Is it ok to take notes while interviewing with faculty

[Raverbear]

Hi there,

 

I was wondering if it is ok (with permission of professor) to take notes during the interview. I am going to UIUC and will be having one-on-one interviews with  ~8 faculty. In order to make a perfect decision (if offered admit), I want to make sure I dont miss any information that came out during the interview. So, want to take notes. Any thoughts on this idea ? Has anyone done this before ?

[TakeruK]

I would bring in a small notebook and a pen or a small pad of paper etc. You would want to have it around in case you want to jot something down (e.g. a paper they might reference). But you shouldn't "take notes" the way a job interviewer would or as if you were in class. I wouldn't write things like "Prof X -- studies topic Y and Z. has 10 students in her lab. etc." This is important information, but do this after the interview. You would want to spend pretty much all of your interview time facing the other person and talking, not facing down and writing notes. 

Edited February 22, 2014 by TakeruK

[fuzzylogician]

I wouldn't take notes during the interview but I definitely write down everything that was said after it ends. This includes the questions asked and any information that was provided. You could also take notes about whether you got along with each person. But really, these are things you will probably remember even without taking notes. You want to spend the meeting interacting with the other people in the room, not with your face burried in your notepad.

 

The only time I've ever used notes in these one-on-one interview meetings is during job interviews when I got asked very specific questions about equipment I'd like to buy, space I'd need, etc. Then I think having pre-prepared notes that you can whip out to show that you've done your legwork and know what you're talking about will make a good impression. But aside from that I never use notes during a meeting. 

Edited February 22, 2014 by fuzzylogician

[Raverbear]

Thanks people !! Appreciate your thoughts ! I was thinking of making a matrix and just putting a tick or cross type of thing !!

[LittleDarlings]

Is it ok to come prepared with a list of questions? 

[Raverbear]

i think so..i will have set of questions for each professor written down just to make sure I dont forget.

[TakeruK]

Is it ok to come prepared with a list of questions? 

 

Yes, but I would not have a list of questions written down and then just basically read off the list. I think it would be useful to come up with a few general questions that would work for anyone ahead of time. Write them down even to help you internalize them. Then, just ask them casually during the meeting/interview and note down the answers later. But as fuzzy and I said above, a lot of the time, the questions are meant for you to get a feel of who is good/bad for you and you will probably remember that without the notes anyways. The purpose of asking questions is not just to get the literal answer so spend your time reading the person's body language. In the end, you want to have a regular conversation with the professor and when you leave the room, you should get a sense of how you felt talking to this person and that's probably the most important part. You can always get the smaller details later anyways in an email followup. If you are nervous and have a list of questions, it might be tempting to just blurt out the questions one by one (at least I would probably do this) so I would not even bring the list in with me. But it's helpful to think about questions ahead of time so that you ask everyone similar questions.