Grad School Interview: Preparing for International University Visit

[ygglol]

Hello. First post. I recently received an invitation to campus visit and interview for my top choice school. I'm an American student applying to an international university, so I will be traveling abroad. From what I have seen, the school admits about 70% of the interviewed applicants. My application was not stellar, I have strong research experience and letters, but my GPA is severely lacking. It is under a 3.0. This being said, I have made it to the interview, so that counts for something. I am extremely nervous, and I am wondering if anyone has any pointers as to what to expect?

 

[berkeman]

Hello. First post. I recently received an invitation to campus visit and interview for my top choice school. I'm an American student applying to an international university, so I will be traveling abroad. From what I have seen, the school admits about 70% of the interviewed applicants. My application was not stellar, I have strong research experience and letters, but my GPA is severely lacking. It is under a 3.0. This being said, I have made it to the interview, so that counts for something. I am extremely nervous, and I am wondering if anyone has any pointers as to what to expect?

Welcome to the PF, and congrats on making it to the interview level.

Can you say more about the program that you are trying to get into? Physics, Engineering, Math, etc.? What do you want your specialty to be? What research activities have you been involved in? Useful contributions to research activities may count for a lot.

What classes did you have trouble in that brought down your GPA? If they are central to your chosen specialty, that may hurt your chances. If they are secondary to your specialty, and you had good grades in your specialty classes, be sure to emphasize that in your interviews.

 

[ygglol]

Welcome to the PF, and congrats on making it to the interview level.

Can you say more about the program that you are trying to get into? Physics, Engineering, Math, etc.? What do you want your specialty to be? What research activities have you been involved in? Useful contributions to research activities may count for a lot.

What classes did you have trouble in that brought down your GPA? If they are central to your chosen specialty, that may hurt your chances. If they are secondary to your specialty, and you had good grades in your specialty classes, be sure to emphasize that in your interviews.

It's a physics phd program. I applied with only my bachelors, so they tack on an extra year. I'm currently involved in quantum information processing, namely electrons on helium at low temperatures, and using the excitation states as qubits. I would ideally like to stay in this field. I'm also involved in computational modelling of the same system, because I think that it's important for labs to utilize simulations.

I scored very low in all subjects, math especially. This went on for my first 2 years of undergrad, mainly because I did not plan on graduate school and didn't really care that much. It wasn't until I started doing research that I decided that the graduate path was where I wanted to end up.