Choosing Interview Dates

[MaxPlancker]

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When interview invites are sent out, do the applicants have the ability to choose any interview date in the season? Let's say the applicant gets an II in August/September, could he/she pick a January date if need be?

 

[milk1993]

Schools usually give a few dates to select from. The schools that I interviewed at had about 3-4 options for dates all within a month period. I doubt you can interview multiple months after receiving an interview invite. Besides, interviewing later is typically disadvantageous to your chances of acceptance anyway.

 

[demystifie]

Depends on the school. Some schools will choose a date for you while others will ask you to choose from a few dates.

 

[MaxPlancker]

I will actually be overseas and so I need to try and squeeze as many interviews as I can within a 2 week period. 🙁

Maybe I will need to purposefully apply late to get possible interviews in January lol.

 

[medic86]

Bad idea. But okay.

 

[Ismet]

What will you be doing overseas, since it sounds like it's just a semester? If you chose that semester for studying abroad, that was a very poor choice.

When you get an interview invite, you can try contacting the school and explaining your situation to see if they can give you an interview date when it works for you. I ran into a couple people along the interview trail who had to do something similar (schedule all interviews within a few weeks of each other) and many schools seemed amenable to it.

 

[MaxPlancker]

Research fulbright, we are only allowed 14 days outside of the country during the duration.

Edit: I'm certainly down for interviewing earlier than January if I do get a bunch of II's by then.

 

[ridethecliche]

You can describe your limitations in your secondaries and try scheduling all the interviews in a two week period. You might have to plan way ahead though, since you might not have be able to make all of them and it'll definitely be an expensive crazy time.

 

[MrLogan13]

Applying late is a bad idea, and trying to schedule later interviews vs earlier interviews will put you at a disadvantage.

 

[threesparrows]

I think your situation sounds workable. Apply as early as you can and maybe aim for scheduling all your interviews in early December (late enough that you'll have been reviewed by most schools but not late enough to diminish your chance of acceptance). Definitely call the schools when you get Invites --I'm sure many will be able to work with you on this. Congrats on the Fulbright!

 

[MaxPlancker]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I will call each school from which I get invites and see if they can accommodate bunching up the interviews.