Questions asked in Graduate School Admission Interviews that baffle me!

[Footloose]

Hello Everyone,

I am going to have a graduate admission interview in a few days. However, there are some questions that are frequently asked by the interviewer that baffle me a little bit. Could anyone give me some tips on how to answer these questions?

The questions,

· How will you be able to make a contribution to this field? I don't get it! Do they expect from me to do some kind of invention or what? I am bewildered!
· Why should we take you and not someone else? In this case should I boost on myself? Or what exactly?
·Tell me about yourself? Tell me about your family? These two questions are too general, so where how should I start with them? Any tips?

[Jhai]

(Note - these are only my guesses/ideas about what they're looking for)
1) Contribution to the field - here the admins are wondering what fields you're interested in, how well you've studied the fields, whether you've seen any gaps in the knowledge in the field that you'd like to plug, and how creative you are. To use a literature analogy: Are you just going to be the 1000th scholar trying to dissect Shakespeare (in which case, what are you going to do different), or have you realized that the field has failed to analyze author X with the methods pioneered by scholar Y and you want to fill in that gap, which will lead to a remarkable rediscovery of some half-forgotten genre.

2) Why you? - Here I think they're looking for something that makes you stand out from other students - something that they can't get from your application and stats - or at least not in as great of detail. Maybe you've been reading classical literature since 7th grade, and therefore have a working knowledge of all of the Great Books. Maybe you get along really well with all sorts of people. Boast about yourself, but try to avoid constantly using sentences starting with "I." Try to show concrete examples of situations where you've employed whatever your unique feature is, rather than just making claims.

3) Tell me about yourself - this question is most interesting to interviewers *because* it's so broad. It allows the interviewee to make a choice about what's most important to them (and what they think is most important to the interviewer) - which can give the interviewer quite a bit of insight into the person they're interviewing. I'd suggest you focus on your interests - stick to mainly academic - and let bits of your personality shine. Also use the question to explain where your motivation to study your field comes from.

[Derrex]

Originally Posted by Footloose

· Why should we take you and not someone else?

If you can't find the answer to this question within yourself, then how can you believe you have any shot of getting in?

[agcr1]

LOL. These questions also baffle me. Specially "Why you?" seems so stupid to me: I don't know any of the other applicants, so I can't really say in which way I am better than them.