Importance of interview with current student- Counseling psych

[HopefulGraduate]

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I just had an interview for PhD program in Counseling Psychology and was wondering how important the interview with a current student is? I feel that the student asked me much more questions than the two other faculty members I met with... they were reading off of a sheet of paper and asked me the same few questions!

 

[PhDMiss2014]

Graduate students give their input. The ultimate decision is made by faculty, but at least in my program input from grad students is highly valued.

 

[deleted176373]

I just had an interview for PhD program in Counseling Psychology and was wondering how important the interview with a current student is? I feel that the student asked me much more questions than the two other faculty members I met with... they were reading off of a sheet of paper and asked me the same few questions!

I would say that it's a matter of not blowing it or making the grad student uncomfortable. The ultimate decision is faculty, you'd have to be either really super close with the competition leaving the faculty member looking for a tie breaker, or expose a serious concern/engender animosity noted by graduate student to make it matter significantly IMHO.

That said, there have been cases where interviewees completely blew it in front of a grad student and it has resulted in the applicant no longer being considered.

 

[le pamplemousse]

I would say that it's a matter of not blowing it or making the grad student uncomfortable. The ultimate decision is faculty, you'd have to be either really super close with the competition leaving the faculty member looking for a tie breaker, or expose a serious concern/engender animosity noted by graduate student to make it matter significantly IMHO.

That said, there have been cases where interviewees completely blew it in front of a grad student and it has resulted in the applicant no longer being considered.

can you give an example of what an interviewee might do/say that would automatically throw them out of the running?

thanks 🙂

 

[PhDMiss2014]

can you give an example of what an interviewee might do/say that would automatically throw them out of the running?

thanks 🙂

I can give you two examples from my program....A few years back an interviewee was staying with a male grad student in my program. The interviewee made several crude comments concerning the sexual orientation of a few of the other interviewees. This made the grad student uncomfortable enough to mention it to his advisor. The interviewee was out of the running based on his comments.

Last year an interviewee was staying with a friend of mine and she let it be known that our program was a back up plan. She was interviewing at several other programs "much more prestigious" than our program. Our advisor decided not to waste her time offering a spot to this girl. We had other applicants that were just as qualified who seemed truly interested in our program.