Hi Everyone,

I've recently been invited for an interview for an MRC studentship for the Neuroscience MSc at UCL. I have an interview in June but there have been some cancellations and they have asked me if I would like to have an interview on this Thursday (20th May). I don't really feel prepared at all and would rather take the interview in June. However I've just started to worry that they might give away the funded places before I even get a chance to interview in June. So my question is, is this just me being paranoid, would they fill the places before they completed the interviews or would it be better for me to wait till June when I will have more time to prepare.

Also if anyone has any tips for this kind of interview that would be very much appreciated as I have never had any kind of academic interview before, only work interviews so I have no idea what kind of thing to expect.

Best,
Mike

Why don't you just ask them whether the funded places will still be up for grabs in June? Good luck.

======= Date Modified 17 May 2010 21:24:47 =======
Hi Mike,

From my personal experience, academic interviews are more flexible than job interviews and I wouldn't worry too much. They're looking to see if you are competent and keen to study.
I'm with Laurenjs, you should check whether they'd take you in June but you have 2-3 days to prepare, and I think you could do it.

A good website to help you prepare is:
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/About_postgrad_study/interviews/p!empgbee

Best of luck
CB

AND SO WHAT DID THEY ASK YOU?

Hi Giacomo,

Well the interview was very different to what I was led to expect from looking at the prospects website and a few other websites which gave 'common' postgraduate/ masters interview questions, although they were still helpful for preparation.
Because the MSc isn't a conversion course you are expected to have a working knowledge of Neuroscience already. Because I have a background in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience they began by asking me a few questions to gauge my knowledge of cellular and molecular Neuroscience. They then asked me questions about my experience as a research assistant. Because I work in the area of psychosis research and have done research on Cannabis they asked me what I thought about the link between Cannabis and Psychosis. Finally they asked me my opinions of the ethics of animal research.
The interview finished off with them giving me an opportunity to ask my own questions about the course. I remember the process so well because I went through the whole thing a million times in my head once the interview was over.