What it is like the PhD interview

[Epidoc13]

Hello guys,

 

I have an invitation for interview and kind of nervous what are the questions they might ask me. I hope to be prepared for this. Is there something you would advice me?

 

Sharing you experience in interviews will be much appreciated!

[Biostat_Assistant_Prof]

I just had my first interview experience a couple weeks ago in a closely related field to yours (Biostats)... My interview day consisted of 6, 30 minute interviews with 6 different faculty members... I was really nervous, but here's what I learned from my experience at least.

They all started the same way, with the question, "tell me about your background"... This was followed with the standard, "why do you want to study [biostatistics] in grad school?".... Then not all intviewers asked me the following, but I was definitely asked these next questions by multiple people: "how did you hear of our program?", "why do you think our department/our school is right for you as opposed to other schools?", "how do you think your background in X will help you succeed as a [biostatistician]?", and "tell me about your relevant research experience and/or future research interests?" ..... All pretty standard and predictable stuff.

To be honest, I think I did just as much talking in my interviews as did the itterviewers, because at the same time they're trying to sell you the school. All of them explained their research interests, current projects, talked about how great the city was, and actually tried to explain to me why their program was right for me personally.... In 3 of the 6 interviews, I actually spent quite a bit of time talking about my interests outside of my field. I'm a marathon runner, so I spent a good bit of time talking about that... All in all, my experience was a lot more laid back than I expected. They want to get to know you as a person, because they can already look at your CV, transcripts, and research history to learn of your academic excellence... Be yourself and relax... It seemed to work for me, as I was given a funded PhD offer with an additional scholarship my first year about 4 days after my interviews.