Grad School Interviews

[pea-jay]

I have a question. Some people on here and offline have mentioned having an interview being required to get into grad school, something additional beyond the app, CV, SOP and so on to winnow down the pool of applicants to those "best fitting" the program? Do only certain programs do this or is it an elite college thing? Or is it only for those seeking funding? If your school does NOT specify interviews anywhere in the application packet and process, is it safe to assume they wont be required?

[coyabean]

I have a question. Some people on here and offline have mentioned having an interview being required to get into grad school, something additional beyond the app, CV, SOP and so on to winnow down the pool of applicants to those "best fitting" the program? Do only certain programs do this or is it an elite college thing? Or is it only for those seeking funding? If your school does NOT specify interviews anywhere in the application packet and process, is it safe to assume they wont be required?

For my process Duke requires one for the finalists. I have heard some other schools do them optionally, at the applicant's request. If there is no mention of it and you don't ask for one then I think it safe to assume you don't have to worry about it.

[zilch]

I think whether the application requires and interview is highly field dependent. Most music programs will probably require an audition of some sort, some liberal arts fields require an interview. If they don't say anything about an interview, it's most likely not part of their process. If you really want be sure, you can just give the admissions office a call.

[LateAntique]

Interviews are also going to be contingent upon the department's ability to fund travel expenses and such. My girlfriend is at Duke doing her Ph.D in the sciences and they rolled out the red carpet for her, but I have friends in the religion program who crashed on current students' couches.

[fuzzylogician]

I had two phone interviews and one school invited me to an open house/interview weekend*. None had mentioned anything about this on their website, they just contacted me via email some time in January. I ended up declining all three of these offers,which were all from weaker schools. The stronger schools just accepted me without ever talking to me, but did invite me to visit after I had been accepted and before it was time to choose schools - two had open house days, three just let me come whenever. No one mentioned funding for a visit from overseas beforehand. All in all the information about the process after submitting the apps was not particularly clear on any of the schools' sites that I applied to.

*That has to be the scariest. Think about being rejected after an interview weekend - "we thought you were interesting, enough so that we flew you over from across the Atlantic, but now that we've had a chance to see you and talk to you - uh, no. Thanks."

[cogneuroforfun]

Highly field specific, I guess. For psychology/neuroscience PhD programs, all of them had interviews before you were accepted. Only one officially accepted pre-visit, but still arranged and paid for the "admitted students weekend."

[acup313]

Every school that I have looked at in my field requires some sort of interviw, most of which prefer you to visit for the interview over a phone interview. This is for PhD programs, very rarely is an interview required in my field for Masters programs.