Interview questions for cognitive science

[zeph22]

What to expect in an interview for admission to a cognitive science program? Background is in engineering. I have been getting very positive sounding emails that only subtly refer to an interview...are these informal, getting-to-know-you interviews or are these technical and intensive? What should be the strategy to present your best?

[finally]

Good question...I have a couple of those next month.  Never been through this process, so...

[zeph22]

Good question...I have a couple of those next month.  Never been through this process, so...

Which ones?

[thegirldetective]

This is for Cog Neuro rather than straight Cog Sci, but you might find this helpful:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/gradappadvice/notifications-and-decisions

 

 

In general, for science programs, what I've heard is that its mostly a casual get to know you type thing, but *occasionally* faculty members will push you to the edge of your knowledge to see how you handle it when you don't know the answer to a question. This is not so much to judge you for not knowing as it is to see if you can maturely say "I don't know, but I could speculate X" or "I don't know, but maybe you could approach that question with X type of analysis" as opposed to trying to BS and hide that you don't know the answer.

[zeph22]

This is for Cog Neuro rather than straight Cog Sci, but you might find this helpful:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/gradappadvice/notifications-and-decisions

 

 

In general, for science programs, what I've heard is that its mostly a casual get to know you type thing, but *occasionally* faculty members will push you to the edge of your knowledge to see how you handle it when you don't know the answer to a question. This is not so much to judge you for not knowing as it is to see if you can maturely say "I don't know, but I could speculate X" or "I don't know, but maybe you could approach that question with X type of analysis" as opposed to trying to BS and hide that you don't know the answer.

This is great. Thanks. Would they ask technical questions? I have an engineering background, but it has been three years that I have done programming or the like...so I am worried about programming or math questions which would require some revision and I am not sure if it can be done in two weeks...just want to gain perspective. Thanks!