A Guide to the Graduate School Admissions Interview

A Guide to the Graduate School Admissions Interview If youve received an invitation to interview at a graduate school of choice, congratulate yourself. Youve made it to the short list of applicants under serious consideration for admission. If you have not received an invitation, dont fret.  Not all graduate programs interview and the popularity of admissions interviews vary by program. Heres what to expect and some tips on how to prepare so you do your very best. Purpose of the Interview The purpose of the interview is to let members of the department get a peek at you and meet you, the person, and see beyond your application. Sometimes applicants who seem like a perfect match on paper arent so in real life. What do the interviewers want to know? Whether you have what it takes to succeed in graduate school and the profession, like maturity, interpersonal skills, interest, and motivation. How well do you express yourself, manage stress and think on your feet? What to Expect Interview formats vary considerably. Some programs request applicants to meet for half of an hour to an hour with a faculty member, and other interviews will be full weekend events with students, faculty and other applicants. Graduate school interviews are conducted by invitation, but the expenses are nearly always paid for by applicants. In some unusual  cases, a program may assist a promising student with travel expenses, but its not common. If youre invited to an interview, try your best to attend even if you have to pay the travel expenses. Not attending, even if its for a good reason, signals that youre not seriously interested in the program. During your interview, youll talk with several faculty members as well as students. You might engage in small group discussions with students, faculty and other applicants. Participate in discussions and demonstrate your listening skills  but do not monopolize the conversation. The interviewers might have read your application file but dont expect them to remember anything about you. Because the interviewer is unlikely to remember much about each applicant, be forthcoming about your experiences, strengths and professional goals. Be mindful of the salient facts you wish to present. How to Prepare Learn about the program and faculty. familiarize yourself with the training emphasis and faculty research interests.Review your own interests, goals, and qualifications. Note what things make you a good match for the program. Be able to explain how your goals and qualifications match what the program has to offer.Take the perspective of faculty members. What can you contribute to their graduate program and research? Why should they accept you? What skills do you bring that will help a professor advance in his or her research?Anticipate questions and rehearse potential answers.Prepare intelligent questions to ask. During the Interview Remember your goals during your interview: to convey your interest, motivation, and professionalism and to gather the information you need to determine if this is the graduate program for you.In meetings with graduate students, try to ask questions that reveal what they really think about their advisers and the program. Most students will be forthcoming especially in one-on-one conversations.Dont underestimate the potential influence of current graduate students. Present your best side because current graduate students may be in a position to help or hurt your application.Some interviews include social events like parties. Dont drink (even if others do). Remember that even though it seems like a party, its an interview. Assume that youre being evaluated at all times. Empower Yourself: Youre Interviewing Them, Too Remember that this is your chance to interview the program, its facilities, and its faculty. Youll tour the facilities and lab spaces as well as have the opportunity to ask questions. Take this opportunity to assess the school, program, faculty, and students to determine if its the right match for you. During the interview, you should evaluate the program just as the faculty is evaluating you.

Holocaust Records Archive Unveiled

Holocaust Records Archive Unveiled After 60 years of being hidden away from the public, Nazi records about the 17.5 million people - Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mental patients, handicapped, political prisoners and other undesirables - they persecuted during the regimes 12 years in power will be open to the public. What is the ITS Bad Arolsen Holocaust Archive? The ITS Holocaust Archive in Bad Arolsen, Germany contains the fullest records of Nazi persecutions in existence.  The archives contain 50 million pages, housed in thousands of filing cabinets in six buildings. Overall, there are 16 miles of shelves holding information about the victims of the Nazis. The documents - scraps of paper, transport lists, registration books, labor documents, medical records, and finally death registers - record the arrest, transportation, and extermination of the victims. In some case, even the amount and size of the lice found on the prisoners’ heads were recorded.This archive contains the famous Schindler’s List, with the names of 1,000 prisoners saved by factory owner Oskar Schindler who told the Nazis he needed the prisoners to work in his factory.Records of Anne Frank’s journey from Amsterdam to Bergen-Belsen, where she died at the age of 15, can also be found among the millions of documents in this archive.The Mauthausen concentration camp’s â€Å"Totenbuch,† or Death Book, records in meticulous handwriting how, on April 20, 1942, a prisoner was shot in the back of the head every two minutes for 90 hours. The Mauthausen camp commandant ordered these executions as a birthday present for Hitler.Toward the end of the war, when the Germans were struggling, the record keeping was not able to keep up with the extermination. And unknown numbers of prisoners were marched directly from trains to gas chambers in places like Auschwitz without being registered. How were the archives created? As the Allies conquered Germany and entered the Nazi concentration camps beginning in the spring of 1945, they found detailed records that had been kept by the Nazis. The documents were taken to the German town of Bad Arolsen, where they were sorted, filed, and locked way. In 1955, the International Tracing Service (ITS), an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was put in charge of the archives. Why were the records closed to the public? An agreement signed in 1955 stated that no data that could harm the former Nazi victims or their families should be published. Thus, the ITS kept the files closed to the public because of concerns about the victims privacy. Information was doled out in minimal amounts to survivors or their descendants.This policy generated much ill-feeling among Holocaust survivors and researchers. In response to pressure from these groups, the ITS commission declared itself in favor of opening up the records in 1998 and began scanning the documents into digital form in 1999.Germany, however, opposed amending the original convention to allow for public access to the records. German opposition, which was based on possible misuse of information, became the main barrier to opening the Holocaust archives to the public.Yet until now Germany resisted the opening, on the grounds that the records involve private information about individuals that could be misused. Why are the records now being made available? In May 2006, following years of pressure from the United States and survivors groups, Germany changed its viewpoint and agreed to a fast revision of the original agreement.Brigitte Zypries, the German justice minister at the time, announced this decision while in Washington for a meeting with Sara J. Bloomfield, the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.Zypries said, Our point of view is that the protection of privacy rights has reached by now a standard high enough to ensure ... the protection of privacy of those concerned. Why are the records important? The immensity of information in the archives will provide Holocaust researchers with work for generations. Holocaust scholars have already started to revise their estimates of the number of camps run by the Nazis according to new information being found. And the archives present a formidable obstacle to Holocaust deniers.In addition, with the youngest survivors very swiftly dying each year, time is running out for survivors to learn about their loved ones. Today survivors fear that after they die, no one will remember the names of their family members who were killed in the Holocaust. The archives need to be accessible while there are still survivors alive who have the knowledge and drive to access it.The opening of the archives means that survivors and their descendents can finally find information about the loved ones they lost, and this may bring them some well-deserved closure before the end of their lives.