13: Preparing for a Grad School Interview

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Happy New Year, everyone! This is Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu. And I am here to talk to you about how to prepare for a grad school interview. And I'm here recording in my room, testing out a new mic. Hopefully my voice sounds a little bit clearer, crisper. But I'm excited because yes, I'm going to talk about the interviews that you may or may not have if you apply to grad school. But I'm also excited because I have some other topics that are going to be coming up. So check them out, I want to tell you a little bit about them. Today, I'm going to be talking about the grad school interview. And then after that, I'm going to be talking about the grad school open house or what some people call a campus visit. I'm also going to talk about self care and stress management because I know that stress and tension, anxiety is really high when you're waiting to hear back. And of course, I'm also going to talk about how you thrive like how do you thrive as a low income person, or underrepresented student, once you're in graduate school, especially as you're starting. Those are some of the next couple of episodes.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But for today, interview questions. There are actually some fairly common interview questions that most of my students will get, regardless of their field. They can be humanities, social science, STEM, and they'll get similar questions. And so to prepare them actually walk my students through a mock interview, where I asked them these common questions. And also, before we do the mock interview, I try to find out okay, who have you heard from? who reached out to you? Who was a professor that you wanted to work with? and in what format? Is the interview? Is it going to be over Zoom? Is it going to be over Zoom, or Skype, over the phone? Or is it going to be an in person interview where they're actually inviting you to campus, and you're getting interviewed there. And so that makes all the difference in terms of how you prepare.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If it's over the phone, I feel like that's the most approachable, the least intimidating way to have an interview, because if it's on the phone, you can have your notes with you, and have prepared in advance. And so that if you freak out, you can just look down at your notes, and you'll have them there over Skype or Zoom, you can still have notes, but probably just post it notes somewhere within within your line of vision. So you don't make it too, too obvious that you're looking at your notes. But that one, it doesn't matter how you look, you know, you want to make sure that you're presentable, you want to make sure that your background isn't too distracting, you want to make sure that you have good lighting, you want to make sure that you test out your equipment, test out your computer, test out how strong or how good the quality of the internet is in the space that you're using. I know for my students that we allow them to use one of our offices at any time if it's available for their interviews.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And if it's on campus, one thing I like to tell students is that you're getting interviewed from the moment that someone either picks you up or escorts you to the campus because even if it's another grad student who's getting to know you, sometimes grad students are on the committees that are selecting the next cohort. And so you want to make sure that you are being your most professional self at all times.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But let's get to the point of today, which is for me to share the interview questions. So question number one. And this is a really common question that everybody gets even at regular, like job interviews is tell us about yourself. How do you answer that question? It sounds too straightforward, right? Well, my advice is, when they ask you tell us about yourself, they want to hear a little bit more about what you mentioned in your personal statement. So mention your background, mention, you know what school you go to mention your research interests, and then bring it back to that school, that program and the people there. You could say, you know, my name is Yvette Martinez-Vu, and I have a BA in English literature with a minor in theater. And I come from the Northeast San Fernando Valley, and I, a daughter of immigrants, and I self identify as Chicana. And for those reasons I was involved in undergraduate research to study to Chicanx theater because I practiced theater from elementary school through college and it was really influential in my life and I know how influential it can be for others, etc, etc. Okay, that's not the greatest answer. But you want to say a little bit more about yourself, and then bring it back to your research and then bring it back to the program because one thing they want stress a lot is that no matter what the question is, you're always trying to answer it so that you are a good fit with the program. They're testing you for fit. They're trying to see if they can picture you fitting in with their program, the current students, and the future cohort, the professors that are there. And so no matter what, always bring it back to them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, next question. Why did you choose to apply to this program? What did I just tell you? I told you that you need to answer it as if it's a statement of fit. And so why did you choose this program? This is where it's important for you to have done your homework. Do your homework, who are these people who are interviewing you, sometimes it's one person, sometimes it's two, or even three people that are interviewing you at the same time and, or, separately, when I had my interviews when I, I started graduate school, I must have had interviews in 2009, I think, or 2010. Sometime around, then I actually had three back to back interviews, and they were in individual interviews with professors. So you gotta again, do your homework. Who are they? What's the research? What's the program known for? What makes this program unique? Is there anything about the location that's helpful for you and your research? Is there anything about the university and access to resources to centers, to archives to labs, etc, that is useful for you? Location, the university, the program, etc, just trying to think about what makes this really a good choice for you? And that's how you answer it. Why did you choose to apply to this program? Because it's that top program with in my field with professors whose research mirrors my own that has access to resources and centers that are perfect for the population that I work with? Of course, that sounds a little vague, because I'm making it up, but as specific as possible to show them that you did your homework.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right, next question. Tell us about your previous research experiences. This is where you're referring back to what you mentioned in your statement of purpose in terms of previous research, and you can expand on it. So this, this will allow you to say a little bit more about what you've done. And they just want to confirm that what you said is true. And maybe they'll ask for you to expand on some things. So just I think it helps to have someone go through a mock interview with you. Because even though you have may have been doing research for a while, even if you have, let's say as an undergraduate, doing research for a while would probably mean doing research for two years. Even if you've had two years of research experience, it can still be nerve racking to talk about your research interests in front of someone who intimidates you. So definitely practice practice with a mentor practice with a friend. Practice with us a faculty members do you feel comfortable with have them ask you that question? So that way it rolls off the tongue and you get really comfortable talking about your research experience and research interests?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, similar, a similar question is if they're going to ask you about your previous research, they're going to want to also ask you about your future research. So they might ask a question along the lines of what would you like to work on in graduate school? This is where again, they're trying to see where you fit in their program. And so this is where you mentioned who, who you know, whose research interests you who you want to work with who you envision being your advisor, or even your committee members? What project are you interested in? And sometimes actually, I got a curveball question when I was interviewed, and I won't forget, and because it threw me off. I was asked if he couldn't work on this next project, what would you study? And I was so caught up with my current project, that it was really hard for me to come up with something else. I don't you remember what I said? But I was thrown off because again, you know, you're working on your current research, it's hard to come up with something different, you just assume you're going to expand on what you previously did, especially if it's a topic that's near and dear to your heart, or that you're really excited about, it's hard to think about something else. So just keep that in mind.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, next question. How do you imagine contributing to our program? Okay, aside from your fit, if you're low income first and you're um, this is your time to address what you would mention in a diversity statement. So this is what you say what makes you unique, is it certain research interest is a certain life experiences, you know, what is it about you that's going to contribute to the program? If your work is interesting, disciplinary they might ask you, how would you bridge certain fields? So let's say you are a political science student, but also you are interested in Chinese history. And so you are interested in working with a professor who works on I don't know, Chinese politics. If that's the case, they might ask you, how would you bridge the two fields. And there are many ways that you can address this. But one quick way that I can think about right now is just mentioning, you know, how you would collaborate with maybe an external committee member, because when you have when you work on a dissertation, more often than not, you're allowed to have at least one person who's outside of your department who can be part of your committee. Or also, you know, check out the university see what resources and centers they have, they have a center for area studies, or ethnic studies or anything like that you can maybe collaborate in that sense with those centers. So just find a way to address this and awesome by sharing how you bridge those fields with your previous research as well.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Okay, here's a question for folks. If you are like me, you work with students who have lived in California all their lives, and who are applying to a lot of out of state schools. And Californians are notorious for not wanting to leave home, not wanting to leave California, even just as a state, even though California is huge. And so one thing they might ask you these, say East Coast schools, they might ask this to California is, can you picture yourself living here? And that is a question where they're genuinely trying to figure out if you would seriously move because a lot of times, they'll admit Californians, and they'll turn them down because they don't want to leave home. And so just make sure to answer as honestly as possible to be applying to places that you would realistically envision yourself in. And, you know, bonus points of view have already visited if you've already been there, you know, someone who's been there you have a network or friends, etc. But again, you don't have to have a network, you don't have to have people that you know, there to convince them. So long as you're open to moving show that you're, you know, comfortable independent, willing to take risks, you know, some students, you know, one way that they answer this is by talking about their study abroad experiences, or their summer research program experiences, they might say, You know what, I've lived in California all my life, but this past summer, I attended the Leadership Alliance Program, in, I'm trying to make this up, at Harvard, and living in what is it, Cambridge, made me realize that I could definitely live on the east coast, I'd actually really like it there, and I don't mind the cold, etc, or I don't mind, the humidity, whatever it is.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, next question. One thing I've seen, some people do, not common, but it did happen once, as they identified parts of a student's statement of purpose and ask them to expand on something this was in the humanities, a student mentioned a few scholars, a few theorists, and so they're like, Oh, you mentioned so and so theory by so and so can you expand more on, you know, on how you work with that theory, in your research? I think that was just them testing the student, just to make sure that they weren't just name dropping that they actually were reading up on the theory.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's not a common question. But it could come up, especially if you're in the humanities, for those that have GPA concerns, or concerns about their GRE score, this could come up to actually, I got asked about my very low GRE score. I'm not going to forget that either, because I must have turned red. But I was really honest, and frank about it, you know, I freaked out during the GRE. I don't know if I actually had a panic attack. But I freaked out, I rushed through a lot of questions, because I lost a lot of time. And I didn't retake it, I couldn't afford to retake it both financially. And because of time, I didn't have enough time to retake it and get those scores in back on time. But also, some students have been asked about their GPA, they might ask, Oh, I see here on your transcript that you earned, you know, GPA of law during this term, what happened? And so if they probably won't ask you, if you've addressed it in one of your statements and your personal statement, are in any other component of your application, but if you did have let's say, one quarter or semester that you completely bombed and you didn't justify it, they might ask you what happened, how to make sure that you have a way to be honest without oversharing but also making very clear how you either overcame or actively working on improving whatever it is that happened that term?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let me see, if you're in a specific kind of, what's the word, they get a professional field? Where it's common to shadow people, they might ask you that they might say, have you ever shadowed a school psychologist or a curator? Or archaeologists or something else? I'm making it up. Do you know what they do? They might ask you do you know what they do? This is, again, them testing you on like, how serious you are. And I know this can sometimes happen in fields like counseling and psychology, because a lot of folks who go to graduate school there come with previous professional experience, work experience.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And if you're going in straight out of undergrad, they might wonder, hmm, this person serious about it, are they going to drop out right away, because they're so young because of their lack of work experience? So just they're just trying to know how much you know, and how serious you are about it. And so, if you have shadowed someone great, you can talk about that. If you haven't, and you maybe you could talk about, you know, how much you know about the work that your mentors do? Or, you know, what you've learned about the profession? How serious you are about it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Another question that my students have received, more often than not, because of their age, because or because they're going right out of undergrad is they'll say, you know, the transition from undergrad to graduate school is difficult. How do you expect to manage that transition, they are testing you, they want to know that you're serious, they want to know that you're committed, they want to know that you're not just going to quit right away during the Masters exam, they want to know that, you know, what you're getting yourself into. And so, you know, answer in that way, where you address, you know, how much you know. And, again, if you listened to my podcast, you're gonna know a lot, by the time you get into graduate school about the process, and hopefully, in the future, actually, I want to talk more about graduate school itself and what to expect when you're there. So yes, you know, make clear how serious you are about it, despite your age, or despite the fact that you just came out of undergrad.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Another question, I think this is the last one I will focus on, because I can't think of any others that are common is this question is, what will you contribute to your cohort? So this is actually pretty similar to the question I mentioned earlier about, how do you imagine contributing to our program, but keep in mind cohorts for graduate school? Are they they vary widely, sometimes it's a bunch of mid 20 year olds, sometimes. Some programs have a wide range of ages, like when I started graduate school, I was probably what 20, 21. And I had folks who were in their mid 40s, I had folks in their 30s in the program. So folks in their late 20s, I was the baby, of course, or other, that's how they refer to me. But, again, wide range in ages, so they want to know what will you contribute to your core?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Maybe find out what do those cohorts look like in that field, you can usually check out, they might have a page on who the current graduate students are? And then see, like, how, you know, what does the cohort look like? Do they have a lot of international students? Do they have a lot of like, mixed age or mixed race? Or is it all white folks, you know? And if it is all white, focusing like, what are you contributing to your cohort? Hello, diversity? And expand more on what you mean by that, you know, is it?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Is it your gender? Or are you a woman in the STEM field? And most STEM fields tend to be male dominated, though not all of them? As I've learned, ecology doesn't always isn't always male dominated, I learned that from from a friend. But yes, what will you contribute? Is it your race, your gender isn't your class, because again, you might be in a cohort full of all brown people. But then you realize that you're the only working class person among that see around people and everybody else is third, fourth gen Latinx, and they come from wealth and their parents have doctorates. And all of a sudden you feel very alone, despite being the same race or ethnicity as someone else in your cohorts. So think about it, what are you contributing? And if you don't want to talk about those things, you can also go back to your research and how your research will contribute to the cohort. So there are a number of different things you can you can do to answer that question.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, I think that's everything I have to say about preparing for a grad school interview. I wish you really good luck this cycle. I hope that you hear back with positive news. And if you have an interview, work on that mock interview and rock it Okay. All right. I'll talk to you all next time.