interview with multiple professors?

[serotonin]

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Hmmm. I just sent my interview arrival info to the department at which I am interviewing in a couple of weeks and the responder wanted to know if I wanted to interview with any professors other than the one with whom I have a primary interest. There is one other professor whose work KIND of interests me, but I never mentioned that in my statement or anything and know very little about the area, but it IS something I may want to do in the future. Should I set up a meeting with him as well? Or just stick with my main prof whose work is 100% what I want to do?

 

[serotonin]

well I wrote the organizer and told her something like that while my primary interests lie with professor x, I am also interested in professor y's work so sign me up 😀 (but phrased nicely and professionally, of course).

Hopefully this wasn't a "test", haha.

 

[zbombvt]

I think that should be fine. If you interview well the opinion of professor Y can only help your application.

I wanted to open this thread up a little bit in terms of interviewing with two professors in general. If two professors ask you the same question (i.e. what are your research interests), how should you go about answering said question without providing contradictory (or non-complementary) reports?

Just a concern of mine regarding one of my upcoming interviews.

 

[Psych_Ho]

-Interviewing well will indeed help your application b/c positive feedback from a faculty Y to faculty X is never bad... sounds like they are trying to make sure you will get all your questions answered while you are there. However, if you did not mention it at all in your app and this is a strict mentorship model program, then requesting to meet with a second prof may indicate you are interested in working with that person. It sort of depends on the program.

-Generally speaking though, you can assume you will interview with any prof you mentioned you wanted to work with and at least 1 or other one even if they have nothing to do with your research area b/c they are evaluating you overall as an applicant and faculty do give input to each other about in deciding whom to extend offers to as an incoming class...

 

[blindblonde]

I interviewed with three professors at the University of Tulsa. Two were those that interested me, but there was still one open slot. Since there were no other real interest matches, I decided to interview with the head of the practicum training in order to get a sense of what clinical training I would receive there. Just think about other alternatives that help you to get a sense of the program, not just a way for them to pick you.