Why interview with 4 different faculty members?

[ellipsoid]

Hi all, I am selected for an interview round in one of the universities that I applied to for PhD in Biostatistics, and they wanted to schedule 4 Skype interviews! The kind of questions that one expects in these interviews can be covered by one interview only, so I am really having troubles preparing for 4 of them for the same university. I will be very grateful if someone can share their views or similar experiences, if any. What should I expect? Its somewhat difficult to brush up every relevant topic learned over the last 4 years, isnt it?

[fuzzylogician]

I'd expect to basically get the same questions from all four faculty members. Their goal will be to evaluate you and compare notes later. I assume that those applicants that were liked by most/all of the faculty members who interviewed them will be admitted. 

 

You don't need to "brush up every relevant topic learned over the last 4 years." There is not much more you need to do than if this were just one interview. You need to know the details of your SOP and any other document you submitted as part of your application, and be prepared to talk about some of the standard questions that are sure to come up, e.g. "Tell us about your work," "what do you want to study in grad school?' and "why do you want to study at X University?." You can look up some threads with great advice and common questions in this forum. If you know who you are interviewing with, it'd probably be a good idea to take a quick look at their website to know who they are, and if they are potential advisors then know something about their work. But you don't need to read all their papers to prepare too much, just know enough to demonstrate good fit. (This is no different from having one interview with several people on the other side, which happens fairly often.)

[finally]

For one interview, my POI isn't going to be present.  Because of that I asked him straight out what I should expect.  He told me that all of the division faculty (cognitive division of a psych department) interview every candidate of that division 1 on 1 for 20-30 minutes.  Besides him there 8 people in the division, so assuming they're all present, I'm to expect 8 separate interviews.  The thought is stressing me out.

[TakeruK]

If you see this as 4 interviews, it could seem super stressful. But as fuzzy said, it will probably be the same interview just with 4 different people. If you'd like, you can see this as getting 4 tries to do something, so if you are super nervous in one interview or something, it's not as big of a deal since you have 4 chances to really impress someone

[punk123]

For fidelity checking.  One professor of mine told me they pretty much want to make sure they all agree on the fact that you are not "crazy" (i.e., will not disrupt program activities).