Professors at interview are not who I applied to work with?

[quietBird]

I spent a very long time writing an SOP that was very focused on what I wanted to study and I included a few professors that I wanted to study with in my application. I got offered an interview, which I accepted, but now that I've been sent an outline of the professors I'd actually be working with, I realize that the profs for which I have interviews with are not those that I applied for! The research they do is somewhat related to what I am interested, but it's still very different. Now I'm not sure what to talk to them about and I'm worried that the other interviews I've accepted will not include professors I actually applied to work with. 

Has anyone else experienced this; is it common?

[TakeruK]

If this is an interview to determine admission to the department, then it's normal for the interviewers to not be the same people as those you applied to work with (and those you might end up working with). At the admission interview stage, it's likely that the interviewers are either 1) members of the admissions committee, which are only a subset of those in the dept and may not include people you listed and/or 2) chosen out of the pool of faculty members who happen to be available. (There is a small chance that the only people interviewing you are the only people who are interested in having you as a student.)

I think some different departmental norms may be at play here too. First, I'm in a different field so that might be a factor. In my field, grad students at US schools are usually admitted only to the department, without a direct assignment to a professor. So the interviews are generally with a wide range of profs, sometimes purposely chosen to be outside of your stated field of interest so that they can judge your breadth. But at Canadian schools, my field generally admit students to join a specific professor. Your sidebar info says you're in Canada, but it's not clear if you are applying to Canadian or US schools.

You also say that you have been "sent an outline of the professors I'd actually be working with". What do you mean by "working with"? Do you mean the ones interviewing you or are they giving you an offer to work with specific professors?

As to what to do next, I don't think you should necessarily worry about this until you have an offer from that school. Unless they have already said "if admitted, you will work with Prof X or Prof Y or Prof Z", you should not make any assumptions on that yet. You should prepare for this interview now that you know who your interviewers are. Things to talk about would be your own work, your interest in your field, your approach to solving problems, what you want to do next etc. You should also read a little bit on each of your interviewers and have good questions about their work as well as the graduate program in general.

I don't think you need to figure out if these interviewers are your only choices for supervisors at this point. Sometimes at the interview, they will explain why they are your interviewers. A very good question to ask them at the end of the interview (when they ask you if you have questions) would be something like: "If I am admitted to your program, how do students choose an advisor? Do we decide this prior to arrival, or after some time here... etc."

Then, if you do get an offer you should contact the people you wrote about in your SOP and tell them that you are accepted and that you would like to work with them. This is a good time to ask for them to confirm that they will be interested in working with you. Be sure to factor in your ability to work with the people who interest you when you make your final school choice.

[quietBird]

5 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

If this is an interview to determine admission to the department, then it's normal for the interviewers to not be the same people as those you applied to work with (and those you might end up working with). At the admission interview stage, it's likely that the interviewers are either 1) members of the admissions committee, which are only a subset of those in the dept and may not include people you listed and/or 2) chosen out of the pool of faculty members who happen to be available. (There is a small chance that the only people interviewing you are the only people who are interested in having you as a student.)

I think some different departmental norms may be at play here too. First, I'm in a different field so that might be a factor. In my field, grad students at US schools are usually admitted only to the department, without a direct assignment to a professor. So the interviews are generally with a wide range of profs, sometimes purposely chosen to be outside of your stated field of interest so that they can judge your breadth. But at Canadian schools, my field generally admit students to join a specific professor. Your sidebar info says you're in Canada, but it's not clear if you are applying to Canadian or US schools.

You also say that you have been "sent an outline of the professors I'd actually be working with". What do you mean by "working with"? Do you mean the ones interviewing you or are they giving you an offer to work with specific professors?

As to what to do next, I don't think you should necessarily worry about this until you have an offer from that school. Unless they have already said "if admitted, you will work with Prof X or Prof Y or Prof Z", you should not make any assumptions on that yet. You should prepare for this interview now that you know who your interviewers are. Things to talk about would be your own work, your interest in your field, your approach to solving problems, what you want to do next etc. You should also read a little bit on each of your interviewers and have good questions about their work as well as the graduate program in general.

I don't think you need to figure out if these interviewers are your only choices for supervisors at this point. Sometimes at the interview, they will explain why they are your interviewers. A very good question to ask them at the end of the interview (when they ask you if you have questions) would be something like: "If I am admitted to your program, how do students choose an advisor? Do we decide this prior to arrival, or after some time here... etc."

Then, if you do get an offer you should contact the people you wrote about in your SOP and tell them that you are accepted and that you would like to work with them. This is a good time to ask for them to confirm that they will be interested in working with you. Be sure to factor in your ability to work with the people who interest you when you make your final school choice.

I am in Canada, but I am applying to schools in the US and obviously I am not fully familiar with the process; how embarrassing! I assumed that the professors interviewing me would be the ones who would be accessing me for whether I would be a good candidate for their lab in particular and didn't consider that this may simply be the admissions committee. If these individuals are simply accessing me for whether I would be a good fit for their program in general, I find it a bit odd that I wouldn't have the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the professors I'm actually interested in doing rotations with. However, I suppose there will be other opportunities during lunch, poster sessions, etc. where I could speak with them.

By "professors I'd actually be working with", I meant that the individuals I'll be interviewing with aren't those I proposed to do rotations with, as their research is quite different from my previous experience and research interests. So far no one has mentioned anything about who I'd actually be doing rotations with, likely because this is a discussion to be had if they decide to give me an offer of admission, as you advised. I haven't actually contacted any professors in this program directly yet, but my SOP was very detailed and my application included a list of the professors whose research I was interested in. I think you're right in that this is likely the admissions committee interviewing me and not necessarily my prospective PIs.

Thank you so much for clarifying this process with me; you have great advice that I'll certainly be following and questions that I'll be asking!

[TakeruK]

No problem, it would be good to ask someone in your field as well. But I did find a lot of these "culture shock" moments transitioning from Canada to the US as well. 

The bio sciences program at my school has 3 rotations (a 4th is possible) and I don't think all rotations are lined up prior to the student arriving. The first one or two would be set by the time the student accepts the offer though. Asking about the rotation selection process is a great Q during your interview.