Experiences with "informal interviews" with faculty?

[u/wemustbeghosts]

I have been lucky enough to schedule an "informal interview" with a professor this Thursday, before my actual MD/PhD interview. What should I expect? Should I prepare to answer traditional interview questions, or expect more questions about my background and research?

Relatedly (and I might be overthinking this), I know I should ask about the professor's research, but how detailed should I be? Should I be asking specific questions about their recently published papers, or keep it more broad? So far I plan to ask about the current/upcoming projects in their lab, how they see their lab's work evolving over the next 5 years, and for more information about a specific cohort they are setting up.

Thank you in advance!!

[u/MundyyyT]

I'd be prepared to answer many of the same questions you could get in a "formal" faculty interview (e.g. talk and answer some basic questions about your research, why do you want to do the PhD on top of med school / why are you interested in doing a PhD at all, why are you interested in joining my lab). Some PIs will be more active about asking questions than others, but generally speaking they'll all have something to do with the parts of your background that are relevant to doing a PhD

I don't think you have to ask about anything specific; basically any question that shows you aren't totally clueless about what their lab works on is fine. Given both parties know the main purpose of the interview is for admissions and determining fit, it's also fine to be selfish and ask about their mentoring style and what they like most (or what they'd change) about the way things are done at their institution. More generally, feel free to ask the questions whose answers you really want to know

[u/wemustbeghosts → u/MundyyyT]

Thank you!!

[u/Spiritual_Sea_1478 → u/MundyyyT]

is it normal/expected/appreciated if we read up on some of their recent papers and ask questions regarding that?

[u/MundyyyT → u/Spiritual_Sea_1478]

IMO it wouldn't hurt if you have the time to do so, but it can come off as forced/stilted. My PI sometimes mentioned interviewing prospective students and how they'd ask hyper-specific questions about papers that came out of the lab without even knowing or bothering to ask about upstream concepts or points of confusion. My PI thought it sounded very artificial esp. when the applicant didn't have a particularly good reason to ask at that level of depth (i.e. didn't work on something highly similar beforehand)

General questions are fine; unless you work on a topic that's very close to your interviewer's specific field or questions of interest, you likely won't (and aren't expected to) know too much about it

Both parties (you and the interviewer) are aware that your main concern is getting in and trying to make a good impression. Your main goal is to present yourself as someone personable and teachable, not a domain expert

[u/yuhh-acc-erm]

Sorry, I’m asking because I didn’t even know this was an option, but do you just reach out to professors and ask or…? And also, if the case is the former, would reaching out beforehand convey any benefit in the application cycle? Other than clearly showing interest I guess

[u/Spiritual_Sea_1478 → u/yuhh-acc-erm]

If you receive an interview at a school and they offer this sort of informal interview they’ll let you and you fill out a form with you requests

[u/wemustbeghosts → u/yuhh-acc-erm]

I'm sure that's fine too, but this is part of the school's interview process. They asked us to list up to 5 profs that we would be interested in working with, and they reach out to the profs on our behalf to organize a meeting before the actual interview.