How to prepare for SURP interviews?

Five Tips for SURP Interviews

1. Practice your English.

Especially for students applying for SURP in America, the professors will take English as the default language.

For example, even the professor is Chinese, he asked me to introduce my research experience in English, and only in the end when it was my turn to ask questions I was allowed to speak Chinese.

Moreover, English is also a bonus, suggesting that you are capable to live there without language difficulty.

2. Prepare your research interest

Professors highly value whether your research interest aligns with his lab. They would like to see you are motivated to do deep research other than exploring around.

What’s more, unify your past research experience under the same research interest, i.e. tell a story about your previous research path. Even though you may explore many directions at the beginning, you should be pursuing a consistent goal, which is your research interest.

3. Prepare some slides

Even if the professor did not ask for slides, it is better to present your previous research projects on slides, which is not only better to visualize but also easy to share it with the professor.

4. Review your research projects

Present your past projects as a complete story, including motivation, method and results, alongside your role in this projects.

The professor can be critic about your method choice and ask some perspectives that you never think of. So do not focus on your method parts but also your exploration process.

5. Ask past interviewees

Ask them about the professor’s style, interest and final open questions. In this way you can be better prepared.

For instance, one of my professor always ask his interviewees: “What do you think is your advantage and your disadvantage?”

Final Words

In short, publication is not what matters most, but your research interest and research behavior matters.

That’s all. Good luck!