PoI Skype Interview Request

[Calorific]

So I've had it roller-coaster style since Friday night when I got admitted to a rolling-admission based school in the South. I am for a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Robotics Track).

I immediately contacted my PoI expressing interest in funding offers and he recommended I apply to the department's TA and graduate scholarship immediately as consideration for these were currently going on.

He did mention that if I applied weekend, my application would be looked at on Monday. So I applied Sunday morning and he replied Sunday evening that he would like to have a skype interview sometime early in the week to guage my research and academic background (I thought by now anyone looking at my application should already know my research and academic background).

I am just scared to my pants cause I don't know what sort of question he might ask and in what direction he might take me during the interview. This is my first shot at a fully-funded PhD so I don't want to blow my fledgling chances.

Any advice anyone?

[spec789]

The best I can give is my own interviewing experience, of which I have only one, but it did result in a fully funded PhD offer (though I chose to go elsewhere)

 

Questions the POI may ask, of which you should have definitely thought about and have the main points written down somewhere in case you forget mid interview, are the following:

 

-Why are you pursuing the PhD?

-Why Robotics?

-What, if any, specific topics/problems in Robotics are you hoping to solve/investigate?

-Why that specific university?

-Why do you want to work with that specific POI (having a specific list of points about the POI's background is especially useful here)?

 

The POI would have definitely already read your SOP, so he will be familiar with your background and academic interests, as well as your answers to the above questions, but it is hard to gauge personality, passion, mental toughness etc., from an essay, or at least not as easily as one can do from a face to face interaction.

 

Basically, the POI wants to make sure you are serious about the PhD, especially in his/her area of interest, that your working personalities, at least at first glance, are compatible, and that you won't bail out when the going gets tough a year or two into the program. You should definitely also reread the SOP just before the interview to refresh your memory.

 

Hope this helps.

[Calorific]

Thank you very much. 

This is really helpful!

[Ishaan Gupta]

Hey. Could you tell me which university is this? Actually, I am waiting for a decision from USC too, and had given up hope. But then I saw your post

[Calorific]

Hey Ishan, I mailed a POI at USC on April 17 and he said: "If you have not heard positively by now, it means that we could not find a slot for you.

I have not been able to take on any new students this year at all.

Hope you have been able to find other opportunities.". Interesting thing is the principal POI that I showed interest in also replied to my enquiry saying: "I have not been informed of the department decision" . I tried contacting grad admissions via skype and they told me my application was awaiting a decision at the department. I will go with, "and all options are on the table" at this point. I advise you keep your hopes alive too.

[VioletAyame]

So I've had it roller-coaster style since Friday night when I got admitted to a rolling-admission based school in the South. I am for a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Robotics Track).

I immediately contacted my PoI expressing interest in funding offers and he recommended I apply to the department's TA and graduate scholarship immediately as consideration for these were currently going on.

He did mention that if I applied weekend, my application would be looked at on Monday. So I applied Sunday morning and he replied Sunday evening that he would like to have a skype interview sometime early in the week to guage my research and academic background (I thought by now anyone looking at my application should already know my research and academic background).

I am just scared to my pants cause I don't know what sort of question he might ask and in what direction he might take me during the interview. This is my first shot at a fully-funded PhD so I don't want to blow my fledgling chances.

Any advice anyone?

If you check the Interviews/Visits subforum, going back about 2-3 months or so (around late January to early March), you can find a lot of threads with tons of questions and advice about Skype interviews. That's usually the time of year when interviews happen

[Calorific]

Thank you, VioletAyame. I've been interviewed already. It went well, thanks!

[Calorific]

Thank you, VioletAyame. I've been interviewed already. It went well, thanks!