UT Dallas Research Interview Questions
& Process

I emailed the professor.

I first reached out to the head of mechanical engineering about current research openings for grad students. After about a week, he sent back a list of projects and PIs, but mostly pointed me to their online site. I read through many projects and looked up professor bios, then emailed a PI whose project seemed interesting. He replied the same day, asked for my resume, and expressed excitement. Later that week, he invited me to his lab office and gave me the info for security access, without detailing the interview. When I got there, we talked about his research. He asked about my interest, what skills I could offer as a researcher, and my graduate school goals. Towards the end, we chatted casually about my upcoming classes, post-graduation plans, and even asked if I'd seen the new Marvel movie. The whole thing took under an hour. He offered me the position right then but asked me to wait a week to decide after he sent some relevant papers (grant proposal and supporting docs) for me to read. He wanted to ensure I was still interested after reviewing the material. I accepted a week later, and it's been a great job since.

The interview evaluated the candidate on three main areas. Initially, there were some non-technical questions to gauge personality and overall suitability. Following that, we delved into a discussion about your prior work experience, your viewpoint on it, and what you aim to achieve ultimately. The last segment was heavily focused on technical questions related to your background.