casechaser5 Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 Per the question in the title, I was wondering if most, if not all, programs conduct interviews as opposed to receiving an acceptance? In addition, similar to corporate, do programs have 1st round Skype interviews and then final on-campus interviews? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Accgirl Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Hi Casechaser, From my experience, most programs conduct interviews before they make a decision. But, I did get a wait list without interviewing. There is some variability in when the schools give out an offer - i.e. After phone/Skype interview or after fly out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XanthusARES Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Most schools have some form of interview. Sometimes its just a Skype sometimes it's on site. There could be a much longer answer to this question, but I'm on break. Perhaps next week I'll elaborate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silviatx Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 How do I find out if I got put on a waitlist? Do they let you know? Is there somewhere I can check? Some of the school's websites are so confusing and I don't think I will be able to get much from my "status check" application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XanthusARES Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 How do I find out if I got put on a waitlist? Do they let you know? Is there somewhere I can check? Some of the school's websites are so confusing and I don't think I will be able to get much from my "status check" application. There is no easy way to tell. If the school doesn't tell you specifically that you are on it, which 90% of the time they don't, you'll just have to be in limbo until you officially hear that you were or were not accepted. Side note 4 years later I'm still waiting to hear back from about 8 programs, I assume I was accepted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
averdoc Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 (edited) I had the same doubt as OP. However, now I can interpret from the replies on this thread that the interviews usually do happen for Ph.D. admissions. Anyway, I had seen on websites of some of the schools that they do not often conduct interviews, and they give direct admissions. Thus anyone can please share light on this information written on these websites? PS - There are over 100 top schools in the USA itself, so I am saying this about some selective schools only. Thus if you too have seen as such information on websites of some schools, please do share some insights. Edited January 20, 2017 by averdoc I mixed up two threads, and wrote here that as the OP again commented that the some schools do not often conduct interviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XanthusARES Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 I had the same doubt as OP. However, now I can interpret from the replies on this thread that the interviews usually do happen for Ph.D. admissions. Anyway, I had seen on websites of some of the schools that they do not often conduct interviews, and they give direct admissions. Thus anyone can please share light on this information written on these websites? PS - There are over 100 top schools in the USA itself, so I am saying this about some selective schools only. Thus if you too have seen as such information on websites of some schools, please do share some insights. I'm going to give me opinion here based on my own experience and the experience of friends I have in PhD programs. Schools that say they don't do interviews are technically telling the truth. They will not do an official interview where you come to the school and talk to a bunch of faculty and sit down with other students. Most of the T50 programs (I'm going to say all) will do something, even if that thing is a 5 minute phone call to make sure you're a human. Outside of T50 some of those programs don't do interviews and accept based on stats alone. For me I was accepted at 2 schools in the T100 without an interview. Those acceptances came in May, so I assume they were after other people had turned them down. If you are looking for programs that don't do interviews, look outside of the T50. Every school in the T20 will (no matter what their site says) at minimum call you to say you were accepted use that call as an interview of sorts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silviatx Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 But why would any school accept someone without doing interviews? Isn't that weird? No company hires a job applicant without an interview - not even a fast food restaurant. The two interviews I had were both with T100 schools. One may have been close to T50. All my interviews actually lasted really long. Half an hour each and I thought they went really well, but I guess you don't really know what they are looking for. Even if the person is nice and the conversation flows well, it still doesn't mean they will take you. That's my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizz Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 (edited) But why would any school accept someone without doing interviews? Isn't that weird? No company hires a job applicant without an interview - not even a fast food restaurant. The two interviews I had were both with T100 schools. One may have been close to T50. All my interviews actually lasted really long. Half an hour each and I thought they went really well, but I guess you don't really know what they are looking for. Even if the person is nice and the conversation flows well, it still doesn't mean they will take you. That's my experience. Well, it's a little different with hiring for industry. I can't prove an applicant worked somewhere without reference checks (which can also be faked). However, schools can check what schools you attended through the clearinghouse and request official transcripts to prevent fakes. You also can't fake a publication unless you share the same name as someone from the same institution as you, I suppose. The most you could do is have someone else write your SOP or make up some stuff on your CV. Even GREs come as official from ETS. So there is still risk, but it's less than hiring someone for a job in industry. Edited January 20, 2017 by Bizz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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