soararch Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 Hi, I just got an interview request from my top choice faculty at Stanford. The interview will occur today, tomorrow, or after-tomorrow. I am really stressed about this as I didn't even know that CS programs have interviews! Do you know anything about this interview process? Anyone interviewed with Stanford CS in the past? I won't forgive myself if I screw this up. Thank you very much!
OH YEAH Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 (edited) Be expected to talk about your research. Read some of that professor's latest papers. Have some intelligent questions to ask the professor about their research and/or the school at the end. Most people don't respond kindly to "PLZ HELP URGENT" in topic titles, for future reference... Edited February 8, 2010 by OH YEAH
LivingVicariously Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 First off, Congrats sosrarch. Getting to this stage is an achievement in itself (I am still waiting) to be proud of. Secondly, Breath. I have not gone through a grad admission interview myself but have experience presenting "grad level" technical work and being quizzed on it by a motley crew of researchers (students, industry practitioners and international faculty). I think having reached this stage most of us have some fundamental understanding of CS research topics. The profs. do not expect us to know every thing, so saying "I don't know but here is my stab at an answer ..." is perfectly fine and probably even be encouraged. I did undergo an interview for an undergrad interview (for a very prestigious univ.) and had actually to solve some problems. I got through and one of the profs. actually mentioned that though my answers were not all right they were looking at the approach rather than the end result (sounds familiar??). So just relax try to answer the questions as well as you can, minimise the BS (they can smell it even across the oceans). I won't be surprised if most of the questions are very general and not directly related to CS. They are not out to get you. Most importantly, Please update this forum of your experience :-). Best of Luck. (Even though you are my competition).
thisAintNoGame Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 Hi, I just got an interview request from my top choice faculty at Stanford. The interview will occur today, tomorrow, or after-tomorrow. I am really stressed about this as I didn't even know that CS programs have interviews! Do you know anything about this interview process? Anyone interviewed with Stanford CS in the past? I won't forgive myself if I screw this up. Thank you very much! First of all, congrats. What is your subfield? I have had two "interviews" so far. With the standard disclaimer that all interviews are different, I will tell you about mine. During both of the conversations, the first question was "Can you tell me a little bit more about the research that you did with Professor X..." Then each professor had different questions to ask related to that. The most technical question that I got was "I have done similar work but the optimization function was different [describes function]. Do you think that you would be able to adjust this model to match my function." It was very research specific. My advice would be to know whatever you talked about in your application/SOP like the back of your hand. You should refresh your mind of your research if you haven't looked at in a while. The lion's share of each conversation was the professor talking to me about the program at their school and asking me if I had any questions for them. Just relax and be yourself. Or, if you suck, be someone else. Just kidding, good luck.
LivingVicariously Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 sosrarch, Any updates? I sure would like to know how your interview went and any tips you might have. I am still waiting to hear from Stanford and who knows I may get an interview call myself. I saw on the results board that Stanford CS will have their decisions done by the 12th Feb. Anyone know if this is true (the results board seems to have quite a few fake entries). Good Luck
pepepaco Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 On 2/11/2010 at 12:48 PM, LivingVicariously said: sosrarch, Any updates? I sure would like to know how your interview went and any tips you might have. I am still waiting to hear from Stanford and who knows I may get an interview call myself. I saw on the results board that Stanford CS will have their decisions done by the 12th Feb. Anyone know if this is true (the results board seems to have quite a few fake entries). Good Luck It's true, I got the very same mail Feb 1st. I'm quite surprised not everyone got the mail. Only two days left anyways!
farseer Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 sosrarch, Any updates? I sure would like to know how your interview went and any tips you might have. I am still waiting to hear from Stanford and who knows I may get an interview call myself. I saw on the results board that Standford CS will have their decisions done by the 12th Feb. Anyone know if this is true (the results board seems to have quite a few fake entries). Good Luck Hey LivingVicariously, yes that's true unless they changed their mind... I received that email from them at the end of Jan saying that"Our PhD admissions process is ongoing and all decisions will be released no later than Friday, February 12, 2010. Please don’t be alarmed if you have not yet been contacted by this department." I haven't got any news from them yet since then.
pepepaco Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 Hey LivingVicariously, yes that's true unless they changed their mind... I received that email from them at the end of Jan saying that"Our PhD admissions process is ongoing and all decisions will be released no later than Friday, February 12, 2010. Please don’t be alarmed if you have not yet been contacted by this department." I haven't got any news from them yet since then. farseer, when did you exactly got your email?
farseer Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 farseer, when did you exactly got your email? pepepaco, I got that on Jan.29. It's interesting that not only not everyone got that email but also we got it on different dates.... Good luck to us.
pepepaco Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 Yeah, it looks like they are holding the decisions! Good luck!
tempProfileS Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 Was told that official decisions will be sent on Friday. Adcom is still finalizing admit list today. Good luck to everyone.
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