POI won't be there

[finally]

So what should I expect from an interview when the POI has written to remind me (10 days after the invitation was first made) that he's on sabbatical and he won't be there "but my grad students will be so you can get the inside scoop on the lab and me as an advisor from them, and you'll meet my colleagues and the other grad students as well"...

 

Until today I was under the impression the invite had come from someone who wasn't my POI...it had come via a specific but nonspecific (if that makes sense: it was directed at me and clearly involved some knowledge of me, but made no mention of my research interests) email from another prof whose work is tangentially related to my interests....  Turns out now it looks like he was just handling the heavy lifting for my POI (who I had forgotten had told me a couple of months ago that he would be on sabbatical this sem)

 

I'm wondering what I should expect from an interview when the POI won't be present.  Is he going to just take the word of his grad students on me?  Should I assume the interview is more of a formality than at other places, and the decision is essentially made?  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

In case it affects your thinking, it's Cornell, cognitive psychology PhD.

[thegirldetective]

I wouldn't make any assumptions about whether or not the interview is a "formality." Assume that whatever is true for the program as a whole is true for your specific situation.

 

But yes, he is probably going to ask what his grad students/whoever else you interview what they think of you. And he probably trusts those people to make a sound judgement about whether or not you'll fit in with their research group.