How common are phone interviews for Comm?

[DBear]

Hi all,

I thought I'd ask this outside the application thread hoping people who were already admitted may reply.

I've been looking through the forum and saw several people talk about interviews. I'm more familiar with admissions processes in English Literature and I've never heard of anyone going through an interview (at least not that I have heard of). Are phone interviews a common practice in Communication studies? One school I'm applying to specifically said they don't do phone interviews, so I'm curious if they said this because interviews are the norm. 

Wondering if I need to prepare for this and keep it in mind as I plan my winter..

Thanks!

[av2010]

@DBear I've never heard of a phone interview for comm, I had also asked a professor who recently finished her phd and she said she had never heard of one either. So, hopefully not. I had phone Or in person conversations with the graduate directors at each school when I was picking programs to apply so hoping that was sufficient!

[DBear]

Thanks @av2010, you're a life saver!

After posting this, I asked the one person I know getting a phd in Communication and he said interviews aren't a thing. But still, he's almost done with his dissertation and has forgotten a lot about the application process/ things may have changed.... It's only one person's experience.. Basically I'm anxious lol. So many posts on this forum about interviews, it made me nervous. 

[The Shade King]

On 11/25/2016 at 3:21 PM, DBear said:

Hi all,

I thought I'd ask this outside the application thread hoping people who were already admitted may reply.

I've been looking through the forum and saw several people talk about interviews. I'm more familiar with admissions processes in English Literature and I've never heard of anyone going through an interview (at least not that I have heard of). Are phone interviews a common practice in Communication studies? One school I'm applying to specifically said they don't do phone interviews, so I'm curious if they said this because interviews are the norm. 

Wondering if I need to prepare for this and keep it in mind as I plan my winter..

Thanks!

Yes, interviews are a real thing. They were not before but I assume with changing technology skype and phone interviews are part of the package for some programs. I know I read this thread last year to give myself a head up for this year and many people in the humanities and social sciences mentioned skype and/or phone interviews. 

[DBear]

22 hours ago, The Shade King said:

Yes, interviews are a real thing. They were not before but I assume with changing technology skype and phone interviews are part of the package for some programs. I know I read this thread last year to give myself a head up for this year and many people in the humanities and social sciences mentioned skype and/or phone interviews. 

From what I've gathered so far, Communication depts seem to not have a set practice with regards to interviews. I've seen some departments offer admissions to people after an interview while other people get in to the same department without an interview. So unlike some disciplines where interviews are a standard component, or others where their unheard of, seems like Comm can go either way. That being said, seems they're not all that common. Though I did see that someone already posted an interview request for Wisconsin-Madison which is completely freaking me out....

[av2010]

@DBear since I posted my reply to this thread I did receive an email from West Virginia about a phone interview to be set up after their deadline has passed (Jan 15th).  I was so thorough in my SOP and in conversation with him about my background, research interests, faculty I'm interested in working with, etc. that I can't imagine what they would ask that I should prepare for!

If anyone in COMM has had an interview, HELP!!!!

[DBear]

On 2017. 1. 5. at 10:13 PM, av2010 said:

@DBear since I posted my reply to this thread I did receive an email from West Virginia about a phone interview to be set up after their deadline has passed (Jan 15th).  I was so thorough in my SOP and in conversation with him about my background, research interests, faculty I'm interested in working with, etc. that I can't imagine what they would ask that I should prepare for!

If anyone in COMM has had an interview, HELP!!!!

Oh dear!!!! Perhaps you're the first one here to be interviewed, good luck! Do you know who you'll be interviewed by?

[av2010]

30 minutes ago, DBear said:

Oh dear!!!! Perhaps you're the first one here to be interviewed, good luck! Do you know who you'll be interviewed by?

It hasn't been scheduled yet, but the graduate director is Alan Goodboy.

[DBear]

@av2010 if that's not the person you've been in touch with in the past, then another rendition of your research interests and why, of all programs, you really want to go to that one would probably be the first questions. They just might want to actually hear you state what you already have coherently and succinctly. I've heard some programs have interviews with their final batch of applicants as more of a formality

[av2010]

1 minute ago, DBear said:

@av2010 if that's not the person you've been in touch with in the past, then another rendition of your research interests and why, of all programs, you really want to go to that one would probably be the first questions. They just might want to actually hear you state what you already have coherently and succinctly. I've heard some programs have interviews with their final batch of applicants as more of a formality

I'm not sure that I'll have a choice.  I've spoken with him both in person at a conference and on the phone during the application process.  He just said he will be reaching out after their Jan 15th deadline for an interview.  I'll know more details when he does I suppose about who it will be with.  He wasn't my POIs that I listed in the personal statements so it might be with one of them, I'm not sure.  I really wasn't prepared for interviews. 

[DBear]

@av2010 I'm nervous on your behalf gah!! 

[av2010]

2 minutes ago, DBear said:

@av2010 I'm nervous on your behalf gah!! 

But I suppose it's a good sign, they wouldn't interview someone who is an auto rejection!

[DBear]

@av2010 Exactly!!!! I'm sure it's just a formality! And also looks like a good sign they gave you such advance warning 

[av2010]

2 minutes ago, DBear said:

@av2010 Exactly!!!! I'm sure it's just a formality! And also looks like a good sign they gave you such advance warning 

Have you received anything from any of yours yet?

[DBear]

2 minutes ago, av2010 said:

Have you received anything from any of yours yet?

Not one word.... Only 3 out of 7 schools I applied to had Dec deadlines and one of those explicitly said no interviews. From what I can tell, seems like several of the schools I applied to sometimes conduct interviews. I hate this not knowing! I did see 1 post about someone getting an interview request for Wisconsin-Madison Comm Arts (which I also applied to) but one of my LORs was super late and only one person posted this so still hoping no news is good news

[av2010]

2 minutes ago, DBear said:

Not one word.... Only 3 out of 7 schools I applied to had Dec deadlines and one of those explicitly said no interviews. From what I can tell, seems like several of the schools I applied to sometimes conduct interviews. I hate this not knowing! I did see 1 post about someone getting an interview request for Wisconsin-Madison Comm Arts (which I also applied to) but one of my LORs was super late and only one person posted this so still hoping no news is good news

Yeah, I think it definitely is still really early.  Some of my other schools said they would be having their first meeting mid-January so it's possible that it hasn't even started yet.  I've been taking it to an obsession and actually went through the archives on this site and tried to find dates of when people received acceptance or rejection from each program in previous years!!  

[DBear]

3 minutes ago, av2010 said:

Yeah, I think it definitely is still really early.  Some of my other schools said they would be having their first meeting mid-January so it's possible that it hasn't even started yet.  I've been taking it to an obsession and actually went through the archives on this site and tried to find dates of when people received acceptance or rejection from each program in previous years!!  

I did the same... Scoured this forum and the results database and updated my excel spreadsheet with expected notification dates hahaha.... This process really has a way of bringing out the OCD in everyone!

[av2010]

1 minute ago, DBear said:

I did the same... Scoured this forum and the results database and updated my excel spreadsheet with expected notification dates hahaha.... This process really has a way of bringing out the OCD in everyone!

I wasn't able to find anything on Wisconsin-Milwaukee..but Uconn I found someone was accepted as early as January 29th..West Virginia I was able to find February 13th.

[DBear]

I emailed 2 schools that had Dec deadlines and asked if interviews are part of the process. One said yes and the other said "in some cases". Now I'm freaking out because I haven't been asked to interview. Both schools seem to notify results by early to mid Feb according to the results database which makes me think interviews should be happening nowish..... Argh... There are 3 schools I am still uncertain about regarding whether they conduct interviews so I'm going to try and email them as well. I didn't think my anxiety level could get any higher. Never say never.

[millencolin]

I got a phone interview for UIC's program asking me to "get more information about my application". On the plus side it's six days after their (revised) deadline but on the other hand, terrifying phone interview. 

[DBear]

@smqn Eee, good luck!!! and a quick turnaround. UIC - University Illinois Chicago? 

So I had a skype interview with my POI at Temple University last week - I think I would say it was really casual and since she and I had some good back and forth via email, I wasn't too worried. However, I choked on the first question - which was "What are you working on now, tell me more about how you came about your research interests and why you want to go to Temple" In other words, it was a pretty basic question "Tell me more about yourself and why you want to go to this school." I, for some reason, really didn't think about this before hand, even though this is the most basic question in any interview. I think that because we had communicated earlier and she most likely has read my application materials, I thought she would skip this. Anyhow, I thought for a split second and just said whatever happened to come out of my mouth

Immediately following this, she asked the second interview staple question: Do you  have any questions? I had thought of a question or two so this was fine. 

I'm a bit older than the typical grad student and been interviewed and interviewed others more times than I can count. So I've been giving a friend tips on his interviews for this application cycle (though he's in a different discipline) which he says helped a lot - too bad I didn't take my own advice.

 

So while I'm here - some staple questions that are good to prepare in advance for:

1) Tell me more about yourself - this is actually trickier than you may think as you need to decide where to start (I was born in Illinois on a snowy winter's day 28 years ago - that would not be a great start) and what to include and exclude while maybe touching on stuff in your resume/ SOP/ transcripts without simply regurgitating things the interviewer already has in front of them. So yeah, a quick few lines about you would be good.

2) Tell me more about your research interests - this may be asked in conjunction with 1) or in lieu of.  Only thing tricky about this is how to keep this concise and not sound like you're just reading from your SOP. I think most of us will have more difficulty not going on and on about the stuff that we are passionate about

3) Why do you want to pursue your PhD - they may or may not ask this, but this would be a specific request to talk about what your goals for the future are (tenure track professor?) this may also be phrased as what are your plans for the future? or what do you want to do after you graduate.. 

4) Why do you want to pursue your PhD here? - this is obviously different from 3). There are some of us who had a paragraph or more tailored to each specific school we applied to. Some of us may not have this. Regardless, if someone asks you this, they want to hear about specifics of the school. You don't need to go into too minute details, but still need to convey that you are talking specifically about them, and not some other school. You may choose to talk about the professors at this point

5) Do you have any questions?  - Great opportunity to get info while also showing you did your homework

 

Obviously, there may be questions very specific to Communication or your sub-field/ research interests but hopefully the above will be helpful in getting the basics out of the way. For most people, interviews are nerve-wracking but if you can answer the first couple of easy questions to your own satisfaction, that's the easiest way to calm your nerves for the rest of the interview. Also, for international students,the likelihood that we'll be interviewed is higher since many schools (especially those that require phd students to teach) want to make sure that we can actually speak English. TOEFL and eloquently written SOPs aren't guarantees of this. Students from countries like Singapore or India or Hong Kong where English is common (or even the national language) and most undergrad schools will be in English are not exempt from this prejudice, unfortunately. A good way to see if your English will be scrutinized is to check of the school you applied to offers TOEFL waivers to people from your country.

Best of luck everyone - and if there are other tips or interview stories you have, please do share with us! 

[DBear]

Recap of programs that I know had interviews:

U Wisconsin-Madison

Temple

U Iowa

West Virginia

UIC

All of these were Skype or phone interviews.

UC Santa Barbara invited people on their short list for an open house, which I guess could count as an interview since it was held before admission decisions were sent out.

If I'm missing any, please chime in!

(Schools with no interviews: U Penn, Ohio U, Bowling Green State U, U Mass Amherst, Purdue, UC Davis)