APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL, POST #18: INTERVIEWS (PART 4)

You've finished your interview(s) and you're tired, but it's not over quite yet! What should you do after interviews?

@OpenAcademics @PhDVoice #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #phdchat #gradschool #firstgen #nontraditional

Firstly, congratulate yourself for making it through the interview! Take some time to relax and reflect on your experience, especially if you have forthcoming interviews for other programs. Take note of questions and positive and negative moments that stuck out to you.

*Huge note: PLEASE try not to beat yourself up too much if you didn't know the answer to every question in the interview. Depending on the type of interview (and interviewer) you had, there might have been many difficult questions presented to you, specifically for the purpose...

of not only seeing how much you know, but also seeing how you think and process problems when you *don't* know the answers. If you can, reason your way through the question and explain yourself as well as you can, so that they can see your way of thinking, but if you truly...

have no idea, it's perfectly fine to just say that you don't know, as opposed to rambling nonsensically and hopelessly.

That was all to say, try to make notes of tough questions so that you can be prepared for similar questions in the future, but don't beat yourself up if you...

APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL, POST #19: DEALING WITH COMPETITIVENESS/COMPARISON

There's so much competitiveness during the application process and beyond; how do you handle it?

@OpenAcademics @PhDVoice #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #phdchat #gradschool #firstgen #nontraditional

The unfortunate truth about academia (in its current state) is that it's relentlessly competitive. Motivational quotes abound on not comparing yourself to others, but that's MUCH more easily said than done, especially when other people sometimes do the comparing for you.

So how can you survive the rest of the application process (and hopefully beyond) as gracefully as possible?

Firstly, I want to address "online forums." I won't name any because if you already know them, then you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't know any of them,...

I would personally recommend to PLEASE stay off of any online forums for prospective grad students. From what I've seen, those forums tend to be less of a helpful discussion, and more of a place for people to show off the grades, exam scores, interviews, and acceptances...

they're most proud of. I consider myself quite lucky because I didn't know about any of them when I was applying, so I never had to consciously prevent myself from reading and engaging with them. For what it's worth, I was able to get all the help and information I needed...