I received the interview invite today. What does an interview invite mean? Can we construe anything from the invite? Does it mean the proposal is not good enough for a direct offer?
An interview is a good sign. What follows is advice I was given from a friend with an inside track on the law PhD application process at another top UK university.
Basically, these application processes follow a similar logic to job applications. Almost nobody is deemed 'good enough' for a direct offer without interview, so the invite to interview means that (1) your application has impressed the degree committee enough for them to refer it to your proposed supervisor, and (2) that your proposed supervisor has also deemed it strong enough to merit further consideration.
Except for a few highly unusual cases where one has an extremely strong application and are already well known at the institution and to their supervisor, an interview is the next necessary step to getting admitted to the PhD programme. I don't know about Cambridge, but I know that at another top university, there is a roughly 20% admission rate, with the cull from the initial application stage to interview stage being 60%, meaning that about 40% get called to interview, and of those, about half get offered places in the end.
[quote]I received the interview invite today. What does an interview invite mean? Can we construe anything from the invite? Does it mean the proposal is not good enough for a direct offer? [/quote]<br><br>An interview is a good sign. What follows is advice I was given from a friend with an inside track on the law PhD application process at another top UK university. <br><br>Basically, these application processes follow a similar logic to job applications. Almost nobody is deemed 'good enough' for a direct offer without interview, so the invite to interview means that (1) your application has impressed the degree committee enough for them to refer it to your proposed supervisor, and (2) that your proposed supervisor has also deemed it strong enough to merit further consideration. <br><br>Except for a few highly unusual cases where one has an extremely strong application and are already well known at the institution and to their supervisor, an interview is the next necessary step to getting admitted to the PhD programme. I don't know about Cambridge, but I know that at another top university, there is a roughly 20% admission rate, with the cull from the initial application stage to interview stage being 60%, meaning that about 40% get called to interview, and of those, about half get offered places in the end.
