A bunch of schools allow you to request interviewers (eg. MSTP). What is the recommended strategy for doing so? Are you supposed to request people similar to your field of interest? Does that make the interview harder or easier for you? I'm confused.
Requesting interviewers at your interviews
- Thread starter skiing
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Didn't realize schools let you select interviewers. I would personally choose someone with a similar background to myself. The easier it is to relate to someone, the easier the conversation will flow. Just make sure you know your stuff.
Did you mean ie MSTP? I don't think just MD allows you to request interviewers.
During applications, I took an approach that I should know 1) primary or secondary research (ie basic mechanism or clinical application), 2) what general field (eg Biochemistry? Cellular Biology? Genetics? etc.), 3) what sub-field (eg signal transduction), and 4) if biomedical, what disease/organ research stimulated me. This may seem detailed but I kept thinking about this while reading some reviews that I was interested in. If you have this approach and this idea, then you'll be streamlined and be able to know which PIs you'll be interested in. This helps during interviews if you get someone that you know the person's field regarding engagement in scientific conversation
Another approach includes just seeing what programs there are and applying to multiple programs. Or another would be just having an idea of what general field and not knowing what sub-field. The disadvantage is that you may spend more time since you want to streamline time spent on reading relevant papers, build relevant skills. Also, when choosing who you want to interview with, some of the big name schools have so many possible faculty members that it's impossible to know where to start.
So, request people based on research interest that you think you'd like to work on, publications, and lab size. I looked up publications and at the end of papers, generally the funding support is listed. Get an idea of the lab by seeing the number of people in the lab, and then number of publications that lists the PI as the last, corresponding author. The NIH site has funding listed by PIs but that limits the funding to just NIH and not other sources.
Interviews aren't harder or easier in science as long you know everything pertaining to your research experience. If you get someone whom you requested, then the interviewer most likely will ask some more specific questions such as 'Why did you do this technique rather than this?' I got that question. If someone isn't one you requested yet seems interested and engaged, he will ask questions that may be just to see your level of thinking such as a hypothetical experimental situation.
Hope that helps.
During applications, I took an approach that I should know 1) primary or secondary research (ie basic mechanism or clinical application), 2) what general field (eg Biochemistry? Cellular Biology? Genetics? etc.), 3) what sub-field (eg signal transduction), and 4) if biomedical, what disease/organ research stimulated me. This may seem detailed but I kept thinking about this while reading some reviews that I was interested in. If you have this approach and this idea, then you'll be streamlined and be able to know which PIs you'll be interested in. This helps during interviews if you get someone that you know the person's field regarding engagement in scientific conversation
Another approach includes just seeing what programs there are and applying to multiple programs. Or another would be just having an idea of what general field and not knowing what sub-field. The disadvantage is that you may spend more time since you want to streamline time spent on reading relevant papers, build relevant skills. Also, when choosing who you want to interview with, some of the big name schools have so many possible faculty members that it's impossible to know where to start.
So, request people based on research interest that you think you'd like to work on, publications, and lab size. I looked up publications and at the end of papers, generally the funding support is listed. Get an idea of the lab by seeing the number of people in the lab, and then number of publications that lists the PI as the last, corresponding author. The NIH site has funding listed by PIs but that limits the funding to just NIH and not other sources.
Interviews aren't harder or easier in science as long you know everything pertaining to your research experience. If you get someone whom you requested, then the interviewer most likely will ask some more specific questions such as 'Why did you do this technique rather than this?' I got that question. If someone isn't one you requested yet seems interested and engaged, he will ask questions that may be just to see your level of thinking such as a hypothetical experimental situation.
Hope that helps.
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I applied successfully to PhD programs before it occurred to me that I actually wanted to pursue med. I would think that this is similar to what applicants to PhD programs do; that is, read through the faculty's profiles, find out who is doing research that is most in line with what you hope to do, and name those people as folks you would like to spend your interview time with. It may be worth communicating with them directly in advance (SDN pool - thoughts?) or else you might find out as I did that just because someone has something listed as an area in which he or she has done substantial research does not mean that it is an ongoing area of research. Another thing is that sometimes faculty members leave. We used to always ask the PhDs we were interested in whether they were taking any PhD students during the application year to see whether it was worth listing them. Not sure how well this relates to MSTP but may be worth considering.
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MSTP programs allow you to request certain people. They are doing this to allow you to scope out potential PIs while on the interview. Some programs had official interviews and then slots to meet with faculty members that were not reporting back to the adcom. These were the interviews that were by request and you should just browse the website and find some people whose work interests you.
