An experience-based guide on how and what to do to perfect your interview to get a PhD and select the university.

Introduction: The PhD Interview: Bigger than You Think.

There is nothing casual about a PhD interview. It is a two-party, high stake discussion where committees are much more interested in more than grades or publications. They are testing your intellectual maturity, research preparation, purposefulness, and endurance and, most importantly, what you have learned about what a PhD project entails.

I have been engaged over the years in close interaction with doctoral candidates in various fields- engineering, management, humanities, social sciences and health research. The same pattern can be observed: highly-qualified candidates fail not because they do not know anything, but because they are not able to guess what the interviewers expect. On the other hand, average candidates tend to excel in their jobs due to their ability to display the following elements; insight, preparation and fit in the appropriate university and supervisor.

This guide is aimed at resolving this issue in a comprehensive manner.

You will find:

• The 100 best PhD interview questions, sorted by theme.

• Clearly and genuinely-real sample responses (not scripted, but sound directionally)

• Situational knowledge based on the actual interview boards and doctoral experiences.

• Practical suggestions that you can incorporate in your own practice and objectives.

You are about to have your first PhD interview or you need to perfect your strategy to apply after being rejected, this article will make you get to the interview with the self-confidence, clarity, and credibility.

Knowing the point of a PhD Interview.

It is necessary to know what is being evaluated by interview panels before plunging into questions.

As an examiner, one would find a PhD interview responding to five fundamental questions:

• Is this candidate able to do independent research?

• Are they aware of the real requirements of a PhD?

• Do they have alignment in terms of the supervision and resources available?

• Do they continue in doubt and defeat

• Is that the right university to them and are they the right university to us?

1. Why do you wish to continue with a PhD instead of terminating with a Master?

2. Why do you think this is the appropriate moment in your life to start a PhD?

3. What do you feel is the difference between PhD and other academic degrees?

4. What do you consider to be the most difficult parts of doing PhD?

5. Why do you have to spend a few years on a single research problem?

6. What do you anticipate your life to be like as a PhD researcher on day-to-day basis?

7. What will be a failure in your PhD experience?

8. What do you do when you have to wait a long time before finding something or when there are no results in research?

9. What are the sacrifices that you are ready to make in your PhD process?

10. How well do you work on your own without being under supervision?

11. What are your personal strengths that can make you a good doctoral researcher?

12. What do you fear or are concerned about in beginning a PhD?

13. What do you do when you can have few external deadlines?

14. What to you is the research maturity?

15. What makes you think that it is the correct choice to pursue a PhD?

16. In a straightforward manner, what is your proposed research topic?

17. What is the precise issue that your research intends to solve?

18. What is the research gap of your study?

19. What is the importance of this gap in research to the field?

20. What is your reason behind the choice of this research topic?

21. What are your overall research questions or hypotheses?

22. To what extent do you think your research contribution will be original?

23. What is the difference between your proposed research and the current studies?

24. What are your theoretical/conceptual frameworks?

25. What made you select this research method?

26. What is your intended methodology and why?

27. What kind of information will you need in your study?

28. Is your data collection strategy a viable one?

29. What are your expected constraints in your study?

30. What do you consider to be the key risks involved in your PhD project?

31. What is the flexibility of your research proposal should there be need to make changes?

32. What courses of action would you take in the event that your original research idea is unsustainable?

33. What are your intended plans to organize your PhD project in the next few years?

34. What would your PhD research success be like?

35. What does your work add to the knowledge and not just application?

36. And what do you consider to be the key phases of a PhD project?

37. What do you actually anticipate in terms of the length of each period of your PhD?

38. What is your strategy on long-term research objectives?

39. What will be your measure of progress during your PhD?

40. What are the most frequent problems that PhD researchers are facing?

41. What reaction would you have towards a research failure or unsuccessful experiment?

42. What is the place of publishing in the doctoral research?

43. How do you strike the right balance with depth and breadth in a PhD project?

44. How will you guarantee sound research in a series of years?

45. What are the ethical considerations to your research?

46. How shall you record and tabulate your research procedure?

47. What strategies will you use to be consistent and have your focus during your PhD?

48. What is original contribution as far as a PhD is concerned?

49. What is the difference between doctoral research and taught course work?

50. What are the duties of a PhD researcher other than writing a thesis?

51. To what extent has your past schooling equipped you to be a doctoral researcher?

52. What was your experience with regard to your past research or thesis experience?

53. Which research methods would you feel most confident to use?

54. What are the research skills that you are still required to work on?

55. What is your process of reviewing and synthesizing academic literature?

56. What is your assessment of a research paper?

57. How are you acquainted with academic writing?

58. Have you done any independent research before?

59. How are you at dealing with complex or abstract theoretical concepts?

60. Which analytical, technical or software tools are involved in your research?

61. What are your coping skills with high levels of academic information?

62. What are your methods of accuracy and reliability?

63. What is the most difficult academic experience to date?

64. What is your reaction to the critical feedback about your research?

65. Have you ever shifted your academic perspective on the feedback?

66. What can be done when there are opposing results in the literature?

67. What are the priorities when working on a long-term research project?

68. What do you do when faced with academic pressure and deadlines?

69. What is the place of collaboration in your research work?

70. What do you do to promote academic integrity during your research?

71. What was the reason why you decided to pursue your PhD at this university?

72. Why do you consider this to be the appropriate university to do your research?

73. Why do you wish to work under this supervisor?

74. What is the fit in the knowledge of your supervisor with your research?

75. What do you expect of your PhD supervisor?

76. What is your preferred way of receiving a supervisor feedback?

77. What would you do when there is a conflict with your supervisor?

78. What research facilities/resources do you need in this place to support your project?

79. What does this department offer to doctoral researchers?

80. What is your value of research culture?

81. What was it that appealed to you about this research group?

82. What are some of your intentions to interact with the academic community here?

83. What do you envision your role in this department?

84. Have you also applied to other universities and what was the reason?

85. Why does this institution qualify better than others?

86. What do you want to do once you graduate with the PhD?

87. Would you like to stay in academia after your doctorate?

88. What will this PhD do to assist you in long term objectives?

89. What are your desired skills after doing your PhD?

90. What are you going to do with your research results?

91. What do you hope your study to achieve?

92. What does it mean to succeed when your PhD is completed?

93. How would you respond in case there is a shift in career plans in the course of the PhD?

94. What do you do when you get a rejection e.g. paper/ grant rejection?

95. What is the role of researchers to the society?

96. What is your strike to ambition versus research and realism?

97. What will you do to prepare academically prior to taking the PhD?

98. What are the most important lessons that you have acquired in your academic life?

99. Do you have anything in your application that you would like to elaborate or clarify more on?

100.Why are we choosing you as a PhD student?

The main lessons to PhD Interview Success.

• A PhD interview considers attitude more than the knowledge.

• Knowing what entails a PhD project is not negotiable.

• Match with the correct university and supervisor is more important than prestige.

• Honest Responses Honest responses are better than perfected ones.

• Preparation is better than memorization.

Conclusion: Making an Opportunity out of the Interview.

The interview in a PhD is not a questioning session, it is an intellectual dialogue over professional collaboration. Thoughtfully approached, it turns out to be a challenge to prove a good fit, develop ideas, and prove a readyness to embark on one of the most challenging academic paths.

Successful candidates do not have perfect CVs but display consciousness, strength, inquisitiveness, and intent. When you know who you are, what you are researching and what kind of environment you are getting into, the interview is not so frightening and it is much more rewarding.

Think long and hard, think straight and think, and pick the university that you should not only consider the most well known one, but also the one that fits you. The choice that you make will not only influence your PhD, but also the scholar that you will be.