More intern program behind-the-scenes: The first cut

The selection committee made its first round selections, so on Tuesday I sent out all the notifications to intern applicants of their status. Out of 90 applicants, 24 were chosen to come in and interview (plus a few from outside Rochester, but they are handled differently - more on that later). Selected interns are asked to respond with their preferred interview dates between April 8 and 11, and the labs they are most interested in. I then take all of these responses and try to fit all 24 applicants into a complicated matrix that represents all 6 labs across all 4 days at both interview time slots. Interviews are assigned at a first-come, first-served basis, but I do my best to get the candidates in with their preferred labs. It's definitely not easy to try to get everything massaged into the best possible placement while keeping all the variables organized and correctly prioritized. So far this year seems to be a little harder than last year, too; hopefully the candidates will be pleased well enough with their interview placements. Individual interview schedules will then be e-mailed to each candidate. If any candidates miss their deadlines or decline their opportunity to interview, then we start pulling from the alternates.

Meanwhile I am still running around making absolutely sure there are people available from each of the labs to actually perform these interviews! You would think that would have been straightforward, predictable, and already figured out by now - but how often is that really the case on a college campus? Trying to organize this many professors who all have their own schedules and other priorities... well, let's just say it's complicated.

In addition to all of this, I have several applicants from out of state whom we will interview separately from the local candidates, though all interviews must take place before the draft on April 12. Most of these applicants will interview by phone, so I have to figure out who from the labs they prefer can be available at additional times outside of the 1 hour - 4 days in a row, that can be scheduled consecutively, that will work with the applicants' schedules. YIKES. On top of that, one of the out-of-state applicants has asked to interview in person, so I will have to not only try to schedule in-person interviews, but also additional activities to help make his long drive worth it. This is a lot of extra work for me, but I can handle it. However, I feel really badly that professors are already having to take so much time to meet with local candidates, and now they are also being asked to devote additional time on top of what they originally agreed to on somewhat short notice. Because of all the extra complicating factors and additional manpower that is going into these out-of-area applicants, we will have to reconsider how many (if any) applicants from outside the greater Rochester area we will consider next year. In past years when we have had no more than one, it was not a big deal, but the increased volume this year has really tested the limits of this intern program.