Duke University Phd Student Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 14 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Duke University.
Duke University
PhD Student
Intern Average Positive experience Accept offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Presentation Background check Offer
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical Presentation Group
after you apply to PhD programs in December, Duke usually starts inviting people for onsite interviews around mid-January to early February. You can be a little flexible in choosing your interview date, and Duke will pay for your flights and hotel. You get to pick 3-5 faculty members you're interested in, and Duke will try their best to set up interviews with them. Each faculty member will chat with you for about 15 minutes to learn about your past experience and research interests, and also tell you about their own research. Make sure to ask plenty of questions to figure out if you could see yourself working with that professor. You'll also get to hang out with current grad students in the program, and this is part of the interview too because the current students will be asked to flag anyone who isn't a good fit after the interviews. It's always smart to ask the current students about the faculty's research areas and their mentoring styles, if they're open to sharing. A good fit means research you're into + a mentoring style you like + a supportive and intellectually engaging student community. Duke is generally more relaxed than other schools, but some of its PhD programs can be pretty intense.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Tell me about your master's or undergraduate thesis.
- What draws you to research topic XXX?
- What makes you like Duke?
Duke University
PhD Student
Entry Easy Positive experience Accept offer 1 round
Interview process
Recruiter call Panel Presentation
Interview formats
Behavioral Presentation
We had 15 minute slots with a faculty panel. Students might have had different panels depending on faculty schedules. It kicked off with a brief intro, then we talked about why you want to do a PhD, why you're interested in Duke, and your research background. They left a good chunk of time for your questions.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- What draws you to this field of study and to our program?
- What motivated your interest in pursuing a PhD?
- What makes you want to pursue a PhD at Duke?
Duke University
PhD Student
Intern Average Neutral experience Accept offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Panel
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical
Applied for the ECE PhD program. The professor reached out to me directly and we had a 30-minute 1-on-1 chat. After that, I had a round with a current PhD student, and then a final round with the professor again.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Can you tell me about your research interests?
Duke University Phd Student Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Duke University interview reports.
“Regarding the beads with unusually low UMI counts, what's the rationale behind including all of them in the downstream analysis?”
Read reports →“Could you explain how the initial preprocessing for bead by gene expression data compares to other spatial Seurat analyses and standard scRNA-seq experiments?”
Read reports →“What makes you like Duke?”
Read reports →“What makes you want to pursue a PhD at Duke?”
Read reports →“What are your post-PhD aspirations?”
Read report →“What motivated your interest in pursuing a PhD?”
Read report →“What is your motivation for pursuing graduate school?”
Read report →“Can you share your motivations and what you aim to accomplish with a Ph.D. in the sciences?”
Read report →“What draws you to research topic XXX?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 14 Duke University interview reports.