Group Interviews

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PsyD123

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Can someone explain what to expect in a group interview atmosphere? I have one in a week and have no idea what it will be like or how to prepare.

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I have an interview tomorrow at Adelphi and that's how they do it there. The woman who called to invite me said that they put 6-8 applicants in the room with one student and one faculty member. I'm not sure if it's like the way ^^ described it, or if they ask questions, or what. I guess I'll let you know after tomorrow!
 
Thanks Sara...I would greatly appreciate it! Best of luck by the way!
 
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Is it at MSPP by any chance? I know for their group interview, they place you in a group with applicants of similar interests and give you a "task" to contemplate and come up with solutions to. While they watch over your shoulders of course!!

Aren't interviews fun :p
 
My group interview one kinda sucked. 6 applicants and 1 faculty member. Faculty member described research and then asked if we had questions. Of course no one did. I really didn't like it....I wanted to be one on one so that I could ask specific questions, etc. I just held the questions until the dinner/breaks.
 
Ok, so I had my group interview at Adelphi this morning. Boy was it bizarre. So they put you in this room with a faculty member and a student, and the first thing we did was split into groups of 2 and interview each other and then introduce our "partner" to the rest of the group. There were 6 people because of 1 no-show. I imagine they put 7 people in a group to try to make it uncomfortable that one person either has no partner or there has to be one group of 3. Then there was a full hour of no structure conversation. The professor basically said, now we're going to have one hour where you 6 talk about anything you want but DO NOT talk about Psychology, research interests, the application process, etc. Only random other stuff. This part was really weird bc we talked about a lot of random superficial topics and it felt very forced bc the professor and student were there monitoring. THEN the professor stopped the session and asked us how we felt about the group interivew process. Everyone was of course all cliche, like, "oh I really liked it" "Oh it was so much fun!" "Oh it was so much less pressure than a one-on-one interview" etc. I thought that was dumb, so I was honest and I told her it made me a little uncomfortable because it was a very forced situation where I don't think our "true" personalities came out. Immediately in the group, one girl took on the leadership role, one took on a facilitator role, and etc. Personally I thought one girl was especially annoying and it was all I could do not to tell her so. But I guess this was the point. The professor said in other groups, people get into arguments and stuff like that. Our group was pretty polite. Then the professor asked us each what image we were trying to project and do we think we had succeeded. This followed from my comment that it was difficult to project our real selves in this vacuum. I felt that the professor got a little confrontational after I made that comment.

I did not like the format. Personally it made the school look like it had a very pretentious attitude. Most other programs where I've interviewed have tried to sell the school to the interviewees in addition to trying to gauge our "fit-ness" for the school. At this particular program I got the impression that they wanted us to "sell" ourselves to them, but didn't feel the need to sell the school. The particular professor who monitored my group did not present the face of the school in a very positive light to me. I don't know, I wasn't that impressed, ESPECIALLY when they said you'd have to pay tuition and they have only $5,000 assistantships. PSHAW!

Maybe I'm more critical because I have been accepted to a fully funded program already...I don't know. I wasn't all that impressed, and I didn't like the format. But if you are interviewing at Adelphi, it might be different for you because apparently every professor does the groups in his or her own way.

Hope I didn't scare you too much. Good Luck!
 
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Wow, I hope my group interview isn't like that!! I hate being in situations where I feel like I can't be myself. At least the one I'm going to this weekend has individual interviews in the morning, before the group sessions, so hopefully I will have given a good solo interview and can just relax for the afternoon!
 
Thank you for sharing your experience, Sara! Sounds like it was pretty stressful and awkward. My group interview will be at a different school, but I imagine the format will be similar.
 
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