What to expect out of interview weekends

[Dart123]

With interview weekends hopefully around the corner for those applying this cycle, does anyone have any advice on what kinds of questions to ask current graduate students as well as faculty? What are good expectations to have going into one of these weekends, and what should we aim to get out of it? I'm just trying to get an idea of things to ask so that I don't miss out on crucial information which I may end up needing when it comes to making final decisions.

[BiomedicalPHD]

Since you are Cellular and Molecular Biology, I think this response I wrote on the Biology forum will help:

A couple additional answers to your questions from my own experience as an interviewee and interviewer:

1. You don't have to prepare incredibly compelling questions for graduate students and faculty, just having anything is a positive in their eyes. But if you want to get a good glimpse into what they think, there are a few questions you should try to ask if appropriate.

For graduate students, you should ask about:

• Their thoughts - both positive AND negative - on the program (such as the BBS program), institution (such as Harvard), and the city (such as Cambridge/Boston)
• What they do outside of science/lab
• What opportunities are available to graduate students - this includes teaching, internships, non-traditional paths, etc.
• What a typical day in lab is like for them - this will vary student to student and lab to lab, but can be revealing about the culture at an institution
• If there is anything else they wished they had known before starting graduate school (in general or in that specific PhD program)

For faculty, you should ask about:

• What they believe the greatest strengths and weaknesses are of the institution
• The research environment at the institution - especially in regards to collaboration (a lot of PIs love to talk to about how collaborative they are/their university is)
• Specific questions about their research (if you have any)
• Their expectations for a graduate student/what an ideal graduate student is to them
• If there is anything that they can talk about other than the research that makes the program/institution unique.

If you look at graduate school interview prep websites, there will be a lot of "recommended" questions that include asking about graduation outcomes, fellowships, time to graduation, publishing, etc. It is okay to ask questions such as these, but a lot of this information will be covered in the introduction/orientation each program gives. In my opinion, you are better suited to ask questions such as those listed above.

2. The most basic biomedical PhD interview weekend is structured over 3 or 4 days:

• Thursday: Arrive + welcome dinner
• Friday and Saturday: Interviews, research talks and poster sessions, dinner with faculty one night and dinner with students another night, something fun in the city one day, and a student-hosted party or bar night
• Sunday: Departure

This gives you a lot of time to learn about science, talk to current students and faculty, get a glimpse of what the city is like, and make an impression. The actual events will vary interview to interview, but this is what the majority of major research institutions do.

3. If you talk to a lot of graduate students and faculty and are truly enthusiastic to learn about a program/institution (and science in general), you will come out of a weekend with everything you need to make a good decision. You most likely won't like every interview, but you will start to internally rank them over the course of interview season. Try to go into each interview with an open mind too!

Sorry this is so lengthy - I hope it helps though!

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Some recommendations from a current student interviewer. This is just from my personal experiences interviewing and discussing with admissions committees.

1. Be prepared to answer WHY you want to do a PhD in general. If you are coming straight from undergraduate, be especially prepared to justify why you believe you are ready to enter directly into a PhD program instead of taking a year or two off.

2. Have justifications for why you applied to a specific institution and program. Being able to pinpoint specific faculty, resources, graduate outcomes, etc. all help show you are applying to a program for a particular reason and not just because it is ranked highly.

3. Be able to talk about your research clearly and concisely. If you do not know something, do not be afraid to say you do not know. I would rather have someone answer "I do not know" 10 times than try to make up an answer once. It is also helpful to be able to identify specific things you have taken away from each experience. Also, if you have multiple experiences, it is best to focus on the one you are most comfortable talking about rather than trying to give equal time to all of your research.

Above all, be enthusiastic about your own research, research in general, the program you are applying to, and pursuing a PhD. If you can talk about your research and genuinely seem excited about it, then that will come across to us and we will remember it more than if you can answer every single technical question flawlessly. It is okay if you are nervous and it is okay if you can't answer every question - it is not okay if you are just going through the motions.

4. For faculty interviews, don't worry about knowing their work inside and out. If you want, you can read a couple abstracts from their most recent papers + look at their lab websites, but anything beyond that is not expected.

5. Prepare questions! They can be general questions about graduate school, specific questions about a PIs research, etc., but do not just sit there blankly if you are asked if you have any further questions.

6. If you have a student interview in addition to faculty interviews, be forewarned that at many schools this interview will be weighted alongside your other interviews. This means you need to maintain professionalism and decorum.

7. You ARE being evaluated at all times, but 90% of the evaluation that goes into the final decision is done during the interviews. However, there are really only three things you can do that will get you immediately disqualified (and yes, I have seen each of these happen at least once): (1) Making sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks, (2) falling asleep during an interview, and (3) aggressively hitting on current students or PIs to the point of harassment. Every year, without fail, there are at least three recruits who do one of these things (usually #1 or #3) and are disqualified from consideration.

8. It is okay to drink alcohol if you are someone who likes to drink alcohol. It is okay to abstain from alcohol if you are someone who likes to abstain from alcohol. It is NOT okay to get belligerently drunk and make bigoted remarks or harass current students or other recruits. I would recommend knowing your limits and what type of drinker you are - we want you to have fun but try not to embarrass yourself. Believe it or not, we have accepted people who have gotten black out drunk and thrown up at recruitment parties, but do not put yourself into that situation.

9. Dress to impress for your interview day. A full suit is unnecessary for guys, but some nice slacks, a good button down, and a blazer will suit you well for all interviews. Gals, do not wear heels - you will seriously regret it. For the rest of the weekend, feel free to wear whatever is comfortable.

10. Have fun! All participating faculty and students go into the interview weekends trying to recruit EVERYONE. We want everyone to love our school and our program and want as many people to attend as possible. Talk to as many faculty and students as possible, be engaged, and generally look like you want to be there and you will find the biggest challenge will be deciding where you actually want to go from all of your options. Getting the interview is the hard part - we interview around 8-10% of applicants and accept around 75% of those interviewed. If you have gotten an interview, you have all the qualifications to get accepted - we just need to make sure that you look as good in person as you are on paper.

[Dart123]

I'm sorry, I haven't been on the forum that much these past 2 weeks so I just saw this now. This was amazingly helpful! Thank you so much  I will definitely take this all into consideration! I really appreciate the advice!