The Setting for Interviews: What to Expect? Input Needed!

[trypmo]

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For those who have interviewed, where at the schools were your interviews given? For example:

- Professor's office
- Quasi-office / Cubicle
- Conference room
- Lecture hall
- Small classroom
- Broom closet

Was there a desk separating you from your interviewer/s?
Were you sitting in chairs facing each other?
Were you near a blackboard or dry-erase board?
Was it a quiet place or were there disturbances / noises?
Was the setting especially intimidating or relatively comfortable?

I guess I'd like to know a little better what to expect as far as the setting. I'm sure it depends on the school and all, but I'd like to get a gauge of what's more common. Thanks!

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

For those who have interviewed, where at the schools were your interviews given? For example:

- Professor's office
- Quasi-office / Cubicle
- Conference room
- Lecture hall
- Small classroom
- Broom closet

Was there a desk separating you from your interviewer/s?
Were you sitting in chairs facing each other?
Were you near a blackboard or dry-erase board?
Was it a quiet place or were there disturbances / noises?
Was the setting especially intimidating or relatively comfortable?

I guess I'd like to know a little better what to expect as far as the setting. I'm sure it depends on the school and all, but I'd like to get a gauge of what's more common. Thanks!

Temple: Conference Room with 4 other interviewees and one interviewer
Columbia: Quasi-office; one-on-one
Tufts: admin office
NYU: Amy Knowles' office
BU: regional interview at a hotel

they were all like job interviews with the same format you would expect...interviewer sitting behind the desk facing you sitting in front of the desk...Temple was the exception, which was more of a discussion involving 5 students...

All were comfortable for me, except Temple was kinda weird cause of the other interviewees with me, but they were all cool so I guess I got lucky...i guess it could get ugly if you were in a bad group....

 

[DrTacoElf]

Alabama - conference table.

 

[Sprgrover]

Case: 1st interview was in a personal office. I sat in a chair beside the desk. The 2nd interview was a walk-about (the interviewer bought me coffee and we walked around the campus and chatted).

Arizona: Panel interview around a table in a small conference room. I faced one interviewer while the other two were at to either side of me. The assistant dean sat in the back and observed the discussion and answered a few questions. This interview was not as relaxed as Case as the questions were already formulated and they were adhering to a schedule.

 

[trypmo]

Thanks!

Any more?

 

[vasco]

per - disturbances during interviews

During one of my interviews at Louisville some guy came in and talked to my interviewer for about 6-7 minutes.

During one of my interviews at Case two different people came into his office and asked him questions. Then he called someone on the phone and had them come bring something to him. Pretty funny.

Anyway both interviews were really relaxed so I didn't mind the intrusions.

 

[busdriver]

ucla - small conference room (one-on-two interviewers)

ucsf - small conference room (one-on-one)

no interruptions for both of them but i felt like i was getting grilled...or at least they were asking me a lot of questions (basically not so much chatting)...

the student interview was totally different though...

at ucsf, we went to the cafeteria to talk (it was one-on-one) and it was more chatting although there were some serious questions (like why do you want to go here?)

at ucla, my interviewer took two of us (because the other person's interviewer couldn't come last minute) and apparently our student interviewer just asked a friend of his to come along for the heck of it. we walked to in-n-out...pretty informal...we just chatted the whole time...

 

[mnrji]

Just got back from Columbia interview.
We had interviews in small conference rooms in the faculty dining hall.

>Was there a desk separating you from your interviewer/s?
It was one-on-one interview, and there was a table.
>Were you sitting in chairs facing each other?
Yep, there were also chairs!
>Were you near a blackboard or dry-erase board?
We did not have any of them.
>Was it a quiet place or were there disturbances / noises?
Very quiet.
>Was the setting especially intimidating or relatively comfortable?
Comfortable.

 

[trypmo]

[....]>Was there a desk separating you from your interviewer/s?
It was one-on-one interview, and there was a table.
>Were you sitting in chairs facing each other?
Yep, there were also chairs! [....]

That was supposed to imply "were there only 2 chairs without a table between" 😛

Thanks for your post; pls keep them coming!

 

[DrTacoElf]

just got back from another interview (PM if you want to know where). Two one on ones. One was at a conf. table and we sat next to each other the other was in an office and i was to the side of a desk and the interviewer was at his desk.