Palo Alto University PsyD Interview

[AAIC]

I'm new to the whole application process and I'll be going to my first interview with Palo Alto University for their PsyD program. Has anyone ever interviewed there and can shed some light on what types of questions they may ask?

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[psychsquirrel]

Ooh lucky! I still haven't heard back from them! Good luck

 

[JeyRo]

Isn't this usually the place where someone here asks if there's a plan in place to pay back the estimated 300K of debt from one's PAU education....?

 

[erg923]

Isn't this usually the place where someone here asks if there's a plan in place to pay back the estimated 300K of debt from one's PAU education....?

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I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)

 

[AAIC]

I know about the education costs at PAU and I've read all the posts in other threads to keep me wary. However, I would still like to do my best at this interview to keep my options wide open and I am looking for advice from current students on this particular interview day, which happens to be super long 10-3PM.

 

[dumbledoresgirl]

Good luck! I would check out the "how to survive interview day" thread. I don't know how many current PAU students there are around these parts. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=595602

Also, if it's 10am-3pm, I am incredibly jealous. I'm not sure what's standard for PsyD programs, but my longest PhD interview so far was 7:30am-10pm (7 hours of faculty interviews, then hanging out/eating with grad students).

Yup, 10am-3pm is like a half-day...all of my interviews were 8am-6pm with social events either after the interviews or the night before.

 

[Kriya]

I know about the education costs at PAU and I've read all the posts in other threads to keep me wary. However, I would still like to do my best at this interview to keep my options wide open and I am looking for advice from current students on this particular interview day, which happens to be super long 10-3PM.

Hi AAIC. I'm a first-year student at the Consortium, so that experience is pretty fresh in my mind. If the format holds, it won't actually feel like a long day, as it's broken up into lots of pieces. You spend the morning at Stanford, roughly 10am-12:30pm. I recall a highly informative hour with the DCTs, 2-3 short interviews (~20 min each), and a quick lunch with current Consortium students. They give you from 12:30-1:00pm to get to PAU, which is about 7-8 miles away (you need a car for the day or plan to share a ride with someone). You then spend the afternoon at PAU (1-3pm), taking a tour of the school, meeting key people, etc. I think we actually wrapped at around 2:30pm on my interview day.

In terms of the interviews themselves, they were really low-pressure in my experience. I recall little about them specifically because they felt more like friendly conversations than a high-stakes interrogation. The people you're talking to (DCTs/profs) are all warm people who are truly interested in you, so your best bet is just to relax and be yourself. (Cliche, I know, but true.) Good luck!

 

[jbean24]

Hi Kriya! I'm going for my interview at the Consortium soon too! I'm really glad to hear you felt like the interviews felt friendly an comfortable. This is my first grad school interview and I'm pretty nervous. This may seem like a silly question, but I've seen a few people say that women should wear dress suits for interviews, would you say that's the case for this program as well, or were people dressed a little more casual?

 

[Kriya]

Hi Kriya! I'm going for my interview at the Consortium soon too! I'm really glad to hear you felt like the interviews felt friendly an comfortable. This is my first grad school interview and I'm pretty nervous. This may seem like a silly question, but I've seen a few people say that women should wear dress suits for interviews, would you say that's the case for this program as well, or were people dressed a little more casual?

Hi Jbean -- I would say for every interview (including for the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium), you should wear a suit or comparably formal outfit. I generally aim to wear a conservative/simple core outfit along with a tasteful, unique accessory that differentiates me a little bit and expresses my personality. But definitely better to err on the side of boring than to be referred to in admissions debates as "the girl in the pink pants."

 

[AAIC]

Thanks for all your advice Kriya! I was also wondering what questions I should ask of the faculty to make it look like I'm interested in the program? Should I know about their research, like in most PhD program interviews?

 

[Kriya]

Thanks for all your advice Kriya! I was also wondering what questions I should ask of the faculty to make it look like I'm interested in the program? Should I know about their research, like in most PhD program interviews?

Hi AAIC -- my pleasure! So, assuming that you actually *are* interested in the program (winky face), I would tell you not to spend your energy memorizing research morsels as part of interview prep. Two reasons:

1) In most PhD programs, you are matching to a professor, not the overall institution, so it's part of the deal to demonstrate that you are genuinely wild about your interviewer's research interests. In a PsyD context, you are typically matching to the institution and not to an individual prof, so I would say it's more important to focus on selling *yourself* -- your professional goals, your experiences, your personality. If a passion for a particular research topic is an element of that, then all the better.

2) Assuming that the PGSP-Stanford interview day will go like it did last year (when I interviewed), you won't know who you're interviewing with until it happens. Given the sheer number of people who could possibly interview you, it would not be an efficient tactic to try to be conversant in a little bit of everyone's stuff.

That being said, I definitely encourage you to learn about our faculty's research as a general step in learning about the program. While the core focus is on teaching students to become rigorous *consumers* of research, we have ample opportunity to *contribute* to faculty research as well. That's one of my favorite elements of the program, and one that is pretty unique.

 

[stevenjw]

Is it possible that I may still get an interview there if I haven't heard back yet?

 

[Kriya]

Is it possible that I may still get an interview there if I haven't heard back yet?

I am not involved with the admissions process, so I don't have perspective on that.

 

[stevenjw]

when do interview offers or rejections usually go out for schools? I applied to 6 schools, have one interview, and two rejections. still haven't heard from Yeshiva, PAU, or Widener-Chester

 

[Kriya]

when do interview offers or rejections usually go out for schools? I applied to 6 schools, have one interview, and two rejections. still haven't heard from Yeshiva, PAU, or Widener-Chester

Every program is different, I imagine. You could follow up directly with places you haven't heard from -- you might be able to wrangle a sense of where you stand.