insaneinthemembrane Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Ahhhh I got invited to Cambridge! Holy crap! OMG congrats, that's so amazing! Best of luck there!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insaneinthemembrane Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 So I just got back from my first interview weekend (NYU) so if anyone has any general questions about interviews or NYU in particular, feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meep_Meep Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Is it normal/a good idea to send thank you emails (very brief) to the individuals who interviewed you? I just did that and now am afraid I shouldn't have done it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliaful Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Is it normal/a good idea to send thank you emails (very brief) to the individuals who interviewed you? I just did that and now am afraid I shouldn't have done it? It's a good idea but who knows if it's normal. I've always heard that it's a good thing to do, but whether most people actually do it is unknown to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meep_Meep Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 It's a good idea but who knows if it's normal. I've always heard that it's a good thing to do, but whether most people actually do it is unknown to me. Okay, I'm okay with it being abnormal so long as others think it is also a polite idea (as long as you don't sound too much like a brown noser in the email or anything) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insaneinthemembrane Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Okay, I'm okay with it being abnormal so long as others think it is also a polite idea (as long as you don't sound too much like a brown noser in the email or anything) It's pretty normal, a couple of friends of mine did this last year and they always sent out thank you letters to the interviewers and anyone that they interacted with for an extended period (ie a student host), I'll also be doing that but probably on monday since no one checks their email on saturday usually and I'm slightly recovering from all the alcohol this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profneuron Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 does anyone know what the interview dates are for Emory-Neuroscience? Do they do only one or two? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsharpe269 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 For those of you who have been to an interview already, can you give any info on the "optional" drink hours at night. I have interview next weekend and there is the option to go to a bar with current students and applicants on Friday night. I am not super antisocial but I am a bit shy so I don't have a huge desire to go out drinking after a long day of interviews. I will probably be trying to sneak in some of my own research if time allows anyway since I will be missing work all day Friday as is. Anyway, I am not opposed to grabbing a beer if others recommend it. Did you learn a lot about the program/environment that you didn't from the dinners you went to already? Any advice on this? Also, any info on whether you were able to get any of your own work done during interview weekends or if you were completely busy every minute? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amertume Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Okay, I'm okay with it being abnormal so long as others think it is also a polite idea (as long as you don't sound too much like a brown noser in the email or anything) I did it and I got a really positive response from the people who interviewed me. One even sent me a really long personal email after I was accepted to give more info on the program and specific department he's in. I think as long as it's just a thank you email and not really a email trying to subtley find out if you got accepted or something, it should be fine. For those of you who have been to an interview already, can you give any info on the "optional" drink hours at night. I have interview next weekend and there is the option to go to a bar with current students and applicants on Friday night. I am not super antisocial but I am a bit shy so I don't have a huge desire to go out drinking after a long day of interviews. I will probably be trying to sneak in some of my own research if time allows anyway since I will be missing work all day Friday as is. Anyway, I am not opposed to grabbing a beer if others recommend it. Did you learn a lot about the program/environment that you didn't from the dinners you went to already? Any advice on this? Also, any info on whether you were able to get any of your own work done during interview weekends or if you were completely busy every minute? Thanks! I opted out of the optional bar thing with current students. When they say optional, it's really optional, I think they realize not everyone likes drinking or are allergic or feel uncomfortable. You have other opportunities to get to know the current students from dinner and your escorts and lunch and whatnot, so I say don't feel pressured to go drink if you don't want to. My interview roommate did say that it was fun, though. I was busy pretty much every minute. My roommate and I did spend some time the first night to read a few papers, though, but I think it'll vary depending on the program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crucial BBQ Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Is it normal/a good idea to send thank you emails (very brief) to the individuals who interviewed you? I just did that and now am afraid I shouldn't have done it? It's normal in the real world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachypie Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Is it normal/a good idea to send thank you emails (very brief) to the individuals who interviewed you? I just did that and now am afraid I shouldn't have done it? i did that and i think its a good idea and polite. Keep it brief, as others have said. But it reaffirms your interest and shows them you are really interested in the program. i tried to reference something specific we talked about so that they would remember our positive exchange. amertume 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachypie Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 It's pretty normal, a couple of friends of mine did this last year and they always sent out thank you letters to the interviewers and anyone that they interacted with for an extended period (ie a student host), I'll also be doing that but probably on monday since no one checks their email on saturday usually and I'm slightly recovering from all the alcohol this weekend No one checks their email on the weekend? trust me, grad students and faculty are checking their emails at least once over the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachypie Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For those of you who have been to an interview already, can you give any info on the "optional" drink hours at night. I have interview next weekend and there is the option to go to a bar with current students and applicants on Friday night. I am not super antisocial but I am a bit shy so I don't have a huge desire to go out drinking after a long day of interviews. I will probably be trying to sneak in some of my own research if time allows anyway since I will be missing work all day Friday as is. Anyway, I am not opposed to grabbing a beer if others recommend it. Did you learn a lot about the program/environment that you didn't from the dinners you went to already? Any advice on this? Also, any info on whether you were able to get any of your own work done during interview weekends or if you were completely busy every minute? Thanks! totally understand being shy, there are a lot of shy applicants and students and those who are introverted. everyone undrestands that. I'd highly recommend going for a bit. usually when there are social gatherings at bars or whatnot there are groups that leave at different timepoints, so go for a bit and then the first group that wants to leave/go back to the hotel you can head back with them. I'd recommend it because it gives the grad students a chance to get to know you better and a great time to talk to people about who they researched or rotated with and you can actually learn a lot about the program. it may be also a great chance to meet and hang out more with your potential classmates! the people at this interview weekend are possibly going to be the people you take classes with in the fall. don't you think you want to get to know some of these people? I didn't have a lot of spare time while interviewing, and you get tired fast. You will get some down time of course, but usually they kept the recruits pretty busy with dinners and they'd start in the morning. You won't have extensive time outside of activities and again, when you are there you should be wanting to learn/explore the campus and the city you may be calling home. Please have fun, interview weekends were some of the more fun parts of the process and you only get to go through it once, so don't waste the opportunity to get food, drinks and taxis taking you around. As a grad student i wish i could get wined and dined again like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notsaxophones Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For those of you who have been to an interview already, can you give any info on the "optional" drink hours at night. I have interview next weekend and there is the option to go to a bar with current students and applicants on Friday night. I am not super antisocial but I am a bit shy so I don't have a huge desire to go out drinking after a long day of interviews. I will probably be trying to sneak in some of my own research if time allows anyway since I will be missing work all day Friday as is. Anyway, I am not opposed to grabbing a beer if others recommend it. Did you learn a lot about the program/environment that you didn't from the dinners you went to already? Any advice on this? Also, any info on whether you were able to get any of your own work done during interview weekends or if you were completely busy every minute? Thanks! So at the interview I went to, we had a dinner with the students and they told us they were going out afterwards and invited us. And they made sure to say "your interviews are officially over, you're not obligated to come and choosing to go back to the hotel won't impact your acceptance at all". About half of us crashed, the other half went out. Unless it was a dance bar (salsa or swing), I would have been just as dead at the bar as I was at dinner (about half of us were nearly asleep and struggling with small talk, and the other half were chatting quite rapidly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliaful Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For you people who just had your first interview, did you take copies of your CV/pubs/transcripts? If so, did you find these necessary? My printer is broken and I can't print from the school anymore since I've graduated. I'm sure I could find a way to print off this stuff but I'd like to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewz Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For you people who just had your first interview, did you take copies of your CV/pubs/transcripts? If so, did you find these necessary? My printer is broken and I can't print from the school anymore since I've graduated. I'm sure I could find a way to print off this stuff but I'd like to know. I took an updated transcript with Fall grades with me and four copies of my CV (one for each interviewer). After reaching the hotel I realized there were some blatant typos in my CV (submitted like that to all the schools :/) and reprinted all of them at the hotel. In the end I never got to use any of them. But it never harms to be overprepared! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velli Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For you people who just had your first interview, did you take copies of your CV/pubs/transcripts? If so, did you find these necessary? My printer is broken and I can't print from the school anymore since I've graduated. I'm sure I could find a way to print off this stuff but I'd like to know. Some schools will ask you to bring your official transcripts. You can check with each program about that. If someone is interested in your CV and publications, you can always offer them via email. I don't believe anyone will want them in paper form during your interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliaful Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I took an updated transcript with Fall grades with me and four copies of my CV (one for each interviewer). After reaching the hotel I realized there were some blatant typos in my CV (submitted like that to all the schools :/) and reprinted all of them at the hotel. In the end I never got to use any of them. But it never harms to be overprepared! Some schools will ask you to bring your official transcripts. You can check with each program about that. If someone is interested in your CV and publications, you can always offer them via email. I don't believe anyone will want them in paper form during your interview. How soon before the interview weekend did you two hear from your programs about specific details (like whether to bring transcripts and who you'll be interviewing with)? I'm flying out for my first interview in 12 days (1/29) and I feel like I should be preparing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewz Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 How soon before the interview weekend did you two hear from your programs about specific details (like whether to bring transcripts and who you'll be interviewing with)? I'm flying out for my first interview in 12 days (1/29) and I feel like I should be preparing. WashU and Penn told me 4 days and a week in advance respectively. Yale told me that I would only get to know whom I'll be interviewing with the night before. Feel free to ask the graduate coordinator about when you get to know that information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notsaxophones Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I brought copies of everything but didn't need anything. I also only talked to two out of six professors about their research - we only had a half an hour per professor and the two who did talk about their research had either heard me give a talk before or were a collaborator of my lab. This was however likely the most casual interview I will have - it was ohio. Also they sent me my schedule on monday, I met with everyone on friday. One thing I noticed was that every 15 minutes I was asked if I had any questions about the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insaneinthemembrane Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 For those of you who have been to an interview already, can you give any info on the "optional" drink hours at night. I have interview next weekend and there is the option to go to a bar with current students and applicants on Friday night. I am not super antisocial but I am a bit shy so I don't have a huge desire to go out drinking after a long day of interviews. I will probably be trying to sneak in some of my own research if time allows anyway since I will be missing work all day Friday as is. Anyway, I am not opposed to grabbing a beer if others recommend it. Did you learn a lot about the program/environment that you didn't from the dinners you went to already? Any advice on this? Also, any info on whether you were able to get any of your own work done during interview weekends or if you were completely busy every minute? Thanks! Totally not necessary to go if it says optional but I definitely learned alot more about the program environment and it's a great chance to see how you interact and fit with all of the graduate students there and even your interview cohort since they might be part of the new year of students. That being said, you don't have to stay all night if you don't want to, a couple of the recruits went to dinner, stopped by the optional bar activity for a beer and then headed out since they had to catch early flights so no one will force you to stay there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascinflamm Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Yeah, I really don't think it's that bad of an idea. It may actually be a bonus if you include in your thank-you email a scientific point that you discussed with the professor ("It was awesome to hear about your findings/opinions/take on X") so they know you actually paid attention and aren't just writing a generic note. I emailed my first faculty interviewer and he responded within 15 minutes with a 2-paragraph email. I wrote emails to thank a current student and the program coordinator as well. I really had the best time at that program, and of course they spent probably > $1000 on me -- to thank them briefly is the least I can do. Is it normal/a good idea to send thank you emails (very brief) to the individuals who interviewed you? I just did that and now am afraid I shouldn't have done it? It's pretty normal, a couple of friends of mine did this last year and they always sent out thank you letters to the interviewers and anyone that they interacted with for an extended period (ie a student host), I'll also be doing that but probably on monday since no one checks their email on saturday usually and I'm slightly recovering from all the alcohol this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crucial BBQ Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Yeah, I really don't think it's that bad of an idea. It may actually be a bonus if you include in your thank-you email a scientific point that you discussed with the professor ("It was awesome to hear about your findings/opinions/take on X") so they know you actually paid attention and aren't just writing a generic note. I would be careful with this. The reason of a thank-you note is to show sincerity, with the main point being to say thank you. It is okay to reiterate your interests in the program. It is also okay to thank the prof/PI for their insights into the program. However, a thank-you note is not the place to remind the prof/PI about how cool their own research is. Any hint of brown-nosing could become your kiss of death. You want to sound sincere, not desperate. *edit The word awesome should not appear anywhere in the note. Edited January 18, 2015 by Crucial BBQ threading_the_neidl, Biohacker and gliaful 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbear91 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) However, a thank-you note is not the place to remind the prof/PI about how cool their own research is. Any hint of brown-nosing could become your kiss of death. You want to sound sincere, not desperate. *edit The word awesome should not appear anywhere in the note. Could a thank-you email, if not written absolutely perfectly, really be a "kiss of death" at this point though? Surely the actual interview(s) itself is the main deciding factor as to whether an applicant will or will not be accepted, and not some courteous gesture that he/she may opt for afterwards. While I think a thank-you email is a nice thing to do, I don't think it's that necessary. If you bombed the interview, nothing you do after the fact will change that. Conversely, if you did well, not writing a thank-you email isn't going to make a school reject you. After all, I'm sure everyone thanked their interviewer in person right after the interview. I know I thanked mine a few times. There's no real need to overthink a simple thank-you email. If you really enjoyed chatting to a PI and genuinely thought their research was cool (and conveyed as much during the interview itself) then why shouldn't you come across equally as enthusiastic in your email? Just don't harp on and on about it, or write something egregiously bad, like angling for a response as to how well they thought you did. I wrote short thank-yous to my interviewers even though I was satisfied that at the end of my interviews, I came across as appropriately appreciative of the time they took to chat with me. I literally just repeated that I was grateful for their time, that I enjoyed talking to them, and if they gave me any advice, I mentioned this too. I also wrote that my interactions with them contributed to the fantastic impression I had of the school. The only deviation was that in one of them, I put in an extra thanks because my interview ran 15 minutes over-time and she was nice enough to keep on talking to me instead of cutting our discussion short. Someone else mentioned that they wrote an email to the program coordinator. Now that's a good idea and something that I think should really be done. Not only did they likely have a say in whether you got your interview, but they also organised everything and were willing to spend a significant amount of money on you. Edited January 18, 2015 by rbear91 NSG-mdx, AtomDance and Biohacker 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expandyourmind Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 How long after we interview will we hear back for the results? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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