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- Psychology Student
Did you email him after the interview to thank him for the interview?It's been two weeks since I interviewed at my #1 school. I haven't heard anything from my POI since then. 🙁 When can I email him and what should I say? Thanks.
- NN
i had my first interview (for my second time around) last weekend. i just received my acceptance today! yay! (it was my first choice). the questions i was asked included:
1. tell me about yourself
2. why do you want to come to this school?
3. what kind of research would you like to do once here?
Congratulations! I bet it feels really good to have an acceptance this early on. Will you go there?
How did you answer the question about yourself? I keep wondering about the best way to do that and how much to say.
The thing that stood out to me at my interview was that there were a number of people there with no personality whatsoever. Maybe these applicants were just nervous, but there were several folks who just stared like deer in headlights whenever anybody made light conversation, cracked a joke, etc... perhaps they "came to life" in private interviews, but in the group gatherings they were total zeroes.
They would only respond if a faculty member said anything direclty to them, chatting with fellow applicants just wasn't on their radar (and this particular interview day format provided plenty of time for chatting). Now, I'm not in charge of selecting who gets in and who doesn't, but it doesn't seem like rocket science to me that somebody who can't even make small talk isn't going to stand out from the crowd, no matter how good their GPA scores might be.
Just my .02... not that I minded seeing this in the competition. 😀
so i had an interview a few days ago, and i keep on worrying that i made a misstep.
later in the interview I was asked what other schools I was applying to. most of my schools are in the same area. when my interviewer mentioned "oh, you are staying in the city", I responded yes, and that my fiancee is also right now in a one of a kind graduate program.
so now i am freaked out that, although we had discussed my research interests and population interests earlier, my direct response, mentioning my fiancee, may have made it look like i am not the serious canidate i really am.
A bit off topic from the current tone of discussion, but this thread seemed like the best place for this. Am I reading too much into this, or is this a decidedly BAD sign? I emailed my POI at a school I interviewed at recently to thank him for taking the time to talk with me, and to reiterate my interest in the program. His reply (two days after I sent the email):
Thanks for your message, thewesternsky. I enjoyed meeting you too. Thanks
for taking the time to interview at (institution name). -POI name
I think I'd rather have received no reply at all.
A bit off topic from the current tone of discussion, but this thread seemed like the best place for this. Am I reading too much into this, or is this a decidedly BAD sign? I emailed my POI at a school I interviewed at recently to thank him for taking the time to talk with me, and to reiterate my interest in the program. His reply (two days after I sent the email):
Thanks for your message, thewesternsky. I enjoyed meeting you too. Thanks
for taking the time to interview at (institution name). -POI name
I think I'd rather have received no reply at all.
So after you write the initial thank you, and you get a response back (I thought one was particularly promising, but my boyfriend told me to calm down), should you touch base again, reiterating your interest in the program? (like a week, two weeks, later maybe?)
I would think this would be overkill. After the initial thank you, I would simply wait. The only exception to this would be if it's after the time they told you you would hear by. (For instance, if they assured you that you'd hear within a week and it's been three weeks). Other than that, it's probably best to sit back and wait. If they need to contact you, they have your information. 🙂
so i had an interview a few days ago, and i keep on worrying that i made a misstep.
so now i am freaked out that, although we had discussed my research interests and population interests earlier, my direct response, mentioning my fiancee, may have made it look like i am not the serious canidate i really am.
now i worry that i look like some chick following her "man", and i wish i had thought to reiterate my commitment to working w my pop. really, despite the uniqueness of his grad program, which is more specialized than even what i'm doing, he would have moved if that was what i needed to do. ugh. i hate feeling like i misrepresented myself, and allowed something that shouldn't be a problem with my app (i really have a great fit) come across as a red flag!
. Anyway, I quickly found out that I was staying with a grad student and the other girl who's trying to get the 1 spot in said POI's lab! And this other girl was....weird... She was SO serious and barely cracked a smile all weekend, though she did manage to let everyone know that her research was exactly what our POI did and this lab would be perfect for her. Oh and that she only applied to three schools, one of them being the #1 program in the country which she was already accepted to, the other being a highly ranked program that she is interviewing with next week (and that I didn't get an interview for). So the whole weekend I felt like we were having a silent battle, I certainly won the social aspect of it, though she didn't set the bar too high! So the whole weekend I felt like we were having a silent battle, I certainly won the social aspect of it, though she didn't set the bar too high!
In terms of who is a better academic fit, there is no question that it is her, I'm just hoping that POI realized she's not someone she'd want to see every day for the next 6 years!
The interviews with faculty went pretty well, I only had a couple tough questions and I think I did pretty well.
like what?
A bit off topic from the current tone of discussion, but this thread seemed like the best place for this. Am I reading too much into this, or is this a decidedly BAD sign? I emailed my POI at a school I interviewed at recently to thank him for taking the time to talk with me, and to reiterate my interest in the program. His reply (two days after I sent the email):
Thanks for your message, thewesternsky. I enjoyed meeting you too. Thanks
for taking the time to interview at (institution name). -POI name
I think I'd rather have received no reply at all.
I received a reply that was pretty similar - "I'm glad you had a positive experience with us. I enjoyed talking with you too. Now we have to wait and see what admissions decides. 🙂" Short, but sweet and I appreciated the smiley. I didn't receive a reply from ALL of the people I thanked, so the ones that did reply, I really appreciated that they took the time to do so ...
Do you guys generally thank your POIs only or do you email students you interviewed w/ and other faculty as well? I thought it might be overkill ...
And how long do you generally wait to email? Unfortunately, I've been waiting 4-5 days because of interviewing at other schools/catching up at my job ... I'm barely on SDN anymore!
I didn't expect to receive replies at all (thank you for thanking me! 😛), so I was surprised when I got one.

A bit off topic from the current tone of discussion, but this thread seemed like the best place for this. Am I reading too much into this, or is this a decidedly BAD sign? I emailed my POI at a school I interviewed at recently to thank him for taking the time to talk with me, and to reiterate my interest in the program. His reply (two days after I sent the email):
Thanks for your message, thewesternsky. I enjoyed meeting you too. Thanks
for taking the time to interview at (institution name). -POI name
I think I'd rather have received no reply at all.
And her opening question totally threw me for a loop (something about how after reading my SOP she thought I was more into research than clinical practice-- and I'm applying for Psy.D. programs).
So, how long after an interview do you usually hear back from them on their decision?
4) I couldn't read anything from my interviewers--if they liked me, if they didn't. This was a bit unnerving.
3) I was asked some really hard questions by my potential advisor. I had prepared thoroughly for many of the typical interview questions, but I wasn't prepared for the intellectual type questions I was asked. They weren't psych content type questions, but they definitely required a lot of thinking.
Please everyone, do not forget to update the interview database with your experiences!
For everyone who has gone on an interview this year, vent/reminisce!
How did it go? Any moment stand out for you?
Any advice for others who haven't interviewed yet?