One To One, Grad School Article

Applying to graduate school these days may seem more like a job interview than a way of earning a higher level of education. As more and more undergraduate students turn to graduate school to escape a dismal job market, colleges and universities across the country are forced to higher their expectations and create more intense and diversified ways of choosing applicants. Achieving high marks at the undergraduate level and scoring well on graduate standardized tests no longer guarantee admittance into a student's first choice graduate program. These days, universities are employing another technique for choosing their classes: a graduate admissions interview. For some, meeting with faculty face to face may cause apprehension and nervousness, but an interview also provides applicants with the opportunity to shine and separate themselves from the growing number of applicants that increases significantly each year. Admissions directors from several respected schools share their recommendations for individuals facing a graduate interview and encourage individuals to be proactive and confident before, during and after the interview process. Judy McCarthy, Rutgers University's acting director of graduate and professional admissions, acknowledges that interviews serve a very useful purpose for the admissions staff and graduate faculty. Although the N.J. based public university cannot interview every one of the 10,000 to 15,000 graduate school applicants it receives each year, McCarthy said the select number of programs that do utilize the interview really do take advantage of its decision making capability and benefits. The interview also serves a more important purpose than just meeting potential students. "We [the admissions office] receive a limited amount of date to make an assessment," McCarthy remarked. "In interviews we get a sense of who that person is and it's more of an art than a science because we're able to read between the lines of personal statements." McCarthy said almost all applicants resemble one another from the materials required for enrollment -- undergraduate GPA, transcript, letters of recommendation and personal statements - making each of the applicants appear equally qualified and indiscernible. For the majors that do require interviews at Rutgers, those interviews hold high deference when deciding on an incoming graduate class. "The interview is essential because the faculty need to know an applicant's interpersonal skills," McCarthy added. Sunita Jagtiani interacts and works closely with Rutger's graduate clinical psychology students every school semester. The department's administrative assistant said because the clinical psychology program ranks so highly, the faculty need to employ interviews to help them narrow down the extremely competitive applicant pool to find the best and most appropriate fit students for both the school at large and the clinical psychology department. This year, 58 applicants were selected from 450 applications to participate in the two-day long interview process, with faculty and second and third year students deciding on the final 15 applicants for the incoming class. Jagtiani advises those chosen for interviews to regard the interview "as they would a very important job interview." "An applicant's appearance should be neat, and they should be social, inquisitive and speak to faculty members," she said. "An applicant has to make an impression on the faculty." Not only should an applicant dress professionally but he or she should also research the school and the desired program such as schools do when examining and reviewing their applicants, Jagtiani suggests. This includes navigating through the school's website, reading school information packets and talking with current students. This background information conducted by an applicant will not go unnoticed by faculty members during the interview, she noted. For Brooklyn College graduate school applicants, the admissions interview carries "a lot of weight", said graduate school associate admission director Michael LoVaglio. Like Rutgers, only certain programs require an interview, but for those that do, the interview often times separates the good candidates from the excellent candidates. "Interviews play an important role because the applicant pool is so strong and [the interview] serves another way that we [the school] select the very best," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to get a sense of a student's abilities aside from transcripts and letters of recommendation." Individuals should go into interviews with an understanding of the program's requirements and a real curiosity in joining the faculty and staff. "Students should