Scripps Ocean Interview

[kseeful]

Hey, I'm a first-year grad student and felt totally lost when I did my interviews last year. I also did an interview at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, but that one was way more laid back than Scripps'.
By some fluke, I made it in. So if anyone is in the same situation for the open house this month, I'm here to answer any questions (:

[shikkui]

Hey, I'm applying for the program that you are a part of.  Actually, I applied for Scripps and a bunch of other schools.  1. Do you know if Scripps has made its decisions yet?  2. I got invited to interview at another institute; any tips?

[kseeful]

1. No, they haven't made their decisions. They've already invited people to the open house, so you probably didn't get an invite to that. That doesn't mean you didn't get in though, it just means you're not on the top of someone's list. It looks like the profs go through and pick one or two students to host at most. If those students aren't a good fit/decide not to come, it's still possible that they may reach out to more after the open house (but honestly, not likely).

2. Yes, pick a very specific question! Whoever invited you to come visit - look at their research, identify an ongoing area of research and COME UP WITH A QUESTION. They really, really want to see that you're able to identify something specific you'd like to study. Yes, this is HARD. Yes, it'll help enormously. I didn't do this but I would have been way better off if I'd tried. "I want to study ocean acidification and how it affects coral reefs" is not nearly specific enough.

Also - if they throw you around to a million different professors, don't worry about knowing their research. Ask lots of questions about their research, about the area, about the program... they literally just want to chat and see that you're going to be a tolerable person to be around. If a professor starts grilling you, s/he's in the minority and being kind of a dick (UNLESS it's the prof you're actually trying to work with).

Good luck!!

[shikkui]

Ah, that's unfortunate.  It would have been awesome to have been a top prospective for Scripps.  The prof who got me the visit has been sending me a lot of reading material regarding his current work, so I'm optimistic with my chances (will read up more in depth though).  Did all of the schools you got accepted to give you offers to visit?  Or was it a some schools do and others no?

[kseeful]

Only two of the schools that accepted me invited me to visit. The others accepted me only after (I assume) their top students had turned them down after visiting.