About interviews

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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burnbadd
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:17 pm

About interviews

Post by burnbadd » Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:11 pm

Hi guys, I am a prospective graduate student applying this year, mainly aiming for Harvard and MIT.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know how interviews in these top schools work?
Like in Oxbridge (UK), we get an interview if our profile (SOP, CV, LoR) passes the first stage of the process and people who pass the interview gets accepted.
From my impression, US top schools (Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Caltech) don't tend to interview everyone that they take, some people get accepted without an interview and some get accepted only after their interview. Is this correct?
If so, what is the statistic like (if anyone knows lol)? How many people do they interview? How many get in without an interview? etc

And also please feel free to share if you have received an interview invitation from MIT, Harvard, Yale or Princeton! Would be happy to know!

rustyDingo
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:27 am

Re: About interviews

Post by rustyDingo » Wed Jan 19, 2022 7:35 pm

Hi, I have had an interview from Princeton, but not MIT, Harvard or Yale which I also applied to. I always assumed if a school does interviews you need to get one to get in, what makes you think otherwise?

neutrinos
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:52 am

Re: About interviews

Post by neutrinos » Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:56 pm

While I cannot speak on those schools specifically, I got into several schools without interviewing (I have an post about my application results from 2021) that other people had to interview for. For some of the schools I got into, they specifically stated they interviewed everyone, for others they only interviewed candidates that had mostly strong applications, but maybe had a red flag or two they wanted to talk about before moving forward, so it really depends on the schools.

burnbadd
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:17 pm

Re: About interviews

Post by burnbadd » Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:04 am

rustyDingo wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2022 7:35 pm
Hi, I have had an interview from Princeton, but not MIT, Harvard or Yale which I also applied to. I always assumed if a school does interviews you need to get one to get in, what makes you think otherwise?
All of the people I know that got into Harvard and MIT did not receive an interview so I actually only learned about their existence after coming to this forum lol

rustyDingo
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:27 am

Re: About interviews

Post by rustyDingo » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:22 pm

Just an update was asked to interview at Yale yesterday. Hope you have been having luck with your applications too!

centarsirius
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:37 pm

Re: About interviews

Post by centarsirius » Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:40 am

Hey, were you invited for interview by Yale for their physics program or their astro program?



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