Dilemma of Choosing Faculty to Interview

[GravityDefier]

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On the secondary application of my home institution, I need to list the faculty I would like to interview with, and I have a few questions:

1. Is it ok if most faculty come from my home department ? Or is it wiser to choose faculty from different departments ?

2. I was thinking of choosing my PI and another faculty who I have been very close with. I am quite sure that these two will support my application a lot. The dilemma is this: my current lab is very small right now, and I really want to pursue the graduate study in another bigger lab. Hence, I am not sure whether listing my PI like this is ethical. Also, the other faculty's lab is currently suffering serious issues with funding, and it is not a great choice for graduate study either. Should I choose them on the secondary just to have advantage during the interview ?

Thank you very much.

 

[K31]

Anyone who knows you well should recuse themselves from interviewing you.

 

[miz]

Is this an interview or is this an 'interest' meeting; eg where you meet those researchers that you might potentially work for? If it's the latter, feel free to list whoever you like.

 

[Caprica6]

Like stated above, if it is an interview, faculty that work closely with you should recuse themselves. If it is an interest meeting, why would you choose two faculty whose research/labs you are already familiar with?

 

[GravityDefier]

Thank you everyone for the replies. The secondary says: "include names of faculty who you would like to meet if invited for an interview." I thought this meant these faculty would interview me as well, but based on your replies I guess I was wrong.

I've read somewhere on SDN that there are several secondaries where you get to pick interviewers. So, does that mean there are two types of "faculty picking" on secondary, one for actual interviewers and one for labs with research topics of my interest ?

 

[Ombret]

They are indeed asking you for help in figuring out who should interview you. If the office has to make schedules for 50 applicants, that is 300 half-hour interviews they need to schedule. No small task. So this just makes their job a little easier. There probably are not separate meetings-for-interest and meetings-for-interview. All of the time slots are killing both birds with one stone.

Now there may be one MD-focused interview where the MD office wants to pick the interviewer and where they don't really care what your interests are. That will be just one half hour out of your interview day.

I would not worry about the ethics of this. Just put down people you would like to see on your interview schedule for any reason. The office and faculty interviewers together will take care of weeding out people who know you too well. I would advise you not to worry about sending the message that you want to work in the person's lab--unless you walk into the interview saying that you really want to do that, when you don't. The faculty and program office know that marking down the person's name on your secondary has nothing to do with lab choice two years later. By the way, interviewing with people who know you is not some kind of write-your-own-exam bonanza; you better believe they will fill out the evaluation honestly.

 

[Neuronix]

Thank you everyone for the replies. The secondary says: "include names of faculty who you would like to meet if invited for an interview." I thought this meant these faculty would interview me as well, but based on your replies I guess I was wrong.

I've read somewhere on SDN that there are several secondaries where you get to pick interviewers. So, does that mean there are two types of "faculty picking" on secondary, one for actual interviewers and one for labs with research topics of my interest ?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4303428&postcount=13
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4489299&postcount=6
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=10142879&postcount=5

You're usually picking interview type number 2. Interview type number 1 is typically not chosen.

Also keep in mind:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=11892273&postcount=14

 

[GravityDefier]

They are indeed asking you for help in figuring out who should interview you. If the office has to make schedules for 50 applicants, that is 300 half-hour interviews they need to schedule. No small task. So this just makes their job a little easier. There probably are not separate meetings-for-interest and meetings-for-interview. All of the time slots are killing both birds with one stone.

Now there may be one MD-focused interview where the MD office wants to pick the interviewer and where they don't really care what your interests are. That will be just one half hour out of your interview day.

I would not worry about the ethics of this. Just put down people you would like to see on your interview schedule for any reason. The office and faculty interviewers together will take care of weeding out people who know you too well. I would advise you not to worry about sending the message that you want to work in the person's lab--unless you walk into the interview saying that you really want to do that, when you don't. The faculty and program office know that marking down the person's name on your secondary has nothing to do with lab choice two years later. By the way, interviewing with people who know you is not some kind of write-your-own-exam bonanza; you better believe they will fill out the evaluation honestly.

Thank you for your advice 🙂

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4303428&postcount=13
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4489299&postcount=6
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=10142879&postcount=5

You're usually picking interview type number 2. Interview type number 1 is typically not chosen.

Also keep in mind:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=11892273&postcount=14

Thanks for the links. Actually, those threads somehow make me excitedly look forward to attending interviews (although I haven't received any invite yet and still have ~15 secondaries sitting in my email). The process makes more sense to me now. I still have one more question. If the two days of interview are made up of faculty interview and program director interview, then where does the medical school interview fit in ? A lot of schools say they will combine medical school interview and MD/PhD interview in a single visit. Will the interview with the program director also serve as MD-only evaluation ?

 

[K31]

I still have one more question. If the two days of interview are made up of faculty interview and program director interview, then where does the medical school interview fit in ? A lot of schools say they will combine medical school interview and MD/PhD interview in a single visit. Will the interview with the program director also serve as MD-only evaluation ?

This varies widely by school, and has been addressed in other threads. It varies from programs that have a certain number of medical school seats set aside and whomever the MD/PhD program wants fills those seats, to programs where applicants are interviewed separately by both the MD/PhD program and the medical school and must be OK'd by the medical school prior to receiving a MD/PhD offer.