An interview weekend experience

[eucalyptus]

I was quite anxious before my first interview, so I scoured this site for detailed descriptions of what interview weekends are like. I found a lot of information about the interviews themselves, but I wanted all the nitty-gritty details: what do people wear, what events are there, etc. I only found a couple, so I thought I'd write my own account for people who have interviews in the future and are as neurotic as I am!

I had an interview for Developmental Psych last weekend, from Thursday to Saturday. Since I bought my flight last-minute, I arrived quite early during the day (1pm versus everyone else's mid-late afternoon arrival), but my POI knew I was getting in early and had planned my afternoon for me! I was picked up at the airport by a current grad student who drove me to campus and dropped me off at my POI's lab meeting, which was almost over. Then my POI bought me some lunch since I hadn't eaten all day and we went to her office to chat for about 45 minutes. It was a bit strange because she didn't want to talk science: she said we'd save that for our official interview the next day. So instead, she told me about her students, how the lab works, and answered some of my questions about her advising style and whatnot. For the rest of the afternoon, she'd set up individual meetings for me with everyone in her lab (grad students and post-docs), each of which lasted 30-60 minutes. Everyone was super nice and told me about their work, showed me videos, walked me around the lab facilities, and asked me questions. They were all very willing to answer questions about the department, city, lab, and POI; I think they were answering them candidly! I did kind of run out of stuff to talk about with the last guy, with whom I had an hour-long meeting and not very much in common. However, we just started talking about music and traveling and stuff and it was cool.

After my last meeting, one of them drove me to another grad student's house where there was a dinner for all the applicants and the grad students who would be hosting us, so I finally got to meet them. There were 13 of us in total, and nobody knew anyone else coming into it. We started with somewhat awkward introductions but it soon became pretty relaxed and fun. We were all in normal casual wear and were eating take-out pizza, and everyone was equally nervous and excited and nice, so it was very chill. My host (a student in the lab I was applying to, although many applicants were matched with different-lab hosts) then took me back to her place where I chatted with her a little, met her cats, and then fell asleep on her couch extremely early (I'd been up since 4am to catch my flight!).

Friday was interview day. We'd been told to dress "business", but I don't own a suit so I went with a black "proper" skirt, grey striped collared shirt, and black V-neck sweater. I'd say about 2/3 of the applicants were in suits (I was quite surprised at this, actually!) and the rest were wearing things similar to me (or sweater vests, business-y pants, etc). We all had breakfast together in the Psych building and had a talk from the program head. Then from about 10-12 and 1-3, we had interviews. Everyone had 4 or 5 interviews, including an hour with their POI. The other interviews with 30 minutes with the program head, 1-2 research-related profs, and 1-2 random profs. The interviews actually ended up being a lot less scary and a lot more fun than I was anticipating. In almost every case, you introduced yourself and your research, they introduced themselves and their research (particularly aspects of it that you might find interesting), and then there was some talk about overlapping stuff or questions about the research or whatnot. Then there was a fairly long time to ask general questions. In most cases, the 30 minutes sped by! Some of the interviews were in different buildings, and in all cases there was someone to walk you to your next meeting: either the prof you'd just spoken to or a grad student (I thought it was quite sweet that some grads were really just ferrying people around all day!).

After the interviews, me and the 2 other girls applying to the same lab as me were given a tour of the lab facilities by a grad student and the lab manager. Following this, we had a couple of free hours on the schedule... however, our POI wanted us to feel "welcome" and so she made sure we had stuff to do! We went to a random social that was happening in the building, then my host took the three of us on a driving tour of the city. We stopped back home to change clothes (switched to dark jeans and a funner collared shirt, kept the V-neck and nice shoes) and then went to a dinner at the head of the department's house. All the faculty, applicants, and grad students were there, so we had a chance to meet literally everyone. My POI made a point of having some 1-on-1 conversation with the 3 of us applying to her lab, which was nice. She was really trying to get to know us. My host and I left around 10, when the party was breaking up. I'd gotten to know her by then so when we got back to her place, I had a chance to get some inside information on the lab, the POI, and the admission process; a benefit to staying with someone in the lab you want, I guess!

Finally, on Saturday we were all back in casual clothes for breakfast and campus tours. The grad students walked us around campus, and some of us were driven out to another research facility we might be using as well, before they started shuttling people out to the airport.

All-in-all it was a really great time! I feel like I learned a lot about the department, city, and lab. It was great to meet everyone in person and get an idea of the atmosphere of the department, which is really difficult to judge from afar. I don't usually love hanging out with tons of people I don't know for long periods of time, but the grad students I met were super cool and all the applicants were in the same boat, which makes it really easy to get along!

Wow, that ended up longer than I expected! I hope this helps future interviewees who are looking for ridiculously detailed descriptions of interview weekend!

[peppermint.beatnik]

I'm exhausted reading this!

[Catch22alex]

thanks for the post, I have an interview this weekend and am a little freaked about it myself so reading this helped me a bit!

[LaurenA]

This was really nice of you eucalyptus--I'm sure people who for years to come will reference it and get a lot out of it!

I def. could have used info like this for my first interview a few years ago--the structure and planned-out-ness of it all is great once you relax, but if you have no clue what's going on, it can be exhausting!

[coyabean]

I have an interview next week and this was very helpful, especially the details that some eschew as "minor", i.e. clothes, social aspects.

[hamster]

Thanks for this. I have my first interview this weekend and I hope it goes as well. (and is as fun as this sounded)

I am curious about what school this was. It sounds like they have a good interview set-up.

[greenpointgrad]

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I am attending an interview weekend for a humanities program and have been wondering how these things work. Were you given any indication how many students would be offered admission, or the number of students the department would enroll?

[jordy]

Thank you for sharing your experience! When imaginations run wild with worry, it's definitely reassuring to hear an accurate account of how these things more typically go.

[eucalyptus]

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I am attending an interview weekend for a humanities program and have been wondering how these things work. Were you given any indication how many students would be offered admission, or the number of students the department would enroll?

Actually, there really wasn't any indication of any of those things! I did find out from the grad student that I was staying with that the lab really only had space for 1-2 more grad students, when 3 of us were interviewing for it, but they could still accept the 3rd person off the waiting list if someone decided to go elsewhere. In general, I've heard that at non-clinical psych interviews, almost everyone (80-100%) interviewed will be getting an offer. I really have no idea, though!

At another interview I'm attending, I simply asked about the "mechanics" of the interview and a prof volunteered the information that they're interviewing 6 people for 2-4 spots.

[greenpointgrad]

Actually, there really wasn't any indication of any of those things! I did find out from the grad student that I was staying with that the lab really only had space for 1-2 more grad students, when 3 of us were interviewing for it, but they could still accept the 3rd person off the waiting list if someone decided to go elsewhere. In general, I've heard that at non-clinical psych interviews, almost everyone (80-100%) interviewed will be getting an offer. I really have no idea, though!

At another interview I'm attending, I simply asked about the "mechanics" of the interview and a prof volunteered the information that they're interviewing 6 people for 2-4 spots.

Thanks for the info. I guess the rule is that there is no rule, which is consistent with much of the app process.

[anxiousapplicant]

I would loathe having to stay at some stranger's house though.

[sublime]

i have an interview coming up in a few weeks and this info really helps! thanks so much for writing this all out.