PhD Admission Interviews
Prep
Congratulations! If you've been invited to an interview, you're already on the short list🎉
Read the lab websites and a few abstracts of your interviewers. Read their latest paper or 2 if you have time📑
Assemble a list of example questions and write out your answers. You likely won't be asked most of the questions you find, but it's good practice for the ones you will be asked✍
Write questions you have for each interviewer about their research, and about the program as a whole🙋♀️
Practice with a friend or mentor👩🏽🤝👩🏻
Structure
Several 1-on-1 faculty interviews, potentially a 1-on-1 student interview, and interactions with faculty and students in different settings (e.g. poster sessions, happy hours)🍺
Social events are a great time to ask students about the program and specific faculty☕
Broad Advice
🤝These are you future colleagues, so treat the interview like a conversation with a colleague. Pay attention to your intonation and body language. Do you come across as having a relaxed, confident conversation? Or a nervous, rehearsed speech? In an ideal interview, you will come across as if you're already a student there, just discussing a potential rotation with a professor.
🤨Faculty may have read your application material, but months ago with dozens of other apps. Assume they don't remember it.
Faculty and students who interacted with you but didn't interview you may also be asked to give feedback on you, so make a good impression👋
Faculty interviews:you talk about your research, then the professor talks about their research🧪
Student interviews: tend to be more varied and about the program 🏫
🖐Body language: lean in to show your interest, use your hands, and mirror your interviewer
😊Intonation: confident and excited
"Tell me about yourself"
👋The first impression. Think of it like an abstract for the interview, a tasting menu to set up what you want to be asked about.
🎓From where and what degree you have/will have
🧪Summarize a few key research experiences
⏰Keep it short (~3 min) but complete and let the interviewer follow up with questions about what interests them.
💼What your future research interests are and your career goal
🎨Anything else critical to your application (e.g. your background, your passions)
👩🏽🤝👩🏻This answer often comes across as stilted and rehearsed. Practice practice practice until it's conversational.
🧵Adapt your answers to the interviewer. E.g. if your previous research has some overlap with the interviewer's research, say that! Use it as a hook to set up the next part of the interview.
Questions I ask
What was your favorite aspect your most recent research project? => show your passion, your involvement, and how that translates into your future🧪
What was a time you encountered a major problem in your research? What did you do to get the project back on track? => show that you know research can be challenging, but you're still optimistic and can come up with creative solutions and persevere⛰
Describe your ideal research project. Think about: your ideal dataset, equipment, expertise, mentor, resources, etc. => talk about your future research interests, show you can think big picture, and put yourself at the head of a research project at that university🔬
What drew you to [school]? => give specifics about the program and faculty🏫
What is your career goal? How will grad school help you get there? => show you've given this some thought and have a good reason to dedicate years to getting a PhD💼
Is there anything else you'd like to share with me? => share anything that hasn't come up in the interview yet that is important to you, like your background, passions, etc🎨
Talking about your research
Do you have any questions for me? => for faculty, generally ask about their research; for students, generally ask about the program. My favorite response to this Q: "What makes a student in your program successful?"🙋♀️
Questions? Ideas? Find me on Twitter at emilyaeryjones
🤯Pick a few, greatest impact projects to discuss
🧪Follow the "research experience" paragraph recipe I wrote here: https://coggle.it/diagram/YXiKIlKX7gsyTnlK/t/phd-admissions-essays/91463e537d0a24e2f26635b6bef59b8a0a538acde0b7f42ea337005fe05f9c21
➡If discussing multiple projects, use scaffolding: say which projects you're going to discuss, then use signposts ("in my second project, I...") to make it clear where you're going.
😍Show your passion! In your tone and word choice.
👉Want to go into more detail about a research project or other topic? Set it up! E.g. "...and I'd love to share more about that project if you're interested."
👍Stay positive and end your answers on a high note