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Fall 2020 PhD start - PhD Applicant Sweat Thread


instajar

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Hi guys, I guess this is kind of a beginner question, but I was trying to understand if anyone had personal experience about this. I applied to several Ph.D programs in Finance for which the interview requests seems to have been sent out already. Is it possible to be admitted even if they do not send you an interview request? Or has it ever happened that people were contacted for an interview later in the game - or later with respect to the majority of potential candidates? Just trying to understand if not receiving a request for an interview when they have been sent should be interpreted as an implicit rejection or not!

BTW congrats to all prospective Ph.D. candidates who are preparing for their interviews!

 

Yeah, I got an interview request way after it was posted on Gradcafe. So I suppose it's possible that you get an interview invite later. But I wouldn't keep my hopes up. I would instead plan for a rejection and be happy if I infact got an interview! But, thats just me.

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i submitted applications, in most cases, the day they were due. I was, in fact, almost late to some. I have received interviews from USC's Marshall, NYU's Stern, Duke's Fuqua, HBS, Northwestern's Kellogg so far––all for organizational behavior. I am not sure about the waves to which you refer, but it is likely that some doctoral offices start to review applications as soon as they come in––like, if you're getting 600 applications per cycle, you might want to start reviewing them as soon as possible, so you're not late. Usually, all applications are reviewed by a doctoral office, then some are made available to faculty.
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i submitted applications, in most cases, the day they were due. I was, in fact, almost late to some. I have received interviews from USC's Marshall, NYU's Stern, Duke's Fuqua, HBS, Northwestern's Kellogg so far––all for organizational behavior. I am not sure about the waves to which you refer, but it is likely that some doctoral offices start to review applications as soon as they come in––like, if you're getting 600 applications per cycle, you might want to start reviewing them as soon as possible, so you're not late. Usually, all applications are reviewed by a doctoral office, then some are made available to faculty.

 

wow! that is an impressive list of schools that you've interviewed!

I wonder if you could share a bit more on the process for USC & NYU (OB). Do you happen to know if USC Marshall invites all potential students for on-campus interview or it is done individually? I heard that NYU has sent out invites to all potential students for on-campus interview near the end of Feb?

Thanks!

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I have read that some schools interview 2-3 x the number of students they are taking but i am curious how the interview waitlists work? I was told by two of my top choices that i am the first on their secondary list and will let me know as they hear back from others.. i havent interviewed with them but crossing fingers i will get a chance :( how likely is it that i have a chance? Its sad that i am not even in their primary group..
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I have read that some schools interview 2-3 x the number of students they are taking but i am curious how the interview waitlists work? I was told by two of my top choices that i am the first on their secondary list and will let me know as they hear back from others.. i havent interviewed with them but crossing fingers i will get a chance :( how likely is it that i have a chance? Its sad that i am not even in their primary group..

 

I don't think we could give you a good answer without getting into specifics.

 

For example, my feeling is that there is not much hope for a waitlist if you are applying to Quantitative Marketing. Schools usually take only 1 applicant for that concentration each year, and then they try to really narrow down to the one with best fit and very high probability of accepting the offer. It's only 1, so it's better be good choice. And then, the probability of that 1 applicant declining the offer, and giving the opportunity to a waitlisted applicant is quite low.

 

But some other fields of study take more applicants, and/or they have much more flexibility regarding the criteria to select an applicant.

 

I don't know which field would be the best example for that. But let's assume that programs in Finance accept 5 applicants each year, without much of a need to have a strong commitment to a particular concentration from the beginning. I've seen PhD students in Economics that aren't sure of their concentration (micro or macro, for example) even after a long time, so maybe Finance is similar enough. In that case, the probability of 1 out of 5 going somewhere else is probably much bigger. It's 1 out of 5 (instead of 1 out of 1), and with more flexibility I think it's fair to expect that good applicants can get multiple offers.

 

I think things could also be different when you compare top schools with lower-ranked schools. Top schools are after top applicants, and competition to get those top applicants may be fiercer.

 

For example, Wharton informs that they admitted 14 applicants for Finance, with the intention to actually have 5 or 6 new students. This is very different from what I've seen in Quantitative Marketing.

 

But in any case I believe you shouldn't get your hopes too high if you have been waitlisted. I certainly have seen cases of success after a waitlist here, so not all hope is lost.

 

With 2 waitlists from your top choices, I guess there is a good chance of getting an offer from a not-so-top choice. But if you did a good selection of schools, that should still be amazing.

 

And yeah, you must be very stressed about all that, and there isn't much I can do to help. As you said, fingers crossed.

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I don't think we could give you a good answer without getting into specifics.

 

For example, my feeling is that there is not much hope for a waitlist if you are applying to Quantitative Marketing. Schools usually take only 1 applicant for that concentration each year, and then they try to really narrow down to the one with best fit and very high probability of accepting the offer. It's only 1, so it's better be good choice. And then, the probability of that 1 applicant declining the offer, and giving the opportunity to a waitlisted applicant is quite low.

 

But some other fields of study take more applicants, and/or they have much more flexibility regarding the criteria to select an applicant.

 

I don't know which field would be the best example for that. But let's assume that programs in Finance accept 5 applicants each year, without much of a need to have a strong commitment to a particular concentration from the beginning. I've seen PhD students in Economics that aren't sure of their concentration (micro or macro, for example) even after a long time, so maybe Finance is similar enough. In that case, the probability of 1 out of 5 going somewhere else is probably much bigger. It's 1 out of 5 (instead of 1 out of 1), and with more flexibility I think it's fair to expect that good applicants can get multiple offers.

 

I think things could also be different when you compare top schools with lower-ranked schools. Top schools are after top applicants, and competition to get those top applicants may be fiercer.

 

For example, Wharton informs that they admitted 14 applicants for Finance, with the intention to actually have 5 or 6 new students. This is very different from what I've seen in Quantitative Marketing.

 

But in any case I believe you shouldn't get your hopes too high if you have been waitlisted. I certainly have seen cases of success after a waitlist here, so not all hope is lost.

 

With 2 waitlists from your top choices, I guess there is a good chance of getting an offer from a not-so-top choice. But if you did a good selection of schools, that should still be amazing.

 

And yeah, you must be very stressed about all that, and there isn't much I can do to help. As you said, fingers crossed.

 

 

Thank you!

 

I am actually in accounting. I applied to 13 schools and two school interviewed me - i think i will get an offer from both of those but we all have out top choices.. right? I got a rejection from one, and emailed the rest and only two got back to me letting know that i am on their internal waitlist for interviews. I gave up on schools that already sent out offers according to gradcafe or didnt respond back to me.. I have a 750+ gmat and 3.9 gpa but a weak math background so thats probably hurting my chance a lot. Like you said, the schools i am waitlisted for interview are top ranked schools so hopefully their best applicants might choose another program since other top schools would want them too...

 

At this point, i will just have to wait and see and hope god helps me that i can get a chance to interview with at least one of my two top choices and impress them but this wait is very difficult :(

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Waitlists can be a tough position to be in. There are years where our school will go down the waitlist and other years where they don't. I think it is largely dependent upon what type of students they are looking for, how many spots they have available, and how busy the faculty is with students who are already in the program.

 

I would not give up hope just yet if you've been waitlisted at a place where you really want to go. It might be a good idea to periodically check in with the coordinator every couple of weeks to see if there is any movement and show that you have continued interest. The nice thing about PhD admission is that (most) schools abide by the April 15th rule for accepting/rejecting offers so you know that everyone else in this process is working under the same deadline as you.

 

Also, don't be bummed or doubt yourself about not making it into the primary group! Oftentimes schools have to make arbitrary decisions based upon expected research fit/advisor availability or even test scores in distinguishing between who gets the initial offers and who gets waitlisted. If you are on the waitlist, then they have already decided that you are a great applicant and it probably just comes down to things that you don't have as much control over.

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Is it just me, or does it seem like programs haven't sent out as many notifications by now as they usually do? For OB/Management at Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Yale, and Chicago, looking at the results on Grad Cafe, there are no results reported yet they usually have been by now. Any ideas? Maybe some programs aren't interviewing this year?
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Is it just me, or does it seem like programs haven't sent out as many notifications by now as they usually do? For OB/Management at Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Yale, and Chicago, looking at the results on Grad Cafe, there are no results reported yet they usually have been by now. Any ideas? Maybe some programs aren't interviewing this year?

 

My school has sent out offers but no one has posted on GradCafe...

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Is it just me, or does it seem like programs haven't sent out as many notifications by now as they usually do? For OB/Management at Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Yale, and Chicago, looking at the results on Grad Cafe, there are no results reported yet they usually have been by now. Any ideas? Maybe some programs aren't interviewing this year?

 

I haven't heard from any of these programs yet –– I know that Stanford's micro organizational behavior hasn't sent out acceptances yet; Berkeley isn't accepting students this year; heard from a friend at Yale that they have just started to review applications a week or so ago; no idea about MIT and Chicago

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wow! that is an impressive list of schools that you've interviewed!

I wonder if you could share a bit more on the process for USC & NYU (OB). Do you happen to know if USC Marshall invites all potential students for on-campus interview or it is done individually? I heard that NYU has sent out invites to all potential students for on-campus interview near the end of Feb?

Thanks!

 

thanks, tad2020! I would happy to speak about these privately; feel free to send me a message and we can hop on the phone. And yes, I heard from NYU's Stern (micro OB) on Jan. 23rd for an on-campus interview. I heard from USC's Marshall from a faculty member –– informing me that I was on their shortlist. Like Stanford, I think, USC will send out acceptances without having invited candidates to interview.

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thanks, tad2020! I would happy to speak about these privately; feel free to send me a message and we can hop on the phone. And yes, I heard from NYU's Stern (micro OB) on Jan. 23rd for an on-campus interview. I heard from USC's Marshall from a faculty member –– informing me that I was on their shortlist. Like Stanford, I think, USC will send out acceptances without having invited candidates to interview.

 

just curious - does NYU invite only OB students for on-campus interview or other departments as well?

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I feel really depressed. Just had an interview with faculties and it was shorter than other experiences. Seems like the senior faculties are not interested in my research. Asking no question to me.. I prepared a lot for this interview but it finished after 20 minutes. As this school is one of my best choices, this is frustrating. I wish I could do better in other interviews..
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I feel really depressed. Just had an interview with faculties and it was shorter than other experiences. Seems like the senior faculties are not interested in my research. Asking no question to me.. I prepared a lot for this interview but it finished after 20 minutes. As this school is one of my best choices, this is frustrating. I wish I could do better in other interviews..

 

Sorry to hear that. For what it's worth, I think people in general are really bad at guessing how an interview went. A lot of it has to do with the personality of the interviewer. Do they like to compliment the interviewee and provide encouragement to make them comfortable? Or do they just cut to the chase and want to get the interview done? Do they like interviewing and see it as an important part of the process? Or do they just want to check the box and not really care how it goes?

 

If they don't ask you any questions, it's probably a more informal discussion designed to just give you the opportunity to learn more about their program. I've also heard they can be used just to check an applicant's English fluency, though I don't know if that's really true.

 

It's also good that you overprepared! There are always a lot more possibilities than realities when it comes to interviewing. If you prepared more things to discuss and more questions to ask than you had the opportunity for, then it means you did a good job preparing enough material.

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I see so many posts on gradcafe for interviews. Most of the posts are isolated posts. Are the interviews individualized, as in its unreasonable to expect the interviews to happen at the same time? Or are these posts fake? Is it known that some of gradcafe posts are fake?
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I see so many posts on gradcafe for interviews. Most of the posts are isolated posts. Are the interviews individualized, as in its unreasonable to expect the interviews to happen at the same time? Or are these posts fake? Is it known that some of gradcafe posts are fake?

 

I'm not sure anyone can really say for sure. Most of these programs interview and accept small numbers of students, so it's usually not like economics or psychology where a cohort is 10+ people. If you have a connection at a university, such as a professor you've emailed with, you could try to check where they are in their process, but you do risk annoying them. Sorry not to be more helpful!

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Actually, this was my second interview with this program. So it makes me feel that I failed to pass their second hurdle. Anyway.. I think I should prepare for other opportunities as you said. Thank you for the kind reply!

 

A short second interview is not necessarily bad. Some programs like to have the opinions of at least two professors, and then they do a second interview because of that (even if the professor for the second interview has no interest in you).

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I see so many posts on gradcafe for interviews. Most of the posts are isolated posts. Are the interviews individualized, as in its unreasonable to expect the interviews to happen at the same time? Or are these posts fake? Is it known that some of gradcafe posts are fake?

 

A lot of interviews are individualized, with different professors, who have different schedules and priorities. Some gradcafe posts may be fake, of course, but I usually found them to be quite reliable when I applied.

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