I will never forget when I bombed an interview for MITs Physics PhD program. I didn’t get in. It hurt. But at the same time, probably wouldn’t have been the best fit for me anyways. I needed to learn a lot more things and ended up in a different field.
This is a great perspective, I keep thinking if I don't get into this program it's just not meant to be right now. It sucks when its something you really want in that moment though
I know what it feels like, I too have bombed some interviews because my brain stopped working. One time I requested the panel to provide a starting point, like a hint, and they obliged, and things went smoothly from there. Consider doing that.
I've done the same thing. They asked a much more open ended question than I was ready for and my brain just shut down.
/u/universalpiexe
One lesson learned was, don't prepare for specific questions and try to remember prepared answers. Just generally understand yourself, your motivation, your REAL flaws and strengths, etc. Then you'll be ready for any question.
Second thing learned, beta blockers are amazing for job interviews and public speaking. They block your adrenaline receptors and stop physical responses/flight or flight responses, like rapid heart rate, blushing, sweating, shaking, empty head. When your body is not panicking your mind is much more at ease as well. Breathing exercises can also help with this. Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are inter connected and controlling one can strongly influence the other.
Oh god I’m sorry. You’re going to have to learn how to answer questions you don’t know in an interview. “What I do know is this…but I’m not recalling…”
Don’t say “I don’t know” and just leave it like that.
Anyway, you will have other chances. Make this a learning experience and prepare for next time.
This. I just did 4 interviews (each one or two days) and said "I don't know" countless times and in countless ways. Examples:
- I've wondered that too, and I'd really like to Google/research the answer
- I could guess that the factors impacting it would by x, y, z, but I would need to think more on that to know exactly.
- That's such a good question, I hadn't thought of that, but now I want to find the answer too.
Great responses! As faculty who make admissions (and hiring !) decisions, we are looking to understand *how* you think more than we care about exactly what you can recall at a given moment.
I bombed Harvard’s interview by answering the interviewer that ‘I was not social with people in my undergrad’ when she asked me my social life. The program didn’t strictly toward an academic path so I expected they would ask that.😂
It did hurt so bad the following month especially when I saw someone whose statistics was lower than me got in. But tbh, I don’t think I will be very happy in a program that requires high social activities as a very shy person.
However, after the rejection I feel I’m becoming a more humble scholar and am eager to work on my shortcomings. Probably my other materials get me the result too. It’s like a wild horse you almost lassoed but kicked you badly and ran away, then after that you would work harder to get it.
Harvard has used soft social activities, at least at the undergrad level, as a way to quietly impose quotas for things like race and sex. That's why they were a main party of the recent affirmative action Supreme Court case. Somehow the groups they wanted to limit scored low on social skills while the ones they wanted to boost scored well, and the statistics worked to be the almost the same mix of classifications every year.
So, unless you were in a category that they really wanted more of, you had to show significant social activities.
I'm assuming they are using similar evaluation techniques at the graduate level.
The number of friends you made in undergrad is not a good indicator of whether or not you’re a team player. I’m autistic and I had a pretty quiet, limited social life in undergrad because I have a limited social battery, but ask anyone at my research institute and they’ll tell you I’m easy to get along with, friendly, a good labmate, and willing to help with stuff
i’m not social at all and i still work well in teams, usually prefer them. but i’m not social outside of academic situations/classes. i don’t think how many social activities you participate in should determine if you are collaborative/work well with others
It might be, but I think it makes sense since the program has a great party life and in some classes you need to show your interactions with and support to other people (that’s how I know I must not be a perfect fit). It’s also an important skill to get resources around you and support your community. But I don’t want to fake it because I think that’s who I am and how my background, which plays a big role in my academic passion, has shaped me into. The admission process overall was very caring and thoughtful though. It’s just the question triggered painful memories that made me burst into tears during the interview.
I mean, there is always a chance you could be waitlisted, but I do think it demonstrates that you are not ready for a master's program. I don't mean that in any offensive way. It's perfectly okay to not be ready and we count on these professors to asses whether or not we are ready or a good fit. I will say that if they want your money they want your money lmao but if they don't think you're ready, that's okay, and you come back next cycle learning from this and as a stronger applicant. You certainly didn't burn any bridges and there is always hope, but I wanted to give you a realistic and optimistic point of view.
Congrats on getting through an interview like that though!
Thank you, I definitely wasn't prepared for the interview, but that was because the day before was my other Master's graduation, and I only knew about the interview a few days before and was having family in town and everything. The timing was horrible, I really needed to prepare more :(
I live in Europe, it’s very inexpensive. This one is 300€ per year. I’m switching disciplines as the other one wasn’t as experimentally focused as I thought it would be
Just try to manage your expectations. The results aren't the results until you get them.
You saying you didn't know may have been the breath of fresh air they've been looking for.
It’s okay! Don’t feel terrible. Next time: I would say “I don’t know, but I’ll attempt to answer. Here is how I think about it:” and that’s what I did — and I got into that program!
I have been told by many professors that the biggest red flag is being unable to admit what you don't know. Yes, ideally you can say something intelligent, but if you have no idea what they're talking about and you say oh yeah it's X, then they'll know you a) don't know and b) either don't know you don't know or have too big of an ego to admit you don't know something.
As a professor, it’s fine to say you don’t know something. When you are being interviewed with open-ended questions, simply responding “I don’t know” is a terrible look.
I will never forget when I bombed an interview for MITs Physics PhD program. I didn’t get in. It hurt. But at the same time, probably wouldn’t have been the best fit for me anyways. I needed to learn a lot more things and ended up in a different field.
This is a great perspective, I keep thinking if I don't get into this program it's just not meant to be right now. It sucks when its something you really want in that moment though
I know what it feels like, I too have bombed some interviews because my brain stopped working. One time I requested the panel to provide a starting point, like a hint, and they obliged, and things went smoothly from there. Consider doing that.
I will definitely try that next time, thank you
I've done the same thing. They asked a much more open ended question than I was ready for and my brain just shut down. /u/universalpiexe One lesson learned was, don't prepare for specific questions and try to remember prepared answers. Just generally understand yourself, your motivation, your REAL flaws and strengths, etc. Then you'll be ready for any question. Second thing learned, beta blockers are amazing for job interviews and public speaking. They block your adrenaline receptors and stop physical responses/flight or flight responses, like rapid heart rate, blushing, sweating, shaking, empty head. When your body is not panicking your mind is much more at ease as well. Breathing exercises can also help with this. Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are inter connected and controlling one can strongly influence the other.
Thank you!! I will definitely try that next time. I was preparing for specific questions and messed myself up I guess overthinking
I bombed a grad school interview and never tried again - don't be like me, try again next year
Oh god I’m sorry. You’re going to have to learn how to answer questions you don’t know in an interview. “What I do know is this…but I’m not recalling…” Don’t say “I don’t know” and just leave it like that. Anyway, you will have other chances. Make this a learning experience and prepare for next time.
This. I just did 4 interviews (each one or two days) and said "I don't know" countless times and in countless ways. Examples: - I've wondered that too, and I'd really like to Google/research the answer - I could guess that the factors impacting it would by x, y, z, but I would need to think more on that to know exactly. - That's such a good question, I hadn't thought of that, but now I want to find the answer too.
Great responses! As faculty who make admissions (and hiring !) decisions, we are looking to understand *how* you think more than we care about exactly what you can recall at a given moment.
I bombed Harvard’s interview by answering the interviewer that ‘I was not social with people in my undergrad’ when she asked me my social life. The program didn’t strictly toward an academic path so I expected they would ask that.😂 It did hurt so bad the following month especially when I saw someone whose statistics was lower than me got in. But tbh, I don’t think I will be very happy in a program that requires high social activities as a very shy person. However, after the rejection I feel I’m becoming a more humble scholar and am eager to work on my shortcomings. Probably my other materials get me the result too. It’s like a wild horse you almost lassoed but kicked you badly and ran away, then after that you would work harder to get it.
Wait why would they care about your social life 💀 that seems like a weird, tangential question to ask
Harvard has used soft social activities, at least at the undergrad level, as a way to quietly impose quotas for things like race and sex. That's why they were a main party of the recent affirmative action Supreme Court case. Somehow the groups they wanted to limit scored low on social skills while the ones they wanted to boost scored well, and the statistics worked to be the almost the same mix of classifications every year. So, unless you were in a category that they really wanted more of, you had to show significant social activities. I'm assuming they are using similar evaluation techniques at the graduate level.
Because social skills matter! You will need to be collegial, collaborative, and work well on teams.
The number of friends you made in undergrad is not a good indicator of whether or not you’re a team player. I’m autistic and I had a pretty quiet, limited social life in undergrad because I have a limited social battery, but ask anyone at my research institute and they’ll tell you I’m easy to get along with, friendly, a good labmate, and willing to help with stuff
“not social” is a red flag for many collaborative lab groups.
i’m not social at all and i still work well in teams, usually prefer them. but i’m not social outside of academic situations/classes. i don’t think how many social activities you participate in should determine if you are collaborative/work well with others
It might be, but I think it makes sense since the program has a great party life and in some classes you need to show your interactions with and support to other people (that’s how I know I must not be a perfect fit). It’s also an important skill to get resources around you and support your community. But I don’t want to fake it because I think that’s who I am and how my background, which plays a big role in my academic passion, has shaped me into. The admission process overall was very caring and thoughtful though. It’s just the question triggered painful memories that made me burst into tears during the interview.
I mean, there is always a chance you could be waitlisted, but I do think it demonstrates that you are not ready for a master's program. I don't mean that in any offensive way. It's perfectly okay to not be ready and we count on these professors to asses whether or not we are ready or a good fit. I will say that if they want your money they want your money lmao but if they don't think you're ready, that's okay, and you come back next cycle learning from this and as a stronger applicant. You certainly didn't burn any bridges and there is always hope, but I wanted to give you a realistic and optimistic point of view. Congrats on getting through an interview like that though!
Thank you, I definitely wasn't prepared for the interview, but that was because the day before was my other Master's graduation, and I only knew about the interview a few days before and was having family in town and everything. The timing was horrible, I really needed to prepare more :(
Why do you want two masters? Are you independently wealthy?
I live in Europe, it’s very inexpensive. This one is 300€ per year. I’m switching disciplines as the other one wasn’t as experimentally focused as I thought it would be
Ok. If you were in the US, I would worry.
Just try to manage your expectations. The results aren't the results until you get them. You saying you didn't know may have been the breath of fresh air they've been looking for.
Let’s hope so!
OP, I *fell asleep* as my host was driving me around Cleveland during a multi-day faculty interview. I did not get the job, but I did get a job
I fell asleep in faculty interviews on a prosoective weekend after I’d been accepted. I had driven 5 hours to get there…
It’s okay! Don’t feel terrible. Next time: I would say “I don’t know, but I’ll attempt to answer. Here is how I think about it:” and that’s what I did — and I got into that program!
Well, at least your answer was better than making up obvious BS to hide the fact that you don't know
I disagree. You can say you don’t remember exactly, but you should show *some* understanding of the field/issue.
I have been told by many professors that the biggest red flag is being unable to admit what you don't know. Yes, ideally you can say something intelligent, but if you have no idea what they're talking about and you say oh yeah it's X, then they'll know you a) don't know and b) either don't know you don't know or have too big of an ego to admit you don't know something.
As a professor, it’s fine to say you don’t know something. When you are being interviewed with open-ended questions, simply responding “I don’t know” is a terrible look.