by. I really don't know whether contacting a professor now will help me get in. 

 

In my field, with most programs you won't get accepted unless a professor "sponsors" your application (basically means you'll be his/her RA).  Unless you're coming with your own funding (fellowship, self-funded, etc) in which case probably not as big of a deal since you're "free"...